#864 Still testing MIKE - Let me bore you to sleep Jason Newland) (15th July 2022)

Hello and welcome to jasonnewland.com. My name's Jason Newland and this is Let Me Bore You To Sleep. Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. Now, I don't know, you might not have listened to the last couple of recordings you might have done.

So, yesterday's recording I used a new microphone. The day before I started using the Zoom L8, whatever it's called, which is a recording studio digital recorder. And today I'm using both together.

No, I've already used both together. No, this isn't the first time. I'm arguing with myself.

This isn't the first time. I've done both together before. Why am I making it up? Why am I just randomly? No, I did.

I used it last night. Yeah, I did. Yeah.

Oh, okay. Anyway, I'm just still kind of playing with it. Well, just, you know, to get used to the settings as it were.

Now, I managed to get the, there's a thing called a shock bracket or shock thing that you put the microphone into. I couldn't figure out how to work it. And I couldn't fit the, couldn't fit the end into the hole.

And I went on YouTube and tried to figure out how it was. And I thought, I'll just watch YouTube tutorial. And there was something so simple that I didn't realize there was a tiny little hole where the thing fitted in.

Like there was just, it just, I can't really explain it, but there's a little bump on the microphone and a little hole in the hole, an extra little hole in the side where it slides in. It's like, oh, okay. I didn't even, I didn't even notice that.

I didn't even see it. Honest. Or never.

So basically, I'm just, I've now got the shock, I can't even know what they call it, the shock thing on there. Now I want to test. Okay.

So if I press the play button, it pauses the recording. That's good to know. It's very good to know, because I'm probably going to have to pause for a little while.

So I was happy how the recording turned out yesterday and the day before, actually. But yesterday with the new mic and the microphone I've got is a broadcasted mic, the kind of mic that they use on a radio. So, you know, admittedly, I haven't got all the sound technology that you'd have on a radio station, but I'm hoping that it all works out fairly good.

And tomorrow I've got a pop filter coming. So when I go, it shouldn't pop, pop, like that. It should pop.

Like I'm saying pop, but I've got my hand in front of the thing. So you can probably still hear me say pop, but it's not as clear as it would be if I had my mouth there. So it should.

This is what professionals use. I know I'm not professional, but hey, hey ho, there might be snow. So I thought, yeah, I'll get a pop filter, because this microphone, you have to talk directly into the end of it.

You might think, well, isn't that how all microphones work? No, it's not. Some microphones, you actually have them standing up when you're talking to the side of them. Some microphones, they basically, they pick your voice up wherever you are.

So they'll, the microphone is in the side and in the end and wherever. So this is, the microphone is in the side and supposedly kind of a little bit to the sides and the front, but just at the end, basically. I've done a little bit of research on the microphone and learned a bit about it.

One thing, and I'm mentioning this because I've got my windows open because it's a hot day. Earlier on, it was, there's a lot of sound. I think the school kids were getting out of school and there's lots of neighbors and kids and, you know what I mean? It's just like normal, normal kind of activity for that time of the day.

And I was using or testing this microphone with the other setup that I used to have. And the Scarlett thing and the, you know, the things that I used to have going into the iPad and the microphone did pick up quite a lot of that stuff in the background. Now I'm not sure how much it's going to pick up this end using this system.

Not so sure. So this is kind of a tester for that. I've got the windows open.

It's still daytime. So I've just gone five o'clock, there's people around and I'm wondering how much of the background sound will get picked up because the microphone is designed really to only focus on what's in front of it. And it picks up what's in the background, but it kind of purposely, that's why I need a pop filter, purposely ignores it.

So tomorrow I'll have the pop filter, which means there shouldn't be any more any of that stuff. I'm trying to, I'm trying, I'm trying to lean back a little way away from the microphone so as not to pop it. But hopefully once I get the pop filter, I'll be able to get close enough, do the whispers and go just, you know, just do everything like normal with a good quality sound.

I hope. That's what I hope. That's what I'm hoping.

It's really weird. I've got the dog, I've got my friend's dog and he's been out. I looked after him for the day and he's been like, his ears have been twitching every time a car pulls up and he's lying on the floor.

His dad is here now. He's downstairs. I just heard him come in.

The dog's not making any, any, you know, like dogs are supposed to notice when you get home. Nothing. He's just laying there.

He's not asleep and it's weird. It's like I can hear his daddy, so he should be able to because dogs have got much better hearing than humans, as far as I'm aware. It's strange, isn't it? It's strange, unless he's just so bored from listening to me that he's almost like just zonked out and you've got no idea where he is.

That might be the case. Okay, fair enough. Are you saying I'm boring? Yes, I am and you are.

Yes, you are. Sorry about that, but you are. No, I'm not.

Yes, you are. Yes, I'm not. You are.

Oh, don't say that. But you are, you know. Very boring.

So yeah, bit by bit, I will learn how to use this old thingamajig recording stuff. But it's, see, I'm not even sure what was the issue. If it was the microphone, whether it was the setup I had, but I was having problems with it.

I'm gone and bought a microphone for fun, or that Zoom digital recorder, just for the hell of it. I was just having so many problems with the recordings. They just weren't coming out right.

There was clicks, there was all kinds of stuff. And I'm still, even though I've tested them, I'm still not sure what it was. It was not working properly.

I was thinking, is it the microphone? Because I took it on holiday with me. Then I did have it in a case, like a proper case that should have protected it. Unless, because I used to, I left it out in a hotel, unless one of the cleaners accidentally knocked it on the floor.

In fact, I think I might have knocked it on the floor. And these microphones are fairly sensitive. So I think I might have damaged the microphone, or it got damaged somewhere along the line.

So I'm not sure if I really want to sort of take this mic anywhere, because this is a better mic than the one I had. Well, I've still got it. But so that will, that will now be my, my backup mic.

My other mic, the Shure, which is like the same family as the other Shure microphone, is the one I use for making videos. So that's already set up. And I just plug that into my phone, and I can make videos.

Sound quality is really good. So that's perfect for videos. So that's all set up there.

I've moved my desks around, so they're all facing the wall. So the idea of this is for me to have the microphone facing away from the window. Now what I could do, Technic Alley, is use my storage room as a recording studio.

And I was going to do that six, seven years ago when I first moved in there. And then we have mice, and there's mice coming and going and like, oh, the idea of being in this that little room and, and then I need it for storage, because I got quite a few bits and bobs. It's good for that.

That's what it's for. And then the idea of like, oh, I'm to set it up and put foam on the walls and put some carpet in because it's an echoey room. It's not big, but it's quite big, you know, for a storage room.

And I've, I've lived in, I've actually lived in, in rooms that weren't much bigger than that. I in the past, but now I'm rethinking that maybe I will do that maybe. But then where am I going to put my stuff? I don't know.

I just have to think it through. And the benefit of that is that it will be technically a lot quieter, potentially a lot quieter than in this room. So let's say if there's something going on in the garden, I won't hear it if I'm in that storage room, but then it's closer to the front door.

So if there's any doors slamming, which there quite often is, or if there's people walking up and down the stairs and stuff, I'm going to pick that stuff up, which I don't so much in this room or anything. And also that room is at the front of the building. So there's air vents, which obviously go outside.

So I can hear the traffic and they would need to be blocked up. Not for the time, but just when I was in there, which means I wouldn't have any much in the way of the air. That sounds a bit negative, doesn't it? Like all the reasons why it wouldn't work, but I'm not sure.

Really, really not sure. Why have I got a message? Oh, Logie's... Okay. Well, his dad's back, but he hasn't come up to get his dog.

I wonder why that is. Probably enjoying not having to deal with the dog. He wants a bit more time.

Bless him. So yeah, everything's good. Everything's coming together eventually.

And hopefully I can build upon this. And although I maybe build upon my knowledge and improve my knowledge of production and editing and all that stuff. But I kind of just want to make recordings.

Don't know how much energy I want to put into production. And well, I guess I'm putting quite a lot of energy into the production because this is the production, isn't it? The actual recording itself. So yeah, I put a lot of time into this.

A lot of time, a lot of thought. And I'm not sure. We'll just see.

I see how this recording ends up, how it sounds when I've put it through its paces and edited it and all that stuff. I'm still using the online editor, which raises it to a volume that's acceptable for podcasts. However, I'm looking at ways of doing that myself because that's costing £100 a month for that service.

