YouTube or not

Tags

Canada., Events, filming, Me, Politics, Video, Writing, YouTube

Yesterday I had an idea, I was watching someone’s video on YouTube where this person was talking about pet projects like interior decorating, cocktails, cuisine, books, etc.  It started me thinking that maybe I should have a YouTube channel instead of a written blog. I could present whatever topic and it would be recorded live with graphics and nice background. Several people do it, from their kitchen, living room, bedroom, Office or with a moving scenery behind them like the ocean. It would be different I think. However I remember doing short videos for YouTube during my political campaign, I did 7 videos and each one took a lot of time. Writing a text first of all that was concise and to the point. Then filming it and editing it, several days could be spent doing this. So when you go to YouTube and you have someone presenting, remember that they did not do this in 5 minutes and it is not spur of the moment.

This is an example of what I did then. I had help because I am not fluent in the techno side of making videos. It was fun but it was work.

Another challenge is the content and visuals must always be different in a video. When writing it is a lot easier, you expand on one ideas and write it down, put up a few pictures and voilà.

The other challenge is the equipment, doing video requires a lot of equipment from the camera to the microphone, lights, etc. You can do it yourself yes but you can also require someone to help you out. I would really have to study the whole thing carefully and see if it is worth it.

Now that I have more than 1000 entries and close to 500 followers here on this blog, I feel I have written a big book about life and events.

 

Sunday

Tags

Beach, cuisine, home, Me, nature, PEI, sand, sun, surf

Well today was a gorgeous day, Sunny and warm and no cold wind. It was so nice that we decided to hop in the car and go down St-Peter’s Road to the beach, we usually go North to Brackley Point Beach but today we decided to look into another area.

This is following Hwy 2 North-East about a 30 minute leisurely drive. Funny enough from our house to the cut-off to St-Peter’s Road which is just next to the airport runway, now quiet because no flights are coming here. There was some traffic and then suddenly a lot more traffic. Note a lot of traffic on PEI is 15 cars.

The reason was the Agency Liquor Store at the Irving Gas Station on St-Peter’s Road. It’s open longer hours than the Government Liquor Stores and has more hard liquor, you know the hard stuff, the brown stuff, like Bourbon. The clientele goes with the Liquor. After that it was clear sailing,  the road to St-Peter’s Harbour suddenly becomes unpaved and is basically the red dirt road typical of the Island. It was dry and not muddy, red mud is sticky and clings to everything. Driving on it is difficult, I still have my big winter tires on the car because of the Pandemic I did not want to go to the garage to have them change etc, I now have an appointment for the end of May. Winter tires gives better traction anyway.

We had never been to that area of the Island and discovered that it is a Nature Preserve with very high sand dunes that look like the grand canyon but not quite. With high Marram grass growing on top, the grass is planted by volunteers to protect the dunes. The area behind the Marram Grass covered sand dunes is a mix of wetland, plants, grasses and maritime shrubs and shallow ponds of water which rise or ebb with the tides, perfect for ducks and other aquatic fauna. The dunes are so high that you do not hear the Sea until you follow the marked sandy path across. The dunes are protected and to avoid damaging them people are asked to stick to walking on the beach.

The sand was warm today to the touch and despite nice waves the wind was very light. I have always been fascinated by the immensity of the Sea, it looks infinite. However if you look at the map you will see that we are clearly in the Gulf of St-Lawrence.

The quiet of the beach and the fresh air is exhilirating. The only noise is the surf and bird songs. The Piping Plover nest on the beach and you have to be careful when walking around, it’s a little bird and it camouflage itself with the natural colours around. It is also an endangered species only 6000 in the World.

Near the beach and at the end of the road you can see some beach houses, some are expensive looking but they really only function from May to September. You would not want to live in the area in Winter with the terrible fierce storms, unreliable electricity and rural mud roads. In Winter such roads are not plowed so become impassible. I would love to live at the beach like that in the Summer.

The nice thing about beaches in PEI is that they are very clean, quiet and not overrun with people.

Today was a nice break from the City, we came home, had a nice Osso Buco for dinner and our neighbour surprised us with a Coconut cream pie she had made, it was delicious.

Finally Summer

Tags

Beach, heat, life, Me

Well Summer arrived on the 4th July, yesterday and last night was still cold around 16C and cloudy, wet. We had a cold, very wet April, May and June.

In 24 hours, so Canadian, we are now into hot and muggy, we have, in Island speak, the muggies, 25C hot and humid with a small breeze. We have a hear warning for the coming days, with the humidity factor temperatures could soar to 31C. I am not complaining, I will take it.

I am not complaining, it is now warm enough to go to the Beach and just enjoy the sunshine, a nice lobster and some fresh oysters.

Here are some shots of today, it is also Lupin time, they are everywhere you look, on the road in rural area and in gardens, they grow wild here.

Lavender in the garden of the Confederation Centre.

Wild Lupins in my neighbours yard.

Price Flag on the marquis of the Holman Grand Hotel, downtown Charlottetown. Despite the 100 year old facade this is a modern hotel with a very good restaurant.

