Tuesday 30 June 2020

THIS is how you disrupt. GORDON LAING: GREAT BRITISH YOUTUBERS with Neil Mossey 002



Gordon Laing has 160k subscribers and incredibly been uploading to YouTube since 2006.
I'm a Development Producer helping as many people as possible get ideas out of their heads to make more people happy.
I created GREAT BRITISH YOUTUBERS to help you get started and keep going with your YouTube channel.

THIS is how you disrupt. GORDON LAING: GREAT BRITISH YOUTUBERS with Neil Mossey 002



This is part 2 of this episode, PART 1 IS HERE: https://youtu.be/WVwvyVI6YBk
0:00 Great British YouTubers podcast with Neil Mossey and Gordon Laing from CameraLabs.
0:48 Gordon Laing was one of the first channels to review products, let alone cameras.
1:28 How to get more YouTube views and revenue.
3:11 Why start a YouTube photography channel?
4:05 Why YouTube starting in 2006 was completely revolutionary.
6:18 How to cope with competition on YouTube.
8:53 Coming up on the next episode of Great British YouTubers podcast.

GREAT BRITISH YOUTUBERS | YOUTUBE TIPS AND TRICKS: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtZM4-pHDwPmfZSonvf366y7rmJLV5dFG


TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)
If you wanted to post a video, it was going to cost you tens of thousands of pounds or dollars and if you're-- who's gonna pay that?!
Not even a corporation is gonna pay that, and then in 2006 YouTube comes along and says "oh we'll we'll host your videos free of charge."
It was completely revolutionary.
Completely revolutionary as a content creator to suddenly have a platform which let you publish videos and embed them on your own web pages if you wanted, free of charge.

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

How did you know that your channel is a thing?

It was a-- it was a thing because no one else had that thing when I started.

I started on YouTube in 2006 and was one of the first channels to review anything let alone cameras.

Today, reviews are absolutely everywhere and it's great because it's caused-- it forces everyone to raise their game.

It can be very disheartening and demoralizing big-- especially if you're reviewing something that's popular, because everyone else will be reviewing it and you're going to be trying to get attention for something about a thousand other people - probably more than a thousand other people, who have got-- a lot of them all have way bigger followings than you may have, or we may have, and you're trying to compete against these people which is very hard.

Which is again - just before I answer your question Neil, top tip number two:
Talk about stuff that no one else is talking about.

Some of my most successful reviews and videos have not been because they were any good, or useful or incisive, it's simply because no one else had reviewed them.
And you can't guess what that's gonna be.

You know a new camera comes out and you're like "is everyone going to do this" because time is of the essence.
You've got to be one of the first as well.

So you don't know if anyone else is doing it, but typically when I attend like a camera launch as a journalist, there's rarely just one piece of news or one product.
There's typically lots of different things.

There'll be the one main product though, that's the thing which you came along for and that's the thing which everyone's going to be talking about - but there'll be some crappy accessory that you'll be like "yeah whatever".

Film it.

Talk about it.

Review it, because no one else will and you could end up getting way more views and revenue based on that than the main thing which you're invited for.

So the unfortunate thing is to cover everything - but how did I know I had become a channel?
It's because again when I started no one else was doing this, so when I put out a review it kind of... it was such a refreshing... it was such a nice world to be part of because there was no competition.

So everything you did, did really well because there was nothing else!

There were no other camera reviews.
You want a review of the Canon whatever?
"Oh it's that bald British guy again" because no one else has done it, so let's listen to him and look at his terrible technique.
Sorry again to interrupt, but you started in 2009...
Six.
Oh sorry 2006.
Yeah.

So did you know quite early in the late noughties then that this is a thing that actually is gonna be quite big.
No not at all.

I'll tell you why I started doing it, so I come from written well-- I have done some broadcast or TV or radio, but most of what I do is written.
So when you're writing a review or something you have to describe it with words right?
And if you're paid by the word which are-- anyway forget that!

You've got to describe how something looks.
How something moves.
How something sounds.

And when you're reviewing a camera and you want to describe in words how the lens extends... the kind of noise it makes... when it extends or zooms... the clicking sound it makes for some reason under certain circumstances...

It's really difficult to write that in a sensible way.
The best way of doing it is to point a camera and it film it and say "Look, look this is what it does. Listen, this is what it sounds like."

But here's the rub.

I've been publishing on the internet since the late 90s and back then in web 1.0 video was out of reach for pretty much everyone: even major corporations.

It was so expensive to serve video because you would have web hosting for your webpages but then you need separate hosting for audio or video, and they would charge you per view, and it was like something stupid like a pound per view or something right?
And the quality was rubbish as well.

So if you wanted to post a video it was going to cost you tens of thousands of pounds or dollars, and if you're-- who's gonna pay that?!
Not even a corporation is gonna pay that.
And then in 2006 YouTube comes along and says "Oh we will host your videos, free of charge."

It was completely revolutionary.

Completely revolutionary as a content creator to suddenly have a platform which let you publish videos and embed them on your own web pages if you wanted, free of charge.

And then shortly after that they allowed you to monetize it.
Now as anyone knows who tries to monetize on YouTube you don't get paid a lot, but you can see that it's scalable, and if you get enough views, it can actually bring in some money.

So it was you know a truly revolutionary platform back then, but so I got into it as a way - because it was the most affordable way to demonstrate something on video, and I had no intention of... it wasn't in my mind to see it as a platform which would grow by itself and where people would go to YouTube.
I thought people would use it the way I was using it, which is to host video that you then put on another page, and people would view it there - and I think they did initially with my content.

And in the meantime while you're doing that, you're getting all these comments on this other platform - this YouTube platform - you're like "who are these people" that were actually watching on YouTube.

So once that started to come in, and once you were getting really massive views at the time because there was no alternative - that's when I thought "this is a thing" and I should actually produce content specifically for YouTube and for people who are consuming on YouTube.
What year roughly was that?
I would say a couple years in.

This was approximately at the time that other people really began to catch on, and suddenly I was getting-- I went from having no competition to loads of competition, and it was... it was really hard for me because imagine-- (LAUGHS) imagine thinking you're the most popular person on the block, but sadly is actually only because you're the only person on the block.

And these other people were coming along who were better in every way.

They were more entertaining, they were way better presenters.
Some of them... "Grrrr!"... I thought "well the one thing I've got is experience and technical knowledge" but people come along with that as well, and people most crucially of all - and this is how you disrupt it as a creator - people who are coming at it, not with a journalistic perspective you know, like sometimes I think I should put on a dinner suit and do everything like the early days of the BBC and "speak in a voice like this."
You know, maybe we should go back to that?

But no!

These other people come along saying "I have no idea how to present this guys but here it is!"
And you'd look at it and you go "what's this rubbish" and then you'd look at the views, you'd be like "crikey, people really like this!" and actually I like it too because it's entertaining and it's fun and it's a bit like when you...

I encourage anybody to do a quick experiment which is to play any episode of the first season of Friends where everyone speaks in a kind of monotone voice and they deliver like this.

Go forward a few seasons and everyone's up and down they're doing comedy voices...
"I'm now speaking like this!"
When did that happen?!

And the same thing happened with YouTube, except it took ages for me to catch up.
For years, up until-- like about only a couple of weeks ago, I was still speaking "like this"
"Hello."

I didn't even say hello!
No, it was worse.

I would actually read out the URL.
I think I actually said "Hello I'm Gordon Laing. Editor of HTTP - colon - forward slash - forward slash - dot..."
And if you still have viewer retention after that, you've nailed it.
They love you.

But of course they all go "who's this guy?" compared to the guy who goes:
"Hi guys! I'm going to be looking at the new whatever..."
Who would you prefer to watch?

And that's what happened and I got really disheartened because everyone started watching them.

