Hello again Happy Readers!
I’m determined to keep up the blog posts on a regular basis. Last week, I had one each day, but I will be scaling that back to Monday, Wednesday, Friday going forward. Caveat: The day might bounce, but 3 per week is the goal.
In that regard, today’s blog post is another look at the things I find interesting. Namely, the stuff I watch on YouTube & Twitch. This is what has replaced my television, basically. I don’t even watch TV anymore unless it’s to stream Amazon Prime or something.
Below is a list of channels I like to watch regularly when I’m killing time and procrastinating from writing. Take a look and see if might like them yourself.
Homestead Related Stuff
Shawn James & My Self Reliance
Shawn is a guy from Canada who is building a homestead from scratch in the woodlands of Ontario. He has two channels that overlap, but have a slightly different focus. I recommend both. You can watch him build his old homestead from scratch, or the newest build he has going on in his new location. I learn something new each time I watch, and I am in awe of his work ethic!
Channel About Page Description:
“Log Cabin Building, Woodworking, Bushcraft, Survival Skills, Cooking, Canadian Wilderness exploration, Hunting, Fishing, Off Grid Living in the forest with my golden retriever Cali.
Hi, I’m Shawn James. I am a passionate outdoorsman living the life of my dreams in a log cabin that I built by myself in the Canadian wilderness. Join me and my golden retriever, Cali and listen to the sounds of the forest in this relaxing wilderness setting. I prefer to keep my talking to a minimum and let the natural sounds of nature make you feel as though you are there with me.”
Channel About Page Description:
“You may know me as the quiet guy from my channel, My Self Reliance where I document my off grid cabin life, but on this channel I speak much more and upload more videos about the rest of my life. My mission on this channel is to hopefully help YOU live your dream life so you can become more self reliant, happy and fulfilled.
You can expect to hear more about the way I live, how I grew up, how I got into seemingly insurmountable debt, how I got out of it, what drove me to live the outdoor lifestyle and what I plan to do for the rest of my life. I answer your questions, I interview people who are living unconventional lives, I try to inspire and motivate you to pursue the life of your dreams, I give you the tips and tricks I used to retire in my forties to live my dream life and I reflect on my own life – past, present and future.”
Gold Shaw Farm
In my search for various details about duck care, I came across this channel. Morgan is very entertaining and a little goofy. He’s got ducks, geese, barn cats, and a really cool guard pupper! Check them out.
Channel About Page Description:
“Gold Shaw Farm is a farm in Peacham, VT. More accurately, it’s not really a farm yet. Founded by Morgan Gold and Allison Ebrahimi Gold in 2016, Gold Shaw Farm is more of a farm-in-progress than an honest-to-goodness farm. Our dream is that someday we are able to make our 158 acre parcel of land a regenerative and productive homestead/farm. To get there, it’s going to take a lot of work on our part. Our YouTube channel chronicles the journey of getting there for our friends, family and community.“
Primitive Technology
John Plant builds everything from scratch with only what is available to him on his site in the Australian bush. There have been no new videos since December 2019 (presumably due to Covid), but the backlist is great.
Channel About Page Description:
“Primitive technology is a hobby where you build things in the wild completely from scratch using no modern tools or materials. These are the strict rules: If you want a fire, use a fire stick – An axe, pick up a stone and shape it – A hut, build one from trees, mud, rocks etc. The challenge is seeing how far you can go without utilizing modern technology. I do not live in the wild, but enjoy building shelter, tools, and more, only utilizing natural materials. To find specific videos, visit my playlist tab for building videos focused on pyrotechnology, shelter, weapons, food & agriculture, tools & machines, and weaving & fiber.”
Science & Space Stuff
Smarter Every Day
Destin Sandlin from Huntsville is an Mechanical & Aerospace Engineer who asks interesting questions about the world around him and proceeds to answer them with science and technology!
Channel About Page Description:
“I explore the world using science. That’s pretty much all there is to it.”