I do get 100 hours to edit, but the hours don't pass over to the next month. So, you know, I thought about, shall I go into backdated recordings and change those so that they are louder as well? It just seems like an awful lot of work. Maybe that is lazy, but it's, you know, for every hour I spend working on an old recording, that's an hour I could have been making a new recording or watching telly or playing with a cactus, you know, whatever.

Yeah, I don't know. A friend went to see Elvis at the cinema, came home. He said, I went and saw Elvis at the cinema.

I said, stop. Don't tell me. Don't ruin it for me.

I don't want to know what happens. So, I might not watch it at the cinema, but I think I'm going to wait till it comes out on streaming. I would like to see it.

A big, big old Elvis fan, me. Now, some pedantic people say Elvis. Elvis who? What, Elvis Costello? You need to be specific.

You mean Elvis Aaron Presley? Yes, Elvis Aaron Presley. Not Elvis Costello. Not Elvis the Builder from Grimsby.

It's Elvis Presley. When I was a kid, I'm talking like teenage, late teenage years, maybe, I don't know, maybe 14, 15, 16 or something. There was a lad, he was older than me, and everyone called him Elvis because he dressed like Elvis, like a young Elvis.

He was young, I mean, probably in his early 20s. And he dressed, you know, he had his hair like Elvis. He had his leather jacket, blue jeans.

I'm not sure if he had blue suede shoes or not. I'm not sure if they even exist anymore. Not his shoes, but just did his shoes made of suede anymore? I don't know.

I really don't. I've never even given that any thought. Wow.

Because that's an important question, isn't it? I'm sure a lot of you are thinking, wow, I've been thinking about that for years. At last, someone else has said it out loud. Are there any more blue suede shoes out there? Are they made anymore? I don't know.

I'm glad that I can bring people together. You know, the blue suede shoes gang, we could call ourselves. We could meet up every 55 years.

Let's make this the first meeting and then we'll meet in another 55 years. Okay. Yeah.

I'll meet you in the park at 1030. I'll be the one carrying the biscuits. Please bring some coffee and a flask.

Yeah. What am I talking about? I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I was born under a wandering star. Oh, that's nice.

Yeah. It's the weekend. Nearly it's Friday today.

Saturday, tomorrow, then it's Sunday, then it's Monday. Hasn't really been super hot today. It's been warm.

I went out in the garden a little bit earlier, sat in the, well I sat in the garden, in a chair. It's easier to get up from than the floor. And the sun was shining on me, as often does in the summer.

I bet you some of you out there again are thinking, I'm glad you said that out loud. I've noticed the sun shines on me, but I just didn't know whether to say it or not. But you hearing you say it out loud makes me feel more confident just to express myself concerning the weather.

Good. Good. I'm glad you got something out of it.

It makes me feel wonderful. Wonderful inside. So yeah, the boxing's on tomorrow night.

So that should be okay. Watch that. BT sports, boxing, 6.30 in the evening till midnight apparently.

It's quite a long day, isn't it? Quite a long evening. And then it's boxing again in the early hours of the morning at about three o'clock. Hey, hey, what do you want? What do you want? The doggie, doggie wants.

What do you want, doggie, doggie? What do you want, doggie, doggie? I don't normally call him doggie, just let you know that it's a dog. If it was a parrot, I'd be going, what do you want, parrot, parrot? What do you want, parrot, parrot? And relax. What's up, baby boy? Want to go wee-wees? Want to go poo-poos? What he wants is biscuits.

I want biscuits now. He is a bottomless pit when it comes to biscuits. You love the bickies, don't you? You love biscuits, don't you? Although I was eating a chocolate bar earlier and he really wanted it, but he can't have chocolate.

You're not allowed to have chocolate, are you? No, it's on a diet. I'm guessing that's why. Oh, you're so poorly done, boy.

It's been at least 10 minutes since you last had a biscuit, isn't it? At least 10 minutes since you last had a little treat. You do realise if you have them too regularly, they're no longer a treat. He's climbing up on me now.

Hey, he's trying to look onto the desk to see if there's any biscuits or any sweets. Let me see if I've got something in my pocket I can give him. Oh, I do.

I've got a Worthington Original. Oh, that's not nice to do that. You should wait until you've eaten the chocolate.

