I will likely have 50,000+ subscribers by the end of August. One of my longtime loyal subscribers suggested that I do something special. I've decided I will livestream on Saturday, August 30, from 2 PM (CDT) to 4 PM (That's 8 PM to 9 PM UTC). If you join in, you can ask me anything you want and I will do my best to answer.
Part of my reason for doing this is to try out live streaming (which I've never done) so I can familiarize myself with how it works, because I want to live stream at the pre-party and at the concert in October.
83 - 5
I have an idea. I want to bounce it off you to see what you think.
I have never done live-streaming before, but several commenters have suggested that I start a tv show. At first, I thought, you have to be kidding me. But then I thought, perhaps they are thinking of a podcast type show.
Here's my idea. I would setup a show where I would interview one guest. Who are my guests? You. Obviously, you would have to speak English. Sadly, that limits, somewhat, the people that I can interview because not all my viewers speak English. But the pool of people I could interview would still be large. It would be an opportunity for my viewers to get to know each other and realize how much we all have in common. It occurs to me that, even if you can't speak English, if you know someone who can translate for you, we could still do this by including the translator in the show.
Keep in mind, I've never live streamed and I would have to learn the technology, so this might take a little while, and I would want to do some tests to make sure I can handle it.
What I'm thinking of is perhaps once a week, I could go live and interview a subscriber to my channel. Perhaps a 30 minute to one hour interview where you get to talk about where you live, what you love about it, what types of music you enjoy, etc. It would require that you send me an email indicating your willingness to be interviewed.
I'm not interested in interviewing famous or newsworthy people, although I'd certainly be willing to interview someone like Ren or Tom MacDonald, Dan Vasc, Amira Willighagen, Emma Kok, Lucy Thomas, Morissette Amon, etc. (That might come much later.) What fascinates me is you, my viewers.
One thing I'm struggling with is when to do it. Given that my audience is worldwide, I couldn't do it when everyone is awake, but I'm trying to think of an ideal time to do it that would allow the maximum number of viewers to watch live. I also think I would need to have some sort of a chat function so those watching could ask interesting questions as well. Would Saturday or Sunday be the best day to do it?
So, what do you think? Let me know in the comments or at least answer the poll, and if there's enough interest, I will pursue it further.
95 - 24
I made six reactions today based on what Grok (AI) gave me. Four of the six were completely made up. The songs were not my request list and the names of the requesters do not exist on my list. Even the urls were invalid. Even the COMMENTS were invalid! Two of the artists have never been requested by anyone. You will see me, in my reactions, apologizing for having to go find the song because the link didn't work. I thought it was a coincidence. It was not. Grok made the whole thing up.
It's too late for me to replace them, so I will upload three of those reactions. Going forward, I will not be using AI to select my playlist any more. I can't trust it to not lie to me. Perhaps this is a word of caution for those relying on AI.
The last song I reacted to was selected by me because I couldn't find the Aurora song on my list.
I'm posting the list here so you can compare it to my list and see that AI completely made them up. The only reason the links work is because I replaced the ones supplied by AI so I could do the reactions.
The Warning - Automatic Sun #1041
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoNxQ...
Anonymous
The warning are a band of sisters from Mexico, they are so talented and I love their music, this is one of their newer songs from their new album.
Solas - The Foggy Dew #1503
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Muhdc...
CelticSoul
This is a beautiful rendition of a classic Irish rebel song, often associated with the Easter Rising of 1916. Solas does it justice with their haunting harmonies.
Epica - The Phantom Agony #2507
https://youtu.be/1B8k-3GWhgM
SymphonicSiren
This is the title track from Epica’s debut album in 2003. It’s a perfect blend of symphonic metal with Simone Simons’ operatic vocals and Mark Jansen’s growls.
AURORA - Cure For Me #2988
https://youtu.be/BhZddiR8E6s
StarryVibes
This song is so uplifting and quirky, with Aurora’s unique voice and playful energy. It’s about self-acceptance and breaking free from societal expectations.
watch video on watch page
18 - 7
I now have 3,774 requests in my queue.
I deleted almost 1,000 new requests from two individuals who, apparently anticipating me cutting off requests, either entered them manually over hours or used automation. I did not delete their prior submissions.
I ask that you respect my viewers, who come from all over the world to make requests to listen and react to their favorite singers when very few others care about those singers, and not abuse them by loading up the requests with hundreds of your favorite performers.
In the future, when I reenable requests, I will be looking for patterns of loading up requests. If it continues, I will delete all of your requests and ignore any future ones. Please be respectful of my audience.