My views went from literally-- everything I posted got hundreds of thousands of views. Half a million views was not unusual for me.

Now... half a million views? I've only had like one video in the past two years that has had that number of views and that's the long exposure tutorial, because it did everything right.

Everything else - to these days I'm delighted with ten, twenty thousand views because there's so much competition.

And there's more of my chats with Gordon Laing from Cameralabs...
And post this amazing video that you put in so much work into.

You try so hard, and you tick all the boxes this-- They're, you know your subscriber base is gonna love this. It's perfect. It's you! It's the definition of your channel and you post it.
But what if YouTube is punishing you for the previous deviation and that video doesn't do well - and I have seen that.
Is it because they are punishing you or is it because it just coincidentally didn't do very well.
And I don't know - but again it does kind of put you off.
It's like the day you, you know, you're in the school yard and you stand there you say "Hey everyone, why are we doing this?!" - WHACK! - and then you're like "I'm not gonna stick my head up again in that environment!"

And please hit the subscribe button if you want to see more Great British YouTubers.
There's a playlist and a podcast. All the details and links are in the description.
I'm Neil Mossey and I'll see you on the very next episode of Great British YouTubers.
[Music]

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I hate unboxings. GORDON LAING: GREAT BRITISH YOUTUBERS with Neil Mossey 001


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Sunday 28 June 2020

I hate unboxings. GORDON LAING: GREAT BRITISH YOUTUBERS with Neil Mossey 001



Gordon Laing has 160k subscribers and incredibly, uploading to YouTube since 2006.
I'm a Development Producer helping as many people as possible get ideas out of their heads and into action, to make more people happy.
I created GREAT BRITISH YOUTUBERS to help you get started and keep going with your YouTube channel.

I hate unboxings. GORDON LAING: GREAT BRITISH YOUTUBERS with Neil Mossey 001



0:00 Great British YouTubers podcast with Neil Mossey and Gordon Laing from CameraLabs
1:25 What is Gordon Laing's all time favourite video on his channel?
5:35 Why Long Exposure Photography tutorial is Gordon Laing's most successful video.
7:25 Why a good title and thumbnail is essential on YouTube.
8:30 How the YouTube algorithm encourages Creators.
9:14 Coming up on the next episode of Great British YouTubers.

TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

Are there things Gordon Laing, that other YouTubers do that you don't think that you would ever, or you tend not to do?
Unboxing.
First of all as a word, I hate that word.
Unboxing. How can you-- that's like... I, now tell you what this goes back to that song "Unbreak My Heart" which at the time, I thought that's not even a word.
How do you mean unbreak my heart, how about... "make me feel better"... "cheer me up please"?
Unbreak my heart?
Unbox my camera!
[Music]

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

I've got a little reassuring... yep... one two one... that's probably how every episode will start: someone's chest shot and us going "hello testing?"
I've got this idea for this series called Great British YouTubers.
The best I've got for a logo at the moment is kind of a frankenstein bolting together of the YouTube logo and the Union Jack, so I both infringe copyright and enrage a nation.
Job done.

But the first person that I wanted to talk to was you...
...wasn't available, so you came to me!
Never! I feel that we have explained each other on another video that I've made, one of my favourite videos on my channel.
I'll run a clip now and there's a link in the description to it but before we get into the chat can I just ask you what is your all-time favourite video that you've made on your channel Gordon Laing?
My all-time favorite, and this is this is the problem that all creators have is that everyone wants you to be pigeonholed, and then... and we'll talk about this I'm sure later on, but in the same way that Jamie Oliver probably wouldn't be that successful if he suddenly did a video reviewing a car or doing, uh, gardening or something like that...

People know you for one thing, and if you deviate from that woe betide, woe betide, the algorithm will punish you and your video will underperform horrifically and you'll be put off... you will be beaten into submission to continue doing what you were put on this earth to do, which is what you initially uh defined yourself as, which for me was a camera reviewer.
And it's amazing how specific people can get because even though we're talking about hybrid cameras now, if I go off and review a microphone?

"Nope, too far off..."
So I'm going to choose as one of my favourite, uh videos, my first attempt at actually doing a vlog, which was eight years ago in to... no, no, nine years ago, 2011, 2012 time frame.

I went on a holiday from where I lived at the time in New Zealand for three weeks, a three week family holiday that ended up taking a year and a half!
And we were location independent for a year and a half, which is just a fancy way of saying you're homeless, and you're spending the money that you would have spent on rent or a mortgage on hotels - and surprisingly it's actually similar when you're not paying utility bills, insurance on the car that you don't have...

All of these things really add up and you could spend that in a different way and I tried to make a series of vlogs about it that... of course I thought were revolutionary and interesting because I was doing something quite different, and people saying "hey!"

In fact I think you Neil, I think you actually said to me you should make a video about that!
So I started making videos about them...
Uh-oh!

They're really rough because I was talking about the cameras I was using on this trip but I only had one main camera, and I wanted to show that camera.
So if I want to show my proper camera, on camera, what am I filming with?
And I scrabbled around and my second best camera was an ipad.

An ipad 2! Generation 2, circa 2011, and if you've ever tried to film video with that, it crops so massively that you have to position it so far away, that I was literally filming with an ipad balanced against walls in various cities around the world, about four metres away from me right?

Somebody tried to pick it up and walk off with it,
With the ipad or the camera?
Yeah yeah yeah because it was--
It's just a free ipad!

I'm being a crazy guy on the street going "hey everyone the reason that I'm doing this..." and everyone's like you know "whatever" and then, then they'll walk past then because of course you're drawing attention to yourself, so they're looking, looking at what you're doing, and then they notice this ipad just sat metres away from anyone, and they would as anybody in their right mind would think...

"Well, someone's obviously left it and doesn't want it anymore"
Even though it's kind of, flashing tally light on it, and of course it was so far away the audio would have been rubbish so I was using a zoom portable, uh sound recorder, which was quite close.

The sound quality on these are quite good, but anyway I thought these were quite fun videos and it was my attempt at vlogging which eight years ago was, you know, not that common a thing uh but of course no one watched them because it wasn't a pure camera review.

So those were probably my favourite videos that I did - we'll put the link to those in the description and we will run some footage while you're speaking there.
Oh make sure you use the footage of me in Morocco with camels going by behind me - that's that's quite fun.
Morocco?

Yeah because we we visited Morocco and uh camped out in the Sahara Desert as you do, which i highly recommend doing.
Oh there you are! You're wearing, you're wearing a thing!

Yeah thing, a thing. That's that's the technical term of the privileged white man.
"He's wearing a foreign thing! But it's okay because he's one of us!"
Oh brilliant.
Yeah those were fun.

One of the other favorite videos of mine which is actually one of my most successful videos which automatically makes it one of my favorites, was a tutorial that I filmed.

Photography tutorial of course. Try and do a tutorial on anything else, you're finished - and this was about long exposure photography and a lot of people when they go on YouTube or other social networks, they want the secrets.

They want to know the top tips.

How are you going to succeed at something, and it's actually pretty obvious what you need to do, it's just that very few of us do it, and I rarely do it, but I did it in this one which is... you do everything right.

And that sounds glib but here's what you do.

You plan it.

You plan very carefully what you want to say and where you want to say it.

You don't skimp on things like locations.

I've done tutorials that I thought were great, but it was just me sat on this sofa - didn't really engage with people.
This one, because if you're doing a tutorial on "how to run" you don't do it from your sofa, you go out and you run.

If you want to do a tutorial about cooking - again you don't do it for yourself, you do it from your kitchen.
And when you set up that shot in your kitchen, you realise that your kitchen's a mess, and that you have to tidy up and frame it carefully.

