Welcome to another episode celebrating 501 Days of Alcohol Retirement! Today, I dive into my experiences with the Hollyland Lark M2 lapel microphone, sharing my journey of setting it up for the first time. I discuss the various options available, including USB-C and lightning connections, and the flexibility the microphone offers for different recording scenarios. As I record, I reflect on the ongoing hurricane situation affecting Florida, highlighting the challenges faced by those being evacuated and the emotional toll of such natural disasters. Join me as I navigate through technical insights and personal reflections, all while testing out my new audio setup!

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Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Hollyland
• MKBHD

That weird thing in my grass

Welcome to 501 days of alcohol retirement.

I'm also recording on different microphone setup.

This is a Hollyland Lark M two.

It's actually the type of lapel mics that Marcus Brownlee or Mkbhdem uses.

One of the biggest complaints I've always had, one of the biggest issues that I've constantly had with lapel mics is the fact of placement with this particular setup because I'm not entirely sure when or if I'll be upgrading my phone.

It's one of these scenarios where, okay, you can get these in three different flavors.

You can get it where it's a USB C, which means it's going to work for all Android phones, or you can get it for lightning, which means it's going to work on everything up until what?

The 14 whenever they added the USB C.

So to clarify, the USB C will work on Android or newer iPhones.

If you have an iPhone 13 like I do, then you had to go with lightning.

They make a third variety that has two cables.

One cable is lightning, one cable is USB C.

So it's a USB C to lightning, and then you've got a USB C to USB C, and then you've got a standard audio cable.

It'll work on cameras.

So I decided to go with that one.

It was about $125 for the setup.

It's a little clunky because if you get the type that literally is for the USB C only or the lightning, then it just sticks right in the ass end of the phone.

And there you go.

This one has a separate receiver that you hook the USB C cable into.

And then whether it's to USB C or whether it's to lightning, and then there's an actual one eight inch audio connector on it as well.

So it's a little bit more cumbersome.

Like, I've got the phone in my side pocket in my.

In my pants, and then I've got the receiver with the cable attached to it kind of clipped into the pen slot on these pants, these true works pants.

The thing that I really like about it, though is the lapel mic itself.

It's a button and it's magnetic.

And so you take the little magnet piece off, you snake it up under your shirt, and then you just let them connect.

It also comes with a magnetic clip so that it, you know, if you do want to clip it to, say, like a tie or an actual lapel, then you've got that option as well.

It's.

It's really flexible.

It's really flexible.

So this is its maiden journey of doing a.

An episode using this setup.

I tested it a day or two ago in my office, learning the ins and outs, the noise cancellation of the.

Of the microphone.

And it's a two set.

It comes with two.

So, you know, if you want to do an interview, you can literally walk around, you've got one on, and you can just hand somebody one.

Let them clip it or whatever.

It also comes with a yemenite, like a necklace, but it's like a lanyard type thing that goes around your neck that you can also have it connected to that.

Again, like I said, very flexible.

So we'll see what the quality is on this.

Because almost a year ago, I kept noticing that MKBHD, whenever he would do his autofocus videos, which is his autofocus channel, where he does car reviews, I was like, what is that?

What is that lapel Mikey's got?

Because I noticed it was a little.

It was a little button, and I finally just.

I think I did an image search or something.

I didn't.

I don't know.

I can't remember how I finally tracked down.

It was this.

It was the logo that gave it away, and I finally figured out what it was.

So, yeah, I'm a.

I have it here.

Like I said at the beginning of this 501 days of alcohol retirement.

It also is my lovely wife's 54th birthday.

So congratulations to her for making it one more year on this spinning green and blue globe in space.

We're still here, though.

We're not.

We're not supposed to see any major effects from it.

Hurricane Milton is on its way to basically bitch slap Tampa and that area of the west coast of Florida.

Going across Florida.

I mean, it's currently a category five and a.

We're seeing some unprecedented storms.

I remember last week when this thing was just an invest.

It was sitting in the gulf.

It was close to Mexico at the time, and they were like, yeah, this has got a 50% chance of maybe developing into something, but we're kind of thinking it's only going to be, at best, maybe a category one, but probably a tropical storm.

And you got to keep in mind, this is after we've already gone through Hurricane Helene, which damaged a lot of northern part of Florida, and then, of course, South Georgia and South Carolina and North Carolina and Tennessee and I think a little bit of Virginia.

I mean, that one was rough.

And now this thing went from everybody hedging their bets and hoping that it wouldn't be anything till it escalated like a bitch.

And it went from a nothing to, like, a cat four in 24 hours and a cat five in 48 hours, and it's supposed to make landfall sometime this evening.

