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Best Of YouTube

It’s time for another round of the best stuff that I’ve seen on YouTube recently. First up is a cheap way to add some weights to your shop. I inevitably finish a glue-up and then scrounge around looking for heavy stuff to put on top to hold the boards in place. I think I’ll need to make some of these:

When we travel with Elijah, the flight attendants always make a special point of telling us to put on our own masks before helping Elijah. Every time I think, “Yeah right. I’d help my kid first!” This video was the first time I understood why it’s important to put your own mask on first.

And finally, Minute Physics explains why it takes more acceleration to get to the sun than to other stars.

benmartens August 12, 2016 Links

Free Video Editor

davinciresolveI use Adobe Premiere Elements for all my video editing and it does a great job. I rarely run into any feature limitations. However, it does cost $90. If you’re looking for something a little better than the default editor that came with your operating system but you don’t want to spend any money, check out Davinci Resolve. They have a very powerful version of their video editor available completely for free! I have not used it myself, but I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about it. They’ve been in the video editing market for quite a while and their video editor has really impressive features including color correction. I’m considering switching over just to get some of those features.

benmartens July 22, 2016 Links

Best of YouTube

These blog posts were a great idea. Now I’m not just getting lost in YouTube videos, I’m researching content for this site!

First up is the ultimate Nerf gun. What it lacks in maneuverability, it makes up for in power and wow factor. There are a lot of other great videos on this guy’s channel too.

Hungry? How about a burger wrapped in bacon and filled with mac and cheese?

And finally, Colin Furze is at it again. This time he has the most outrageous doorbell you’ve ever seen. Spoiler alert: it involves an Uzi.

benmartens July 21, 2016 Links

Best Of YouTube

It’s time for another round of my favorite YouTube content from the past couple weeks. First up is a video from Mike Rowe explaining why you shouldn’t follow your dreams.

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Next up is a very niche video that hit me perefctly. Grizzly sells a kit for my bandsaw that increases the capacity of the saw. It’s something I’ve thought about quite a few times already and it was awesome to see how easy it is to install.

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April Wilkerson recently built a new base for her mom’s windmill. As part of the project, she also removed a bunch of the rust from the windmill. I never knew that you could use vinegar to remove rust!

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benmartens July 7, 2016 Links, Video

Best Of YouTube

I usually spend 15-30 minutes in front of the TV at the end of the night but I’m not watching TV. That time is almost always consumed with YouTube content. There’s so much good stuff to watch on there and I have a nice setup that downloads the content I’m interested in and puts it into my DVR so it’s really easy to see what I’ve watched and what is still in the queue.

Every once in a while I stumble across some really great content like the Adam Savage speech that I posted earlier this week. I’m going to try something new and every once in a while, I’ll make a post with some of the best videos that I’ve seen recently. So without further ado, here’s the first such post…

Just a few days ago I subscribed to a new channel called Cook With Meat. It’s delicious food and the videography is beautiful. The tequilla sunrise pulled pork recipe looks fantastic:

It took me a while to warm up to Jimmy Diresta. He’s a maker who previously had some small TV shows but now runs a very successful YouTube channel. Now I’m watching all of his stuff and even listening to his podcast. He knows how to incorporate a lot of different materials and techniques. One of his latest videos was a biplane scluped on the bandsaw.

Do you remember Zane Lamprey? He has done a lot of great shows like Three Sheets, Drinking Made Easy, and Chug. Now he’s focusing on YouTube. It’s the same formula where he travels the word looking at culture and drinking customs with a lot of laughter mixed in, but this time it’s a series of 3-5 minute videos and he’s traveling with his wife. He releases about three videos a week and he’s been at it for a while so there is a lot more where this came from.

benmartens June 9, 2016 Links, Video

Adam Savage At Maker Faire

An estimated 160,000 people descended upon San Fancisco for Maker Faire this year. It’s a celebration of any kind of making you can imagine: woodworking, electronics, metal, jewelry, clothing, music, models and more (and all the various combinations of the various genres). There are many things I’m excited to do with Elijah when he’s a little older. Near the top of the list is a trip to Maker Faire.

There’s so much going on that I hear you can’t see it all in one weekend, but thankfully more and more of it is starting to appear online. One of the better videos that came out this year was Adam Savage’s one hour talk. The first part is read from notes and won’t win any awards for delivery, but the content is really good. It’s about the importance and value of making things. He then does a good Q&A session for the rest of the hour. He’s very passionate about creating ANYTHING and does a good job explaining why it’s such a great way to spend your time.

benmartens June 6, 2016 Links, Maker

Losing Our Views

blockedviewUsually conservationist efforts are about conserving our natural areas. But what happens when the natural areas grow up so much that they remove any of the good views that caused us to want to preserve the spot in the first place? Is it ok to cut some trees down in that case? Cliff Mass has an interesting post showing photos of some trouble spots. It would be interesting to see some kind of bill go through to conserve views at specific nature spots. I wonder how it would play out?

http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2016/05/washington-state-is-losing-its.html

benmartens May 31, 2016 Links, Outdoors

John Oliver On Scientific Studies

John Oliver has an HBO news show called Last Week Tonight. We don’t have HBO, but a lot of the clips are on YouTube and I find it an entertaining way to get a perspective on the news that I might not get otherwise. The only catch is that since this is on HBO, it’s sometimes R-rated content .This video is no exception, but the content is so exceptional that i have to content on it. In this 20 minute clip, Oliver gives example after example of click-bait “science” stories that are completely wrong. The news media is so eager to get views and clicks that they will deliberately twist (or lazily ignore) the details to produce a story. It’s out of control and it’s sad how many people fall for them. By default, you should probably disbelieve any scientific study that you hear or read about, especially if it’s from a show like Good Morning America, the Today Show or Fox and Friends. If you’re really going to adjust your life because of a study, isn’t it worth a few minutes of your time to maybe READ the study instead of trusting somebody else’s 3 minute over-hyped review of it?

benmartens May 26, 2016 Links

Cashing Gift Cards

gift-cardI recently won a $15 gift card to a place that I’d probably never go. Sure I could have given it away, but I keep hearing about these places that will buy gift cards from you so I decided to try that out.

Coinstar is an easy one and they are in the Safeway right down the street. That seems to be the fastest way to go, but they take a big cut for the convenience factor. You can hope to get about 50% of the remaining value of the card. There are some slower options online that will give up a little higher percentage. I ended up getting about 65% from cardcash.com. There are multiple ways to get them the card (either type in the info or send it to them) and lots of ways to get paid (check in the mail, PayPal, another gift card, etc). Obviously your best bet is to use the card but if you are stuck with a card that you won’t use, this is better than nothing.

Cardcash also sells gift cards at a reduced rate. You might save 5-15% off the value of the card. The cards I looked at were all pretty big ($100-200) but if you know you have a big purchase coming up, it might be an easy way to save some money.

benmartens May 9, 2016 Links

Heat Storm

heatstormIf you live in the Pacific Northwest, get ready to bare those pasty white legs because a heat storm is coming! Ok a “heat storm” probably isn’t a real thing but it’s a good way to describe what’s going to happen today. Here in the early part of April when high temps are normally in the 50s, we are going to top out somewhere in the 80s! Cliff Mass has a great breakdown of the forecast, but the root of this is because of a huge high pressure ridge just off the coast. It keeps down the cool marine breezes, pulls air from the warmer eastern part of the state and creates downslope warming (air is warmed by compression as it flows down the mountain slopes.)

Get outside and enjoy it! We still have months of 60 degree rainy weather ahead of us before summer really takes hold.

benmartens April 7, 2016 Links, Weather