And if I'm doing a tutorial about long exposure landscape photography, I've got to be out there doing it.
So even though it was awkward and difficult, I did it, and guess what?

It, it came across really well and I cut away to me on the sofa when I wanted to add additional details that I'd forgotten in the, uh, on the location, and of course that made it more interesting switching between two locations.

I also filmed it very carefully.
I filmed in the best quality that I could.

I edited it in the best quality that i could, and then, and perhaps more important than anything else, it has a decent thumbnail.
And that is what more than anything else causes people to open and play a video on YouTube, is decent thumbnails.
And as someone who likes to think that their content is okay and that you're above these things, you're not. It doesn't work.

You could, you could produce the best video of all and if it's got a rubbish thumbnail and a terrible title no one is ever gonna play it.
However, conversely, and this is what frustrates me about YouTube - the best thumbnail and best title will guarantee opening even if the content is rubbish.

Completely.

And of course we call that clickbait don't we, but it works, and a good thumbnail game is, is critical - and I haven't mastered it, but I was very lucky to have a picture that I took that worked really well with the text I wanted to use, and it's very easy to see in a very small scale because a lot of people are looking on mobile devices.

So I lucked out on the thumbnail, and that really helped, but basically it was a good video.
That's the thing, it's a good video that I was proud of and guess what, it did- it did all right.
That's so frustrating isn't it?

I suppose it's the, the story of art since the dawn of time, is that once you've, you've created - so that is your Bohemian Rhapsody, that is your November Rain, and now you've got to make another one! And it's crushing!
Well the algorithm does some naughty things as well.
Well we don't know what the algorithm does.

We can be paranoid about it and suspicious and we can guess at the things that it does, but one of the things I think it does do is encourage you from time to time.
Especially new creators who, maybe you haven't had a lot of luck yet.
At some point, for everyone, one of your videos will do really well.
Really well.

Way better than the others.

In a way, it has "gone viral".

Not so viral that you can retire on it or anything like that, but it does comfortably better.
Maybe not ten times, but a hundred times better than one of your normal videos.
You're like "what on earth did I do there?"

But wow, the potential - the potential!
And there's more of my chats with Gordon Laing from CameraLabs.
If you wanted to post a video it was going to cost you tens of thousands of pounds or dollars.

And if you-- who's gonna pay that?!
Not even a corporation's gonna pay that.
And then in 2006 YouTube comes along and says oh we'll we'll host your videos free of charge.

It was completely revolutionary.
Completely revolutionary as a content creator to suddenly have a platform which let you publish videos, and embed them on your own web pages if you wanted free of charge.

And please hit the subscribe button if you want to see more Great British YouTubers, There's a playlist and a podcast: all the details and links are in the description.
I'm Neil Mossey, and I'll see you on the very next episode of Great British YouTubers.

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My VAILLANT BOILER REMOTE CONTROL instructions manual - read out in full


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Thursday 25 June 2020

My VAILLANT BOILER REMOTE CONTROL instructions manual - read out in full

vaillant ecofit pure remote control display

Hello - I'm trying out a new thing every day.
Today I want to MASTER my Vaillant boiler remote control...
so I'm reading out every single page of my Vailant boiler remote control instructions manual!

I'm trying out each chapter on the remote control timer itself - the Valliant VRT 350f controller for our Vaillant Ecofit Pure boiler.
For a TightwadDad, KNOWLEDGE IS POWER! (Or "Not using power")

My VAILLANT BOILER REMOTE CONTROL instructions manual - read out in full



Here are the chapters from the manual, just click on the times below to jump directly to the "How To" in the manual...

1:50 Operating instructions manual for Vaillant VRT 350f remote control for EcoFit Pure boiler
2:35 How to navigate around the remote control screen - what does the sun and moon icon logos mean? What do the buttons do?
11:15 Reading the system status
13:55 Setting Desired Temperatures - What does Desired Temperature mean? Find out here!
15:20 Hot water generation settings
16:00 Setting timer programmes. How to set the timer program on a Vaillant Boiler remote control.
20:20 What does Days Away From Home Scheduling mean?
22:15 Setting timer programmes: Days away from home scheduling
23:20 Setting the language - how to change the language on a Vaillant boiler remote control unit
24:10 Setting the date: How to change the date on a Vaillant remote control
24:30 Setting the time: How to change the time on a Vaillant combi boiler remote control
How to set the time after the clocks go back or forward
25:30 Setting the display contrast on the remote control
26:00 Setting the offset room temperature.
26:55 Changing the heating circuit name. How to change the name from HEATING1 to something else and rename it.
27:20 Reset to factory settings. How to factory reset the Vaillant boiler Remote control
28:20 Operating modes for the heating circuit -automatic mode, summer mode, comfort mode, setback mode
28:40 Automatic mode
29:05 Summer mode
29:25 Comfort mode
29:45 Set-back mode
30:15 System off mode: How to turn the Vaillant boiler system off
30:30 Modes for hot water production
32:40 Cylinder Boost
33:15 Party Function Mode
34:35 1 Day Away From Home Mode - for when you're away from home for one day
35:40 Service Message: What does Service Heat Generator 1 mean with a spanner logo or icon
36:00 Fault Message: Heat Generator 1 fault
37:05 Changing batteries: How to change the batteries on a Vaillant Boiler remote control unit for an EcoFit Pure combi boiler - AA batteries

Previous post...
How to fix broken glass shower door... will it stay up?


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Tuesday 23 June 2020

How to fix broken glass shower door... will it stay up?



Our curved glass shower door fell off and I had no idea how to glue it back into the frame. I'm trying out one new thing every day, and this is today's... How to glue a glass shower door back into the metal frame.

This is the sealant I bought - caulking adhesive from Amazon.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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How to fix broken glass shower door... will it stay up?



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)
[Music]
Hello welcome back to the happy Hut, I'm Neil.
Usually I'm a tightwad dad trying to be happy with what we've already got like those words on the screen say - but we're in the middle of the great shutdown of 2020, so I'm trying to do something new everyday that I haven't done before.

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

And today is great because I get to combine the two of those.
I'm gonna try and fix this - it's a shower door - it fell off
The global lockdown is taking its toll on our house

I don't think we wash ourselves enough to clap out an entire glass shower door, but we have, and our house is like "Nope! You've been here plenty long. You need to spend some cash."

So I'm gonna try and put this back together again
I'm gonna show you how I fix or fit the glass shower door - curved one - back onto the metal frame, and how to glue it back on

I'm gonna do it in real time
This will either be a really good how-to, or it will be a lesson from history for how not to do it.
So the first thing I'm gonna do is clean it
It's absolutely not an essential step and you can probably guess this isn't my idea.
Basically got everything from under the kitchen cupboard to knock off about five years worth of scum
[Music]

It's just sort of showing how bad it is on the other side now
[Music]

Let's go back now to the scene of the crime
Hello this is our bathroom, welcome
I don't know what is going on with those.

They're mine.
This is the collapse house shower frame that I'm going to glue the door back on - I think I better pull the camera a bit closer
It's got some bits of the glue inside

There's a groove that the glass goes into and the glue seems to sit inside and they've their bits left they obviously didn't stay on the glass when it fell out was a frame and it's really manky at the bottom
look at this

What I'm going to do to start with - is use this putty knife or a wallpaper scraper purposes bring you a bit closer it's actually really hard to do this
[Music]

Now the house is falling apart very very slowly
I can usually hide most of that from the family but this one is just a little bit too obvious
It's like all home improvement and DIY is it's just hiding stuff, but my house is giving me away one room at a time.

I can't keep up!
And now it's the part that I won't lie to you - it's the bit that scares me the most
The glue gun bit.

This is the glue that I'm using it's called Stixall that's got some kind of good pun action going there.
"Stixall extreme power!"