Well, it's not chocolate. It's a sweet, isn't it? I don't know if it's a... It's not a boiled sweet. It's more like a toffee, kind of hard toffee, isn't it, really? Oh, he's just helped himself.

It was in my hand, but it's not in my hand anymore. Oh, that's a good boy. Yeah.

And now he's grabbing the wrapper just in case. I mean, what? You grab the wrapper, then you leave it on the floor. He didn't even chew it.

Didn't even... And it's like a hard sweet. It's not a soft sweet. Didn't even chew.

He just swallowed it whole. I don't know what... What does he get out of that? Unless he gets pleasure from his tummy. I don't know.

I mean, the main... It's not one of the main reasons for eating sweeties and candy and chocolate and biscuits and, you know, stuff like that is because of the taste. The taste. If you just swallow it whole, there's no taste, is there? Is there? I don't know.

Ask a shark. Ask a snake. I don't know.

I don't eat things whole. I chew. It's kind of important.

Gotta chew, baby. Gotta chew. That's what the teethies is for.

I'm boring myself. It's amazing. I really am.

I think I'm becoming more boring as a person. I mean, you know, when I started these podcasts a thousand years ago, it was almost like tongue in cheek, you know, let me bore you to sleep. I don't think I really believed that I was boring.

Boring. But now... Yeah, I think I might really, really be boring. Like, like really, really boring.

Never mind. Never mind. I'll tell you what's... Channel 4 has started... They've stopped showing episodes of Cheers on weekdays.

Now they started, I think it was last Monday, not this Monday gone, but last Monday, the one before, the last one, last week. They started showing Third Rock from the Sun. Is it Third Rock from the Sun? Monday to Friday.

And then Saturday and Sunday, they're showing episodes of Cheers. So they're not showing it you know, they're now showing Third Rock from the Sun, but they're skipping through them. They're not showing every episode.

Not showing every episode. And I'm not sure why. Not sure why.

I mean, you know, if they're showing, they're showing two episodes a day in the morning, 6.35 in the morning and then another one straight after. With a couple of adverts in between. So that's 10 episodes a week.

I don't know how many episodes of Third Rock from the Sun were made, but I'm guessing not that many. Not... Well, obviously there was that many. It's more than 10.

But now they've shown 20 episodes in the last two weeks. So even if there's, I don't know, four seasons or five seasons, it's still going to get through it really quickly. They're getting through a season.

In fact, the very last episode of the first season was the first episode today, because Friday today. And then the second episode was supposed to be... Well, I figured it'd be the first episode of the second season. But then they did a recap of loads of stuff that I've not seen happen.

Now, whether that is how they did it, because they just didn't want to show that stuff. They just, you know, originally in the 90s when they made the TV show, whether that's how they opened the second season, by just skipping forward, I don't know. But yeah, it was kind of a strange way to do it.

But it was a really funny... I don't know, it's not everybody's type of comedy, but I find it funny. I do. I found it funny in the 90s.

I'm not sure if I've ever seen it since the 90s, but I find it funny now. It's silly. It's slapstick comedy.

It's just funny. And John Lithgow, whatever his name is, he's funny. And the other bloke, well, they're all funny, but it's basically the adults are the funnier ones.

The kid is, you know, he makes the team well, he makes it up, but he's not, in the show, he's not kind of a funny character. But the man who's Lithgow's, whatever, supposed to be his brother, I think, in the show, he's funny. But he took a little bit of warming up for me.

It took a bit of warm, getting to warm up to him, because it was a bit silly. And then they just gave him some funny lines. And he's a very good comedy actor.

And I remember years ago, it's, I think, I think, I'm going to check this on my phone. Where is it? I don't know. Where is my phone? That's weird.

My phone has disappeared. I have no idea where it is. Anyway, the Stooges or the Three Stooges, the movie that was, I don't know, 10 years ago, maybe.

I think that had him in that movie, I think. I think. But I have to check my phone.

But I don't know where my phone is. Where's my phone? It's gone. It's gone.

I don't know where. So yeah. So I've been watching that every day.

I just seem to wake up at six o'clock every morning. Or before six. Almost.

Doesn't even matter what time I go to bed. I just seem to wake up at that time. And then maybe, you know, maybe I do have my breakfast.

