Right now, on my television (in Roku mode) is a YouTube video, three hours forty-three minutes in length, from the viewpoint of someone running the Boston Marathon...and man, the weather on this date is awful! Rain, obvious cold, slick roads...not exactly my choice for running a race, but definitely interesting to watch. Of late I have been exploring what's available on YouTube and have been pleasantly surprised. Although audiobooks and movies seem to be largely available only at a premium, the "free" version of this site contains an incredible selection of video types to watch. If you want to learn anything in an academic setting without the twin traumas of exams and tuition, you can attend high quality classes online in just about any subject you want...I'm partial to the college mathematics material and my current favorite teacher is "Professor Leonard", who has an excellent teaching style, not skipping steps and showing the kind of respect toward the students I found uncommon in my own experience going to school. His courses span college curricula from algebra review to precalculus to three levels of calculus to differential equations to statistics. I had hoped he taught linear algebra, but alas, that's not to be...but there are other resources for that. I also like foreign language listening practice videos...Kendra puts out some good ones in the more known languages. When I was recliner-bound, recovering at home from my open-heart surgery in 2021, I liked to watch coffee shop videos that would go on for hours...just empty shops with hot, steaming coffee cups in different tables with usually some piano or light jazz in the background. Lately I've noticed a plethora of "study with me" videos, usually of college students either doing their assignments (mostly on computer) at home or in public places like Starbucks (my preference). I also have enjoyed going on various roller coaster rides vicariously on YouTube...my favorites are the rides at Tampa's Busch Gardens like Montu and Kumba...and some of the newer ones I've yet to go on. I've always regarded Montu as the "Cadillac of Coasters" and have ridden it in the "real world" some 27 times...unfortunately I've read that Kumba (rode it 22 times) may soon be disassembled to make way for future attractions at the park...still, I'll have the YouTube experience to fall back on, I suppose. I've only begun to scratch the surface of what is available on this fascinating medium. I just turned around to see what's going on in the marathon: there are some blue patches in the sky around the 27-minute mark, but they're all still far from downtown Boston on the course, although they're no longer way out in the boonies where the race began...
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