2020s
Well I have now transferred all of my videos from YouTube to Vimeo and deleted my YouTube page. While I still have some exploring around the options that Vimeo offers, for now I am happy with the layout of my Vimeo page, videos being grouped together appropriately.
Another book that arrived today from Powell’s Books (thanks to a book token that I was given over a year ago 🤦🏼♂️). A very old copy of Now We Are Six I owned, that was falling to pieces, I foolishly passed on when clearing out. I have missed it ever since. Wrong now righted!
I can’t remember who on Micro.blog mentioned this book? It was a while ago. A long while ago from my memory, but at long last I have bought my own copy. It’s beautifully presented. I look forward to delving into it, and exploring the aromas and tastes that it hints at.
I watched The Only Living Boy in New York last night and thoroughly enjoyed the story that it told. Jeff Bridges plays a lovely old character. Well worth your time, I believe. 🍿
My wife & I sat outside last night to watch the Geminids Meteor shower. We saw a few meteors, both quick flashes and long streaks. We would have stayed longer, but tiredness got the better of us.
Silhouette and star at sunset.
I watched the first Bond film, Dr. No the other night. I wanted an evening of nostalgia and escape. When the film was made in 1962 my mother was in Jamaica and saw the “dragon” used in the film sitting in a shed. She said that it was a tractor covered in a design. 🍿
I paid for a full subscription to Castro today. It has helped me get into more regular podcast listening, more than any other podcast app that I have tried. The workflow just works for me.
It’s so still and quiet this morning. Something to rest into.
Set up and in place. We have a HomePod in another bigger space. This Mini is in a small room & I think has an incredible sound for its size. Its big brother has a richer sound, but I am very happy with this purchase. Along with a family plan, music can now be played in 2 rooms.
Moving from YouTube to Vimeo
I’m exploring moving my videos, which to date are all concerned with meditation, from YouTube to Vimeo. I am on a trial account with Vimeo for a month and have started uploading my videos to the platform. This will take a couple of weeks because the Vimeo plan that I am on has a weekly upload limit.
So why move? YouTube is free, and I believe it has greater visibility than Vimeo. I have also heard that it is the second most popular search engine, though I cannot vouch for that. Added to which streaming, once mastered, is pretty easy on YouTube. With Vimeo that is only possible in a membership tear for which I cannot justify the price.
The move is prompted by my preference for the look of Vimeo, its lack of advertisements, and being a little further away from the all seeing eyes of Google. Of course the latter means, as I indicated above, that I loose the visibility that comes with the prominence that YouTube enjoys. I am telling myself that I can live without that for now. As for the streaming features, I rarely use them and when I do, I can reach for something else and save the video if I wish.
I’m in touch with Vimeo support to clear up a couple of profile issues which either aren’t working or I don’t understand correctly. In the meantime, for the next couple of weeks I shall continue to explore if this is the place where I wish to host my videos.
Today I am touched by the kindness of friends. Sometimes the kindness of others almost overwhelms me, like when someone just drops everything to help. There is good in this world.
I have made an unexpected and happy discovery, that I have an audio copy of Alan Bennett’s book, The Uncommon Reader. I love listening to Alan read this wonderfully funny book.
I’m really happy that our refrigerator is making ice again. File that under, “things that I take for granted until they don’t work!"
After a wonderful online seminar this morning for men who identify as highly sensitive, I went for a walk to move the body and rest weary eyes.
Seeing life through other’s eyes
I started writing this earlier in the year while spending a weekend in Hana, on the far east coast of Maui. My wife and I, and a couple of COVID free trusted friends rented a house. I arrived feeling nauseous after navigating the twists and turns of the Hana Highway, and so stayed behind to rest while everyone else went for a walk.
I sit watching a bug crawling across the top of the wooden balcony railing. It looks like a cockroach. A youngster if so. The ever moving feelers are my give away for cockroach identification, though I claim no expertise in the field.
I was reading, looked up and saw the bug scuttling across the railing, and I thought - I am living in my world view. Sitting here in this rented house in a remote part of Hawai’i, listening to the ocean crashing against the rocks not a 100 yards away, and this little bug is in its own world view, whatever that looks like - does it even know that the ocean is so close? What is, does it have a concept of the ocean? I am thinking and judging that its world view is much simpler than mine.
And I then stop myself and think about everyone’s, everything’s world view. All probably contain some truth. Then there is how we process and use our worldview. And maybe the greatest challenge, how do we share our worldview and opinions on it alongside everyones’ and everything else’s?
I’m not necessarily going anywhere with this train of thought right now. Just putting out there what a cockroach crawling across a balcony brought to my mind.
Here are some photographs - courtesy of Martin Caprile, MJC HAWAII, www.martincaprile.com - of Jaws and those who surfed it a couple of days ago. One copied here, the others can be found on the Maui Now website.
Well so much for the “California weather” from a couple of days ago. It is now overcast and raining…but I like this weather as well. It is the closest that I will get here to a northern latitude, read British, winter.
I am looking forward to the 2nd Highly Sensitive Men’s Seminar this coming Saturday. Most of all to sit in the company, virtually, with men of a the same personality trait as myself, to share stories and experiences. I believe that there is still time to sign up?