Veritasium
Very interesting science and tech videos with in depth dissection and analysis. His most recent one about 3D printed rockets is amazing!
Channel About Page Description
“An element of truth – videos about science, education, and anything else I find interesting.”
Mark Rober
Mark Rober is the Glitter Bomb guy. He engineered the glitter flinging machine that he used to trick and punish porch pirates. He also has some other great and in depth videos on engineering and inventing.
Channel About Page Description
“Former NASA and Apple engineer. Current YouTuber and friend of science. Answers to some common questions: 1) I studied Mechanical Engineering in School. I did my undergrad at BYU and Masters at USC. 2) I worked for NASA JPL for 9 years, 7 of which were working on the Curiosity Rover (I made a video about it you should def totes watch cause it’s probably my favorite of all my videos). Then I created Digital Dudz (made some videos about this too) and eventually sold it after 2 years. Then I worked for Apple in their Special Projects Group doing Product Design as a Mechanical Engineer for 5 years. As of 2019, I just make my monthly YouTube videos. 3) Link to free and therefore substandard build plans for my custom workbench can be found below. 4) I made a 30 Day Creative Engineering Class that teaches my end to end engineering process so you can make stuff too!”
SpaceX
The official SpaceX Youtube channel where you can watch their launches live.
Channel About Page Description
“SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches the world’s most advanced rockets and spacecraft.”
spaceXcentric
Get even more detailed news and upates about SpaceX from this channel.
Channel About Page Description
“The spaceXcentric is the original YouTube source dedicated to disseminating SpaceX news and information. Our popular video series, ‘SpaceX in the News’ remains the go-to means for busy SpaceX fans to quickly and conveniently catch up on all the latest intel drops they may have missed during their workweek. So strap in and enjoy the ride as together we dream, anticipate, and faithfully watch this epic adventure to the stars take shape in front of our very eyes.
Who Dares Wins”
zefrank1
The home of ‘True Facts’ skits. There’s biological science info to be had, but the humor is the best thing about it. If you’ve never watched Sad Cat Diary, you simply must.
From Wikipedia.org
“In December 2012 Ze Frank released a video titled “True Facts About Baby Echidnas” that featured footage of echidnas and a voiceover by Frank including facts and reactions to the video footage, which has been viewed over 10 million times. Frank later released other videos in the series focusing on animals including “True Facts About the Octopus”[20] which has been viewed over 13 million times, and one video which instead focused on actor Morgan Freeman titled “True Facts About Morgan Freeman” which was viewed over 12 million times.”
Politics & Culture Thangs
Viva Frei
I’ve been watching Viva Freiheit of Canada & Robert Barns of the USA talk politics and culture from a legal perspective since the 2020 Election aftermath. They are liberty minded and sharp. You would do well to watch and take in some excellent analysis from these two. This is Viva’s channel, so it also has his other vidoes and intersts as well. The duo also has a Locals page at VivaBarnesLaw.Locals.Com
Channel About Page Description
“Dedicated to increasing the global pool of happiness and goodness in the world, one quirky video at a time!
Live. Be wild. And stay young. Even if your knees crack every time you get up. Peace out!”
Nerdrotic
For an anti-woke take on comics, science fiction, and all things nerdy, you can watch Nerdrotic (aka Gary Buechler). I especially enjoy tuning in to Friday Night Tights.
Beware, this is decidedly NSFW.
Channel About Page Description
“Former Comics Pro. Covering the good, the bad, and the ugly from the current state of Pop Culture with an affinity for genre TV like Lord of the Rings on Amazon, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Star Trek, The Orville, The Expanse, Westworld, The Witcher, Umbrella Academy, and The Venture Bros. Co-host of The Inquisition, Friday Night Tights, and The ExoZone.”
