Wednesday, April 27, 2022
7:20 a.m. Room 1102, Phannu House
Mae Sot, Thailand
I eventually bit the bullet yesterday when it came to opening a Patreon account. I just did it without fully understanding even the first step. And I guess it worked out. There was no way to know this in advance, but it turned out that when you opened an account, the name you used was irrelevant. It showed up nowhere and meant nothing. You didn’t even have to use your legal name as far as I could tell. You could call yourself Daffy Duck at this point, and the Patreon system wouldn’t mind. Later in the process, I was asked for my full legal name on a different form. And there was another place where you chose the name that appears on your Patreon Page itself. And one more place where you chose your custom URL. Those were all the important places where you had to make sure you entered the correct name in the proper form. But when you actually open an account, you can use any name that pops into your head.
Once you open a Patreon account, you are then presented with a series of items in the form of a checklist that you have to take care of. And once you get to the end of the checklist, your Patreon will be fully set up and you can launch it. Again, it was confusing. I wasn’t sure if the list of items in front of me MUST be completed in order to simply establish the account. What I wanted to do was simply open the account by signing up for Patreon. And then I wanted to leave the nuts and bolts for later. But it wasn’t clear if I could just complete a couple of items in this checklist and then save it and come back later to do the rest. I eventually just took the risk and saved what I had done so far. And it worked. All the items I had finished were marked as complete. And the rest were marked as incomplete. And I was able to set them aside for later. I appreciate that, but I wish that they had explained this. Of course, I also had to confirm my email address as part of the process. That’s standard. I just used my Gmail address for that.
I didn’t do much more than that, but it felt like a lot. I realized it would be useful to look around at the Patreon Pages of other YouTubers or podcasters and see how their Patreons are put together. I thought that would give me some ideas, and it did turn out to be quite helpful. I noticed that one person had a tier for $1.50/month. And they attached no perks to this tier. They just called it the “Tip Jar” with the tagline that “Every little bit helps.” That keeps things simple. I noticed that Tyrone Magnus has only two tiers. He has the tip jar tier for $1.50 and then he has a second tier at $9.50. And that one contains all the perks he offers, which is mainly the ability to watch the videos that get copyright claimed on YouTube. And I noticed that he has all these videos right there on Patreon. I’m not sure where they are uploaded to, though. They might be stored on Vimeo, but I’m not sure about that. Something else that Tyrone did is set up a YouTube backup channel. I remember hearing him talk about that in the past. He has this backup channel in case his main channel ever gets deleted by YouTube. And that seems like a good idea. But I haven’t heard of anyone else doing that. And I don’t know how he works out the mechanics. Does he upload a complete copy of all his videos to this channel? Is that allowed by YouTube? It seems like that wouldn’t be allowed. He also has a Cameo account. He has the PayPal donate button set up. And it appears he established himself as a corporation.
Something else I noticed about Patreon is that the donation tiers appear in your local currency. And I think they adjust them by rounding up. For example, I just checked the Patreon page for the CoMainEvent Podcast, and they have three tiers. They didn’t exactly go for interesting names for the tiers, I have to say. They are Acquaintance of the Podcast, Friend of the Podcast, and One of Our Guys (or Girls). For them, that is pretty lazy. But what’s interesting is that when I visit their Patreon, I see the prices in Canadian dollars, and they are $1.50, $7.50, and $13.50. Yet, I’m pretty sure they set their tiers in US dollars. And there is no way their US dollar amounts converted that nicely and evenly into Canadian currency. I’m pretty sure their actual tiers are $1, $5, and $10 in US dollars. And if you apply the actual conversion rate exactly, the Canadian equivalents would be $1.28, $6.40, and $12.81. But they actually show up as $1.50, $7.50, and $13.50. That’s a big jump when you think about it. They rounded up by a significant amount in order to use round numbers. Therefore, for me, since my Patreon page is set to Canadian currency, their tiers cost $1.17, $5.85, and $10.53 US. As a Canadian CoMain Event Podcast patron, I would be paying more than an American patron.
I haven’t really come to grips with any of this, but I’ve slowly been making notes. One idea that occurred to me was to name the tiers using astronomical terms. That would match the Planet Doug theme in a way. The tiers could be named after things like comets, meteors, moons, asteroids, stars, galaxies, supernovas, and things like that. I kind of like the idea. But there are two problems. One problem is that it isn’t perfectly obvious which one is bigger or better than the next in a hierarchy. What order would you put them in from smallest tier to largest tier? A comet is larger than a meteor. But one tends to think of a meteor as being extremely fast and explosive. A moon is far larger than a comet or a meteor, but it is also kind of slow and unimpressive. Being a moon doesn’t sound very good. I’d rather be a meteor than a moon in almost any situation. Plus, these objects are in orbit around planets. And I don’t know that it is a good idea to name your patrons in a way that implies that they are in orbit around you. It’s not a good image.
