Random Rant

Posted on 28/04/2024 by Grumpa Joe

It is hard to believe that the month of April is almost over. The days seem to be flying past, and it is like looking out a high-speed train window and watching the scenery blur past. Our weather here in the Midwest is finally becoming civilized. Yesterday, I actually had to turn on the air conditioner when it became an uncomfortable 79 degrees in the house. Yikes, what a creature of comfort I have become. Not to mention, what a blob of mushy muscleless fat has overtaken any muscle I had left. I should go into a discussion of weight loss here, but the subject bores me. Not only that, but thinking about weight loss only gives me a guilt trip.

Version 1.0.0

Right now, there is a fabulous race going on in nature. Who will win? The weeds or the flowers? A week ago, a friend offered me a contact who is willing to pull weeds for cash. I held up my hand saying that it was still too early to be pulling weeds. Here I am five days later ready to call him to go to work. I knew this would happen when I designed my garden which I labeled the Monet Vision. A very complicated densely planted annual garden takes a lot of maintenance. At that time, I still had the energy and flexibility to bend, kneel, and yank weeds. Today, it is a much different story. What amazes me is how quickly the body has adapted to sitting, and how quickly the muscles forget their duty. When I do finally get on my knees to do something, like pick up something that has fallen out of hand, It takes a front end loader to get me back up again. I am finally beginning to understand what my father always told us, “Don’t get old.” Mentally, I’m still twenty-five, but physically I may be around 110.

As a preteen, I admired old guys like my Gramps and his buddies. They were so cool. They sat under the shade of the giant willow tree while smoking, sippng a beer, and trying to outdo themselves with tales from the ‘Old Country.’ Now, I am the old guy, but I don’t smoke, and I don’t drink beer, and my old country is this country. Even worse, my grandkids are too far away from me to be telling them tall tales. At least I have the memories. I have however recorded many of my memories in a series of books under the title of Jun-e-or. The mistake I made was assuming that these kids would like to read. In today’s world if it isn’t a video they don’t seem to be interested. I’d love to make them into videos, but there isn’t enough time in a day to learn how to do that kind of stuff. I just hope they will find the time to read these stories to their grand children. I learned how to make videos’ back in 1968. Back then they were called movies. Taking super-eight movies was my passion and I even joined a movie club to help me learn how to make interesting films. I know what it takes to make films with interest. I converted some of my films to video and posted them on my Youtube channel. Search for Joseph Rohaly on youtube to find these gems. (see list below)

My biography won’t interest anyone, not even me. That is one reason I keep doing new things and learning new skills: in the hope that one day I’ll strike oil and offer the world something of value. With my luck, by the time I strike oil, the world will have been forced to electrify, and oil will be a dirty, slippery substance that no one will know what to do with.

I look forward to global warming. All my life, I have longed to live in a warmer climate without snow, ice, and blustery cold wind. According to sleepy Joe Biden, global warming is upon us, and I may be too late to enjoy it. The reality of that happening within this century is remote at best. Maybe if Earth experiences a hundred or more volcanic eruptions within a year, the temperature will rise. Except, there will be a period of global cooling after the eruptions. Earth will warm up. again, but no one will be around to know it is warmer because we will have all starved or froze to death during the cooling period.

Well, I have succeeded in ending this fantasy with the same lack of excitement as I had at the beginning, and It’s time to change chairs and find something more interesting to do.

A list of GrumpaJoes videos on youtube

  1. Fall Campfire
  2. 2020-Monet Vision Retired
  3. One MIle HIgh
  4. The Fifth of Forty-two
  5. 2013 Memorial Day Tribute
  6. 120506 Charles and Anne’s Anniversary Waltz
  7. Nation of Laws
  8. Burning Gas San Antonio Riverwalk
  9. 1012 Monet Vision, A View From the Kitchen Window
  10. 111128-One Mile HIgh Part A
  11. Snow Palooza
  12. Under surveillance

Filed under: Aging, Biography, Garden, Warm and Fuzzy | Tagged: , , | 5 Comments »

The Grass is Greener

Posted on 20/06/2023 by Grumpa Joe

Evidently making a living by video blogging is harder than it looks. Many of my favorite Vloggers are either taking time off, or are quitting completely. Most of the ones I subscribe to have hundreds of thousands and even millions of subscribers. Many of them celebrate when they reach a milestone of one hundred thousand subscribers.

