Proof that this whole effort is too complicated for its own good is right here: I completely failed to do Q1 before Q2 was upon me. The reasons are many, and considering them in more detail, along with the data I would actually like to be aware of, might help to streamline things going forward. But let’s get the data out of the way first.

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The modern digital audio recorder is a thing of wonder. I have a Zoom F3 that is tiny and that records such an insanely wide dynamic range that it doesn’t even have a “Volume” setting. All fixed in post. And yet ... Every so often it completely fails to work as expected. Most likely it is my expectations that are wrong, but that’s no excuse.

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Are we really halfway through the year? Seems impossible. And what do I have to show for it? Certainly not much in the way of concrete achievements, although another 10 podcast episodes count for something. And the finale of the season attracted some satisfying remarks, so all good.

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Quinoa is not a staple at our house. I like it a lot, but I don’t make it that often. If I did, I would probably already have negotiated a way through the ethical maze that confronts me. Should I buy quinoa from its homeland in South America, and if so should it be the morally superior stuff grown by small farmers on the altiplano of Peru and Bolivia, or the industrial stuff grown on the coast by greedy land barons cashing in on the mystique cultivated by the local people they despise?

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The top event of the month was, I suppose, my Mother’s 100^th birthday, the celebration of which (in June) is the reason this entry is as late as it. Also a lot of fun was a bicycling holiday — only four days — in the Po Delta. Like last month’s trip to Sicily, I haven’t written that up yet either. It has been a month full of visits from family and friends.

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