Another approach would be to adopt the theme of citizenship. But here again, it isn’t 100% clear what type is better than the next. There are words like resident, citizen, inhabitant, member, villager, subject, and my favorite, denizen. But they aren’t interesting words. And it’s not clear what the hierarchy would be. People who go to a new country slowly work their way up to the level of full citizenship. Being a citizen is the best. But I don’t like the tone of these words. Inhabitant and denizen are okay. They don’t come with legal implications, but the others do. I don’t want to define people who watch my videos as citizens. That is getting too close to nationalism and exclusion. I don’t want to invite people to become a citizen of Planet Doug. For me, that implies that they are paying taxes, have to do military service, and must obey the laws of my planet. That’s not the tone I’m going for. I like to think of Planet Doug as a friendly place where people can just hang out if they choose. They are free to come and go as they please. No passports and visas are required to travel around Planet Doug.
Of those two options, I think the first is better. But I would have to choose only words that are all positive or at least neutral: asteroid, meteor, comet, star, supernova, etc. But the theme isn’t quite right. My idea for Planet Doug is not in the sense of it being a planetary body. It’s more about the places on that planet, such as neighborhoods, villages, towns, cities, provinces, states, countries, continents, oceans, mountain ranges.
I’ll have to give this a lot more thought.
Most of my time and energy yesterday went into shooting another 5-Snack-Challenge video. The idea this time was to walk to the water filter to get some water and eat some snacks while going there and returning. It was a bit of a frantic experience for some reason. That could be because it was so hot. And the road was full of traffic. Plus, each snack came up very fast. I included my two noodle shops in the challenge. And that doesn’t quite fit the theme of the challenge, since I knew about these places already and knew about the dishes I had. But I think the items and the places were interesting enough to justify bending the rules.
I first went to the little noodle shop right across the street. I was lucky that it was open. I got my regular bowl of noodles there, and I started calling it the Treasure Hunt noodles because there were so many different items in the bowl. Next door to the restaurant, I bought a bag of what turned out to be pork rinds. I guess that isn’t very exciting as a snack, but it’s what I found. They had some other food items for sale on a table, but none of the others quite fit the bill. I also tried to memorize and then use the Thai phrase for “How much is it?” But I really struggled with that. The expression is something like “Raa kaa tao rye?” And even when I looked directly at these words on my phone and practiced it right before trying to say it, I still couldn’t remember it and got it completely wrong.
My next stop was the second noodle shop. I had my usual duck noodles there. And just down the street from this shop I bought the snack from that husband and wife team that is almost always there. I’ve walked by these people all the time. They sell some kind of snack that they deep fry in a vat of oil. And now that I was doing the 5-Snack Challenge, I had an excuse to stop and finally buy some and try them and learn what they are. I was quite surprised that when I stopped there, the woman gave me a very nice, warm smile. I struggle again with the “How much is it?” question. And even then, I didn’t understand what she said in reply. Her husband then came over, and things got a bit easier. I was able to pay just 20 baht and then let them decide how much of the snack to give me. I figured out later on that you could buy three of the snacks for 10 baht. And since I paid 20 baht, I got a bag of six of them. The husband also told me that these were a type of fried banana. I never would have guessed that.
I sat down in a nearby shady spot to try them with my GoPros running, and I was surprised to discover they were spicy fried bananas. They were very hot and spicy, and I guess that is what made the snack special. I was very glad to solve the mystery of these snacks. But I don’t know that they will become a regular snack for me. There wasn’t much to them other than the extreme spiciness, and I’m not a big fan of really hot food in general.
Around the corner, I got my water, and I kept my GoPro running during this experience. And for my final snack, I stopped at the place that sells fruit and fruit juice. I was always curious about the small bottles of fruit juice that they have on display in a glass box with ice. I tried to use my “How much is it?” phrase. I failed again. But with a calculator, the friendly woman told me that one bottle cost 35 baht. And I could get 3 for 100 baht. You save only 5 baht by buying three, but that’s what I did. I also learned that it was orange juice. And then I found another shady spot to sit down and try a bottle. In the video, I talked about how it was natural freshly-squeezed orange juice. But I was really saying that because that’s how it appeared to me. I thought this place made their own orange juice. And then it would have to be freshly squeezed by them. But now I’m not so sure. The orange juice actually tasted more sweetened than I mentioned in the video. And then I saw the exact same bottles of orange juice at other places around Mae Sot. So they might come from a larger company. And then it might be more processed than I thought. In any event, it was very good. And I have two more bottles in the fridge to enjoy.
I was hoping to blast through the editing process, but that is turning out to be quite slow again. I shot with the Hero 9 in my hand and I had the Hero 7 on my chest. And I have to sort through all this video to figure out which clips to use from which camera. That will take some time.