In order for them to reach those milestones they have to post a video every week. Usually they are fifteen minutes long, and many are longer. The pressure to continuously video oneself during a standard life can be enormous. Add to that the work of editing the video into something that is viewable. In addition to making a weekly vignette that people will want to watch many Vloggers have an online home based business.

What the viewers see is fifteen minutes of entertaining content. What they don’t see is the hours spent taking the video, and editing the video. Most successful Vloggers pre-plan their content before they begin filming, which means more pressure. We the viewer don’t see all of this but we enjoy the fruits of their labor.

A couple of my favorites spent one episode explaining how they make money on Youtube. One young man, an engineer by trade, started his Vlog with a “watch me build this” theme. He set up a complete wood shop in the basement of his home to be his studio, and filmed every aspect of the build, while working at a full time job. He made videos of each of his building projects, like his work bench, saw table, shop lights, wood storage, etc. I came to his blog while searching for ways to reduce the amount of sawdust that I produced in my own shop. Being an engineer myself I thought this kid’s approach was pretty smart. For instance, he analyzed where the dust was coming from on his chop saw, and then began experimenting with collectors that he designed on his computer and made on his 3D printer. His before and after videos of successful dust collection proved to me that he knew what he was doing. I used his approach to build a similar collector for my chop saw. I don’t have a 3D printer nor computer aided design software to use in design, so I Rube Goldberged a simple collector and cobbled it out of wood. It worked pretty fair, and I use it all the time.

About three months later I watched this guys video on how he makes money. My mouth dropped open and didn’t close for the duration. He compared his earnings on Youtube against his earnings as an employed engineer and after several years he quit his job to go into Youtube as his full time business, and more than doubled his income. The dust collector he designed for the chop saw was a product that he offers for sale on his channel. He showed us how he uses twenty-five 3D printers to keep up with the demand. The financially successful Vloggers make money by adding a store to their site. So he gets income from advertising that comes with a huge subscription following, from patrons who send him donations to keep going, from his online store, and from a commission on sales of items he features in his store. The bottom line is that he rented a shop space outside of his home, and turned his hobby into a full time business. There are others who video their travels living in a camper van. One girl from Poland set out to document her trip around the world alone, and I picked up on her at her five year mark. Shortly after I got interested she stopped because of burn out. Of course by then she was substantially richer that she was when she began. In a period of one month I witnessed six vloggers who stopped filming to take time out for themselves. Each gave the same reason, the pressure of producing content for Youtube was too intense, and they needed to relax.

The reason for this post is to let people know that vlogging on Youtube is not as easy as it seems. So many young people today follow their dreams and post video’s to their channels hoping to strike gold. I commend them, but also advise that they have an alternate plan to make a living if the pursuit takes too long to achieve.

Filed under: family, Travel | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Hooked on Youtube

Posted on 05/06/2023 by Grumpa Joe

It all started when I looked for information about my hobby of Intarsia. I tripped on a channel called Cy’s Corner. I’ve watched nearly every episode of Cy’s and still don’t know what Cy stands for, it may be Cynthia. Cy is a lady with an interest in working on wood craft. She picked became interested in intarsia, and jumped right in to begin. She is fortunate to have a husband that buys her the best equipment available. On my side of the fence I proceeded with caution and bought cheap tools and decided later to upgrade. I’m on my third scroll saw and thinking I need to make another jump. I have similar ideas about my bandsaw.

