Friday, April 22, 2022
6:06 a.m. Room 1102, Phannu House
Mae Sot, Thailand
I had an interesting day yesterday. My plan was to return to the Mae Sot General Hospital for another run at tracking down a covid-19 booster shot. And since I was going for that walk, I decided to take a GoPro with me and shoot a video. My original idea was to simply record a few brief thoughts in the way of a life update and then focus on my experience at the hospital. However, I then had the impulse to walk to the hospital via a new route and explore a new part of the city. I looked at Google Maps, and I realized that a smaller road ran parallel to the main road where Phannu House is located. And I didn’t think I’d ever walked down that road. It started at the busy road near the busy intersection by the noodle shop, and it continued to the main public market. Starting there meant going a bit out of my way. I’d be walking away from the hospital for the first half a kilometer rather than toward it, but I was fine with that.
I also decided to make this an all-GoPro affair. I mounted my GoPro Hero 9 on the Jaws Flex Clamp as usual, and I put the Hero 7 on the chest harness, which I wore underneath my shirt. I’ve already edited and uploaded the video, and I have to say that I was pleased with how this experiment worked out. The simple fact of having a GoPro mounted unobtrusively on my chest made a large difference in terms of what I was comfortable filming and what kind of footage I ended up with.
For example, I stopped at a table to buy some homemade potato chips. This table was sitting on the street outside a residential home. And with a GoPro (or the Panasonic G85) in my hand, I wouldn’t have filmed that. But I let the Hero 7 on my chest record the encounter. Later on, I turned on the Hero 7 when I entered the hospital grounds, and I was able to record an interesting sequence of the women there telling me about the upcoming vaccination clinic on May 3rd. Finally, in a neighborhood near the hospital, I was invited by a friendly young man to take a seat inside the porch area of his house and get out of the sun. This man happened to speak some English, and I was able to record my conversation with him. I suppose there is the issue of whether it is right and proper for me to record these interactions (and post them to YouTube) without them even knowing that a camera was running. However, I guess I employ some discretion about what I post. I am self-censoring in advance, and I know I would only post these interactions if they were positive in tone. If I accidentally recorded bad things that put these people in a bad light, I doubt I would include it in the video. I’m fairly confident that these people would all generally be pleased to find themselves featured in a video. There is nothing negative or embarrassing in those conversations or interactions.
From a technical point of view, I was also pleased with the results. I did not have a microphone attached to the Hero 7. Yet, the audio was usable. Wearing the chest harness against my skin underneath my shirt was not uncomfortable. In fact, I was barely aware that it was there. The field of view of the Hero 7 on the Wide setting was pretty good. I also enjoyed using the lightweight Hero 9 as opposed to the Panasonic G85. And from what I’ve seen of the video during the editing, the video quality of the Hero 9, even at 1080p, is perfectly acceptable. I’d say it’s actually quite good, and shooting with the G85 might not have improved it much.
As I walked, I focused on a few topics. First of all, I concentrated on anything new that I encountered on this new street and in these new neighborhoods. I also talked a lot about my experiences with the recent YouTube Premieres. And a theme developed of the range of seemingly abandoned and empty houses and other buildings around Mae Sot. Then came the hospital visit. After the hospital, I concentrated on exploring the Muslim neighborhood nearby. The video is quite long at ninety minutes, but at least it contains quite a variety of topics and images and interactions.
The most interesting sequence in the video centers on the man who invited me into his home. He was running a kind of gambling or lottery business from the table at his home. I had never come across this before, but apparently, there are lotteries based on just two-digit numbers. I don’t understand the exact mechanics, but people can bet small amounts of cash on simple numbers like 39 or 82 or 11. And if these numbers are generated by special apps, they win. While I sat with this man, people from the neighborhood appeared in a steady flow to announce their lucky numbers and pay for their bets. This man kept a meticulous record of their bets in a small notebook, and he made a second copy of their bets on a slip of paper, which he gave to the bettors. There was no need to keep track of their names. The slip of paper served as their receipt or invoice, and if their numbers win, they just have to present that slip of paper to collect their winnings. It was fascinating to get a glimpse into this world.
The editing of the video took far longer than I expected. I was back at Phannu House around two in the afternoon, and my goal was to edit the video and post it on the same day. I thought I had plenty of time to finish the video before seven in the evening. But I missed that deadline by several hours. I will post it today instead.