In Part 1 of my 2022 review I went through some work projects from the year, but this one is dedicated to what I did in my spare time.

As I said before, I’ve posted twice in quick succession to keep my 2022 roundup to the first week of January, but I don’t expect to post anywhere near this frequently in future. So no need to worry about me clogging up your inbox too much!

YouTube

The Technical Difficulties

The year started with the launch of The Technical Difficulties YouTube channel. Previously all of the videos that Tom, Gary, Chris and I made together ended up on the Tom Scott or Matt and Tom YouTube channels, and it was well overdue for its own home. Sadly YouTube won’t let you move videos from one channel to another, but all of our previous shows are in playlists on the Tech Dif channel for easy access.

I’ve had three adventures for the series so far this year: Pottery throwing with Jo Davies Ceramics, Helicopter Hovering with Elite Helicopters, and one more secret adventure in which I was scared of getting injured — you’ll get to see it around March!

While we’ve taken a break from filming Two of These People are Lying to do these adventures, it doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t return. The current show has worked well for us as we’ve been able to make 12 shows while only having three days when we could meet up together to record!

Gary, Chris and I are spread across the country, Tom could be anywhere in the world; so combining that with our day jobs, responsibilites, and wanting to spend time together just as friends (without recording!) will always limit the amount of videos we can make in a year!

Tom Scott Plus

This summer, Tom and I went on a Road Rude Trip from Pratt’s Bottom to Balls Cross for a video on the Tom Scott Plus channel. This may be the first time we’ve been on camera together and had a film crew with us, but the team from Penny4 were great fun to work with, and managed the herculean task of turning many hours of us talking crap while driving into a 20 minute video!

Matt Gray

I’ve found time to edit and release six videos on my YouTube channel this year, in which I:

• Met a delivery robot in Milton Keynes
• Shared a longer cut of my pottery wheel adventure
• Upgraded an Ikea light to be multicolour and remote-controllable
• Travelled on a Sleeper Train for the first time, and had a private bedroom with en-suite
• Explained how to record audio in a helicopter
• Launched my annual Christmas charity fundraiser.

Thanks to everyone who donated, raising a total of over £4000 for AKT, Mind, Shelter, and The Trussell Trust. The fundraising page is still open until the end of the month if you’d like to donate.

Electromagnetic Field

Electromagnetic Field is a non-profit camping festival for those with an inquisitive mind or an interest in making things, run entirely by volunteers. I’ve been part of the organising team for EMF in the past but took a break this year for health reasons.

Having been on my phone too much recently, I gave a talk about How I Fight the Doomscroll and Get Out of the Social Media Refresh Loop.

Dot Matrix Photo Printer

I made an interface that would allow a Game Boy Camera to print its photos on a dot matrix printer, and installed it in EMF’s lounge, along with several Game Boys and games for people to play with.

I’ve documented my Game Boy dot matrix interface on GitHub. In short, I’ve modified an existing Game Boy to receipt printer project, as it used a similar protocol to what my dot matrix printer is compatible with.

You may have seen my dot matrix printer in another life, shredding live YouTube comments in 2017.

Links

As always, I’ll see you out with a few links to some completely unrelated things that I found interesting.

• Why I took 50000 pictures of my cats pooping (Estefannie on YouTube)

  • Estefannie went to incredible lengths to make sure her cat Teddy was OK and didn’t need a hospital trip, involving AI, machine learning, and night vision!

• Hexapipes, a Game.

  • Rotate the tiles to connect all the pipes together, with no loops. It sounds simple but it’s a great puzzle and can be very addictive!

• The Goldeneye 007 Soundtrack Is Peak 90s (Charles Cornell on YouTube)

  • Like me, Charles spent many hours playing Goldeneye on the N64 in the ‘90s. In this video he compares the game’s music with the parts from the film soundtrack that inspired it, and explains their clever use of music theory to keep it faithful to the film.

  • If you enjoy this, I also recommend another video of his: The Thomas the Tank Engine Theme is Unironically Really Good.

• For the price of a 3-bedroom flat in London, you can get a grand hotel with 90+ rooms in Bradford (@commoner_garden on Twitter)