Cy makes videos of each project she takes on, and posts them on Youtube. She has a silly side which she plays up in her intro and her ending. Aside from being an attractive woman, she is a talented artist-crafter. After Cy, I started watching several more out more intarsia artists. Like Judy Gale Roberts, who popularized the craft, by publishing several books with usable patterns. She has been at this sport since the 1970’s, and is also a very talented artist, and a superb wood crafter. I can list several more women who are very good at this and make a living by making intarsia art pieces.

My nature is to use things until they are totally used up. That means if I can repair something I will. I save manuals on just about every tool, or appliance I buy. Sometimes the manual is not enough to help me so I have learned that I can go to Youtube and find a video on how to fix just about anything. I no longer save manuals. Finding a video done by someone who is like me is much easier and more effective than trying to use a repair manual. The only problem I have with using Youtube is that I never just watch one video at a time. There is always something that catches my interest and causes me to want more. I’ve learned to subscribe to favorite channels in order to get a notification of new content.

When I cook I use two sources for recipes, 1.) my mother’s Hungarian cook book, and 2.) Youtube videos done by some great cooks. One of the best I found was an eighty something lady who reminded me of my mother and who cooked Hungarian meals. I guess what I am trying to get across here is that over the last two years I have become more and more immersed in using Youtube videos in my life.

My latest habit is to look for people who travel around the world in home made campers, or on a bicycle. This has opened my eyes to the world in ways I would never be able to do by myself. Just this week I decided that I will visit countries that I have no knowledge of, Like Mongolia, and Uruguay. I always loved geography as a kid, and I am still interested in knowing about places. There are over two hundred countries in the world so I have a lot of watching to do. I have reached a point in life where I do not watch regular TV any more, but I do spend two to three hours night watching tv series on Netflix. The stories I choose are most often so complex that watching the movie is nearly the same as reading a book.

It’s time for me to end this post and search Youtube for some videos on backyard railroads.

Filed under: Biography, Hobbies | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

Four Score and Four

Posted on 03/08/2022 by Grumpa Joe

Today is the day on this planet that my odometer turns to four score and four. Yesterday, when I started this post I awoke early to get a jump on the day because Lovely left me a honey-do list which I promised to take care of: Vacuum the carpets, and thin the native perennials from the more civilized flower beds. My plan was to get up early (8:00 a.m. is early) to get the coffee started, and to then hop into the car to ACE Hardware. I tried to get this done last evening but the store was closed when I arrived. Like a fool, I jumped into the vacuuming last night, but decided to change the dirt bag first. I trashed the very full old bag and went to the drawer in the laundry room where such things are kept. Guess what? No bags, thus the need for an early run to the ACE.

Being an engineer, and having used a vacuum cleaner many times before, I did not seek information on how to install a new bag, how hard could that be? I went for it, and then powered up the machine to test it; it had no suck power at all. WHAT? I went to my trusty PC and opened Youtube for a seminar. A pretty young lady in short-shorts and a tight-tee instructed me on how to remove blockages that kill sucking ability. I wound up disassembling the entire Hoover sucking system. There were a number of blockages at various bends in the tubing. The lady in short-shorts also mentioned something about changing the drive belt. I looked in the same drawer that normally holds Hoover parts, but there was no drive belt. Since the old belt was about twice as long as a new one, and the beater-bar brush could be spun easily by hand I decided to take another run to ACE for a belt. While at it, I made the mistake of mentioning to Lovely where I was going, and she gave me a list of things she needed from the grocery store which is opposite the ACE. Not a problem. While at the grocery, my stomach began to send me pangs of hunger, so I added a really neat Italian sub sandwich to the basket.

After eating half of a foot long sandwich, I resumed working on the vacuum. Installing the new belt was a little laborious, but I managed. I began a test by vacuuming, and after awhile decided to check how the bag was performing, and found a giant mess. Evidently, I botched the oh-so easy bag install procedure and got it in wrong. As I did that I also managed to tear the bag. The result was a pile of raw dirt and fine dust all around the bag but nothing in it. GRRRR! Once again I disassembled the entire plumbing system to find the problem. I did, by shoving a broom handle down the entire length of the flexible hose. To my surprise, a plug resembling a birds nest squirted out the end. What baffled me though was that the entire inside of the machine was packed with new dust and the bag was clean, but torn.

