Update

Summer events, and a possible circumnavigation

Matt Gray

Matt Gray

— 4 min read
Summer events, and a possible circumnavigation

Hellooo!

Here's what's been going on in the world of Matt, and what I've got coming up in the future:

Matt Gray is Trying: Search and Rescue

To start, In case you missed it: I got to spend a day with the lovely people at Dartmoor Search and Rescue! They not only showed me what they do but put on a whole training exercise with mobile command centre, search dog, thermal camera drone, a huge team of people, and vehicles with blue flashing lights!

What was amazing was seeing them cancel the training mid-exercise and leap into action when we heard shouts in the distance.

Events

I've got an event coming up on each side of the Atlantic in the next few months. If you're at either of them and spot me, please come up and say hi!

Something old, something new, something borrowed, and well its me so obviously there's going to be something blue.

I'm working on a video in which I modify a cool retro piece of tech to bring it up to modern day usability. To do this I'm using someone else's circuit board designs I found on GitHub, and despite having no experience making PCBs I'm attempting to get them made using the video's sponsor PCBWay.

I did have a little play with the PCB files though before sending them off, and added some of my own graffitti.

They sent me these photos to check if the component placement is as expected on the boards

Matt Gray is Trying: Something Exciting

I have already filmed my next episode, and it's the furthest we've traveled yet! I had a wonderful couple of days working with a team who shared so much despite being very busy and working to a deadline at the same time.

I'm always very cautious not to reveal too much about a video until it's all come together because I never want to "over-promise and under-deliver", but the filming seemed to go really well and I've got my fingers crossed for the edit! I might not be sharing the topic but here's a lovely sunset photo I took on the way there.

As I've described before I'm aiming for high production value with this series, and to achieve that I'm hiring professionals to help make it: everything from how well the video flows, to how it looks, sounds, and making it accessible with proper captions.

But it's not just the people who touch the videos who have helped make it, it's my Patreon subscribers too. These paid subscriptions are still the biggest wedge of what's funding the series (after my day job), so I can't thank you enough.

A Possible Circumnavigation

I've been meaning to visit Japan for a long time and not yet had the chance. I also haven't yet bought my flights to the USA for Open Sauce. One thing I'm vaguely considering doing is booking a round-the-world ticket (yes they exist!), as I've heard they can sometimes work out better value for money than booking separate trips.

An example route map across the Atlantic and Pacific via San Francisco and Japan

You can get that type of ticket from two of the main airline alliances: Oneworld and Star Alliance, and as I understand it there's only a small number of seats available on flights for this type of ticket so trying to find dates and routes that work can be a little fiddly.

It's less of a plan and more a flight of fancy, but if you've got any specific recommendations of what to see and do in Japan that aren't on the usual top-20 things to see tourism guides, then please let me know!

I've got a blog

I've never found the right platform to post longer-form writing, so I've decided to consolidate what I've done in the past, and host it myself the old fashioned way: in a blog section on my website.

What I post where

Social media's a bit more fractured than a few years ago when I'd use YouTube for video, and one platform each for photos, short videos, short text, and long text. I do a lot more cross-posting these days!

You don't need to follow me everywhere, I post the same stuff across the platforms for each category.

Metal Menu

I love rock and metal music. Metal Menu is where I'm posting gig reviews and my thoughts on new music.

Metal Menu
Gig reviews and new music, by Matt Gray. 🤘 (Mostly rock and metal)
Metal Menu

I feel like this post is kind of long enough, but I always like to finish by sharing some stuff I've seen recently:

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