Friday, June 23, 2017

Evanston: genius; a great kid; a likable GoPro

        The NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, or NatGeo as it now calls itself in surrender to the apparently universal decline in attention span, ran an interesting article on genius in its May issue which supports many thoughts I have offered in this journal.  Among them that ‘genius’ like ‘superstar’ has no objective meaning and is societal judgement; there are only originals; if one is admired enough he or she becomes a genius.  That life is forty years long, roughly from twenty to sixty.  Charts in the article show productivity declines decade by decade and for most ‘geniuses’ ends by sixty.  Naturally Bach was an exception, and so was Giuseppe Verdi.  I try to be an exception to the forty year rule myself.  That luck plays a part.  Time and chance happens to us all.  And persistence and discipline even greater parts.  Few succeeded at their first attempts.  Simply, when you quit, you fail.  If you persist, you may succeed.

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        Sailing Anarchy runs a link to a one minute video of a young South African sailing an Optimist in 40 knots of wind.  The boy has the right stuff.

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        As I have often mentioned I am a writer not a videographer—I checked to see if that is a word and it is.  However, I have found that I enjoy making short videos, sharing them, and viewing them myself after a passage.  In an effort to improve the videos in the future I just bought a GoPro Hero 5 Black.  
        I have owned GoPros in the past and disliked them because of complications in working through menus and various connection glitches.
        I recently used a borrowed Hero 5 Session which can be controlled by voice command and iPhone app.  I liked it well enough to decide to buy one, but just as I was about to GoPro temporarily dropped the price of the Hero 5 Black to $350, making it only $50 more expensive than the Session, so I ordered a Black instead.  Unfortunately the price of the Black is now back up to $399.   But having used one for a few days now, I think it is worth it.
        Technically the Black can do things the Session can’t, but the Session is more than capable of meeting my simple needs.  The biggest difference between the cameras is that the Black has a touch-screen.  You can control it with voice command and the iPhone app as well, but the touch-screen at last makes setting up and changing settings on a GoPro easy.  
        Thus far I have shot most of the videos with a Nikon AW1, which is the only waterproof camera with interchangeable lenses.  I’ve also shot some with my iPhone 7 Plus.  I will continue to use both.  But at last there may be a GoPro that I can actually like.