There are two things I try to avoid as much as possible since I find them extremely addictive. One is video games. Once I start playing a video game, I’m hooked. I’ll play all day long, day after day, trying to reach the next level, working towards the ultimate goal of defeating the final boss. Since I’m not a particularly good player, this can take weeks, if not months. As enjoyable and as tempting as it is, I’ve avoided going down that rabbit hole by just not playing the games. I have a large collection of games I’ve acquired over the years, and maybe someday, when I’m extremely old and have nothing else going on in my life, I’ll break them out and spend my end days playing them. Not now, though.
The second addiction is YouTube videos. These are a lot harder to avoid than video games, since they’re just a click or two away when browsing the Internet. It also doesn’t help that a lot of them are really good. It’s amazing what amateurs can produce. The video and production quality are often of the highest standard and, just a few years ago, would have required a large team and expensive equipment to produce. Not any longer. Anyone with a decent camera phone or inexpensive video camera and some talent can produce first rate videos. It also helps that they care about what they’re producing. When a video is done professionally, the main intent is usually to make money. While I don’t have a problem with that, it often results in a watered-down product or something that’s produced to appeal to the masses and maximize profit. When an individual produces a video, it’s usually about a subject that they care about and are knowledgeable about, which allows the viewer to see and learn about things they otherwise would never get to know about.
I remember when cable TV first came out. One of the promises was that with all the channels available, all sorts of special-interest subjects would be explored. This worked for a while, with lots of specialty channels about things like golf, cooking, fishing, religion, music, etc, but soon the big corporations started buying up all the little channels and watering them down to maximize their profits.I remember when MTV played music videos 24 hours a day, but then the corporations started adding reality shows because they made more money and ultimately, MTV no longer exists as a channel since it was decided that bandwidth could be more profitable, pushing something else.
Where cable TV failed, YouTube delivered.YouTube allowed anyone to post videos about almost anything. They didn’t care as long as they could inject commercials into it and make money off of it. This allowed independents worldwide access to share videos about the things they cared about.
As with anything like this, a lot of it is garbage, but there’s also a lot of great content available. I’m probably being unfair by calling a lot of it garbage since what I consider garbage, you may consider gold, and that’s what so wonderful about it.
Anyway, a type of video that I happened upon that I consider gold (but you may consider garbage) is snake capture videos. For whatever reason, the algorithm decided that I would be a good candidate for watching professional snake catchers. Now I would never have believed it but the algorithm did and apparently it’s smarter than I am since I’m hooked.There are two channels to which I’m now subscribed whose content I watch whenever it’s available. One channel is produced by Kevin Ulett, while the other is produced by Jason Arnold.
Both of these guys live in South Africa, and both travel to various locations to capture venomous snakes that have wandered onto someone’s property. Kevin is a young guy who travels by himself, and Jason is a bit older and frequently has his young daughter, Emily, accompanying him on their snake saving missions.
I’ve learned a lot from these videos. I now know a lot about snakes in South Africa. Most of them are venomous with bites that will result in horrible, painful deaths if you’re unfortunate enough to get bitten. I’ve also learned that some snakes lay eggs while others give live birth. I’ve seen multiple videos where both guys are rounding up lots of baby snakes that were recently born.
I’ve also learned a lot about South Africa. I’ve seen the incredible beaches, beautiful homes, mostly in guarded communities, with razor wire and fences surrounding them, and I’ve seen areas filled with the poorest of the poor (who, incredibly, all have modern smart phones). It’s an interesting country.
What’s also interesting is that everyone loves the snake men. No matter where they go, the people, both rich and poor, black, white, or asian are treated with respect. Not surprising since these guys are risking their lives to keep others from losing theirs.
I’m also amazed at the risks these guys will take to do their jobs. Beyond the risk of getting bitten by a snake, they also face the dangerous environments where the snakes are located. In one of Jason’s videos, he’s on the second story of a structure balancing on the edge of a brick wall, overhanging a cliff, in the process of rounding up a venomous snake. That takes commitment!
Both guys seem to love what they do and really care about the snakes that they capture. It appears to be more than just a job to them, and I’ve seen both become upset when a snake has been injured or when people talk about killing them instead of relocating them.
One thing I’ve never seen answered is how these guys get paid. There’s no evidence that the people who call on them are paying them, so how does the system work? I suspect they’re employed by the government, but that’s just a guess. For now, it will remain one of life’s little mysteries.
If you get a chance, you might want to check out some of their videos. Here are the links:
The image at the top of the post is of a highly venomous boomslang. Beautiful but not something you want to mess with.
