How I try to engage an audience
This is a bit of an experiment. I have shared my latest YouTube video on Steemit first and will share it to other websites from here after 7 days have elapsed.
It's about the obsession that some people have about their hair or lack thereof and it's pointlessness, when there is real suffering in the world. Male pattern baldness by the way also affects women so it's not a proper name.
I know that some people get bent out of shape and say this is not YouTube and we should be creating content here first but until there is an app where we can do that, we are where we are.
We are supposed to be curating what we think is good content from wherever we find it. YouTube has some very powerful content and should not be ignored for some arbitrary reason.
This video is an example of how I attempt to influence people with humour and fun rather than beating them over the head.
I hope you will feel that you can give your views about the content and ideas expressed, and hopefully leave a comment or two and share it on twitter etc, as that in itself would be interesting to see the reach of this platform. I will not share it myself until 7 days have passed on steemit. If at all
I really am not interested in views on YouTube. I never have been. I share ideas that I find useful or interesting and sometimes just mundane. The more mundane the better.
My online content has always been influenced by a 16th century French chap by the name of Michel Eyquem Montaigne. He wrote about the things that were going on around him and he is a fantastic read. It's like stepping back in time and seeing the world through his eyes.
My videos are attempts at little slices of what life is like in the 21st century. Montaigne is my muse and inspiration.
I love to watch the earliest films that show how people lived back in the 1890's and beyond compared to how we are living today.
The self obsession and narcissism of social media is fascinating to observe and record. In an increasingly fake and phony world it is refreshing to find a platform unsullied by this tide of nonsense, that at the same time allows us to record it for posterity.
I am a social scientist and try not to let my own value system impede my observations but I'm human too. And make errors. I don't care as long as they are recorded and people may get a glimpse into life as we know it today.
In my own small way I have tried to emulate several of Montaigne's methods as I hope they may be of interest to people 100's of years from now. I enjoy making videos and have been making them since the early 1980's. I have an extensive archive of footage from my travels and life. To me, the platform they are hosted on is totally irrelevant.
I am making them first and foremost for my family. I have 3 children and 6 grandchildren at the moment.
I have no photos of my grandparents or my early life, so that is one of my motivations.
Just to leave a record of my life for future generations hopefully to watch.
That is why I am putting them on the blockchain of steemit. As I know it will still be around long after YouTube is just a memory.
On my travels I have met many interesting people, with fascinating stories that would be lost if I hadn't recorded them. Epic histories of towns in the mountains of Lebanon to the Fenlands of England and in South Africa, of families torn apart by past ignorance's. I will share them here over the coming years.
So with no further ado here's the video for your consideration.
Below is a transcription of the video dialogue written by me and included here for clarity. I had to create these captions as the YouTube auto captions service inserts expletives into my dialogue. It has done this many times on past videos and it did it on this video too. It can be a little annoying and not safe for work in my opinion. So I always check them before publishing,
WEB VTT
Kind: captions
Language: en
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Right it's summertime its very very hot and I'm going to do my annual shearing my
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annual sheep shearing with this. I do my annual thing which is a number two
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with this thing. so I can't really see I'm blind as a bat
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So. I can't really see very well so I put on a number, try it on number four first
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We'll try number four see how we go with that. I'll have to leave my glasses on
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I really can't see what I'm doing? Have to lean forward a bit.
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I'm reminded of Full Metal Jacket for some reason?
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Stanley Kubrick a great director
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Wow it's quite long aint'it anyway. Onward and sideways I really can't see what I'm doing?
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I'll try again. Throw a bit of light on the matter...That's no good?
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That's even worse.
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There is something very satisfying about shaving your own head
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Even though you can't see what you're doing
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Wow lot a hair? very dark it's usually at this time that
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the battery runs out on the razor and you're left looking like a half coconut
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I can't see what I'm doing. I can't see a bloody thing. I've got to get some light on here? That's no good?
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Can't see a damn thing. I don't even up on getting it all off but it's a laugh it's a giggle makes me laugh anyway
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Things I get up to honestly? Baffle myself sometimes. I mean who would film
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themselves shaving their head and then stick it on the web? I would. Why?
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because it's normal. It's real life. It's what everyone does.
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O my God I've run out of juice oh its run out of power
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I knew that was gonna happen I had a feeling that was gonna happen...Look!
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And I've got to go out in a minute. I haven't really I'm joking
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but God look I've got a right mess an I? No it's dead, it's dead
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God right I'll have to charge this up and this will have to be continued
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Blimey! I know what I can do. I can use it plugged in. Look at the amount of hair. See now back in the day
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I could've probably got a couple of pennies for that
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Don't know if they still do that these days you know buy peoples hair?
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all that kind of God knows when they do with it?
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right we're back in action
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maybe okay adapter
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That was funny man. Listen it makes me laugh. That's all that matters.
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If you find it funny as well that's great really a couldn't give a monkey's
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So you know don't be offended by that.
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The fact of the matter is. I'm making these videos for myself.
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If people like them. That's great.