You know, I live in Tifton.

I 75 goes right through Tifton.

I 75 goes right through Valdosta.

Valdosta is south of me.

Valdosta got royally fucked when Helene came through.

I think there's over a million people trying to evacuate out of Florida.

They had mandatory evacuations yesterday.

I believe they started yesterday, might have started Monday.

We still have their report coming out.

I mean, we have no.

We have no occupancy.

We have no vacancies, rather, in any of our hotels and motels here in Tifton.

So we're basically booked all the way on the I 75 corridor, if you will, from Valdosta to Atlanta.

I mean, people are being told you might as well, as soon as you get into Georgia, you might as well divert and start going west northwest, go to Columbus.

You may even have to go into Alabama to find a place to stay for a few days because the rv parks are full here, the hotels and motels are full here.

I don't even know what the gas situation is right now.

I know they're out of gas down in Florida.

Anybody that decided too late that they needed to get out?

Well, none of the gas stations have gas.

I mean, I heard one story of a couple that they were like, yeah, we were going to ride it out, and then they were like, oh, shit, we probably shouldn't ride this out.

And they only had, like, a quarter of a tank of gas.

There were no gas stations with any availability of gas, so they were stuck.

And as far as I know, they still stuck.

So, you know, positive thoughts their way.

Jesus, I cannot imagine, because I have never been in a situation where we.

We were under a mandated evacuation.

I can't imagine that.

It's tough enough when you're having to hunker down and try not to deal with being without power for a few days, or there's some folks down here that are still without power and probably won't get power until closer to the 1 November.

But to have to be told, look, you've got to uproot and you've got to go somewhere where you're going to be safer, and however long that is, not knowing that you're gonna have anything to come back to when it's all over, that is a horrible.

That has to be a horrible feeling, and it's something I hope I never, ever, ever experience.

Me or my family, any members of my family or my friends.

I mean, it's whoosh.

All right, that's wild.

I have no idea what this is.

I'm going to take a picture of it after I'm done recording.

It's this very yellowish, mushroomy looking stuff on my grass.

No idea what that is.

So, yeah, right now it's, it's partly cloudy.

It's around like 70 degrees, 60, 67 or 68.

I think the high today is only supposed to be around about 74.

I don't know.

All I can say is, you know, you know, I'm not one to say thoughts and prayers because that's bullshit.

But all I can say is, you know, push, push some positive energy toward all those folks down in Florida and everybody headed up into south Georgia.

And they say it's a common thing to say that things can be replaced.

And that is true.

The most valuable part is your life, the lives of your loved ones.

That is true, but that does not negate the sense of loss or being directionless because of the fact that everything, everything that you had, everything that you interacted with on a daily basis, the things that help to inform your, not your personality, but your being.

You know how your thought processes are when you get up in the morning and you go into the kitchen and you make that first cup of coffee and, you know, then you go, you eat breakfast or whatever and you brush your teeth and you get your clothes and all of these things that make life routine.

When all of that is stripped away, that in itself is almost, I would argue, could almost be deemed a feeling very much akin to the loss of a loved one.

You may disagree with me on that.

You may be hardcore.

And it's like, possessions are just a thing that can be replaced.

Okay, that's fine, but when it fucks up your life, you know, maybe you can get those, quote, possessions back, but they're not going to be the same possessions.

But I mean, I do agree, ultimately it is about keeping the individual and the family safe, unharmed, not dead like that one mayor basically down there said, you know, if you, if you have not gotten out and if you do not get out when this storm hits, you will die.

And I'm telling you, I like when our officials don't sugarcoat shit like that.

It's just like, look, you're taking your life into your own hands.

We've told you this thing is horrendous.

You're gonna die if you stay here.

Now, is that an absolute certainty?

Of course not.

But it should scare the shit out of you enough to go.

Okay, I probably shouldn't be here.

This is.

So.

Anyway, I guess that's where I'm gonna wrap it up after this little test.

This is long enough and I gotta get the day started and etc, etc.

So see how well this, this thing worked for me.

If I can get my phone out.

That was tx two.

I got.

I guess I got them reversed.

What is this?

Allow activities.

I don't know what that means, but.

Alright, until next time, podcast is at callme donovan.com or any of your favorite podcast apps.

My favorite one is pocketcast.

I've been a.

I did that one time payment on it years ago and so I'm an alumni, if you will.

Anyway, y'all take care of yourselves.

Talk to you later.

This has been a production of Tifton Media works.

Check out all our podcasts by visiting tiftonmediaworks.com.