And sometimes I'll just go back to bed. Like after an hour, hour and a half, two hours. It's just, you know, it's how it is.

I suppose. Oh, I've got itchy shoulders. I guess it's just, yeah, it's not really a big issue.

Not a big issue. Trying to think what's going on in the news that I can actually talk about. There's nothing, is there? There's no, like, happy stories.

Let's just chuck some happy stories. Just, there needs to be an alternative to the news. Because there's so many amazing things happening.

That was loud, wasn't it? So many amazing things happening around the world. I mean, there are. It's not a guess.

It's true. I don't know what. But, you know, there's so many people giving out food to people, helping people, building schools for, you know, charity stuff.

Just kindness. And people just on a kind of really micro, small level. Well, that was quite loud.

That was loud. Yeah, you know, so someone passing an exam or getting the all clear from a medical test or having a baby or, you know, just these kind of small things that are, I guess, in some ways irrelevant to the whole world. Still beautiful individual stories.

And I think it'd be quite nice to have an evening program or a daily program just for an hour. It just goes through just even if people think it's boring. But just like showing positive stuff.

Showing that some people, you know, if it's, you know, Tracy or Bob got into university or, you know, syphilis or not syphilis. That's not a proper name, is it? Physilis is just raised, you know, like she might be five years old. She's raised £100 for charity by swimming or jumping in and out of a puddle a thousand times.

So, you know, it's like just little stories like that. It's just nice. And people have got a job.

They've gone for a job and they got the job. Someone's celebrating getting their first paycheck or, you know, someone may be winning some money. Perhaps interviews with people on holiday.

Like, yeah, I'm having a really good time. It's really nice here. That'd give the TV program a chance to advertise as well, wouldn't it? Like, well, we're at Butlins or we're in Disney World in Europe, Europe's Disney World.

And Bob and Tracy, because everyone's called Bob and Tracy around here. I don't know why. Bob and Tracy or Bob and Bob and Tracy and Steve and Harold or whatever.

They're on holiday. They won't be able to go on holiday for five years because of whatever, you know, they've been raising a monkey or whatever. And now they're on holiday and it's it's great.

They're really enjoying themselves. And, you know, it's nice little things like that. Or maybe a gerbil gives birth to triplets.

The other seven died. No, it gives birth to triplets. It's like, don't show the birth because, you know, we're trying to keep it nice and happy.

It's like, oh, that's nice. Look how happy that small child is or the adult is. I mean, I'm sure if I had a gerbil and my gerbil gave birth, I'd be the proudest grandfather in the world.

The whole world. Or someone having just had their last session of counseling and saying, oh, I feel so much better. I really, you know, it was tough, but I just I now I now realize that, you know, there's a future ahead of me and I can I've got things to look forward to.

You know, just little things, although it's not a little thing for that person, it's a huge thing for that person and maybe those that are connected to that person. What an amazing thing, you know, what a great opportunity to share those these true stories, but package it in a really positive way. I think that would be nice.

And maybe it would be boring. I don't know. I'm not sure how what people like or don't like, really.

Clearly, I've got no idea. But wouldn't it be, you know, just I'm just thinking if if someone grows up into that and they're a kid and that's on all the way through their childhood and they get to see all this positive stuff, eventually it could transform society and make society more positive. I'm talking about my own society.

I mean, I don't know where it is you are, but where I live, it could really do with a big old boost of positivity, a bit of, you know, niceness, a bit of compassion, a bit of just focusing on the nice things, the groovy things that happen and have happened and will happen, focusing on the the benefits of what's going on. The benefits of the weather or what the weather is going to be, you know, just like, oh, it's going to rain. Brilliant.

We get a chance to fill the paddling pool on the roof or whatever. You know what? I don't know. Everyone's got their own lives.

So, yeah, I just think it would be, I mean, it's weird because I remember, so in Thailand, you're still talking about Thailand. When it rains, it's a huge deal to them. It's a real big deal when it really rains and it rains hard as well.

It's a big deal. So, to someone from England, it's not, it's nothing. Like, rain is not scary to someone like me.

I have no fear of rain because I've been, I've lived with it for 50 odd years. Now, when they have rain, they proper, they get flooded and everything. So that's a different thing.

