What are you watching? (in Off-topic)

In my downtime, I'm usually playing chess on my phone or doomscrolling, but there will often be something on in the background. What it is, depends on my mood and how much of my attention I feel like giving to it. If a series looks good, I'll often put off checking it out until they've got several episodes or a couple seasons to binge. I'm also a big fan of all types of anime.

Say I'm in a youtube mood:

If I'm paying significant attention to the videos, I'm often watching GothamChess or ChessWithAkeem. They both make easily digestable chess content with elements of humor or flair to make it interesting beyond just learning. Sara Herman has also recently started a series I enjoy called "Chess In Media" where she will evaluate the chess played in scenes in movies and TV shows.

If I'm not paying a lot of attention to the screen, I'll often be watching The Fat Electrician. On his main channel, he does a lot of (mostly American) war history, highlighting lesser known people/feats that were overshadowed by more famous people/events. He is thorough in his fact checking, and he's probably the greatest story teller I've ever heard. He could talk about something absolutely mundane and make it sound interesting, which he does on his secondary channel (The Fat Files) where he dives into different businesses and how they operate.


Now when it comes to anime, I'll give just about anything a try. Most of my favorites are shonens, but I'll watch dramas, romance, comedy, isekai, or even slice of life. I've learned that One Piece is a series everyone is hesitant to start because it's too long, then they eventually give it a try, get caught up, and realize it's not long enough... I've probably watched 150-200 series, and I have like another 50-60 in my watchlist I haven't even gotten around to. I'll see a "short" on youtube or facebook, and either like a scene or the animation style or whatever else and add it to the list. When I'm actively watching, I'll throw on something I haven't seen yet. When I'm background watching, I'll usually go through an old season or arc of something I've watched before. One of my favorites to rewatch is "Nichijou" it's just absurd brainrot comedy, and you would think that when the shock value of the situations being a primary source of the humor it would get old as you see the jokes coming. Somehow, it doesn't.

I'll also watch a series, get deep into it, and then just suddenly stop for no reason. Was watching "The Walking Dead" last year, got like 9 seasons in, then just started watching other things. Did the same earlier this year with "The Boys"

So what are you watching?

I've been a huge fan of rewatching Samurai Champloo on a routine cycle, roughly every two years since that first time I found it.

Various BBQ channels on youtube, Fork and Embers, Chuds BBQ, Ants BBQ story to name a few.

Barbecue is a subject I didn't expect there to be a following for...

Who in their right mind would watch content about something that takes several/dozens of hours for any kind of payoff? (asks the guy that will watch coverage of classical chess tournaments where a single game can last upwards of 8 hours) hahahaha. I joke when I say that, cuz I've definitely fallen down the rabbit hole of cooking videos as well, and I do believe barbecue is the highest tier of cooking (unless you're hopelessly deep into the science of baking, but it's still pretty close, even then).

I don't know, I hope the sarcasm in the judgmental nature of my reply shows properly. We both watch stuff that makes people ask "who is this content even for" as we're dozens/hundreds of hours into watching it xD Maybe someone else has something "weird" they watch to contribute upon realizing that "normal" is an inherently-flawed social construct. I left out football, cuz that's "normal" of American men. I want suggestions on something more niche. Go figure, a CB addict likes niche things, who woulda thought? xD

I like it because it gives me different techniques and recipes to try out, a lot of these guys are great to watch because they're doing cooks on something reasonably affordable like a weber kettle instead of a $35,000.00 custom built mill scale 1000 gallon offset so you watch one or two of these episodes and all of a sudden you're like, heck i can do that. A few good meals and a couple compliments from the high command (my wife) and i'm hooked.