While walking with intention to snap photos of urban vegetation, I noticed a skipper butterfly within videoing distance. Quickly, a clip before it flies away! It did not. I took a second clip. The butterfly had slightly shifted. I waited and took three more clips in case the butterfly would do something interesting. It id not. It was mostly concentrating on florettes. Eventually, I continued my walk and left the butterfly at it.
A bit of a slow paced video, but maybe somebody will find it ASMR despite the stabilization errors. Maybe I should invest on gimbal, but that would be one extra thing to carry for a rare moment (that will without gimbal be shaky or distorted depending on whether the original or the stabilized clips are used.)
Sucking nectar. Occasionally shifting position.
Some yellow flowers from July 10th, 2026, image cropped and colors adjusted brighter.
Testing variations on a photo of tree bark (2026, June 2nd). I was thinking about uploading this or a shorter version to Etsy under my shop profile as an enticement for people to look at my designs. Also to Pinterest, if the video is short enough, and a higher resolution version into YouTube (as of June 28th, 2026, my previous art video about yellow flowers had had massive 7 views total – popularity eludes me.)
Decided instead to make an art video illustrating some variations in a theme, based on a photograph of some yellow flowers (looks like they are related to agaves or aloes) taken in Berkeley, CA, June 2nd, 2026. Just as a demonstration of the types of designs I have so far usually used for PlanktonPunkt Designs.
I am planning to make more of these, occasionally (the next one will probably be about tree bark), and post them here, Pinterest and/or YouTube.
Nearly slipped by me – apparently it is no longer 24th of June (6 months from Christmas Eve, on St. John’s Day) but by government edict on Saturday closest to Summer Solstice. So, this year Friday, 19th of June is Juhannusaatto, a Midsummer Eve’s celebration in that peculiar country.
An example of June 19th flowers in Berkeley, CA
National traditions of Midsummer Eve include retreat to country cottage, preferably along lake or sea shore, having a barbeque (hot dogs and chicken are popular, pork and fish, and more rarely beef work, too), having a communal bonfire party and/or more private sauna are also typical, as is getting drunk. Government typically publishes PSAs warning about traffic accidents (due to the massive exodus emptying cities to summer cottages, some drivers already under influence) and boating accidents or other forms of drowning (don’t drink and boat, or drink and swim.)
My photos today are from urban California, so the Finnish lake video with swaying birch branches and sunlight glimmering on water (taken on late May, not on Midsummer Eve) is from last year.
I don’t have very much topical or important to post as of this morning today, so how about a couple of clips of small woodpecker(s)?
(For those who are interested, here is a link to a selection of topical verses but for TLDR, Pentecost commemorates the event when the Church got upleveled.)
However, a few days earlier (May 22nd), I was walking around looking for pretty plants to photograph, when I heard a racket from the trees, sounded like multiple small birds. I searched for a while and discovered the source of the sound – holes high up in the tree where a small woodpecker was fussing about. A nest of woodpecker chicks plus a parent. Somewhere further away a woodpecker was drumming, as noted by a passerby while I was trying to video.
After some cutting and editing last night, here are the highlights:
This video is silent, commentary removed.
And here is some birdsong. And drumming.
Other than that, I have been selecting and editing photos for POD and tinkering with my writing.
I wonder if I should some day post some of my fiction in this blog? On one hand I am tempted, on the other hand, I am still shy. It took me a long time to start even a blog.
Selected and edited from video clips taken 2026 May 09.
Purple flowers in wind
Birch branches swaying in wind.
May 9th 2026 was an average day with some wind and sunshine. And flowers. And insects. And birds. I did not get much done but got some video clips I checked tonight, and photos I am working on to see which ones I can convert into something useful and/or fun, if I have time.
P.S. I am having some weirdness with video editor – hopefully the birch branches will be visible to all, once I have published this post.
Despite lots of No Kings-signs, monarch butterflies continue to flit around Berkeley, CA. This one was filmed perching on a flowering tree on April 15th, 2026.
Another, smaller insect makes an appearance at about 9 seconds into the video.
Looks like some kind of jumping spider. I like jumping spiders, and running spiders in general, though orb weavers are also cute and useful. This little one went on its way after videos and photography.