In the article on this ehow article I'm following, it calls it caulking adhesive, and if you put caulking adhesive into Amazon, you should get hundreds and hundreds of tubes that look like this
This sort of looks like it does the job

It says it's strong but what sold it for me it was this graphic here "even sticks under water" - so surely this, this has to be the one

I'll put the link in the description but you might want to do your own independent research rather than my just looking for the one with the coolest graphics
I think I could have bought this from a pound shop but I've tried to reassure myself by spending five times that six times that, so this should do the job

First task is, I've got to get into the thing
So I've gotta cut it open

Obviously the best place to do this is on the side of your plastic bath
I love how American and Canadian vloggers they've got these like really cool knives they just whip out at a moment's notice - just to open some amazon parcel - and here I am chiseling away with some bent old Stanley knife

Whoa there you go - that's open - so now I can screw it up - and I'm lucky enough to have a caulking gun
I could have gone for white but the black colour look more you know powerful

Also it won't show up the mold like all the other white sealant that I've put up in here over the years
I've got a second camera here, now the joy of this is that I want to put enough into the metal frame to hold it but not too much glue to ooze out and go all over the door, but I guess I can wipe that off so I might put more than, than not

No one could be an expert this
Surely this is only a job that you do once in your life

It's gonna really ooze out, and I'll just clean it afterwards I guess, but I'm sort of filling up the gap by about a third if you think of it like a trench - so filling it up a third of a way
The hardest part is just squeezing it out it's a bit tougher than I thought because it's such a small hole on the end of the caulking adhesive tube

I've now cut the nozzle down a bit so that the hole is a bit wider and it's so much more satisfying
Don't know if I can capture this on camera but just with one squeeze doing it one-handed holding the camera - It's not a good idea is it

Bizarrely it doesn't look like it's enough.
The other problem we've got is there's a lot of play within the groove, so that the the glass door can move around a lot

I don't think it's gonna hold
I don't think there's enough glue in there, so I'm gonna put a load more in the top

Yes it's a complete mess but at least I know its enough glue in there to hold the door
I think I'm gonna have to just stay here for 10 minutes - just gonna listen to one of my favourite podcasts while I wait

It's Shelby Church's Millennial Life Crisis
[SHELBY CHURCH PODCAST PLAYS]

Been standing here for an hour - an hour - so wanna let go
It's like the end of The Italian Job

Because I put loads of glue - I can't say the word adhesive - adhesive - because I put so much adhesive into the the top... that's a good move... but it obviously takes a lot longer to dry
I'm just gonna leave it now because I think me holding it actually wobbles it, and that probably isn't helping the sticking process

I've got a towel wedged under on the far side just to give it that extra give
This is what it looks like two days later - and I'm really pleased that the shower door is fixed!
It is completely solid and the glue is completely cured, so all I need to do now is to start scraping the excess off

If I'm probably doing it again, I would probably work out a way somehow to put some masking tape on?
And I don't know, work out the depth of the frame so that I could masking tape off the rest of it - but I think even then I'd have to still be scraping

I'm just really pleased that I've got a door back on and now we haven't got all the shower water going into the floor causing yet another building problem for me to sort out
And somehow, I managed to get it on my face as well
I hope this video helps - you could live vicariously through me

If the door stays up I'll keep it in the description

If it falls down or if I have any problems with this I'll put it in the description and I'll make another video about how I fix it again but for now the glass door is standing

Why not leave a comment say hi or hit the thumbs up button and help someone else with a curved glass shower door and if you're feeling even kinder why not hit the subscribe button I'm trying to get to 10,000 subscribers I don't think I'll ever get there but I'll be continuing to make this quality content and thanks for watching good luck with your shower door!

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How to stop procrastinating... Neil Mossey | Nanochunk is your FRIEND! Make Your Stuff Now


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Sunday 21 June 2020

How to stop procrastinating... Neil Mossey | Nanochunk is your FRIEND! Make Your Stuff Now



Got something that you really truly want to do, but just haven't started on it yet?
This is hands down the best way to stop procrastinating...
It's so good, that I hold back from using it because I know that when I start it won't stop until it's finished.

I call it Experimental Nano-Chunking.
We've all tried breaking things down to become simpler tasks.
But this involves breaking it down to the tiniest, smallest possible task.
And combining it with treating it like an experiment.

I walk you through the system, and filmed myself trying it out in real time on a few tasks I've been putting off. Experimental Nano-Chunking is so powerful, I ended up knocking all three out of the park having been knocking them back for months.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
AWAKEN THE GIANT WITHIN by Tony Robbins (Amazon US) https://amzn.to/2zDGOEj
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THE WAR OF ART by Steven Pressfield (Amazon US) https://amzn.to/3gJ5c8e
(Amazon UK) https://amzn.to/36LJlZ2

HOW TO ENGRAVE A MACBOOK PRO



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

Hello I'm Neil Mossey, welcome back to the Happy Hut
I am a development producer: I help other people like creators and performers and executives to get ideas out of their heads to make people laugh. Most of the time intentionally!
I have done it a very long time - look, back when I even had hair... but I've got two secrets that I want to share with you in this video.

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

The first secret is that I put off making stuff.
I am really good at putting stuff off - and that's me being modest
I think... no, I know that I am one of the leading procrastinators in Britain today
I'm putting off stuff right now even while I'm talking to you.
Look at this wall

Look how much I'm putting off right now. That's all me!
So for this procrastination buster video you are in really good hands
My second secret is this: I think I have got the world's best technique for how to stop procrastinating
It's so good that I procrastinate from using it.

That if I even start using it, I always follow through with what I want to do - which is the thing that I'm putting off
I call it experimental Nano-chunking

[DEEP VOICE:] NANO-CHUNK!
See, making that jingle meant that I could put off making this video just a little bit longer - you know make the process just a little bit more complicated

Leave a comment below, I'd love to know how your brain sabotages you
I'm going to walk you through experimental Nano-chunking and it's come from me putting together two ways to stop procrastinating

The first came from this guy, Tony Robbins - I'll put a link down below in the description but in here - it's a thick book - he proposes an idea called chunking, which is all about breaking down a big task down into manageable chunks

So, writing a book might be a thing that you want to do today but that is too big and overwhelming so that you'll always put it off
He proposes chunking which is breaking it down into chunks like... write a chapter of a book or do some research

But even with that, I ended up with just lists of tasks
I carry these around with me is like a big stream of guilt
I call it a permafrost of tasks because I can't chisel away at it
To get around this I took chunking to an extreme and I combined it with two other ideas to create experimental Nano-chunking

[DEEP VOICE:] NANO-CHUNK!
And I'm gonna show you how it works
It all started with this over here

This is a hook that I use to hang up my bag
It's a really important thing because I put my equipment in here and take it home each night - and it was really annoying me that it was on the floor

For whatever reason I wasn't putting up this hook and this is the actual list where I created the technique of experimental nano-chunking
I wish I could remember who said it
It's a really beautiful single line: "Treat everything like it's an experiment"
I'll say it again "treat everything as an experiment".

The problem we have is that we want things to be perfect and we want the outcome to be ideal
That just stops us from from doing stuff

We put up these blocks to protect ourselves because if we do something and it doesn't come out right, deep down we feel like our life is under threat - even though it's not

It's a thing called the resistance

This is a brilliant book as well - The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Again I'll put the link below but he described the resistance which is this thing within us that stops us from doing the stuff that we really want to do and the great thing with the experimental nano-chunking is that it gets you around the resistance, because you are just treating everything like it's an experiment

It means that you can just try stuff out
And this is what I tried out.

I wrote down "what if I have my pad here and write out every what if as it occurs"
Well I did that task already so I could instantly cross it off
Then I wrote out "what if I were to put off wormmate until after the next what if?"

