In all honesty, I haven’t felt like writing about what’s going on in my life at the moment. Every week I think, maybe this time and then I just cannot string together the thoughts it would take to write something halfway meaningful. So I thought I’d share a round up of 10 videos I enjoyed recently on YouTube instead. Looking for something to watch with dinner tonight - I’ve got you covered.

Struthless - I truly hope I’m just being paranoid about this [31 minutes] Examines Australia’s social media ban for children under 16. I’m a bit surprised that he didn’t touch on federated social networking at all, but overall I thought this was a really thoughtful look at the issues. I appreciated his framework to avoid dualistic conversations that only really serve to act out an identity rather than genuinely understand each other. He mentions a bunch of great authors that I love and pulls from their ideas pretty faithfully. Just all around great video and I recommend it.

Sarah Davis Bake - The internet used to be a place [25 minutes] Lovely retrospective, game review, and think piece about one of the reasons that the internet feels so different now - place. It examines the threshold effect in logging off and what we’re missing now that we largely don’t. Made me pretty nostalgic for the old internet. I think it’s always good to check out what got lost in pursuit of progress and see if there’s not a way to bring it into the future once again. Lovely edits and a treat to watch.

Nathan Laundry - Trapped in Notion’s Second Brain - How Notes Joined the Attention Economy (and How to Break Free! [25 minutes] The critique of productivity culture’s darling - Building a Second Brain - that I’ve been fucking craving. It’s also a great walk through of the progressing enshittification of digital notes. The example of his digital notes is a little over my head but I appreciate him talking about FOSS options for having locally hosted notes. Well worth a watch, especially if you ever got caught up in the Notion hype.

You’ve Got Kat - Whatever Happened to Dollz? - Nostalgia Goggles [24 minutes] A great deep dive into the history of the late 90’s early 00’s fad of dollz. I loved dollz art back in the day and it was really cool to see some of the old sites I used to visit. I hadn’t really thought about their connection to present day things like piccrew and doll apps games. I didn’t realize how the archive efforts for dollz had been so lacking. It makes me realize I’m missing some of those older ways of online expression. I hope there’s a resurgence!

hankschannel - The Second (or perhaps 3rd) Most Important Technology [50 minutes] The Internet’s own science man Hank Green interviews Virginia Postrel about her book The Fabric of Civilization about string and fabric as a technology. Fascinating conversation! I learned so many neat facts I don’t want to spoil. But the quote that will stick with me is definitely “Any sufficiently familiar technology is indistinguishable from nature”. Like damn. So true.

Dan McClellan - Christmas trees are not pagan [9 minutes] I see Christians, Pagans, and Atheists get this wrong all the damn time. I was grateful to stumble onto this great little video summarizing the current evidence on where they likely came from. I appreciate the sensitivity he uses in debunking te myth, because there are lots of reasons people get invested in this idea in the first place. Just a great seasonal explainer.

Salmence - Completing the Community Center with No Energy [55 minutes] I stumbled onto this playthrough when I was hyper fixated on Stardew Valley a few weeks ago and it blew my mind. I love the weird shit people decide to do with this game. It made me look at the game completely differently. I don’t think I’d ever want to do a playthrough like this but it is so fun to watch. If you like watching people suffer in silly ways, this is a good one.

Ted Nivison - I Grew a Plant from Soil Made from Fast Food [25 minutes] I enjoy Ted’s videos generally and this was basically catnip to me as a plant fan. This was…pretty much exactly what I thought it was going to be but watching someone who’s just learning about plants encounter it was a great time. A bit gross at times, but otherwise, just a fun romp with plant biology.

Burback - Why don’t we make Holiday Video Games? [32 minutes] The Burback twins ask the important question: if video games are so popular and the holiday pastime is all about consuming holiday media - why are there no big Christmas or similar games? I had never really considered it before and after thinking it over, I do kind of wish I had a Christmas game to replay during the season, instead of my usual trying to speedrun to Winter in Stardew Valley and simply linger. Surely there’s a better way.

Buddhist Society of Western Australia - Happiness in All Circumstances | Ajahn Brahn | December 5th, 2025 [1 hr 13 minutes] I enjoyed this recent talk from Ajahn Brahm about how important it is to try to find happiness in any situation your find yourself in. A lot of fun stories and bad jokes as usual. What’s not to love?