YouTube Time Fillers

More times than not, these days, I find that I have more and more idle time that I try to fill with something to do. This is not to say that I'm doing fewer things: I'm still working five days a week, still trying to get blog posts composed between Sundays and Thursdays (or sometimes, I get a week's worth done on a quiet Saturday night), still working on videos for my YouTube channel, and still getting chores done around the house.

But there are brief periods of time when I find myself either waiting for something to be completed—a file to compile or some other automated process to end, or I'll be on my spin bike and have watched a television show, but I still have some time left to complete my one-hour workout—and I have nothing to do while I wait it out. More and more times, I'll fill that waiting period by watching a video on YouTube.

Because I'm spending more time working on videos for YouTube, I like to see how other people produce their visual work. I'll watch a travel video to see how people shoot and edit their footage, or how they present themselves. I also watch tutorial videos about how to record your images to make them stand out more and how to cut down your footage to give the most impact and retain a viewer's interest.

I have a long way to go in creating great content on my channel.

But I've also started watching videos just for the pure entertainment value. Or because I'm just curious.

Here's a list (in no particular order) of the channels that I've been watching the most when I have some time to kill.

• 

  Professor of Rock: Adam Reader is a knowledgeable person when it comes to music from my generation. As he says at the start of his show, he celebrates "the greatest artists and the greatest songs of all time," though he tends to limit the music from the 1950s to the early 2000s, and focuses on the 80s. Adam thoroughly researches the band or artist and their work, and he even performs face-to-face interviews.
  His videos are produced daily, except Sundays, and usually last about 20 minutes or so. Even when he covers an artist with which I was never a fan or a song I didn't like, he presents it in a light that I find interesting. I've even downloaded songs that he's re-introduced to me, after watching his video.
  If you're a music junkie, this channel is for you.

• RobWords: being a writer and nerd, I'm fascinated by the etymology of the English language, and UK news reader Rob Watts satisfies my curiosity with his witty explanations, such as how the English still use words that come from Viking and other origins, and how we've actually lost letters (or letter combinations) from the English alphabet.
  Rob is my kind of geek and his videos are as short as one minute to less than 20 minutes.

• 

  TrekCulture: yes, I'm an unashamed Trekkie (or Trekker: call me what you like). This channel provides insight into the Star Trek universe, with commentary about all shows in the franchise, reviews of currently running series, and top-10 lists of Trekkie trivia. I like watching an episode of Discovery, or Strange New Worlds, or Lower Decks, or whatever series is currently running, and then visiting TrekCulture to see presenter Sean Ferrick (there are a handful of presenters) provide his personal pros and cons of that episode, along with a list of Easter eggs that lend themselves to the Star Trek universe.
  These videos happily waste about 10 to 25 minutes of my time.

• Ben Claremont: Ben is an Australian virtual-tour photographer who runs master classes to help people improve their skills and start their own business in 360-degree photography. He also reviews the latest and greatest 360-degree and video cameras. I first discovered Ben's videos when I had purchased my Insta360 One X camera and wanted tips and tricks in getting the most out of it. I continue to watch his channel for further tricks and to get his insight into the latest cameras (I'm considering updating my One X for an X3).

• Learn Online Video: presenter and videographer Steve Wright shows how to make the most of your videos by using some simple camera movements and effects, whether you're using a D-SLR or mirrorless camera on a gimble or hand-holding your smartphone. I've started using some of his techniques and I think my videos are slowly showing a marked improvement. I also like how Steve presents his content within five to 10 minutes, rarely surpassing 15 minutes. You learn a lot in a short period of time.
• 

  3 Minutes of Aviation: I'm somewhat fascinated by airplanes, going back to my childhood days when my father helped me build model aircraft. Even today, I'll turn my head skyward when a passenger airliner flies overhead: I live along the flight path of Ottawa's airport, so I always see or hear planes taking off or coming in for a landing.
  This YouTube channel shows cool aerial acrobatics at air shows or close calls in aviation. Rarely are any mishaps on this channel (actually, I can't recall any) that result in injuries or fatalities. Most of the clips are just fun or exciting (if you're into aviation), and the best part is that these videos are only three minutes long.

• TheFlightChannel: there is also an aviation channel that I sometimes watch that shows the tragic side of airplanes. This channel shows re-enactments of true mishaps and accidents by using computer-generated simulations and the reports from aviation authorities, flight recordings, and eye-witness accounts. It pieces together what went wrong and the policies that have been put into place to help avoid a recurrence.
  Not all of the videos end in tragedy, and I always breathe a sigh of relief when a computer-generated plane touches safely down without any injuries. But sadly, most of the videos don't end that way.
  DW often asks me why I watch this channel, especially before we are scheduled to take a flight. I do have a somewhat morbid curiosity—I periodically watch videos, from no particular channel, of idiots in cars who cause senseless crashes—but I also think of the videos where it looks like all is lost, but that the pilots get the plane under control and save all aboard. If I ever look out the window of a plane and see the engine explode, I'll remember the many times where these videos show a safe landing.

• CGP Grey: back to fun videos. This UK channel presents fun, simple-illustrated videos that cover a wide range of curious subjects, such as why hexigons are the best shape, the uniform properties of metric paper, and why airport designations (again, with the aviation!) are created the way they are (Ottawa, for example, is YOW). It's a channel of trivia that I can push to the back of my head until I play that board game again.