Now that was the online distraction of the day and that actually made me laugh and I think that is the secret of experimental nano-chunking, that you've got to write down these chunks in ways that are so stupidly small that it makes you laugh - actually makes you laugh out loud

But I realised that I had chunked down the task of putting up this hook for my bag down to the tiniest possible chunk, and so I'd given birth to the Nano-chunk

[DEEP VOICE:] NANO-CHUNK!
Which meant that I could now do the next tiniest possible nano-chunk
What if I were to hold my bag up to the wall to see where a hook might go?
And I did that and I hadn't died so I could cross it off the pad

I realised with experimental nanochunking that you have to do the smallest possible task and not cross it out and move on with your life until you've done it
I'd already done more about this hook in two minutes than I had in two months

What if I get a pencil?
I couldn't move on until I had got a pencil

What if - and I love that I wrote the next one with the pencil - what if I mark the midpoint with the bag (I might have to OCD a tape measure)
Now that's good. I could already see how I would over complicate this nano task and I preempted it and actually wrote it out

What if I go to the garage and fetch the drill box and bits?
Now here's how procrastination works. Already, because I'm making progress, my mind is flipping out all over the place and I'm throwing in all these other ideas and tasks so I just wrote it out as the next line - as the next Nano chunked task

What if I text Rob to tell him about JMcH or call.
That has absolutely nothing to do with me putting up a hook for my bag on the wall
I wrote it down and I did it and then I crossed it off the list
It's really important not to write more than one nano chunk at a time
The really dangerous thing with this system is that you can instantly think of lots and lots of little tasks and write them all down to work through, but as soon as you get more than one task it falls apart every time

You have to do it one line at a time

What if I mark the thing on the wall?
Now here the list ends and goes onto other tasks because I actually carried on and put the hook out
This system of experimental Nano chunking works

It's just a what if
It's not an order or a task

The other thing I found is that it helps to write the What If? as a process and not an outcome
So the What If is about doing something instead of how it turns out, and I'll show you that on these two examples

I managed to film myself back in January trying to get over making my video about a head shaver, and again last week when I made my DIY T-shirt face mask video
For both of those I really wanted to make the videos, but everything in my brain - the resistance - was telling me don't do it

You probably do this too
Leave me a message below if you do

It's either "the head shaver video is going to be rubbish so I don't want to start it yet" or the other extreme, "the DIY face mask video is really good so I don't want to start it yet and mess it up"
That's chronic procrastination

So let's see how I use experimental Nano chunking to do the things that I want to do
Okay here's a-- ahh, there you are!
This is a really good example

I've been putting off making a video about a new head shaver and I really want to make it because it's really difficult finding a good head shaver and there's some things that I think I want to say about what - is it called elective baldness?
I don't know - I'm kidding myself because I'm bald but I also shave my head
There's something funny in that
I want to explore that
I've got the system here

I'm just starting to do the system so why don't I turn the camera on and and record the process of using the Nano chunking experiment to actually crack a creative project that I want to make and put out into the world
So here's the list right here, but the first thing I wrote was "what if I go and get the key and plug in the Hut"

Yeah there wasn't any power on so I've plugged in the hut, so I've got power now
What if I get all the gear I can
So did that and I crossed it off and I'm writing these one at a time but I've just skipped ahead with this one
What if I warm up the hut to more than 13 degrees centigrade - so I've got the fan going

You can probably hear that
What if I get the tripod
Well I can do that now
There. Got the tripod
So now I cross that off the list
So what would the next one be

The next one would be "what if I put up the tripod" because I've got an idea for this video to have two cameras and I've got my setup here, so that I'll put one camera - well there goes the tripod - I put one camera there and then I can put this tripod up with these arms to get a second camera looking down

Even if it's a rubbish video and I think this is gonna be a terrible video - it's worth me doing this to have a new system for shooting two camera videos

My videos might be a little bit better, and I think that's why we stop doing these things because we know we're gonna get a little bit better at something
Anyway let's put the tripod up

So it's a bit difficult to do this one-handed
Now I've got my setup done I'll take a look at the temperature over here
It's now gone above something where I'll freeze my toes off so I can turn the heater off now and even better I can cross that to do item off my Nano chunk list

So I'm now up to date - I can still carry on writing one at a time
I find it helps to speak to myself like I'm five so I keep the language very very blunt
"What if I go and get the shaver?"

I love this system because it means I can devote myself completely to one single task
I've only got one task right now, and that's to get the shaver from over there to over there - it's all I need to do
There's the shaver - YOINK!
[MUSIC]

Here I am with the shaver, and I've got the camera in place now
I've got a second camera just slightly out of shot so I can film the table and I think... I think I'm set!
Except I'm not as you can probably hear the sound's a bit rubbish, so I need to go and get the- the microphone.

I can cross this off now, write:
"What if I get my microphone?"
Out I go again. Ugh! Slippers!
[Music]

So now I've got the microphone... Oh I need to shut that!
So now I've got the microphone, I can cross that off my list
Off that goes.

I need to get things ready in here.
"What if I open, no, close the blind - oh - and plug the microphone in."
So I've written that on the list now, I can now plug this in - so that now works - hopefully that sounds better
Make sure this is switched off, I need to take my coat off and get ready
[MUSIC]

I'm kind of on a point of no return, and that's that's the thing with this nano chunking system - is that you do reach a point where you're kind of all in and it suddenly becomes a hassle to write down every nano- task
Sometimes I help for it to keep going, to keep them super small, so that you don't just suddenly stop - but...

I think I've now got absolutely everything in place for a task that I didn't want to do, even though I really wanted to do it, I haven't actually taken action to get started with it
And now I've got everything in place. I've got my second camera. I've got my microphone. I've got the Hut looking sort of how I want it to. It's still not perfect. I think the lighting isn't just right yet. I'm not entirely happy with how this second camera looks.

Let's hit record on that so I can show you
This isn't quite how I'd want it. I think I want the shot a bit wider, but I've got everything here that I need.
So then I hit record and made the video about the hair clippers.
I honestly thought that nobody would watch it.
Little did I know that two months later, international catastrophe emergency conditions: the entire planet has to stay at home and cut their own hair.

Suddenly the views of this thing go up tenfold and my video actually starts helping people to find the right hair clippers.
If this video is helping why not hit the like button to help other people find it, or the subscribe button to help me get to 10,000 subscribers - really appreciate it
Anyway here's the next example of Nano chunking.

It's actually the opposite kind of procrastination where I actually wanted to make something because I thought it was actually quite good!
Okay so this is a tough video to shoot
I'm stuck, and it's quite difficult to admit that I'm stuck. I'm gonna put the lights on.

So I'm stuck on, I'm stuck on this: look over here.
"Make a CPAP mask-- not a CPAP -- make a face mask with a t-shirt
It's a really simple dumb idea - something I really want to do
I really want to make a mask and I really want to make a video
Why can't I just make a video of me making a mask?

I've completely turned it into something bigger than it is, but I'm stuck and I've been sitting on this idea for about two weeks now?
So what I've decided to do is to get the camera out and make it even more complicated! Make a video about the video about the face mask
It's not because it's not a good idea - it is the exact opposite

It's because I know it's a really good idea as something that I really wanted to do and the more I want to do it the more I seem to block doing it
The resistance is that thing that when you have a good idea everything in your brain and body will conspire to stop you from doing it

And there's all kinds of biological reasons why we're programmed this way
Basically by doing something you really want to do - that represents change
And change biologically represents death, because you might change something and it might not work out and then you will die!

Okay that's how we're wired
So I'm going to use this system now to free me from this block
I hope it frees me from this block.
At least it's a thing to do while I'm not doing the thing.
I've done some free writing, just to bring my brain.

