HoverAir X1: Adding Dimension with a Camera Drone

For many years my videos have been a combination of hand or tripod shots and the occasional Glidecam 3000, a low-cost "Steadicam" that I purchased several decades ago. To be honest, that has sat in a box for probably the last decade. It's just too heavy and cumbersome to set up.

Cut to the new age of handheld camera holders with gimbals that allow smooth, flowing moment throughout a scene. I'm still behind the times in that respect, but I just added a new tool to my creative toolbox, and it's going to make all the difference in my productions.

Drones have always seemed too large and intimidating to me. And costly. But a relatively new drone, the HoverAir X1, weighs only 125 grams and fits in your hand or pocket when folded up. I say relatively new even though it came out over 2 years ago, but it's new to me.

What makes this drone special is that it can track and follow you without a controller. Buttons on top of the drone allow you to set up various modes like Hover, Zoom, Follow, Orbit, and Bird's Eye. Once you select an option, you just aim the drone's camera at your face, tap the power button, and it will start up and perform the desired mode. Then it will come back to you! Placing your hand under the drone will cause it to lower and stop.

For instance, Orbit allows the drone to film around you in a circle at the distance that you set. Bird's eye will raise the drone up as high as 15 meters (49 feet) and film straight down as it ascends and descends. You can even have it rotate as it's doing so. Zoom can fly away from you and upward to achieve some pretty spectacular establishing shots.

Manual control is also possible with the phone app's virtual joysticks. That means you can film scenery with the camera pointing away from you. This opens up a whole new world of creative shots.

Here is a video of me using the drone for the first time outdoors.

If you're a hiker or biker, the drone can follow you from the front (Dolly Track) or behind (Follow) up to about 15 mph. It can also Hover in place like a virtual tripod that turns with you or remains aimed in one direction. It will even tilt the camera down if, say, you wanted to crouch to point out a flower or something nearer to the ground.

The drone comes with a phone app that allows you set up more detailed mode settings and download your footage from the built-in 32 Gig storage (about 23 Gig after firmware). The drone is capable of shooting as high as 2.7K footage. Newer, more expensive models allow up to 8K. Battery life is estimated at 11 minutes of flight time, which requires good planning of shots. You will want multiple batteries.

As if it couldn't get any better, the drone also has a feature that removes the drone noise when you record narrative audio through your phone or attached phone microphone. It's pretty amazing. This allows you to create short demonstration videos or speak about your surroundings. Just make sure the Hover app screen remains open and that you download the videos to your phone first before transferring to your computer to pair the audio. Use video editing software to realign the audio with the video if it's not synced properly. If you don't need narrative audio, you can transfer files directly from the drone itself with the supplied cable.

Note that this model should not be flown over water or all-white snow cover as the bottom sensor needs to see a good ground texture to position itself. Although this model does not have front and rear obstacle sensors, it does a pretty good job of dodging things as long as it can keep you in frame when using the automatic modes. It's made of a durable, flexible plastic that can withstand some hits and also protects the rotating blades.

You can purchase the HoverAir X1 Combo Plus, which includes 3 batteries and a separate charger, on Amazon here for under $350.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Creating a Daily Photo Journal

On August 6th of this year, I came up with an idea. I wanted to capture four random moments of each day with a single photograph. My goal was twofold: 1. Show that each day is special and distinct. 2. Make it into something I can look back on and enjoy in my later years.

I've always been fond of the Memories feature on Facebook, albeit it can be very shocking to learn that images you felt you took recently are now actually 5-10 years old. Wait, what??

I have a very good memory when I see a photograph I've taken, whether it be a nature photo or a shot at the local county fair. I can often remember the exact locations, even on a long trail.

Scrapbooking has become a fad again, what with all the ads that pop up on my phone screen for the HP Sprocket printer and such. But purchasing paper and ink and stickers seems very expensive. So I decided to come up with a digital template in PowerPoint that fits (4) 2.5" x 3.5" photos per page. Each page has the date on top. I allowed a two-lined caption to be written for each photo, which I enter every night. To date I have documented 540 photos total.

Because images take up a lot of space, I created separate files for each month. In a few weeks, I will combine the pdf files into one large file for the year, design a 2025 Moments cover, and print out the full book through Barnes & Noble's personal book printing service. The finished size will be 7" x 10". In 2026, I will continue the process with a different background color and pattern for the next book.