But the actual rain itself, like, I remember walking and everyone was just running to get inside. I'm just walking down the road, like, it's just rain, it's water. And I thought, what is this, like the Wizard of Oz, are they all just like witches and it's going to start melting or something? Really? I was like, what? Why are you all so scared of the rain? It's just water.

But yeah. But it's rain. Yeah.

It's going to mess my hair up. So, how does that affect me? Now, I understand if you've got a certain hairstyle that you've spent hours putting together and water will ruin that hairstyle. Fair enough, I do.

I used to be vain about my hair when I was 19. 18, 18. Yeah, 18, actually, not 19.

18, beginning of 19. Then I let myself go. But 18, I let myself go at 19.

I did. I was obsessed with my hair at 18. It might sound a weird thing to say, but it's true.

It's true. It might sound weird. It's not as weird as, you know, it's weirder things to hear.

And I used to sit in front of a mirror for a long time. So, I'd wash my hair every day and I would spend ages in front of the mirror styling my hair. I'd have mousse after mousse.

And I don't mean the animals. I'm talking about mousse or the dessert. I'm talking about hair mousse.

I don't know what it's called, but mousse. You spray it and it's a big blob of white mousse. And I used to put it in my hair and with the hairdryer and keep trying to style my hair so it was, well, how I wanted it to be.

But I wasn't really sure how I wanted it. But I wanted it straight because I had curly hair. I wanted it back, but I didn't want it greasy.

I wanted to look greasy. And how cool would it be? You know, people that make vlogs and videos of their life and stuff. Now, I know some people think it's like sad.

And I used to do it myself. I used to make vlogs and stuff, but some people were like, but can you imagine how cool it would be in 30 years time? So, when someone's my age, to be able to look back at videos of when they were like 12, 13, 15, 20, 25, 27, 30, whatever, you know, be able to look back all the way through that time and watch videos of themselves and see how they've changed and see what kind of opinions they had when they were little. And then when they were kind of starting to grow up, and then when they got to middle-aged, like, you know, just to see how they've changed, not just physically, but also kind of mentally, personality wise.

So yeah, there's, I think there's quite an advantage of doing vlogs. Now, I've got some vlogs from years and years and years ago. Probably going back to like 10 years, probably, but I deleted a lot of stuff, a lot of my vlogs gone.

But there's, there's a vlog and it's not a particularly good vlog. It's just me. I used to call them updates, didn't call them vlogs back then.

And this is in 2008. And I've moved in the December, November 2007, to closer to where I was studying. And I was in this little room.

And I remember I had a Buddha statue on the windowsill, inside windowsill. And I made this video, I don't know if I had a camcorder, it probably wasn't, it was probably a webcam or something. Didn't have phones back then that had good video.

And I just remember I made an update just saying, well, I've moved now and I'm at college now, blah, blah, blah, you know, and just, it's, it's still online. I think about four people have watched it. And it's on one of the, I think it's, is it Metacafe? Something like that.

It's one of these video sites that no one uses, no one, you know, but it's still there. It's a few of my videos from back that time. And, and it's also, it's just, it's weird to see me, to see myself aged 40, 37, not 47, 37 years old.

So what's that? 14, 37, 47, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51. So yeah, 14, nearly 15 years. Well, 14, 15 years soon, because it's what, July now, August, September, October, November.

So four months, it'll be 15 years. And it's weird. It's kind of see myself then, and then see other videos I made, you know, like 2011, and just see how I changed from then.

And then then go and look 2000 and, and go by different rooms I was living in. So then 2014, I was making videos, and see how I changed at that point. And then I moved in here 2015 or whatever.

So you see how I changed during the period I've been here. So I've been here was seven years. And it's, you know, it's just weird.

I'd love to have videos of me, or to have had, you know, smartphones when I was a teenager. So I could have just kept a journal. And if I'd had a smartphone, if they was around, back in the 90s, when I was, when I moved to London.

So I was actually writing journals, I would 100% made videos. If YouTube had been around and smartphones had been around, I'd have had a YouTube channel in the 90s. 1000%.

It might not have been very popular, but I would have had one. Oh, yes. I think I'd have enjoyed it.

I'd have had a laugh. I would have done. And I could have took the could have took it to the comedy clubs I went to and just had fun.