Look six pages of things in my head.
Got to the Nano chunking list, and this is my first nano chunking task
We're gonna break down all the tasks down to the absolute tiniest level
Open the t-shirt script in Google Docs

So I'll do that now
Scripts in here
I've got one document where I put all my YouTube ideas into, and my block is basically going through them and choosing them and making a decision and I still don't want to make a decision
So what I'm going to do now is everything except make a decision, so I can do all this other work and move it forward without having yet to make a decision

I'm gonna make that as small a thing as possible
It's really important when you're nano chunking to only write down one thing at a time
Only one tiny tiny tiny task, and cross it off as a little achievement for each step
So my next step would be: print out what I've got

I'll write down "print out T-shirt ideas"
[MUSIC]

So I've got all my t-shirt ideas here then the next step would be to read them
That's all.

Just read them, so I'm gonna get a nice drink and just read through them and I don't have to do anything else.
All I've got to do is just read what I've got
That's my one tiniest smallest task that I can think of right now apart from sit down and get a pen
[Music]

Can I just say, cos I know I'm recording here - I so didn't want to read through these that I've ended up actually writing
I'm actually writing the script instead of doing what I should be doing - which is reading these!

That's okay because I wanted to read these to get to this, but what I have now done is to avoid THIS - I'm now doing THIS.
It sort of works
[Music]

Oh sometimes this happens.
You get started on the Nano chunk task which was for me to sit down with a nice drink and to just read through what I've got, and then all these other things pop into your head of all these other things you should be doing

But if one comes up like "I need to get my glasses", what I do is... I do write that down as another task. Do it quickly, and then cross it off there and then.

So if other things start popping into your head like "I just need to check that" or "I need to get that" write them down as nano chunks and- and do them in order, and then you'll have to go back to the Nano chunk that triggered or these other thoughts

So you're still Nano chunking - don't move away from the Nano chunking.
Make the tasks even smaller - even smaller - even more ridiculous
Get my glasses.

Okay so here's an example now of the kind of stuff that will come up to just stop you from doing what you're doing

I'm on a point now where I want to find a clip that I want to put into the video and I know I've got that clip on an email - so I've gone into email and I've just seen a email from my accountant and I've just spent 20 minutes reading it and replying to it.

So I've been thrown off the nano chunking horse
What I should have done is to write down as a nano chunk: "Open the email" and do that afterwards - so I have the impulse, I do it.
So I've fallen off the horse.
It's okay, don't give yourself a hard time, but write down as soon as you can onto your list, and then cross it off.

So I'm now going to do what I'm supposed to do which is to look up a link from a video that I want to put into the script

I don't know why I write some things on the Nano chunk as capitals?
Works out some kind of anger or something!

Another good tip for the Nano chunking is to write down nano chunks that aren't very difficult, so instead of "write three pages of script" I put something a bit more easy which is to just "do writing for 25 minutes"
That's just - that's just "write" - so it doesn't matter what the outcome is.
It's just the process .

If you can make your nano chunks about the process rather than the outcome you'll find it even more easy to do
There I've done it!
I've actually written it's... 1 2 3 4 5 pages of scripts
I-- if my task had been "Write five pages of script" I just would not have done it.
Thanks to Nano chunking

[DEEP VOICE:] NANO-CHUNK!
Thanks to nano chunking - the task was - and I quote: "Open the t-shirts document in Google Docs"
That's all I had to do, just open the document, and then when you've done that... well you could just do the next nano chunk task... and when you break down the tasks down to the tiniest tiniest nano chunk, just do that chunk, and before you know it... a five page script.
So now I'll need to nano chunk the next... task... which is filming it

I even ended up shooting the video!
That's how powerful the Nano chunking is.

Respect the Nano chunking!

Not only did I end up making the video, two days later BBC News got in touch.
They wanted to use a clip for the six o'clock news bulletin that night

[NEWS REPORTER:] People can make them at home using anything from old t-shirts to bedding sheets.
Two of these guys are gonna get the chop, quite literally.
[NEWS REPORTER:] This dad from Hampshire tried making a t-shirt mask for himself on his YouTube channel.
My ears aren't coping very well with the elastic bands.

If I hadn't have made it, and made it right now, that would not have happened.

It's another reminder of "make your stuff now" because it turns out we need it!

I've put all of these videos into this playlist it's called "make your stuff now" at the moment.
There's a link up here, if you click on the "i" or or down in the description

If you've reached this point I hope this has helped

If it has, why not hit the thumbs up which will help other people to find this video. or hit the subscribe button which will help me get to 10,000 subscribers.

I'm on about one and a half at the moment so it feels like a really big mountain

Leave a comment below, be lovely to hear from you, just say hi - and I hope this video has helped you to make your own stuff
Can you please help my daddy get 10,000 subscribers. Just click in his face. Thanks bye! Alright, this is gonna be the proper one, right?


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HOW TO ENGRAVE A LACiE HARD DRIVE


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Try my previous book!

(UK) (US)

Thursday 18 June 2020

HOW TO ENGRAVE A LACiE HARD DRIVE



Buy LaCIE HARD DRIVE here: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (Amazon US) https://amzn.to/2Y7j96f
(Amazon UK) https://amzn.to/2HHEYUj
ENGRAVING KIT from AMAZON US: https://amzn.to/2yoiHs0
ENGRAVING KIT from AMAZON UK: https://amzn.to/3aCEzhL

I've gone property marking CRAZY!
Currently trying out doing a new thing every day...
I'm now down to practicing engraving on my 2TB Lacie Hard Drives!

Follow along in real time to see if I permanently damage the delicate hard drive mechanism inside
(Spoiler: I don't, this video is stored on it),
and try out some engraving techniques to stop the engraver sliding all over its metal case.

HOW TO ENGRAVE A LACiE HARD DRIVE



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

Hello welcome back to the happy hut my name is Neil Mossey, and the way that I'm going to make Britain a bit better today in this video is to mark my property

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

I'm gonna write my name on my precious LaCie hard drives - look I wrote the phone number on my LaCie, it's completely rubbed off... that's my daughter, stuck that on

I think that might get peeled off and and this is the fear isn't it?

We don't put our name on stuff because we think that if it is stolen then then they'll also have our personal contact details as well as the thing they've nicked
But if they've nicked the thing, that thing's got all my life details on anyway so I might as well give someone the chance to do the right thing and to try to return it.

And when I've lost stuff, stuff has pretty much managed to get back to me because I've written my name on it like a six-year-old and I'm gonna do that today
I'm gonna actually write it like a six year old because I'm not an expert engraver!

I try my best but I'm practicing and I'm trying to get better and if I do that on camera then maybe I can help you get better at engraving too - but the the biggest fear obviously is that these are really precious delicate of machines

I don't know, maybe the vibrations might somehow destroy the hard drive mechanism or maybe I'll dig too deep in the hard drive and ruin it that way
By the way, this thing here is like a little strip of velcro that I've put on so that I keep the cable with the drive because I can never find that - I've sort of tucked it into the bumper there

You know I need to put this disclaimer as well - I call them LaCies (Lacey's)
I know it pronounced lassie but they're LaCies!

And if that irritates you I apologize but I'm gonna engrave my LaCies now!
So I've made a engraving video before and I'll put a link to it in the in the corner there if you click on the "i"
These aren't exciting videos!