• Tom Scott: I've only just discovered this channel a few days ago, even though Scott has had this channel for more than eight years and has been making videos for about 15 years or so. Tom has a curious mind and investigates the what if, what is, and why/how does this questions that many of us have. He's travelled the world in search of knowledge and understanding, and his videos remind me slightly of the science historian and presenter, James Burke, who hosted one of my favourite shows in the late 70s, Connections, which I didn't watch until more than 10 years later, on TVO.
  Tom discusses topics such as the tidal forces of the Bay of Fundy, the musical road in California that is badly out of tune, and whether exfoliating your fingers with pineapples will remove your fingerprints. His presentation is top-notch and his videos are a good five-minute (give or take) distraction.

• Peter McKinnon: I first watched Peter's video about the Insta360 One X when I was in the market for an underwater camera for DW's and my upcoming trip to Mexico, in 2019. At the time, I had never considered a 360-degree camera nor a video camera for our trip, but DW discovered his review, while we were both searching for a rugged, underwater camera, and I was impressed with his review and presentation. I used the link that he provided in his video to buy my One X, and in doing so received the selfie stick for free.
  Peter reviews all sorts of gadgets and products, and he also makes some amazing videos that I can only aspire to produce (mind you, he has some really high-end equipment and now works with a team). I don't watch his channel as often, anymore, but I'll still go to it every once and a while to be inspired.

There are a few other videos that I periodically watch but these are the ones that grab my attention the most, especially when I'm killing time or just need a brief distraction from whatever I'm doing.

How about you? If you watch YouTube (please, check out and subscribe to my channel), which are your favourite channels? Leave a comment.

Happy Monday!

Akumal Natura Rescue

Last month, when DW and I were in Mexico, I wrote a post about an animal rescue centre that we visited. You can read about it here.

If you don't want to read about it, I have finally put together the video clips that I shot while we toured the centre. It's the longest of my Akumal vacation videos on my YouTube channel but I think it's one of my best (it got DW's thumbs up, and she's my biggest critic!).

It's 26 minutes long so please watch it when you have time to kill. If you're ever thinking about visiting the Mayan Riviera, I highly recommend spending an afternoon at Akumal Natura Rescue. There's a lot to see, the guides are engaging (if you get Jano, tell him I say hello!), and your pesos go to a worthy, non-profit cause.

I'll have a much shorter video to share, tomorrow.

Thanks for watching. If you like the video, please hit that thumbs up and consider subscribing.

I'm working on three more videos that I shot last summer but never found the time to work on them. I'm hoping to have one new video on The Brown Knowser YouTube channel each month—we'll see how long that lasts.

Stay tuned.

I Mourned Until I Stopped

Photo: Bloomberg, via Twitter

In the past few days, since news spread more quickly than the flames that took the roof and spire of Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral, more words have been shared about the colossal loss and the reconstruction of this jewel—not only the centrepiece of France but a monument of the world—that adding my meagre thoughts to the sea of opinion seems inconsequential.

And yet, I need a bit of a rant because, in the fourth day after, I'm over it.

The images that came through social media and in the news on April 15—the same day in which the Titanic sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean—were shocking. Flames surrounding the base of the 300-foot spire spread until they climbed higher, consumed the structure, and brought it down.

When I saw the video of the collapsing spire, I thought, that's it, she's done for. I thought the vaulted ceilings inside the cathedral had collapsed and that the fire would rage, below. As the fire spread toward the two towers, I had visions of the beams, which support the many bells, would burn until the iron would come crashing down, the stone towers with them.

I went to bed, that night, relieved that fire fighters had worked feverishly to douse the towers and prevent the fire from spreading to them. News was travelling about France's fashion tycoons who were pledging hundreds of millions of euros toward "Our Lady's" reconstruction.

I fell asleep, saddened by what happened but hopeful for the church's restoration.

Like so many, especially those, like me, who had been to Notre Dame, had been through her nave and up and down her towers, there is a connection, not just with the structure but with history. Our lives are finite, but to know that we have touched this piece of history, where so many have come before us and, hopefully, so many more will come after, somehow grounds us in that history and makes us, if only a little, infinitely more.

The next day, news told us that the damage was not as bad as it could have been. Sacred, irreplaceable artifacts had been saved. French President Emmanuel Macron had publicly vowed to have Notre Dame rebuilt. Even though reports estimated that restoration could take decades, Macron insisted that he wanted it done in five years.

The Washington Post shared before and after photos of the cathedral, both inside and out. The damage was considerable, but not catastrophic. It's not so bad, I told myself.

On the third day, nearly a billion euro had been raised toward the cause, and that's when I stopped being sad. In less than 48 hours, hundreds of millions of dollars was waiting to be spent on a building. Granted, not just any building, but a building.

A building that belongs to one of the richest organizations in the world: the Catholic Church.

Meanwhile, poverty still exists. Even in Paris.

Meanwhile, cancer hasn't been beaten. Hospitals are overcrowded and underfunded.

Meanwhile, education isn't available to everyone.

I looked further into the Notre Dame Cathedral. Over its history, it hasn't escaped pillaging and vandalism. During the French Revolution, for example, many of its valuables were either destroyed or stolen. Some 28 statues of biblical kings who were mistaken for statues of French kings were beheaded. Toward the end of the revolution, Notre Dame was no longer used as a place of worship but as a place in which to store food.

It was made into a warehouse.

None of these facts makes this jewel of Paris less spectacular. What it does say that in the building's 856-year history, it has endured. Even the spire that fell is not the original. The first flèche, built in the 13th century, became weakened over the centuries by wind and was removed in 1786. The spire that toppled in Monday's fire had only been there since the 19th century.

Notre Dame will survive. Her story will go on with or without the emotional reaction from the rich, from the politicians.

From 2014: my last visit to Paris.

I mourned her possible loss, but Our Lady will live on. I've stopped worrying.

It's time to get back to worrying about the poor, the sick, and the quality and availability of good education. You know, the things that really matter.