And it'd be so cool to be able to watch myself now, but to look back at that. To see myself, you know, in my early 20s, or to watch me talking before my even before, you know, when I had a, well, some would say I still have a squeaky voice, but you know, when I was like 12, 13, before my voice broke, when I was 24. So you know, it'd be so cool, wouldn't it? Don't you think? So I think anyone listens to this.

And if you're making vlogs, even if you if you got a smartphone, even if you don't want anyone to see it, and you don't want to put it on YouTube, it might be worth just making a video, you know, once a week or once a month, or just even once a year on New Year's Eve on your birthday, just make a little video, wishing yourself a happy birthday, and just saying the date. And then, you know, just saving that video somewhere. It doesn't have to be perfect.

You don't have to do it anyway. I'm just saying it's, it just be going to be interesting to just watch each year. So just do it every year.

And then in 20 years time, look back. And like, wow, because I look back now. And I thought I was old then.

I thought I looked old then. And some could argue I did. But compared to now, I look young.

And it wasn't long ago that I had no gray hairs. And my beard, because I've had a beard pretty much the whole most of my adult life, most of it, I've had a beard. And I didn't have any gray in my beard.

I had ginger, but no, no gray. The ginger hairs are the ones that turned gray first. And it's just, I just got videos of me talking.

I'm thinking, I think I didn't always have gray. I have gray in my beard. Look at my beard.

Where's the gray hairs gone? Where's the gray little streak thing at the front of my head? I think it's called hair. Yeah, I know it's called hair. I now got a bald patch at the back of my head.

Ah, I just can't, I can't get my head around. And the weird thing about it, and I've had this, I've said this for years and years and years, even going back long before I even started doing this stuff, you know, videos and audios and what have it. In the year, I think 2002, I started shaving my head.

Or was it 2003? No, it was 2003. I started shaving my head. And I guess partly because I started going to the Buddhist center and, oh, the dog has farted really badly.

Oh, man. Oh, oh, wow. I sent him to the garden for him to do a poo and just wait until he's done it because that is bad.

In fact, I'm looking at the carpet to see if he has done one. That is the worst, one of the worst farts I've ever smelt in my life. And as you know, I never fart myself, but he, oh, and they're silent.

He does the, you know, the deadly ones, silent. He's like a, he's basically, he's, he's a ninja of the farting world, just jumps in and then just disappears before you know it. All he left was with just this musky green fog.

Now that can't be good for my lungs. Seriously, it can't be. So even though, I remember back in the day, back in the day, I used to think, if I ever go bald, it won't affect me at all.

And I used to say this to my Nan, doesn't matter because I shaved my head. My Nan hated it when I bought it. She said, oh, we've got such lovely hair, got such lovely hair.

Do you want a cup of tea, cheese sandwich, scone, roll cake, got such lovely hair. And she didn't say, but she said, sorry, why do you, why do you shave it all off when it's such, you've got such lovely hair? And admittedly, I did kind of have quite nice hair, in a sense of it was thick and curly, but not quite what I wanted. It wasn't, wasn't quite, wasn't quite what I ordered for Christmas, if you know what I mean.

I would have much rather had straight hair. And I'm happy having dark hair. Well, I mean, it's dark for however long it is before it all goes grey, which could be, I mean, some people go grey very quickly, don't they? So I don't know.

I don't know how long it's going to take. I mean, the greys, the greys, it's been a decade. I've been going grey over the last probably more than 10 years, and it still hasn't really spread that much.

And so I don't know, I might not be fully grey until I'm 60, or even 70, I don't know. And my dad was, he had the salt and pepper hair, you know, I don't mean literally made of salt and pepper. You know, people didn't come around, so the local chip shop didn't turn up saying, uh, Jason's dead, uh, I said you could borrow your hair for a minute.

Could we just run out of salt and pepper? No, because that would be silly. He, see, it kind of was dark, but grey, it wasn't grey. He's now got white, he's got lovely hair, my dad.

He really has. I know it might sound a bit like I'm being a bit too romantic, talking about my dad's hair, but he has got really good hair. But he hasn't got curly hair, he's got quite straight hair.

But saying that, I've never seen him grow it long. He's always had it quite short. But then I have seen him with pictures of him from the 70s, and he did have quite, he had quite curly hair.