I went back to Youtube school and found another video on how to install a fresh bag. I froze the screen looking for the knack that I had missed. I kept trying and on the third try realized that the card board collar around the bag-opening slides into a special track. I was trying to slide it over the top of the slide thus missing the crucial track and kept getting it wrong. One, two, buckle my shoe a new bag slipped into place with great ease.

The vacuum job took forty minutes, but it was five p.m. when I finished; “Wine Time.” I put off the attack on the native perennials (weeds) till another time. Meanwhile, I just completed the first of my posts for August after a July hiatus. July is a separate story which may or not be told depending upon which side of the bed I get out on.

Filed under: Aging, Biography, Seniors | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »

Old People In Their Underwear

Posted on 15/12/2021 by Grumpa Joe

This week I spent an enjoyable evening with my Tuesday night wine group. Ten of us meet weekly to imbibe on the delicacies of grapes fermented and allowed to become what we fondly refer to as wine. The youngest among us is fifty-seven a mere child, and the oldest I am proud to proclaim was me at eighty-three. We started out slowly as usual, but as we began tasting the various bottles like Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, our psyches began to open up and we began to brainstorm. One among us told of his son who wanted to find himself with a career on Youtube. We all looked rather stunned and questioned how in the hell is someone going to make a career out of Youtube?

I turned to Kay who a few meetings back had told me about her grandson and his girlfriend who were making money on their Youtube channel. “Look up Mariah and Bill” on Facebook and you will see their antics. I did. They are a cute couple who specialize in video taping themselves doing various dumb pranks none of which are more than a few minutes long. I thought to myself they have a following that nets them a five figure income every month. It is hard to imagine for an old goat like myself as to how someone can make money on Youtube, but it turns out to be rather simple. If you were to create a Youtube channel for your videos and get people to watch it you could indeed make money at it. I’d say that maybe twenty percent of the people who try this are successful and eighty percent are not. It is a matter of building audience. Every time I watch a video on Youtube the presenter asks me to like his channel and to follow him. When a presenter’s following reaches a certain number, Youtube begins earning money from advertisers, and that is when you begin to get fraction of the advertising income from Youtube. So the simple steps to success are to 1. create content, and 2. build a following.

Getting back to my wine club meeting. I interrupted the conversation to ask Kay to tell us about her grandson’s experience with Youtube. She proceeded to amaze us with the story of Mariah and Bill on Youtube. Bill is now twenty years old, but he began this endeavor when he was eighteen. Today, she said he makes sixty thousand dollars a month doing these stupid funny videos. Then it happened. the focus of the meeting was a discussion on how we could do the same as a group of seniors making money of Youtube. Our friend John piped up, “we could start filming old people in their underwear.” we all laughed hilariously, then began to offer ideas for clips like wearing thongs and speedos, or vintage versus modern, etc. I piped up that I’d like to see the women in the group in their thongs, they all moaned. Then I said “I have a vision of us all wearing TENA diapers.” another longer and louder moan.

The night went on for several minutes of new ideas and lots of laughter. Although it began as a stupid idea, I thought why not? Instead of “Mariah and Bill” about two twenty year olds we could film “Kay and Joe” about two eighty year olds mimicking their grandchildren’s antics and posting them on Youtube and TicTok. Maybe we could supplement our meager retirement income with a shot of new money. If nothing else we would offer the viewing audience some serious laughter. At worst we would have a lot of fun doing something out of the ordinary for senior citizens.

Take a look at the linked videos and tell me if you think Kay and Joe have a chance to be stars of Youtube and TikTok

Filed under: Aging, Biography, Humor | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

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