What I've discovered so far in this endeavor is that it can often be hard to figure out what moments of the day are worth a lasting image. I have sometimes resorted to a photo of an odd find by the dumpster, a new leaf unfurling on a plant, or even what I looked like at 3:00 a.m. in bed with the common cold (not a pretty sight). There have been some monumental images, though, just the same. Like receiving my first Social Security deposit, discovering nesting wrens in my outdoor rubber tree pot, and some spectacular sunsets.

I'm not certain I will continue this forever. Sometimes it feels like a chore. But then again, it does push you to take notice of your existence, try to make the most of your life, and at least recognize that you experience more each day than you think you do.

ABANDONED - The Making of a Short Horror Film

I had just completed my first documentary, Beyond the Garden Gate, years ago when I got the itch to begin a new film project. The year was 2001. Beyond the Garden Gate, which captures a year in the life of a garden through time-lapse photography, had just won a Telly Award and began airing on PBS. What would I work on next?

As is most often the case, opportunities for creativity come to you when you least expect them. In October of that same year, I discovered an old abandoned house while driving down Godwin Road in Manassas, Virginia. It wasn't readily apparent, as the house sat back from the road at least 80 yards and was surrounded by rows of conifer trees and brush. Having remained vacant for some time, the entire area was full of tall dead grasses that blocked most of the view. However, I was able to catch a few fright-filled glimpses of the house as I passed down the road. So I had to check it out!

I parked my car in the lot of a baseball field across the street and made my way up the old gravel driveway. As I approached the house, my heart was pounding through my chest. Even more so when I noticed the Beware of Dog sign halfway up. But it was clear that no real tenants still lived there. However, an old Ford LTD sedan with a broken side window remained at the end of the driveway.

The closer I stepped up to the front of the house, my mind raced with ideas for a short spooky film. But I was still scared to death. What if someone came out with a gun? When I reached the front door, I opened it up, stuck my digital camera inside, and quickly snapped a few flash photos. Then I left.

The first time I stood in front of the house before taking a few inside pictures.

You can see my reflection in the door window as I took this shot. Then the door was gone.

Original railing post inside.

It would be a few weeks later, around mid-November when most of the leaves had fallen off the trees and the warm amber shades had set in, that I would return to the house with my Sony mini-dv video camera. Except for a few static shots, the entire shoot consisted of me floating throughout the property and inside the house with a steadicam-like device called the Glidecam 3000. I would later slow down the footage to give it a more surreal effect.

As I was filming, the story began writing itself. After I made a very quick walk-through beforehand to check out floor sturdiness, the detailed remnants of prior human existence appeared in front of my eyes for the first time in my camera screen. "Oh my, I could write something about that!" was what went through my mind with each new discovery.

Something of note. When I returned to the house twice to film, it was obvious that others had been there. Architectural features, like the railing end post and the front door, had been removed, as well as most of the porch screen. In other words, I was not alone. So I was in and out as quickly as possible both times.

I would later return to show the house to a few friends, and finally again in 2003 to capture images of the bulldozed remains. The property had been purchased and is now an open field with power lines for a data center overhead. Many of the trees that lined the driveway are still there, however.

I recognize in this rubble much of what I discovered inside, like red carpeting in one room.

Making of the Film

In 2002, after transferring the footage to digital files, I began writing the film script. The idea that I eventually came up with was a clever switch-up from any horror film I had seen before. As evidenced by old Word documents I recently discovered, I went through several iterations of the narration before settling on the storyline.

Now, almost a quarter of a century later, I am completing the film. It runs a bit over 8 minutes with credits. As I am writing this I am still tweaking a few of the areas so that the point of the film — what actually happens in the story — is not misconstrued. We live in different times 24 years later, and I don't want this to be misunderstood or made into a flashpoint. I have to tell myself that stories are just stories, much like the twisted horror films and books that have been written for decades. It doesn't represent me or my beliefs. And that's probably the biggest takeaway from any film or book: it's beyond what's considered "normal."

I remember sitting next to an acquaintance at a bar several years back after I had written my satirical book of short stories, People Who Need To Die. She said that she was disturbed by the concept, even though she had not read any of it. I reminded her that after she was done drinking, she would run home to catch the latest episode of The Walking Dead, her favorite show.

"What's the difference?" I asked her.

"I'm not sitting next to the writer," she answered. 

Something tells me she wouldn't mind an autograph from the writer and producer of The Walking Dead, though.

ChatGPT Predicts the Downfall of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

I asked ChatGPT this simple question: What will be the downfall of AI? Here are the many reasons that I suspected.