Yeah, yeah, thinking about it, maybe, but he keeps it fairly short. Like I grew my hair long, all the way down to the back of my, back of my, the middle of my back, in the early 90s. And I had it in a ponytail, but it was very curly.

It was, I didn't know there was such a thing as straightener. You know, that foam that you can straighten your hair. I, even though I used it for designing my hairstyle when I was 18, I didn't know you could use it with long hair to keep it straight.

And if I'd known that, I'd probably still have straight hair. But I'd probably also have receded a lot. I say that because I've known so many people that had long hair, and they end up going thinner at the front.

And I'm, I don't know how much that is, because when the hair's in a ponytail, it's pulling on the roots, isn't it? And maybe as a person gets older, it weakens the roots. I don't know. But I haven't had a ponytail since, I think it was July or June, too fat, no, June 1994.

I remember having my hair cut that day. And going to a pub that night and getting lucky with a lovely lady. Although all my friends that were there with me the next day said, oh, so are you seeing Pat Butcher again? What? And they just found it hilarious, keep calling her Pat Butcher, which is a character from EastEnders.

And I said, no, she's nothing like Pat Butcher. And yeah, she wasn't. She wasn't anything like that.

She's nice. I liked her. And I didn't see her again.

But I talked to her on the phone once. I think she hung up on me. I don't know what it was.

I said, I probably made a joke. No, I said to her, she said, oh, what are you doing Saturday? I said, why? She said, well, perhaps we'll go out for the day. I said, are you going to bring Ricky and Janine with you? And she hung up.

So I guess she must not have been the first person to have said that to her. That's a joke. I mean, blimey.

I didn't think. It might be the earrings. They were the biggest earrings.

I mean, I actually thought it was a swing. That's how we met. I was swinging on.

I thought it was a swing in the pub. And then she looked down at me and said, hello, get out of my pub. And I was like, oh, Frank, Frank, Ricky, Bianca, Janine.

I forgot about Bianca. I met Bianca once. She was in Stratford and she was in the bakery.

And she's not, her real name's not Bianca, but she, she came in, she looks the same, looks the same in person as she does on the telly. And a lot of people don't. I've met a few people off the telly and some people really know nothing like what they look like on telly and is, yeah.

I wanted to say hello to her, but I think people should be able to just buy their cakes and bread without being hassled by fans, you know. And I was a big, big EastEnders fan when I was younger. I don't even watch it anymore, but I used to, used to watch it.

Yeah. Every episode right from the early days, 85 or whatever, when it started. And I watched it all the way through my late teens, my twenties, probably most of my thirties.

And I think over the last 10 years of, I've come and gone with it and just, I don't know, it's just not, okay, it's not totally true. Okay. Maybe the last five years I've sort of stepped back from watching EastEnders.

And there's some surprises about the show. I mean, one thing is one of the best characters is Mick. And I thought that he was going to be, I didn't think he was going to be any good doing that as like working in EastEnders, but he's such a lovely character in the show.

He's so um, compassionate and comes across really well. And I guess that's just the fact that he's a just really good actor. I just didn't realize.

Um, and some people might laugh at what I said, but yeah, he's been in some, like in a few years back, he's been in some quite memorable moments where he's just, I know it's the script. He doesn't, you know, decide what he's going to say, I'm sure. But he's, he's done a good job of that.

But I think Phil, Phil Mitchell, I'm surprised that he's still the, like the top of the roost or the head tough man when I just thought someone else would have come along and knocked him off his perch by now. Maybe they have. I haven't watched it for a few weeks.

I watched, I watched a couple of episodes a couple of weeks back and I mean, they set it up so that his son was going to be like another tough guy and he was always getting into trouble and all that stuff. But they've kind of gone a different, completely different way with him. And he's, he couldn't really get any further away from being like his dad.

He's just not, he's not this tough guy that Phil Mitchell is. They need to bring back, what's his name, Grant, at least once more, but for something really good. Bring him back, just have a, like a really big old thing.

I don't know what, but something big. Anyway, I'm just talking just for the sake of it now, which is nothing new really, is it? So the doggie wants to go for poo. So I'm going to take him out in the garden.

I'll speak to you later. Thanks for listening and remember to be kind to yourself because you deserve to be happy. Lots of love.

Bye.