Sampling

Just give me the filet mignon. I’ll take the center of the watermelon only. How about those lettuce leaves from the middle third of the head – not the floppy stuff near the outside nor the to-pulpy stuff in the middle.

I’ll take that one. No, not that one, the next one over – the biggest, juiciest, more perfect one.

Some readers have already moved on to something else. If this blog entry isn’t their cup of tea, I say, “more power to them.” It’s exactly what I would do – and what I actually do just about every time I go online. I pick and choose – and I can be pretty darned picky and choosey.

My favorite new find on the world wide web is You Tube. I’d heard about it before leaving California, but I didn’t get hooked until I’d been on the road for a while.

Founded in February of 2007, the online service allows users to find video clips on any topic imaginable. And it’s interactive; anyone can post material online that becomes almost instantly available world wide.

A year ago You Tube was taken over by Google. Like other web searches, You Tube queries almost always hit pay dirt now – a huge amount of data is indexed and can be found in a fraction of a second.

Political candidates haven’t missed the boat and videos are available regarding many politicians.

As was the case with the Internet in general and with every major advance in Mass Media channels, from books through movies, radio and television, there is substantial fear that online videos will go out of control and will destroy civilization as we know it.

Whether this proves to be the case or not (and a fairly strong argument can be made on both sides), there’s little chance that online videos are here to stay and ordinary computer owners with inexpensive equipment will be able to post just about any message they like.

I’m finding a wider and wider range of uses for this technology, but my favorite You Tube pastime is searching for favorite things.

Songs, performed by the greats from the past and present, scenes from movies, plays and television programs, speeches, news events and an amazing quantity of unexpected business caught – often by amateurs – in nature and in communities.

Before You Tube, one usually had to watch a whole movie to see a favorite scene or two – and it was potluck as to when a movie might appear on television. Alternatively, one could listen to the radio for days on end without hearing a particular song.

But in the space of an hour or so, it’s now possible to watch a score or more of favorites. The main problem for me has been stopping after just an hour or so.

It’s YouTube.com

Here are a few scenes I’ve enjoyed: