Camping and filming – Lessons learned

Camping, llanos de la pez!Well, my first video that was basically centered around me got me quite a bit of comments. It also taught me quite a bit. First the lessons I learned myself:

– Batteries. Lots of video means you need some way to charge a battery, or have a replacement ready. In the two days camping I spend the battery of my good camera the first day. My phone was empty around noon the second day, and the two gopro clones I had did last a bit longer, but had a terrible image and sound quality.
– Interaction. It was difficult to film people I did not know. It felt like I would invade their privacy, so I did not film anything while I talked to others. People in our group also showed some restraint when appearing, so I also kept these interactions to a minimum. The result was a movie where I am almost the only person to appear.
– Clean. The video needs to be ‘cleaner’. I don’t know the correct word, but a lot of my sentences end in gibberish no-one can understand. I need to speak clearer. Some parts of the video show the ground, or my feet, or my shirt, and are not focused correctly. I needed to keep some of these parts to avoid breaking the monologue I was having.
– Information. I need a bit more of background information, so I have something to say when there is a dull moment.
– Editing. Cutting away boring parts is not so easy. I was talking a lot, and sometimes I had to leave bad parts to not cut my sentence in half. Sometimes I had to remove big clips, because I repeated things I had already said. Shorter sentences and a small pause before changing topic might help a lot to do the editing afterwards.

My family also had some comments. Quite a lot of comments actually, but most are covered my the issues I found myself.

– Focus. There is no clear goal for the movie. I was told nobody would be interested in seeing only me talk (and drink). It the focus is a family movie we see to little family. If the focus is transmitting interesting facts, I need to include more information.
– No interaction. The same as I already stated, but my family told me it was not all on me. The participants to the video should participate more, without being scared of the camera. This will probably be hard to achieve, because I told everyone I would be making a video, and everybody thought it was a good idea, but still almost nobody wanted to be filmed.

Conclusion: I liked filming and thought the video was not so bad, and maybe even a bit funny, but after all the criticism I have changed my mind. It is not a good video, and it would take a lot of effort to make it better. Will there be a next video… I´m not sure. We don’t normally go camping, so maybe I can make a video when we do something more often, and I need something to talk about. I’ll see, but for now my motivation is a bit low.

Camping – Llanos de la pez

About two years ago we discovered two YouTubers that really inspired us. First ‘Bald and bankrupt‘, who made really great videos, like the one I like most, where he visits an off limits Russian production facility to the one of their last space shuttle like rockets. The ‘Buran‘.

The other YouTuber is ‘Kurt Caz‘ with lots of good videos, but the one I like best is where he visited a family in the middle of nowhere, they invited him to some food, and he then did a fundraiser for the family in Haiti, and returned later to give them some money. The family uses the money to buy a motorcycle, to help them with a better future.

We went camping recently at a site called ‘Llanos de la Pez‘, in the middle of Gran Canaria, and tried to make our own video, inspired by these two great YouTubers. See for yourself how it turned out!

The educational aspects of the video, that maybe remain a bit in the background:
– We are camping in a forest that is representative to Gran Canaria a few hundred years ago
– At that time the entire island was covered with forest/trees
– Roque nublo is the place where the original inhabitants (the guanches) used to meet, to discuss important issues
Maybe the video is a bit over the top, but we laughed really a lot during the production, so even if it is not the best video, we can only be happy with the result.

If you want to go camping yourself, then here are some more info and guidelines for your stay. Ask for permission to camp and spend the night. Walking routes available in the area.

Coconut insect hotel

I continue to see new creative projects which I can realize with a simple coconut. After making a drinking cup, a cookie jar and an orchid pot I now recreated a project I already did in the past, but now with a coconut as an important part. My new project is a coco insect hotel. I made an insect hotel without any coconut in the past that is already hanging on our outside wall for a couple of years. Sometimes insects hang around, but it is not a very popular/busy object.

The ‘old’ insect hotel requires that the insects fly. Flying is the only way to arrive and that probably limits the usage that we see. The newly created coco insect hotel is created in a similar way, but I will not put it on the wall, but instead simply place it among the plants on the dirt. This way the insect hotel can serve a much greater amount of insects.

First step was cutting a cocunut in half. This is getting easier every time now that I’m getting some experience. With the coco cut open you need to remove all the white inside. I use a dull knife to cut the white ‘meat’ in small strips which are easy to remove. After drying the empty coconut I sanded the edges and that was the coco part. All done. Now I get some reed, and cut this into small pieces of around 4 cm each. I used two types of reed, new fresh green reed, and older dried up light brown reed. The fresh green reed was easier to deform, so it made it easier to fit inside the coco. Before putting the reed inside the coco I sanded it a little to take away any imperfections. I mixed sizes so that different insect could find different sizes rooms in our hotel.

I put some paper inside the back of the coco, so the reed does no go in to the coco all the way to the back. The paper fills up the back part, and after filling up the front with the pieces of reed I could align the pieces a little by pushing the a bit deeper into the paper, or by pulling them out a bit.

Fujin

Since a couple of years I like to browse Kickstarter to see if I can find any fun projects to support. Kickstarter is a platform where you can take a small risk and you can help someone or some organization in developing something new. The idea is simple. If you have an idea, but you dont have the money, you make a plan to create something, calculate what it will cost, and publish it on the site. People who like your plan can pay first, and if there is enough interest, you make your product and send it to the people that supported you. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. When there is enough interest you get the money, and start your development. Normally it will take a long time, and there are almost always delays. There is also a risk. If you did not calculate everything well enough or thought everything through, maybe you fail, and the money disappears. I bought a couple of things through Kickstarter. A robot, a thinket, a super nice towel, a stress relief toy, some books, and the last thing to be delivered on my doorstep was a Fujin.

Fujin wrist!Fujin is the Japanese god of the wind, but also a mechanical watch. The watch was developed as a kickstarter project, and it somehow got my attention. I never wear a watch, so it was an atypical project for me, but the project kept revolving in my mind. Eventually I decided to just take a gamble, and go for it. I made my pledge almost a year ago, and the watch has finally arrived. First thing I noticed is that it arrived in a really big box. It got me all excited, but since it arrived a few days before my birthday I made the choice to wrap it up, and let my kids give it to me. It will be a great gift for myself.

Finally on my birthday I got to unpack the Fujin. It’s a beautiful watch and it fitted my wrist like a glove. I was very happy. After using google translate to read the Japanese instructions I was able to set the correct time, and ever since it just works great.

Model: S-Meister, Fujin SM-DVBK-P-KS
Movement: Seiko Epson YN71
Case: SS (BK), size: 42mm, thickness: 14 mm, lug width: 22 mm
Face: Platinum leaf
Cover: Sapphire glass
Strap: Cordura Nylon, 9 cm including buckle / 7.7 cm for belt only at 12 o’clock, 12 cm at 6 o’clock

Fuji nightstand!The watch is heavy and big, you are easily reminded you are wearing it, it transmits a feeling of quality. The size of the watch was one of the things that worried me. I though a too big of a watch was uncomfortable, and would maybe look to much like I was calling for attention, which I wanted to avoid. In the end the watch is quite sizable, but it is an acceptable size, and it looks pretty good on my wrist, without being overly big.

The watch face is created basically a black area covered by a very very thin layer of platinum. This super thin platinum foil really does look a bit like something representing the wind, so that’s really nice. The watch face has a hole to see the inner workings of the watch, and it feels like looking at the watch’s heartbeat. It is only a small piece of the movement you can see, but it is amazing seeing extremely small pieces moving around so fast you can hardly make out what is moving around.

There are three dials. One very thin dial for seconds, and two dials with little points that light up in the dark for the minutes and the hours. The dials look really nice, and the glow in the dark feature helps for reading the time when you are in a darker environment. During the day the silver dials, on top of the platinum foil can be a bit hard to read. You need to look well so see the dials and know the time, at night or with low light it is much easier to tell the time, thanks to the little dots of illumination.

The back of the watch is also made of sapphire or maybe its just glass, I’m not sure. It shows you a different part of the movement, and it shows the way the watch generates its energy by using your movement to move a big piece around which I suspect charges the watch. The watch can be charged using the crown, or by simply wearing it. The little book that comes with the watch explains that wearing the watch for around 8 hours a day is enough to keep it running for 24 hours.

The strap is black on the outside, there is a very small black leather part where the holes are located for fixing the buckle. The inside is made out of a light brown leather, and feels comfortable. The strap is a bit though when new, but I feel like it will adapt to my wrist in time, and I feel like the materials used will be comfortable for using every day.

The only down-side of the watch is that is can be difficult to read the time, and for a watch that is obviously a pretty big inconvenience, but still I am very happy with my very first mechanical watch. It looks great, and its weight and size make it feel like something important is on my wrist.

Coco orchid

Coco orchid!Step one was a coco box with coco cookies. It was a great project, the cookies taste great and the coco box was a nice decoration. Still, I had the idea that we could improve the concept. After some mind-storming the coco orchid project was born. There are three parts. A coco that we use to hold the plant. A base to hold the coco, and a pretty mini orchid to provide some stunning beauty.

1. Cut/saw the top of the coco. Clean the inside and let the coco dry.
2. Smooth the edges of the coco, and smooth the outside and the inside with some sandpaper.
3. Lightly oil the inside of the coco, with a little bit of oil, to make the coco a bit more water resistant.
4. Make the base, cut a piece of plastic from a bottle, and wrap it with brown wool. The brown wool combines well with the color of the coconut.
5. Buy a mini orchid, and transplant it into the coco. Add some additional material to surround the base of the orchid to it does not move around, but there should still be lots of air/space around the roots.

Enjoy!

Mini orchid: 16 euro, coconut: 1.50 euro, water bottle: 1 euro, a ball of brown wool: 1 euro. Total: 19:50 euro
Enjoy a beautiful orchid every time you come home: Priceless!

Coco cookies

Coco cookies!Super easy, super tasty and super fun to make. What else could you ask for.

Ingredients:
– A package of cookies
– Condensed milk
– A package of coconut powder

Step 1: Throw all the cookies into the blender and mash them up into a fine or semi-fine powder.
Step 2: Mix the cookie powder with a part of the coconut powder and the condensed milk. Mix it all up, and then make small balls of the mix.
Step 3: Roll the balls through the coconut powder and lay them all out on a big plate. When you have all the balls place the plate in the refrigerator. After the balls have turned more firm in the fridge they are all done!

Extra (will take a lot more time preparing):
– Buy one or two coconuts to present your coconut cookies in style.

Use a saw to cut the coconut in half. Use only the part without the three marks, and try and give this part the ideal size you prefer. One of the three marks can be easily pushed in, push a hole in this mark to get all of the liquid out of the coconut. Once drained saw the coconut in half carefully. Take out the white insides with a spoon, and leave the coconut a white so it can dry. Now you need to make the inside and the edge smooth using sandpaper.
You can leave the outside a bit rougher if you like, but it will make the coconut more difficult to clean. I smoothed the top two centimeters of the outside, so it will be nice when using the coconut for drinking. In this case we will not drink from the coco; we will fill it up with the coco-balls we created. The perfect presentation.

Costs: Cheap package of cookies: 1.20, condensed milk: 2.50, coco powder: 2.00, two coconuts: 2.00. Total: 13.97.
Homemade coco-balls presented in a fantastic coco-cup: Priceless

Tide clock!

Tide clock!I bought the mechanism for a tidal clock. Basically a regular clock, but instead of showing the hours it will indicate the time it takes to reach high tide and low tide. We love visiting the La Laja beach with low tide, so this is a perfect ‘thing’ to place on the wall. I only bought the mechanism, so I will need to make the entire clock myself. I could have bought a finished product directly, but I did not like the versions that were available. I thought I could do better myself.

A tide clock is specifically designed to track the motion of the tides, which are influenced by the Moon’s position relative to the Earth. A tide clock typically completes one cycle every 12 hours and 25 minutes, reflecting the average time between two high tides or two low tides.

  • Get the tide mechanism. Note that there is only one dial! There is only one dial needed to indicate the water is going up or going down. There is no need for a dial indicating minutes or seconds.
  • Get a regular clock. Try and find a cheap one where you can more or less easily disconnect the plastic front panel, and disconnect the clock mechanism.
  • Dismantle the regular clock. Remove the mechanism and remove the backplate. We only need the outside frame and the plastic front cover.
  • Create a new backplate, and put it in the clock. The backplate has the term ‘High tide’ on top. Then to the right a countdown to low tide. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. At the bottom we have the text ‘Low tide’ and on the left of the backplate we have a countdown to high tide from the bottom to the top. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
  • Place the tide mechanism in the clock, and the tide clock is finished!

Costs: Mechanism 3.47, Clock: 8.50, Paper/decoration: 2.00. Total: 13.97.
Having a beautiful homemade tide clock on the wall: Priceless

Tamagotchi

Alan used to have a little crab as a pet. He kept it in his room in a nice crab environment with crab toys, water, plants, and some dirt so she could dig a nice hole. Sadly she kept getting older and older, and when we returned from our last trip she had passed away. To bad. Alan was in favor of getting a new pet, en we started to investigate. A walking stick seemed like a good idea, or maybe a new crab. Maybe even a hamster. The crab was nice but it spend most of its life inside its little hole in the ground. Only to come out to quickly get some food. The care for the little animal was also quickly allocated with Alan’s dad. That needed to change.

Searching for a new animal I also passed for a toy store. I hoped to find maybe a robotic fish, or something similar. Then I noticed the tamagotchi eggs. Maybe this could be interesting. The technology is from the last century, but if it’s fun, it’s fun. For Alan is was the perfect gift. He was so happy. His thoughts of any live animal disappeared immediately, as he started feeding and training the little digital animal. The animal also had a small game, and could be disciplined. The best part was that Alan could take it wherever he went. A great gift for sure.

The making of – Like and subscribe

Almost every YouTube video has a small part where the creator of the video asks the viewer to like the video and subscribe to the channel. Likes help other viewers to see if a video is worth watching. Subscribes help by generating lots of exposure for new videos. A channel with lots of subscribers will usually have lots of views for the videos they post. For amateurs it is really nice to see lots of people watching your content. For professionals a higher number of subscribers means a higher income.

Alex wanted to do something with this theme, so we made a ‘Like & subscribe’ stop motion. The idea was to add the short video at the end of a ‘normal’ video, just like the intro Alex used to start his videos. We would love to hear your opinion about this in the comments!

First we make the text. Every letter was drawn, colored en cut. Then we had to think of a nice idea for the short movie. Alex liked to do something with his skateboard, so we decided it would be nice to jump over the letters. Jumping over everything was a bit boring, so we added some variation. First a few jumps, then a dive, then a jump off the skateboard, then hitting some letters, and finally just ignoring the letters. Just let them come.

The story is really quite simple, yet at the same time it is personal, recognizable and a very powerful story. I helped Alex a bit by adding a bit of direction and evolution into the story. A young boy, avoiding confrontation, avoiding problems, and slowly gaining confidence. Learning on the go, while life goes on. Then when he eventually feels his knowledge is enough the tables are turned. First he simply repels the things that threat him and finally he has gained so much confidence that the can just ignore the threats. He learned that was he thought was a threat (or something dangerous) was really just an illusion, and that he can trust in himself.

In reality it is a story that applies to all of us. We start out fearing the unknown. Slowly we lose our fears and get to know yourself, and with this knowledge of yourself comes a tremendous power, where the faith you have in yourself can at times move mountains and have a giant impact on the world around you.

Making the movie took quite some effort. A stop motion is created by taking lots of pictures, and pasting them together into a movie. Alex was lying on the floor for over an hour, while me moved the letters, the skateboard, and Alex around. Then we took a picture, and went on to the next frame. In total we had almost 100 pictures, which was good for a short 18 seconds movie.

With a zoom at the end, and a fade to black we should get a nice ending of around 20 seconds. After adding some ‘special effects’ (by editing the almost 100 images one by one!) we got a really nice sequence.

All our efforts resulted in something quite nice! We think it turned out pretty good. What do you think? Do you think it is a good video to include in our YouTube content? Please leave any ideas/tips/suggestions/criticism in the comments below!

Lessons learned:
– We could use some music with the video, but finding a nice short piece is difficult, and it could result in copyright claims if not done correctly.
– Alex’ position was quite uncomfortable. Lying on the ground for the entire time. Next time we can see if there are alternatives, so the position of his head will look more natural.

Online friends / Astroturfing

a big ear with lots of people whispering in itMore and more time is spend online. Your social circles are formed online with people that feel similar to yourself. Where our social circles used to be centered around the town or city where you live, right now they can be everywhere. The same way that your physical friends can influence you, you can now also be influenced by the options and views of your online friends. Friends that you might have never met, but with whom you can spend lots of time.

Imagine a very near future where your online friends might all think siilar to you. A bit group of similarly minded people. All individuals that reinforce your thinking in a certain manner. Maybe 10 good friends, and maybe 20 more people who also think in a similar way. Maybe such a big group of people can influence you much more that you would think possible. Each of the persons you know has his or her own personality, which you get to know and trust.

Imagine all these friends are not as you would think. All of them are uniquely generated by an AI. In the blink of an eye there can be tens or hundreds of people who all think the same as you, and who will all try and navigate your thoughts to a desired outcome.

Maybe suddenly some of them will tell you about their experience with a new product, using the AI’s for some kind of advertisement. Or worse, your ‘friends’ influence your political opinion. This has already happened, where less powerful AI was used to influence groups of people and to redirect their thoughts and actions to achieve a certain goal. Now, with AI getting more and more accessible, the big danger is an abuse so personal it will be very hard to resist. You will not even know it is taking place.

If can even be done with less effort. Simply train an AI on how you interact with your environment. Let it learn how your friends and contacts behave, and at the right moment simply inject some additional conversation. Almost impossible to trace.

Even if this technology is used for good, avoid radical opinions, avoid unwanted behaviour, in the end the person that controls the AI controls the emotions and thoughts of lots and lots of people. A very dangerous future we are entering.

Lets just ask an AI itself

Would it be possible for an AI to generate a number of different identities all aimed at trying to influence someone to get them to buy a certain product?
Yes, it is possible for an AI to generate multiple identities to influence someone to buy a certain product. This is known as astroturfing, which involves creating fake identities or groups to simulate grassroots support for a particular cause or product.

The number of identities needed would depend on various factors such as the size of the target audience, the level of influence required, and the resources available for the astroturfing campaign. It’s difficult to provide a specific number without knowing more details about the specific situation.

However, it’s worth noting that astroturfing is generally considered unethical and can damage the reputation of both the product and the company behind it. Therefore, it’s important to approach marketing and advertising ethically and t