1. Human Fatigue and Distrust

AI’s biggest threat isn’t robots taking over — it’s humans tuning out.

If people grow weary of fake images, deepfakes, scams, and spammy AI content, they’ll start rejecting AI-generated anything. Once trust erodes, industries and governments might retreat to strict verification systems, pushing AI to the background as a “toy” or “tool,” not a revolution.

Parallel: Think of social media — once liberating, now viewed as manipulative and exhausting.

---

2. Overregulation and Bureaucracy

Governments may respond to public fear by choking innovation with layers of approval, audits, and licensing — especially around privacy, security, and misinformation.

AI development could then slow to a crawl, monopolized by a few corporations that can afford compliance, killing off creativity and small innovators.

---

3. Data Poisoning and Model Collapse

AI systems rely on high-quality data — but as the internet fills with AI-generated junk, future models will be trained on polluted material.

That feedback loop could cause what researchers call “model collapse” — where AIs learn from other AIs until their output becomes incoherent, repetitive, and inaccurate. Essentially, they eat their own tail.

---

4. Economic Blowback

If automation replaces too many creative or cognitive jobs too quickly, you’ll see social unrest, union resistance, and political pushback.

AI might be forced to slow down not for technical reasons, but because of human limits on change. Public sentiment could swing from excitement to resentment — like how globalization sparked populism.

---

5. Ethical and Existential Scandals

One or two catastrophic misuses — an AI-generated war hoax, a financial crash caused by autonomous trading, or an AI-driven legal decision gone wrong — could trigger a global backlash.

The result? A “nuclear winter” for AI, where trust and funding evaporate, similar to what happened to early AI research in the 1970s and 1980s.

---

6. Philosophical Collapse

Ironically, AI’s downfall could come from achieving too much.

If humans no longer feel unique — if AI writes better books, paints better art, predicts our emotions — people might reject it not because it fails, but because it succeeds too well and undermines meaning. Civilization needs purpose more than convenience.

---

I then asked the following: How will this affect the development of data centers? ChatGPT responded:

Excellent follow-up — because data centers are the physical skeleton behind all this abstract talk about “AI.”

If AI experiences a downfall (whether through regulation, public rejection, or technical stagnation), the impact on data center development would be massive — economically, environmentally, and politically.

Let’s break it down:

---

1. The Boom Will Plateau

Right now, data centers are expanding at an almost manic rate — driven by AI training models that need thousands of GPUs and megawatts of power.

If AI demand slows (due to regulation, saturation, or loss of investor confidence), that expansion will hit a wall.

You’d likely see:

• Cancelled or postponed builds — especially hyperscale projects.

• Consolidation — smaller players selling to big ones like Google, AWS, and Microsoft.

• Vacant “zombie” data centers — built for workloads that never arrived.

This happened before: in the early 2000s dot-com bust, telecom companies built massive infrastructure for internet traffic that never came — leading to a “fiber glut.” AI could repeat that story.

---

2. Energy Politics Will Shift

AI data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity and water for cooling. If public sentiment turns against AI, energy use will become a political target.

Expect:

• Activists framing data centers as “climate villains.”

• Local governments tightening zoning, water, and noise restrictions.

• Energy policy pivoting away from AI infrastructure to green industries.

Ironically, the fall of AI could accelerate investment in smaller, greener computing models — edge devices, local inference, and decentralized AI rather than global supercenters.

---

3. The Hardware Market Could Crash

Data centers don’t just eat power — they devour chips.

If AI falters, NVIDIA, AMD, and specialized chip makers could face an overstock crisis. This would ripple into:

• Lower GPU prices.

• A potential pivot to repurposing AI centers for cloud gaming, biotech, or simulation computing.

• Job losses in construction, engineering, and semiconductor supply chains.

---

4. A Shift from “Compute Hoarding” to “Compute Efficiency”

The current race is about who has the most compute. If that race stops, the new game becomes who can do the most with less.

You’d see:

• Focus on smaller, specialized models rather than trillion-parameter monsters.

• Investment in software optimization over raw hardware expansion.

• Rise of modular or reconfigurable data centers — smaller, movable, more flexible.

Think of it as going from megafactories to craft computing.

---

5. Real Estate and Regional Effects

Cities and rural areas courting data centers now — promising land, water, and tax breaks — could find themselves stuck with half-built husks or heavy infrastructure debt.

But some facilities might reinvent themselves as:

• Cloud hosting for research or healthcare.

• Edge hubs for robotics and smart cities.

• Energy reuse centers — where waste heat powers nearby buildings.