Road kill by Gerald Beaulieu, on the terrace of the Art gallery of the Confederation Centre. Was created 2 years ago make entirely of recycled tires.

Lupins in the wild at French River in PEI with potato field of course in the background.

 

In the cards this year

Tags

2019, life, Me, predictions, Radical Faeries, Tarot cards, year

The great Karnak the diviner par excellence of Arizona AKA Dr. Spo read my Tarot cards for 2019. He is a delightful fellow for doing so. He put out his planet table cloth and let me choose the deck of tarot cards I would like. He has a collection of tarot card decks. I chose the Radical Faeries card deck.

So here month by month is what the cards say;  January would be a month of decisions on projects, February a month of inaction or vacation, March, April, May months of lots of action open to new ideas.  June could bring conflict, July could be a month of worries or a month where I overcome difficulties. August and September are months to apply knowledge or lessons learned, October is the best month of the year. November new worries and December could bring some lost or bereavement of some kind.

Overall 2019 the cards say is a good year busy, happy, going forward, self-growth. I can live with that.

I came to a realization….

Tags

age, Charlottetown, generation, Laurent, life, Me, PEI

Last night I suddenly came to a realization, we were at Baba’s Lounge which is upstairs from Cedar’s Lebanese Restaurant on Great George Street. Baba’s is an institution and is known by all musicians on PEI. Several nights a week they have music, on Thursday nights it’s Jazz night and last night Island Jazz was performing. The group is Ben on piano, Marlee on saxophone and Evan on bass guitar and Brandon Roy sang and what a wonderful voice he has. All are either music teachers or musicians and Brandon is a professional singer with that wonderful booming voice appearing in several shows here and in Toronto. The age group last night was between 25 and 35, the new up and coming generation, in this case talented, fun, full of energy, nice people.

This is not a pity me post but more a sudden realization that I am older now by about 30 years from that generation. I have turned a corner like you do at 20 or 50, life changes and you change. People also react to you differently, I hear references to being older meaning you belong to a different generation. We socialize with people more our age or somewhat older, though I do not necessarily share the same world view. This may have to do with the fact that I travelled around the world and my views are maybe more based on my own life experience in different cultures. If we meet with younger people I am very aware that we may not speak the same language because age can create a distance.

I had pictures taken recently by a professional photographer, the results were quite good, this has to do with a project I will speak of later, looking at them though I thought do I look this old now or is this what people see.

Maybe it is, by looking at pictures at another time in life I see a familiar face at a different time, this is where I am now. Maybe this is why I find the change so shocking in some ways, but then it happens to all of us.

I do not really see myself at 61, it just does not make sense to me. I do not feel older, just the same. I do think from time to time that I may have another 25 years to go, if I look at my close family relations and my parents, if good health holds then another quarter century is not bad. It’s just that everything looks shorter now in terms of time span. One might think that at 30 or 40 you can still think I got decades in front of me, but the reality is that no one can be certain of what they have left.

Maybe this is what comes with age, you know the past, you have experience and your life is shaped by all the years of living. Is this what is meant by, Life changes us, I think it does, we stay the same but life experience and time changes us. So maybe this set of photos are what I do look like today, just make the best of it and move on.

Award!

Tags

Blog awards, Exceptional, Fabulous, Me, Unforgettable

Today a fellow blogger has nominated me for The Liebster Award. Thank you Fearsome Beard for the nomination. https://fearsomebeard.wordpress.com

Most bloggers, at some point, have heard of the very coveted Liebster award, unless you are a newbie!

This award exists only on the internet, and is given to bloggers by other bloggers. But then again I wonder is there a World outside of the Internet?
The origin is German – the word “liebster” has several meanings: dearest, nicest, endearing. The German word for Love is Liebe.

There have been some poor souls who have been nominated, yet refused to accept it, and now their blogs have been abandoned, oh dear!
Other lesser awards include “One Lovely Blog Award, the “Sunshine Blog Award” and the “Flexible Writer Award”.
It is said that the Liebster award was created to recognize and/or discover new bloggers and welcome them to the blogosphere. In the digital world of the internet, this seems like a nice gesture. You can see this award as similar to a book award like The Booker Prize, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Drama, the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction. You see what I mean.

Some rules about the Award

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who awarded you.

3. Copy & Paste the award to your blog.

4. Nominate 7 blogs to receive the award who have less than 6000 followers.

5. Inform them of their nomination by leaving comment on their blog.

Here are the 7 blogs I nominate for the Liebster Award, all are well worth a read, they are well written and each blogger puts a lot of effort in preparing their posts. I really enjoy them, am sure you will too.

1. Stephen in them hills,  http://sooo-this-is-me.blogspot.ca

2. Jason in Fredericton, http://jason-scotchreviews.blogspot.ca

3. Will by the Canal, https://willyorwonthe.wordpress.com

4. Michael in the Wilderness, https://sporeflections.wordpress.com

5. David by the Thames, http://davidnice.blogspot.ca

6. Brett South of the Border, http://ocanadablog.com/about/

7. Mitchell on the Beach, http://mitchellismoving.blogspot.ca