I'm just sharing my journey along the way - if it helps someone then that's good
I hope it does, but today we're going to engrave the LaCie and the and the MacBook Pro
I'll start with I start with the LaCie

Now I've chosen the smallest ball engraver - I learnt this last time - if I write my name on the drive first, and then do it sideways I think - because I don't think I'm going to get it all in that way

I do it nice and big and this is just to guide my lettering as I go, and I'm putting my Twitter handle on so I hope that will help someone return it to me - and I'll put my phone number down here but I'm not quite ready yet to share my my phone number with the world - but I'll show you how it goes with the with the name

The other thing I learned last time was eye protection - I've got some glasses on
I guess we're "go" so switch the engraver on
I'm gonna hold it like a pen and you do it very gently first just to not destroy the hard drive case
[ENGRAVING NOISES]

That's a problem because the ball is so small it just skipped all over the surface
It's not given a very clean engraving, so I wonder if I should use the bigger one?

But my fear with using the bigger ball on here is that it will just go straight through and destroy the the hard drive and I'm not doing it on the side I mean the side would be stronger but it's hidden and I just want someone, if you find it on the street or on a train carriage or toilets that they'd be able to instantly see where they can get it back to me

I'm doing it on the new drive so if it destroys it I would only have lost not very much material and I'll plug it into my macbook to test it before I do the second one

Let's get a bigger engraver
Shall I get the super big one?
I'll get the super big one
Oh, I don't know if I should do this

So you hold down the clutch and can turn the spindle that holds the thing, and then you can put it in like that... and do it up.
If you don't hold that down the thing just spins around it doesn't do anything
There we go, so that's it now
Oh this is the big one - going in
[ENGRAVING NOISE]

Now cuz it's bigger I need my lettering to be much bigger than this
so I have to write it again I think
What I could do is just write it one letter at a time

So if I rub the name off... oh, what a mess...
PHPEWAH! There's a spider on it!

But don't be alarmed you can clean this up with some surgical spirit

Okay I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go free-form I think.
[ENGRAVING NOISE]

I just don't want to go too deep - that's why I want to do this on camera so that you can learn from my mistakes.
Here we go.
[ENGRAVING NOISE]

That's about as deep as I wanna get
[ENGRAVING NOISE]

Right yeah you really do need the bigger needle to do this.
[ENGRAVING NOISE]

Just hope that the vibrations aren't killing the hard drive
[ENGRAVING NOISE]

Oh and what seems to be working is if you just hold it in place and not move it very quickly - just hold the engraver very gently and move it very slowly - that seems to etch the letter better than by digging deep and writing quickly, even though everything in my brain is saying "do this quickly!" because you're gonna destroy the Lacie!

Let's keep going okay
[ENGRAVING NOISE]

And I had a bit of a scare before Christmas I'm working with a professional video editor - someone who actually does this for a living - and he lost a precious drive!
A drive fell out of his bag and it was out in the world for about two weeks.

It had the name and phone number written on to it but it's easy to remove
I've got pretty much my life's work on here - I've got it backed up, I think - over some other hard drives

But this one's a fairly new one so wanted to engrave it now before the time when it becomes super precious and I would lose everything
[ENGRAVING NOISE]

Keep thinking that's the off button!
It's not.

Well, don't know if you see that
I don't know if it's coming across - all the - the shavings aren't that healthy

So I'm gonna try and blow them off but I'm... I'm pleased with that
Now I think I'd want to dig deeper just to make sure that it doesn't just rub off but the vibrations of this - I'm really worried that it's going to damage the thing inside

But I might take this off just to clean it properly - and see what it looks like
And I'll just clean the case

Probably shouldn't be breathing it in either
Ahh, the things we do for our stuff and property

I can plug this in now to my MacBook Pro to make sure that it still works
So, moment of truth... I'm on the other camera now

And plug it in - does the Lacie appear?
YES!

There it is
Shall I double-click on it?
There you go

It looks like I didn't destroy my Lacie - I clearly didn't dig deep enough with my name.
Oh, that's awesome.
What precious objects of yours would you engrave?

Maybe I could do them here on the channel!
Because I seem to get better each time I do this

Why not let me know that you reached this point by hitting the thumbs up or even better if you hit subscribe it helps take us closer to 1000 subscribers, when YouTube starts to pay us for these videos.

I'll take these off - and thanks for your comments and I'll see you on the next "Make Britain a bit better"... vlog.
Can you please help my daddy get 1000 subscribers just click on his face.
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Thursday 11 June 2020

BEST OSMO POCKET mini microphones EDUTIGE ETM-001 VS SARAMONIC SR-XM1 VS BOYA BY-M1 audio test



Long video where I compare the DJI Osmo Pocket built-in microphone, against the best value (cheapest!) small mini external microphones:
EDUTIGE ETM-001,
SARAMONIC SR-XM1
and BOYA BY-M1 clip-on lavalier microphone.

Times of each audio test are below these links of where to buy these external mikes!



You can buy DJI OSMO POCKET CAMERA from Amazon right here (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I'm paid commission at no cost to you, so thanks if you use these links!)
(US) https://amzn.to/2Wojx1P
(UK) https://amzn.to/39YWP4A
POLAR PRO TRIPOD GRIP SYSTEM FOR OSMO POCKET
(US) https://amzn.to/2y9q3j9
(UK) https://amzn.to/2JcPnqF
OSMO POCKET TEMPERED GLASS LENS AND SCREEN PROTECTORS
(US) https://amzn.to/2QpLJOg
(UK) https://amzn.to/2IYIUQ5
MY FAVOURITE TRIPOD HAND GRIP
(US) https://amzn.to/39fzhHu
(UK) https://amzn.to/2UfCvXc
Edutige ETM-001
(US) https://amzn.to/2RleQmn
(UK) https://amzn.to/2V81T0c
Saramonic SR-XM1 MINI SHOTGUN MIC
(US) https://amzn.to/2BcFohm
(UK) https://amzn.to/2LvhUGG
Boya BY-M1 CLIP-ON LAVALIER MICROPHONE
(US) https://amzn.to/2Wv6ysQ
(UK) https://amzn.to/2ORMpgG
Comica deadkitten MINI WINDSHIELDS
(US) https://amzn.to/2WBFQz3
(UK) https://amzn.to/2t5PwEa

BEST OSMO POCKET mini microphones EDUTIGE ETM-001 VS SARAMONIC SR-XM1 VS BOYA BY-M1 audio test

0:13 DJI Osmo Pocket: Built-in microphone outdoors
1:25 DJI Osmo Pocket: Built-in microphone indoors
3:20 Edutige ETM-001 outdoors
5:10 Edutige ETM-001 indoors
6:05 Saramonic SR-XM1 outdoors
7:50 Saramonic SR-XM1 indoors
8:45 Boya BY-M1 outdoors
9:25 Boya BY-M1 indoors
10:05 Final side by side comparison of DJI Osmo Pocket built-in mic, Edutige ETM-001 with Comica deadcat mini windshield outdoors, Saramonic SR-XM1 in the wind, and Boya BY-M1 my best value best quality small clip-on external microphone

TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)
Hello, I'm Neil, I hope this video helps - I'm standing in a weird position at the moment because I've got two cameras...
I absolutely love vlogging with the DJI Osmo pocket
and so I thought I'd make a video to see how the different microphones you could plug in work and sound with the Osmo pocket

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

This is the built-in microphone for the Osmo pocket that you're listening to right now
I'm trying to talk a lot so that you can get a sense of what it sounds like, but I've also got the Osmo Pocket in a PolarPro cage.

I'll just go to the other camera there for a second which is... has been really helpful
I'm just gonna hand hold it now mainly because the mic adapter that I'll show you in a minute - that can clash with some tripod situations
The way I've got around it is with a polar Pro grip - I can show you how that works

Just put this into the cage. Like that. And because the grip cage has 2 tripod mounts, I've mounted it on the phone side. And that's the grip I usually use for walking around - I've got it on top of a tripod.
Let's see how it sounds indoors!

