Ben Fredericson Blog

Bird watching is something we do on a daily basis. We have a variety of birds in our garden and it is always entertaining to see so many different species.

Mrs. Fredericson bought us a Bird Buddy for Christmas. I never heard of it before but it is an amazing little toy for the entire family. It is basically a Ring camera system inside a bird house with feeder. Check it out here.

It captures photos and movies once it notices movement. But you don’t get every RAW input directly to your smart phone. Instead, the app checks the movement and if a bird was really at the food station. Also, if all the images are blurry, it will not inform you. It comes with batches / achievements, gamification, a community and many information about the birds.

The quality is surprisingly good!

Since we have this cool little gadget, we check out the birds every day as part of our daily routine. Bird watching game changer!

Up next: health.

As promised, I went to that doc and the amazing balcony again. For the last time this year. And as always, the balcony delivered the great auto chaos spectacle. I would pay for this 30min show if I could.

I also got my final diagnose of my ears aka hearing loss. On a scale from 1 (bad) to 10 (good) I am at around 5 in the middle. 30db below the approved line for hearing aid support by the insurance. I have an appointment with a specialist in two weeks for my first pair of air buds. This is frustrating and exciting at the same time. I mean, hearing aids with 40 years? But hey, new gadgets and hopefully the first step out of this brain chaos. Yes, brain chaos because it is the brain that suffers the most. It can’t make any meaning of the noise if several people talk at the same time and this is extremely exhausting. Physically and mentally. I always had issues with hearing but not this bad since the ear infection in November.

The doc had an interesting story about this. I asked, if this happens regularly and she said no. This is very rare actually. But somehow, this winter was intense with infections and associated hearing loss. They have never seen something like this in their careers.

Speaking of hearing: I found this in the attic.

A well working iPod Shuffle. Still loaded with music from 14! years ago. That was the most time capsule thing I ever encountered and it brought so many amazing memories. I used this thing for workout so everything on it is rather fast, loud and aggressive. And a lot of stuff I haven’t heard in years. Maybe even 14 because I am a lazy ass and never worked out again. Listening to the playlist as I write this post.

We went to the city on Tuesday to have a fancy diner (at a mall) and we saw one of the current attractions in Düsseldorf.

We passed the Leica store but I didn’t buy anything. This fact is worth writing down in this blog post.

Talking about tech. My company sponsored Remarkable 2 e-writers (do you call them e-writers?). I was not really interested in this since I prefer good old fashion pen & paper (Field Notes!) and I also have an iPad with Apple Pencil. But this thing is so different that I was super surprised about the writing experience. The main problem is that my handwriting is pretty bad and this is normally a huge part of the experience.

I will continue testing this thing because it is so different to an iPad.

On a musical note, we have a new album from Deus and The Men. I still haven’t heard both with the right attention but here is the latest video from the new Deus album.

I am still listening to High Vis and The Robocop Kraus because both albums/songs are so good.

And finally food.

Look at this beauty.

No, not this one. That was Fridays IKEA trip.

I mean this one.

Sweet chocolate buns. They are nearly perfect (for my baking skills and experience). What is so special about them is the fact, that I would expect a sweet soft bun from a bakery just like these. But I made them and not an official baker. That makes me proud!

That’s it folks. See you next week.