Category: Everything Else

Last Wednesday was Meredith’s birthday, and seeing how I need to test the video upload function on WordPress.com, I thought I’d upload this spectacular video that her sister’s talented family made for her birthday.

And before you ask, it’s a real Emmy – you don’t make videos like this one with your iPhone without being legit videographers and editors.

This is addicting.

Auto-generated 3D models of everything. Well almost everything… I’m sure they’re working on that.

Try it for yourself: https://earth.google.com/web/

And just like that, I went from “I’ll try to post frequently with some intermixed dog pics” to “21 days since your last post on Cain.blog”. I even failed at the dog pics part.

How about a dog video instead?

If the above wasn’t obvious, we got a drone a little while back, but because of the renovation on the house and the delightfulness that is late winter in Maine, I’ve only taken it out two or three times. Now as the weather changes, I hope to really start exploring the area from a new perspective.

To be honest, this was one of the bigger nonessential purchases I’ve made in a long time, and although I don’t really need to justify my spending to the three of you reading this post (sorry Dad), I will.

Reasons for buying a $1000 drone:

1. The Mavic Pro is awesome. 4k video, crazy-intelligent flight modes (i.e. active tracking, tripod, and return to home), easy to use controls, and it all folds up, Transformer-style, to be the size of a nalgene bottle.
2. Meredith and I write a travel blog on the side, Map & Menu, and we really want to start incorporating video into the posts. The Mavic Pro gives us a drone that we can pack away in the bottom of a backpack, without the need for extra cases or bags. I can’t emphasize how convenient the size/quality ratio is.
3. The world really is more amazing from a new perspective. We’ve noticed this while traveling past our neighborhood from the water in a kayak or on a boat, but it can much more simple than that – sometimes I reverse the routes of my walks with Orvis just to see life from a new angle. Everything seen from the drone is seen from a new angle.
4. It’s my money, and just another perk of DINK life.

If you have any experience with drones, video, or video editing, and have some tips for the free-time black hole I’m about to cruise into, let me know in the comments, or the next time I see you on Slack.

Let’s see. I feel like there’s an obligatory “some other things I should mention” catch-up list coming since it’s been a while since I’ve posted…

• The Tar Heels won the NCAA men’s basketball championship. I’ll leave the color scheme of the site for a few more weeks… months… maybe even years. #gdtbath #wheresdook
• I’m crushing the bathroom/laundry room rennovation. If “crushing” means “taking my sweet time to the frustration of my extremely patient wife”. Check this herringbone tile job that I’m particularly proud of. I really do hope to finish it up in the next week and blog about the adventures.
• The hammock is up for the season. I really need to figure out a way to get my wifi to the back corner of the yard…

h/t Lance for the always horrible pun in this month’s title.

Still dancing. What a finish. #GDTBATH

If you ever try to argue that the Caramel deLite/Samoa is not the absolute greatest Girl Scout cookie of all time, we will thenceforth stop existing as friends.

Also, 15 to a box is absolutely tragic.

 

I popped down to Boston yesterday to attend Human Made and Post Status’s A Day of REST.

Since it’s a short-ish drive and we have a lot going on around the house in Maine, I decided to join the commuting masses and make the trip down and back in a single day. Waking up, putting on something more than sweatpants, and getting into the car before noon brought back nightmares of my pre-Automattic work life. I might have to leave my sweats on for a few extra hours today to make up for it.

Anyways… I was really impressed with the event.

I attend a decent number of conferences through work. From small regional WordCamps, to larger industry ones, it’s hard to find a nice balance of size, length, and technical level. ADOR seemed to hit the sweet spot. It helps that the conference is able to concentrate on a single facet of the WordPress ecosystem, but I was genuinely impressed with the quality of speakers, the spectrum of perspectives covered (the three flash talks from non-devs after lunch were particularly refreshing), and the fact that it all fit into a single day (although there are optional workshops before and after).

Frankly, I was just really blown away by some of the examples of REST-enhanced real world examples that are starting to crop up.

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!

^^ I figure that I’ve got to start this blog somehow, so why not just let WordPress do the heavy lifting?

A quick intro would be nice… I’m Michael Cain.

In the spirit of dogfooding, to create a place to share my brilliant musings on life, and in order to take advantage of an awesome .blog address, I’ve created this site. I don’t really have a set format – I imagine it’ll be a failed attempt at a somewhat regular, self-deprecating, stream of consciousness.

In reality, it’ll probably end up just being a bunch of pictures of my dog.

Welcome to the fun.