So here we are indoors - this is how the DJI Osmo pocket sounds without any external microphone plugged in - in a room - a small room - it's very wooden with a lot of hard surfaces

What I wanted to do is to give you a full sense of how the Osmo pocket sounds straight out of the box, and I also wanted to give you enough time to hear what it sounds like with each of the microphones

So firstly if you don't have an Osmo pocket already and maybe you're watching this video just to see how the Osmo pocket sounds... firstly you will need one of these which is a DJI mic adapter for the Osmo pocket

It's about 35 pounds here in the UK
there are links to all of this in the description but what I wanted to show you was how these other microphones sound

These are other microphones that I use and I love them
Each has their own advantages and drawbacks
The first I'm going to show you is the EDUTIGE etm-001

This is an absolutely tiny microphone - it's about the size of a 3.5mm jack
I'll show you the SARAMONIC SR-XM1
Now I've used this loads on my GoPro Hero5 and what I love about it is it's like a mini shotgun mic but it also can be bent it

It can be turned in the direction that you want it to point that's a great one
And you won't recognize this because it will be wearing this which is a Comica dead kitten or a mini deadcat and it stops wind noise so that will be under that

And finally this clip-on lavalier mic the Boya BY-M1 which comes with a battery and a cable but sounds really good
now the next microphone I'm going to show you is the EDUTIGE - No-one I know can say this properly it's the EDUTIGE etm001 because it just sort of points wherever it plugs in obviously if I just plugged it straight into the mic adapter it would just point downwards to the to the floor which I don't really want so I've got this L-shaped Jack just to sort of point in the right direction

Now it's not a directional microphone and I'll talk about that in a second
So I'm going to plug it in like this - there we go - so flip the Osmo pocket round
So I've got the EDUTIGE etm-001 plugged in and I've got it on this L-shaped 3.5mm jack adapter and this is how it sounds
The, the problem I got with the EDUTIGE sorry I'm holding the camera too close

Now the problem I've got with the EDUTIGE - I love it because it's small and it's just so easy to just plug and go
But the slight problem I've got with it is that it's omnidirectional
which means I think it sort of picks up everything even my footsteps

Maybe I should do some walking with it

I'll do some walking later but this is what it sounds like outdoors
This is how it sounds - just pluged straight into the DJI Osmo pocket

I haven't got any custom audio settings it's all on auto and this is what the etm001 sounds like
I think I've got someone behind me - being audiobombed

So we're back indoors with the edutige etm-001 and I haven't got the L-shaped adapter on so the microphone is just pointing straight down towards my desk at the moment but this is how it sounds indoors in a small room environment
I'm about arm's length away from the camera what you've probably noticed already I've not treated any of the audio in this video this is exactly as it comes out of the camera

I've not increased or decreased the level in the Edit
What I love about the edutige etm-001 is that it sounds louder
it sounds beefier

But because it's omnidirectional - it picks up everything around it
So there's an upside and a downside to it
I love its size - I love it's just just a little stub it's fantastic!
Now the next microphone that you're hearing the next external microphone that I'm trying out for my DJI Osmo pocket - speaking quietly as well because it's a quiet day

I hope this next one is the Saramonic SR-XM1
let's get a close-up here now you can't really see it very well because I've got it I've got it underneath a deadkitten or a deadcat windshield
That's to stop the the wind noise but this is what it looked like when it came out of the box, and what I love about this is that it's it looks like a mini shotgun mic, but it's still small so it's still easy to carry around with you and use unobtrusively

And then I put this massive windshield on!
But the big thing second big thing I love about this is that you can point it wherever you want it to go. (NOISES)

And you can bend it a full 180 degrees each way - I'm touching it now, you can probably hear that

So I'll just be quiet for a moment there's a bit of wind going on... but this is a really small-- I think of all the setups this is probably my favorite because you can just hold it really easily - you can hold the Osmo Pocket - so that's the Saramonic SR-XM1 into an Osmo pocket outdoors... let's see what it's like indoors
And you've probably noticed already that I find the audio from this although it's directional so you can point it more towards your your face - trying to say the word face and voice at the same time there - that wasn't gonna work!

I find the audio level is much lower than my other microphones and that can be a little bit irritating having to bump it up in the edit all the time but I love its portability

I love that you can point it in the direction you want it to you can swing it round if you're behind the camera or in front of the camera
I'm not a big fan of those big Rode shotgun microphones

I find them a bit... like they draw attention to themselves when I'm filming out on the streets which I prefer not to do - but this is the Saramonic SR-XM1
And finally this I think is my favorite of the microphone options

This is the Boya BY-M1
This is what it looks like coming out of the box

Actually bought this for my GoPro Hero 5 - absolutely love using it
I think it's probably the warmest sounding.. just because it-- you're just putting the microphone closer to where you're speaking
I think that sounds the best

Obviously it's not very mobile but the upside is how it sounds I think it sounds great
So we're back indoors again with the Boya BY-M1
I've got the cable running straight into my DJI Osmo pocket

I've just checked I've switched it on and because it has a battery I had-- I kept forgetting to turn it off so I've got this little memory device to switch off the battery so it doesn't run down between recordings!

This is how it sounds indoors and what do you think so far?

Leave a comment if you have any questions I'm sure someone be able to help you also in the description I've put links to all of these microphones but this is how the
Boya BY-M1 clip-on lavalier microphone sounds in a small room indoors
And now we're back outside again just to give you a quick whip through the three microphones one last time

This is how the DJI Osmo pocket sounds with no microphone in at all
and this is how the Edutige etm-001 sounds with an l-shaped adapter so that it's pointing towards me and a Comica deadcat wind muff which i've put in the description if you want to take a look at those

This is how the Saramonic SR-XM1 sounds there's a really quite a big breeze whipped up
What does a breeze do? It just happens doesn't it?
But there's quite a wind here and it's not coming from me
And finally this is the Boya BY-M1 clip-on lavalier lapel mic with a Comica windshield dead muff... Deadmuff?! Deadcat - mini deadcat - wind muff like the other three microphones have

How do these sound for you?
So there you go - those are your options for some external microphones that you can plug straight into your DJI Osmo pocket - if you have the slightly pricey DJI Osmo pocket mic adapter

I think it's really worth it because the built-in microphone is fantastic and I've recorded so much out on the hoof on the streets - the sound has been phenomenal - but it does sound a bit rubbish if it's if you're in a windy situation...

Although we're not supposed to take this out into weatherproof situations - but I DID in this video...
You can see there's a bit of rain on there - you might be screaming at the screen right now to tell me to get it in and get it dry
And you can click on the "i" at the top of the screen to to see my full DJI Osmo pocket in a storm test

I just wanted to say that all of these microphones have strengths and weaknesses and it does help to have an external microphone because I keep putting my thumb over the built-in mics

It is distracting if there is even the smallest bit of wind but of all of these options I think my favorite is the one I'm wearing now - is the Boya - I've got this on hand ready it's the Boya BY-M1

When I'm outdoors the cord is a bit of a faff. I just like having the microphone closer to my voice. I think the the sound is warmer and I think I just feel more present in the videos.

Anyway what do you think?
do you have a favorite?
Do-- do any of these work for you

do you just want to say hi - leave a comment below be lovely to hear from you and to hear what you think which ones you prefer
Maybe you already have a DJI Osmo pocket and you already have your favorite go-to microphone

leave a comment I'd love to hear some more of your stories and your tips and tricks with external microphones for the Osmo pocket
my goodness I hope letting the clips run long has helped you in some way if you have reached this point of the video why don't let me know someone reached this point of the video by clicking the thumbs up

It'd be... that'd really make my day and surprise me a little frankly
If you're feeling even kinder why not hit the subscribe button you never have to watch any of my videos again but every subscription helps me to keep going with this thank you

Good luck with your audio adventures on your DJI Osmo pocket thanks for watching
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