I also set up what could be the final video Premiere for the Sukhothai Series. I scheduled it for tonight at 7 p.m. And then I guess I will post this 5-Snack Challenge video tomorrow. I assume I will have finished editing it by then.
While I was working yesterday, I had some TV playing in the background. The series Russian Doll came out with a second season. I started watching the first episode. But I realized very quickly that I would enjoy the second season much more with a refresher about the details of the first season. I was going to watch just the final episode of season one to jog my memory. But I ended up watching all of season one again. I enjoyed it just as much as the first time. And I have to say that I couldn’t imagine how it could be extended to a second season. Season one told a complete story. The story was over. It didn’t feel like there was a way to continue the story. And as I watched the first episode of the second season, I could feel how they really had to force this storyline. I’m not convinced that it will work. In fact, I don’t think it will. It doesn’t feel natural. But I love all the characters in the series, so I will just enjoy the characters and let them do whatever they want to do with the story. Who knows? It might turn out to be great.
The third season of Barry also just started. The first episode is out, and I’ve already watched it. I enjoyed it very much. Though just on the edges, I could feel that they also struggled to come up with a way to continue the story. It’s just a little feeling that they had to force the story. It didn’t flow as naturally as the storyline in the first two seasons. I could sense that they told the full story in the first two seasons, and now for season three, they had to do some serious work and thinking to see how the story would move forward. And they came right out of the gate with a serious conflict for Barry. And that conflict is what is supposed to drive the story forward. But that conflict seemed to come out of nowhere. The episode and the season just started with it with a bang. They didn’t set it up or spend any time developing it. It’s just suddenly there with no explanation, and we have to accept that this is what is going on now in Barry’s life. We just have to accept it and move on.
The second season of The Flight Attendant has also just started. That’s another show that also seemed to tell the whole story in the first season. I can’t imagine that there is more story to tell. I think the writers would struggle to come up with a way for the story to continue. I’m willing to bet that it will also seem somewhat false and contrived. But it could work.
Better Call Saul has started season 6. That is amazing. It’s crazy that that show has been going on for as long as it has. I’ve always liked it. I’m curious to see how they continue that story. I guess it’s easier for them because at heart, it’s like a procedural. It’s based on character, of course, but they can also fall back on the idea that Saul Goodman is a lawyer. And he takes on new cases all the time. And they can use those new cases to provide a structure and a plot for new seasons while continuing the show also as a character study. I think that’s why police shows and medical shows and detective shows have always maintained their popularity and longevity. They can introduce new story ideas constantly just by introducing a new patient, a new criminal, or a new client. They have natural storytelling features built right into them.
I finished watching The Thaw. It’s a Polish series. I wouldn’t say that it was must-watch television, but I enjoyed it. There were a lot of echoes of other TV shows and movies. I couldn’t help but think about Silence of the Lambs and Seven as I watched The Thaw. And a fair bit of what happened felt predictable. But I always enjoy these shows because you get to enjoy the show, but you also get a window into another country. I can’t say that I’ve ever seen a TV show from Poland before. And if this show is any indication, Poland is a very sad and depressing place. That might be my biggest takeaway from The Thaw as a viewer: it’s a very depressing show. Everyone in the show is on the edge of a complete mental breakdown due to depression and tragedy. Nobody in this show expresses even the tiniest bit of happiness or joy. I don’t know that there was even a shred of humor either. It was such a depressing show.
I’m also keeping up with the big pop culture shows, such as Halo and Moon Knight. I’m not impressed with either one. They aren’t anything special. Moon Knight has a few touches that I’m enjoying. It’s unusual in some ways. But it still leaves me somewhat unenthusiastic. I’m watching both of these shows because I want to see what happens next, but I’m not fully engaged with any of the episodes or the characters.
Luckily, that isn’t true of the series Slow Horses. That is a show I can heartily recommend to anyone. I’m enjoying it very much. It has a great plot, great characters, and fully engages my interest with every episode. Gary Oldman, is, as they say, chewing up the scenery throughout.
Atlanta has started a third season, and I’m interested in it. But I just haven’t carved out the time to dive into it. Perhaps I will wait until the entire season is available and I can binge watch the whole thing all at once.
And just now, I noticed a brand new show called The Baby. I watched the trailer for it, and it interests me. I believe it is from the UK, and that is always a good sign. I like that the shows from the UK aren’t so concerned with establishing a long-running series. They will tell one story in six to eight episodes. And then it ends. That is usually more satisfying because they don’t waste time trying to set up the next season. And I liked the tone of the trailer. I stopped watching it after just a few seconds because I don’t want to have any of the show spoiled. I want it to be as much of a surprise as possible.