I will be back tonight with more reactions to the wonderful rainbow of requests that my viewers make.
407 - 18
I won't be making videos tonight or tomorrow night. My wife and I are celebrating our 53rd wedding anniversary.
I reached 4,000 requested reactions today. I fear I may have created a monster I cannot contain. I will continue doing reactions as I have; six a day, and using AI to make random choices, but I'm searching for a solution to this problem. One thing I have thought of is to stop accepting requests until I clear the queue, but that seems like a really lousy solution.
I'm open to suggestions. I love you guys, love doing this, and don't want to stop. But I'm afraid, as I continue to grow (I'm over 36,000 subscribers now), my request list will also continue to grow - faster than I can clear it.
If anyone has any brilliant ideas, post them here.
I'm also searching for a way to automate crosschecking my request list against my reactions. I fiddled with it today
(unsuccessfully) but right now I have to manually check every request against every reaction, which is inefficient.
Enjoy my existing reactions while I celebrate our marriage. I'll be back Sunday in full swing.
472 - 92
Please forgive me. I was exhausted last night and fell asleep in my chair. When I woke up, it was too late to make reactions. Today, I plunged right in, and did an hour's worth of reactions, only to discover, during editing, that I had forgotten to plug the microphone back in. I disconnected it because I was getting feedback and needed to fix that. Then, I went back to reacting but forgot to plug it back in.
I'll be back tomorrow, raring to go.
240 - 7
I'm trying to figure out how to go to Dimash's concert at Madison Square Gardens. My daughter isn't interested in going with me, and I"m not interested in going alone. If there are any Dears from the Dallas area (or that I could hook up with in New York), I'd like to talk to you about a place to stay in New York. I can fly in on Friday, but I can't get back out until Saturday, which means I have to stay somewhere. The New York hotels are really expensive, and I don't know New York at all. So, I don't know where to stay or how to get to the Garden for the concert.
If you have any advice or know of a way to solve my problems, I'd love to hear from you. I'm not asking for money. I can pay my own way. I'd just like to have someone I can rely on to get me around safely and to stay with overnight.
79 - 26
No videos until Tuesday.
I'm sorry, but I've somehow lost the adapter for my microphone. Without that, I cannot make videos. I've ordered a new one, but it won't arrive until Tuesday. Until then, you'll have to feed your cravings with my existing reactions. I have 1981 reactions and 289 playlists. There ought to be something there you can enjoy.
122 - 5
Hey, my amazing viewers! I'm looking for talented Christian digital graphic artists to create cover art for my book. If you're interested, email me at paul.schmehl@gmail.com, Subject: Graphic Art Parameters, to request the project details. I'll send you the parameters, and if you're still excited, submit samples for review. Can't wait to collaborate with you! I will pay you a fair fee. A laborer is worthy of his hire.
51 - 2
Thank you to all my subscribers, long-time viewers, and first-time viewers. I'm approaching 29.000 subscribers while not publishing a thing since May 11th. That is astounding to me.
I owe you an update. As you know, Linda and I were both diagnosed with COVID on Wednesday, May 14th. We finished the course of treatment on Sunday, May 17th, but I was still not recovered completely. Since I have had pneumonia five times in my life, I felt this was an issue I needed to take seriously. So, I went to a hospital ER on Monday (yesterday) and was admitted overnight for observation. I was diagnosed with a rhinovirus (not an uncommon event since COVID weakens your defenses.) So, now I'm on antibiotics and steroids to deal with that, and I have another week of quarantine to look forward to.
I deeply appreciate all the prayers and positive thoughts you are sending my way, and I devoutly wish I could do more reactions, but, for now, the coughing would make that very difficult. We'll see how i feel after a few days of treatment. I am anxious to get back to the reacting but not foolish enough to tempt fate. Plus I think God would be angry with me if I acted unwisely.
135 - 22
I do music reactions and talk about my belief in God.I do reactions by request, but right now, I'm not accepting new requests. I have over 3,600 requests in my queue, so I need to take care of those before I accept more.
I'm a 77-year-old veteran of the Vietnam War era. I love my country and worry that we're losing it. I don't need money, so I don't monetize my channel.
You're welcome to comment, and I have no problem with you disagreeing with me, but I will not tolerate foul language, personal attacks, or false claims. I also do not allow discussions (or even mention of) autotune or pitch correction and I absolutely do not allow any political discussions. If you do any of that, I will delete your comment. Persist, and you will be banned. I reserve the right to ban people immediately if they ignore my rules.
I am a founding member of Vietnam Veterans for Factual History. If you want to know more, visit our website: www.vvfh.org/