The Powers of YouTube

This is likely to be a short update, because I feel compelled to post and reassure you all that I have not gone crazy with anxiety after my last post, but I don't actually feel I have a great deal to talk about.

To catch up, the anxiety was not the end of my fitness regime, but some recent frustration and depression due to the failure of a plan I had been getting rather invested in is causing some delays - by which I mean I'm upset and lazy and not doing it. For two days after my walking 11 km or so, I had a good excuse - my legs ached amazingly for a while, badly enough that I had to lean on banisters quite a lot while dealing with stairs, and even then walked like a rag doll in order not to bend my knees as much.

What plan, you might ask, was I so invested in? Our plan to move out of the tyrannical and unsupportive... and smelly... lodgings with my boyfriend's father, and into an apartment of our own, shared with another couple who are also facing concerns with their current living arrangements. Well, it turns out that a combination of Ontario Works bureaucracy and time constraints caused the only person involved who actually has any money right now to get cold-footed about investing in future shared living quarters, and back out... as far as I understand it, anyway. So, so much for that. I'd been looking forward to getting out of this mess with desperate excitement, so, I hope you'll understand, this setback has left me very grumbly and irritated.

As to what I've been doing in these precious days that I have not been working out... well... mostly playing either The Binding of Isaac or The Sims 3, and watching YouTube videos, as you might have guessed, given the title of this post.

Incidentally, I thoroughly suggest The Binding of Isaac to anyone who fancies classic gaming, clever systems of randomly generated level design with a generally tight, functional and simple play style, and things that make you ask "What the fuck is wrong with this game?" while simultaneously awed and disturbed at the imagery and strange content. You will die a lot. Be warned.

I don't particularly suggest The Sims 3, despite many impressive advances to the series, but chances are I really don't have to anyway.

Someone recently demonstrated to me the existence of a person called David Mitchell, who has a YouTube channel on which he occasionally rants about things that annoy him, or brings up things upon which he otherwise wishes to comment or make a suggestion about. The special effects in the visuals are impressive, and so is the wit. If you like my sense of humour (and if you don't, I can't understand why you would be reading my blog), you will probably also enjoy his.

I also, as a result of my partner's habitual browsing of Failblog, which I sometimes also take part in, I very recently discovered someone called C. G. P. Grey, who presents a variety of educational videos on his YouTube channel which are also well-made, delivered with impressive charisma and easy to understand, covering a variety of topics from time management to politics to misconceptions about animals, and even misconceptions about misconceptions (maybe).

And, for something completely different, John Cleese on the Monty Python channel reveals his insight into religion, stupidity, and the recently released game Skyrim, in this video.

Hopefully some of you find these links interesting and can forgive their contents for taking up most of my attention of late. I'll talk to you again once I have something new to say... Or possibly before then, if I feel, again, like I should do so.