IndexThe last blog was a little depressing so lets try and make it a little more fun shall we?
It's been an interesting week, I had the opportunity to be both a Timing Judge and a Scoring Judge in field hockey. Luckily for me it was an international test series between Wales and Austria men's hockey teams. It was an absolute joy and privilege and I will go more in depth about my role and what I do here.
Onto some hobbies and interests. LEC Regional Finals have begun, with (spoiler) FNC taking down BDS 3-0. Whilst I haven't watched the series in depth, it looks as though FNC Noah has refound confidence and is playing well. FNC Razork is also currently performing out of his mind. G2 vs MDK is on later today. Considering their form, I would be very, very surprised if G2 drop even a single game to MDK. Stranger things have happened though so we shall see.
On YouTube, I have come across Evan Monsma. I like the style of videos, it's very "hacky" and appeals to my "create from first principals" interest that I seem to have developed recently. I would say the channel name isn't very catchy or memorable, but it's his name and it definately fits the vibe of the channel. The projects that he does are very 'Give It A Go' and in such a way that whilst anyone could do them, Evan's creativity and vision are really what sets it apart. There's a level of 'jank' as it were but it's a refreshing change considering how many creators in the 'Maker' space are using £8000 laser cutters or 3D Printer's they recieved for free.
Similarly, Ivan Miranda has been building a marble clock. Whilst marble-based projects have gained a little bit of infamy on YouTube imo, (yep, I'm on about that guy.) Ivan is taking a different approach. He's happy with failure and is more focused on the end project. He is a very smiley, positive guy and that comes across in videos. It's one of those stories where 1 video popped off then he's snowballing that success. Something which I find very rewarding as a viewer as the algorithm feels like it's worked for an 'average' guy rather than big corporations or click-baity creators trying to leverage it to mini-max the income. The videos are not regularly uploaded but I feel like thats due to the nature of the project. Each video has enough content that real progress feels like it's being made, whilst leaving me wanting more. Highly recommend everyone to check out his videos.
Finally, lots of positives coming out of Paris 2024. A lot of feel good stories in a time when the media is really, really shit and depressing. My favourite feel good moment was when a streamer asked for "setup tours" from his viewers. These are usually a way to get an insight into a fanbase, they can usually be quite funny and is (imo) one of the nicest ways to farm content from your community as a streamer. One of these "setup tours" was a tablet on a bed. An Olympic bed. In the Olympic Village. Once the streamer (Caedrel) found out who said Olympian was (Maddison Keeney he took the time to watch and react to her dives when it was time for her event, and support her during her competition. Maddi managed to achieve the highest dive score in the Women's 3m Springboard, but China's Chen Yiwan had the better average to take Gold overall. The clip of Caedrel supporting Maddi just warms my heart and is a testiment to the will and desire to support and uplift others.
Well, that's page 2! Hopefully these will become a little more regular and won't just be a copy/paste of links and random shit. Maybe eventually I'll have the confidence to ramble about shit that isn't depressing like last week. We shall see!
"Forge your heart into something strong, unbreakable" - Rell, The Iron Maiden