Game & Entertainment Thangs
Markiplier
If you watch YouTube at all, you’ve probably already heard of this guy. He is known for his extreme reactions to horror games. He’s very funny to watch and if you catch him with his two friends Bob & Wade, hilarity always ensues.
Channel About Page Description
“Welcome to Markiplier! Here you’ll find some hilarious gaming videos, original comedy sketches, animated parodies, and other bits of entertainment!”
Lawn Care Juggernaut
It’s one of those ‘oddly satisfying’ types of channels where a guy who does lawn care for a living picks random horrible lawns to give free makeovers. It’s more interesting than you might imagine. Also, he does a great job of including inspirational/motivational speakers as soundtracks in the videos. It’s a good watch.
Twitch Favorites
These channels are my current favorites on Twitch. Check them out. Give them a follow or a sub.
SherrifEli – Awesome streamer with a quick wit and terrific sense of humor, not to mention great taste in music.
https://www.twitch.tv/sheriffeli
Critical Role – Home of my favorite D&D gaming show each Thursday night, as well as other terrific special productions. Check out the Narrative Telephone episodes too!
https://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole
BeardfuTV – Just a dude playing games and growing a beard. He does a great job on They Are Billions (TAB).
https://www.twitch.tv/beardfutv
PhNahm – Another great guy to watch play They Are Billions, but he’s fun to watch run other games too.
I hope you found something here you liked. If you know of similar channels, be sure to drop me a comment and let me know about them.
Happy Reading (and video watching!)
Check out my books on Amazon.
Or, even better, support me by buying some Autographed ones directly.
Peacekeeper Incorporated’s breakthrough nanotechnology could bring repeat offense crime to an end, freeing society from the need for criminal incarcerations. But first, they have to finish testing it. With funding on the line, and time to prove out the project getting short, the lead scientist must find a way speed things up. That’s unfortunate for his guinea pig, and anyone who would stand in his way.
Can the goal of ending most crime justify committing one… even a few?
And what happens when you conflate altruism with egotism?
Find out in eConscience Beta, where two lab techs and an uncouth petty criminal must outwit a brilliant but sociopathic scientist who’ll stop at nothing to establish his legacy as the man who ended crime.
HORIZONS UNLIMITED
Matter conversion technology—Matt-Con—has broadened the scope of mankind’s existence. It has opened up the real possibility of viable colonies on other planets in our solar system, and even space itself. Anywhere matter can be captured or energy from the sun can be felt, the possibility of expanding human habitation exists.
In this volume:
Quicksilver (short story)
The space station Chariot of Helios—on its way to Mercury to become a power collection station for Earth’s growing need for energy to power matt-con tech—encounters a strange anomaly that threatens ship and crew.
Null Gravitas (short story)
New crew and new relationships form above the skies of Venus. A post-prequel to Escaping Aurora.
Escaping Aurora (novella)
The sudden destruction of mankind’s first atmospheric terraforming platform leaves three unlucky exonauts struggling to survive in the skies of Venus aboard a cobbled-together airship. Meanwhile, the commander of the space station above battles obstacles that might keep her from rescuing her stranded husband and crew in time.
Oh, and check out these Corner Scribblers anthologies. I have stories in them all! Here are some links!
- Pirates & Parlays (Pirate Flash Fiction)
- Tales From The Street (Urban Fantasy Flash Fiction)
- Influx, Oh Flux (Invasion Flash Fiction)
- Gears & Gallantry (Steampunk Flash Fiction)
- Take Me To Your Reader (Alien First Contact Flash Fiction)
- Children of the Corner (Horror Short Stories)
- Dragons & Dribbles (Fantasy Flash Fiction)
- Bugged Out Babblings (Apocalyptic Flash Fiction)
- Napkin Notes (Short Stories That Spring from the Corner of a Napkin)
- Prose & Cons (Convention Flash Fiction Stories)
- Drunken Cranberries and Other Holiday Musings (Christmas Flash Fiction Stories)
Words from the Wampuscat 