Looked around, paused, moved at a lively pace.
Filmed 2026, February 28. I stabilized and rotated the clip by 180 degrees, to give a better view, and muted the coffee shop and street noises. Then I cut the clip shorter and reduced the resolution to shrink its memory requirements.
All in all, a cute and personable thing to encounter. Jumping spiders are reputedly smart for arthropods (an example link), and the behavior of this little runner gave an impression of observation of it’s environment.
Typing in a coffee shop but wanting to show signs of life. Nevertheless, need to keep it brief, I’m just commenting briefly some news. And going off tangent on AI. With some pretty visuals.
A fluffy white (and green and gray) tree, 2026 April 3rd, Berkeley, CA
Around the Moon – on any other year (well most other years) the Artemis II flight would have been the main news. The space race in 1960s and -70s especially. I am glad it happened successfully and hope that the space exploration continues
Meanwhile, on Earth, it looks like we are at the peak easy energy, with the activity in and around the Strait of Hormuz being both the symptom and the trigger of anticipated economic crash. I think the left, especially “environmentalists” are silently happy about the starting restrictions on energy usage (as long as it does not apply on their needs,) Prepare accordingly. The shortages are not only about gasoline and diesel, it is transportation in general (dependent on fuels), agriculture (dependent on fuels, fertilizers and pesticides made of hydrocarbons), plastics (made of hydrocarbons) including consumer stuff like soda bottles and cereal bags.
As the economy gets tighter for those in the bottom rungs of the consumer economy, people are cracking. The social contract has become increasingly lopsided, with compliance only expected from the lower levels of food chain. Then I learned that someone had been tossing Molotov’s cocktails on Sam Altman’s residence in San Francisco. Already before that, a disgruntled third party warehouse worker burned down Kimberly-Clark warehouse in LA region, muttering something about living wage. In Berkeley, CA, a naked man with shotgun visited a Tesla service center, got arrested (nobody got shot, but based evidence in his warehouse, he is also accused of reckless discharge of weapon.) Meanwhile, Stanford Review denies that the reason why recent Stanford computer science graduates cannot find jobs is AI, blaming the economy instead. Economy is a genuine factor, and CEOs blaming AI transition instead of company not doing well is a great excuse for job cuts, but I doubt the graduates would find those jobs even if per capita GDP grew 5% a year – I think cheap and crappy AI will replace expensive and potentially crappy human labor, namely the entry level jobs. Meanwhile, professionals with 10 years of experience will be expected to work on entry level wages, because the salary floor is no longer set by Bangalore but by AI bot.
Meanwhile, on WTF?!? side, Ford has patented a lipreading technology in order to follow the drivers’ behavior. Presumably to aid selecting the ads to be shown to the driver, or to sell to data brokers. I suspect one of the clients to be .gov. Better not even to subvocalize your dissident thoughts in these vehicles. The modern cars already store your text messages, apparently permanently, if you allow your car to access them. The lipreading technology is apparently based on echolocation, i.e., the car is scanning you to keep tabs on you. This is another huge check mark against the social contract as currently is.
Combined with effects on labor markets, I’d say that the surveillance AI is not your friend. And every AI is a surveillance AI. It is owned by the system, and it informs the system of your every interaction (read the fine print of any EULA involving AI products.) The adoption of AI is facilitated by the system that provides it favorable zoning with energy and big contracts (except when reality collides or the system clashes with itself). Commercial AI is probably favored by large sections of the system (of elites) because combined to robotics it is assumed to make proletariat superfluous, whereas surveillance AI is necessary to control the masses as the people are getting thinner and thinner slices of the (methinks shrinking) GDP pie, but AI adoption even within the system seems to currently have internal friction, as the AI sector clashes with copyright laws which especially are the basis of the entertainment sector of the system.
And to make this less gloomy, here is another clip of a tree with white flowers in April sunshine. A video instead of a GIF, because I don’t want to overtax the site on the top of my ongoing internet issues.
I think AI was probably involved in editing this video: the clip was stabilized in my mobile phone with some artefacts, and edited in and exported from Clipchamp. Yes, I am a hypocrite, but I think properly applied AI could be useful and fun.
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