---

6. The Environmental Silver Lining

If AI’s downfall curbs the exponential data center boom, carbon emissions and water use could drop dramatically. That might be the one benefit of the collapse: the tech world rethinking what “scale” should mean in a finite world.

So there you have it. It will get worse before it gets better, unfortunately. 

Retired and Tired

Tonight is the eve of my first Social Security payment. According to the records, that deposit will take place on October 8. I already celebrated with a few bottles of wine over the weekend, then poured out the rest. I have been anticipating anxiously waiting for this for close to two years, even occasionally asking Alexa, "Hey Alexa, how many days till October 8th?"

I made the decision to retire at 62 rather than waiting till full retirement age for several very good reasons. First, I need the money now. I have a car with a misfiring cylinder that has kept me from traveling anywhere meaningful for over a year. I have driven so little this year that I am actually on the second tank of gas since January. After shelling out over $3000 in car repairs over the last three years, I think it's time to put this one to rest. After I pay all or most of my credit card bill that financed said repairs, I will be looking for a decent used car with a warranty.

Second, self-employment has been my career choice since 1998. It has allowed me to do a lot of things that I would not be able to do if I had an in-person job. I produced four documentaries and have written over a dozen books. But 27 years of constantly looking for and then completing work has taken a toll. I noticed a major shift in the economy in 2008, and I do not believe we ever recovered.

So for 17 years, I have taken on roommates. Several have stayed for years, but many have left or were kicked out because they stopped paying rent. One decided he needed his rent money to take his girlfriend to Disney World. Another was employed by the NRA and had clear signs of narcissistic personality disorder. Another set two fires in the kitchen because he liked to pour oil into his cast iron pan and walk away. One stalked me from outside my locked bedroom door and sent threatening text messages because I told him he would have to move out. He was five months unemployed and looking elsewhere. Another was a recovering alcoholic who would disappear and lock himself into hotel rooms. I took him to detox and the hospital several times. I found out he died a few years back.

I don't normally talk in such detail about people I have encountered, but I think it's time people know that life has been extremely difficult for me. There are so many people out there who don't understand what it's like to struggle alone. They are married and have two incomes, or they've inherited a home or more from family members. Or they still live at home in their 30s and never had to face the sheer responsibility and anxiety of all finances and bills.

Has all this stress made me grumpy? Hell yeah! Without a doubt.

But now, I have extra income. I can work toward a better future than I've had. I can pay off my bills, get a car, and maybe go on vacations. I will still work, of course, but at least I won't have to take on some of the clients that made my life miserable. And maybe I won't have to work my fingers to the bone to make and sell macramé decor anymore. It's a hobby that I took up during Covid, and sales at craft events over the past three years really did prevent me from going homeless.

I know I made the choice to be self-employed. It was my American Dream after dealing with the stresses of corporate life for over a decade. I'm sure if I had stayed in a 9 to 5, I wouldn't be in the financial situation I am in now. But what kind of life would that have been? Not one I would enjoy, for sure.

So I guess you take the bumps that come with freedom of choice and try to ride the wave. I'm sure there are going to be many more challenges ahead, not to mention worrying about whether or not we'll even have a country in two years. But at least tonight—or when I actually see that first check deposited—I can sleep a little better.

Carolina Wrens Raising a Family (Video)

This summer on my balcony felt quite magical. A pair of hummingbirds discovered my Dollar Tree feeder and returned again and again for a drink. Mason bees and wasps settled into the little nest box I’d picked up at Goodwill. Hundreds of pesky flies met their untimely end inside the jaws of many a Venus flytrap. And then, as if it couldn't get any better, a pair of Carolina wrens chose to build their nest inside my rubber tree pot.

I was peering out my living room window in late July when I first spotted one of the parents swooping into the pot. After it flew off, I took a quick peek and noticed a large pile of pine needles, moss, and dead leaves behind a few of the lower leaves. I knew exactly what this meant: I would have limited use of my balcony for the next month.

But I didn't mind, because I had seen my carnivorous plants devour hordes of bugs over the years, so this was a minor sacrifice. All I had to do was spend 2-3 minutes filling the trays with distilled water, refreshing the hummingbird feeder with sugar water, and then back inside I'd quickly retreat.

They say that wrens like to nest near human structures for protection from predators. The parents were obviously aware of my comings and goings. There were a few occasions, though, when my timing was off, and they would scold me from the tree below if it coincided with them bringing in food for the babies. I learned the "coast was clear" in the afternoons after they had filled the young bellies in the early morning.