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Onward's and sideways. I really should get a bit of light on this
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How about that? Is that any better? I still can't see nothing. But there you go.
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Life is hard and then you die!
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Cables too short. Why are they so mean on the cable length there just rubbish?
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Gotta leave it for a couple of. I left there just for a couple of minutes
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literally three or four minutes and it charged up pretty quick so we'll have to
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leave it for five minutes but OMG look at this. What a mess
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Okay hey Shearing part two I'm going to. I can't really see what I'm doing here so
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I'm going to do it by feel
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Run out of juice again?
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Okay this may take some time now the thing is I wanted to do this quickly and
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because I've got other work to get on with that I need to be getting doing
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I've got couple of things to do for steemit and I've got a YouTube video to do for the
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OBS software and I really need to get with it. But I can't sort of do it half shaven
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Because that would look stupid wouldn't it? Actually it might look quite good.
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Who cares? who cares?
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Er yeah! hmm today on the news report short-hair day 1/2 hair day no hair day Who give a F day?
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Yeah! I think I'm losing the plot If I've not lost it already?
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Really can't see on that bloody screen
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Well whatever. I suppose I could leave it like this and go like a bit of a mullet type thing?
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what do you think? I can't see
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Try again Trunnion. Try again see if we've got some more juice in here.
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It feels like I've got a lot of hair back there but I can't... it's not...Maybe the angles wrong?
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What is the point of hair?
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We don't live out on the frikkin bush anymore. Do we? We don't live up in the mountains
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or in caves so we don't need hair to keep us warm? What is the point of hair?
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Well we haven't evolved obviously enough to be completely hairless.
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I suppose that's how we'll be. I suppose we'll be hairless in about another 100,000 years
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That's evolution. Some factors are favored over others like for example male pattern baldness.
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Is obviously a genetic thing so someone. Women that's the point not men.
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Women have selected male partners with male pattern, male pattern baldness
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For generations thousands of millions years whatever. No for thousands of years.
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Women have selected men with male pattern baldness and yet the men who
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who have got male pattern baldness are all, not all of them but some of them are walking around going Oh look I'm going bald?
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Very strange?
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Very strange indeed, weird in fact. Mind you who having said that
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about the male pattern baldness thing
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I'm assuming that those females in the past
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selected males when they had full heads of hair?
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They didn't know they were going to go bald
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or whatever so it's the same as
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It's almost like false advertising isn't it?
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He's got a nice big quaff of hair. Next thing...Pfft Gone!
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It's funny man I'm cracking myself up. There's no one in the house.
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If anyone's walking past they'd think there's an absolute lunatic inside here and they'd probably be right
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But I'm a happy lunatic. Which is nice.
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Rather than being miserable just be happy it's a choice some people choose to be
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miserable they like moaning. They like moaning about every damn thing
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The problem with that is. It's boring. Bores the crap out of people. No one wants to know. No one cares.
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Well they do care. That's not true, they do care. But they just can't do anything about it.
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So you know. It's a bit like when you are watching the news you know.
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You watch the news or read a newspaper (no one reads the newspaper anymore) but
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You see a load of kids being slaughtered or whatever or being crushed by some frikken regime
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And you just turn over and watch some other mind numbingly dull soap opera
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Because you just can't do anything about it what is happening over there
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that's the problem
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so all psychologists and all psychiatrists the first thing they say
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to their patients is stop watching TV stop watching the news especially
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because it's just all too depressing it's out of your control, nothing you can do about it
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you shouldn't even be looking at it because you can't do anything about it
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so why bother and there's stacks of it, there's tons of it
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we are getting flooded every single minute with more and more crap and er
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you know you have to start taking charge be selective in what you do.
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Facebook OMG don't get me on Facebook. Facebook is a virus.
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and it's eating up everyone's brains.
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Right this is the last time I'm going to do this. It's the last go
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I've just gone and had a look in the mirror and this is an interesting, well for me it's interesting.
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Look I've just shaved all my head off and I've got this on the back
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A little tuft it's randomly sitting there that I missed yeah
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Now why does it matter? That's the question. Why does it matter? does it matter?
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Of course it doesn't, it doesn't matter at all. But it's all to do with appearances isn't it?
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It's all to do with appearances and vanity and all that kind of thing so there you go. It'll have to come off.
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Because I'm as gullible as everyone else.
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I believe all that crap? No I don't. I don't believe it but I have to live in it.
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And if I walk down the street with that sticking out.
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people will think I'm from the funny farm? that's not pleasant is it?
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okay so I'm gonna have to go and find a mirror because I can't see what I'm doing really.
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Okay so there it is all done it feels
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fantastic I love having a shaved head in the summertime because it's just it's
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just so really refreshing and cool and lovely you don't have to fart about
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every morning I want to go out somewhere quick. A quick shower
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a little pea-sized gob of shampoo. Done here we go. Have a look. Here's a rotation.
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How about that?
I hope you found this interesting and informative. I am a teacher and can't help myself. Everything has to have a message, a meaning and some enlightenment.
Michael @molometer