To document what was happening, I set up a trail camera opposite the plant pot. This would be my key to figuring out what stage the nest was taking. When the birds rarely flew in, that told me that the nest was completed. When they flew out with little white balls in their mouths, that told me that the babies were present and eating. Carolina wrens remove any excrement from the nest.

Luckily, I was able to capture a quick shot of the eggs before they hatched, and a short video of the babies resting inside before they fledged. I did this mostly out of fear that the parents had either abandoned the nest (wrens sometimes make multiple nests and choose the best one for that brood), or that the eggs had not hatched when two weeks had passed and I heard no noise. But, all was well. Like they say, nature knows best.

It was on the night of August 26, at precisely 7:30 p.m., that the babies left the nest. For a few days prior, I noticed the parents checking out different parts of the balcony—from the potting bench to other structures. It was as if they were making sure there were no dangerous places for newly fledged babies to land. That happened again that night, and I watched quietly from the living room window. Then, one of the parents rested on the balcony railing for an abnormally long time. Twice I told myself, just get ready for bed. But I stayed there, and minutes later I noticed out of the corner of my eye a tiny puffball fluttering up against the window behind one of the plastic chairs. One of the babies had a first-timer misjudgment of distance, but it quickly recovered.

I rushed for my good camera and proceeded to video each of the babies through the balcony door window. My heart was pounding as I struggled to maintain focus in the low dusk light, and I was also worried that the newly fledged birds would jump off too soon, as my balcony is on the 4th floor. Or that they would injure themselves somehow. But they mostly popped about on the balcony floor or rested on the tops of plant stands and stacks of unused pots.

At one point something incredible happened, but I wasn't able to capture it on video as I was back in the living room at the time. A rock pigeon, which I knew had a nest two buildings over, came over to watch. And one of the hummingbirds swooped down to the floor to check out the commotion. It was as if they were aware of the miracle that was happening.

And then, within 15 minutes, they were gone. All four babies had taken a leap of faith and disappeared, one after the other. I carefully opened the balcony door to make sure no bird was left behind, then walked down the stairs and checked out the grassy area below. I didn't see or hear anything. By then it was dark, and I knew I'd have to trust nature.

Over the next few days, I discovered all four together under a drain pipe, then under cars, then on railings, and finally...in trees. And now, the rest is up to God. My job is done. I am so grateful that I stayed at that window that night or I would have missed everything.

Enjoy this three-minute video below:

Using AI to Create Self-Entertaining Content

For many years I would entertain myself with podcasts from Radiolabs, an NPR-backed radio program that combines interviews and sound effects into interesting and thought-provoking half-hour segments. However, once the main hosts retired, most of the new content isn't....well...new. New hosts chime in in the beginning only to reintroduce previous stories. So, sadly, Radiolabs is no longer a reliable source for my nightly entertainment.

As an author, I have previously written about the dangers of using AI for research. It makes many mistakes, sometimes spitting out text contrary to the truth, but in a self-assured manner. I even challenged it one day, openly asking, "Why are you lying?" So AI (ChatGPT in particular at the moment) should not be used for that purpose.

However, I discovered a new use for those looking to entertain themselves, and it has become my recent guilty pleasure. I often find that the subjects I’m curious about have surprisingly few books or podcasts to explore. Or maybe I don't want to read an entire book on the subject matter; I'd rather have a light and airy approach. So I created a Youtube playlist on my channel consisting of three-minute narrative pieces called Audio Reflections.

Using ChatGPT, I feed in my specific topic. Here's one of my actual ChatGPT prompts:

Write a 385-word podcast narration on why we still have anxieties about things we said and did long ago. Give specific examples.

If I feel that the narration is lacking in depth, I ask it to give more examples or add more words. Once I approve it, I take it over to ElevenLabs.io and choose a narrator to read it. Finally, I combine the audio and an image using Flex, an online video creator. (Most social media platforms don't allow you to share audio-only files.)

What I like about this approach is I am choosing topics that don't require hard-core facts. In a way, we all know why we have past anxieties, but it's nice to hear someone discuss it back to you. Years ago I discovered that one of the things that gives me great joy is having someone else read my own work. This is why I have now turned four of my books into audiobooks. So, even though I am not writing the Audio Reflections narrations myself, it's nice to know that I can feed an AI machine things that I am curious about and be entertained in that way.

Subscribe to my Youtube Playlist and hopefully you will find my topics worth listening to. Here is one on living alone in retirement.