Smile, You're on Candid Camera

Would you believe me if I told you I didn't know who (or what) Mr. Beast was until June of 2025?

Apparently Mr. Beast is the most followed YouTuber, and despite that I'd never run across anything related to him (or his organization) until I discovered this video by Jaiden Animations:

This was when I first discovered Jaiden (after discovering Rebecca Parham's YouTube channel first) and a couple of her videos referenced how absolutely crazy some of Mr. Beast's followers were. However, even after watching Jaiden's video I didn't have any desire to go and hunt down Mr. Beast, so I tucked that little bit of knowledge away and just went on with life.

Then two things happened. First, Dan Olson dropped this video:

If you've got the time, it's worth a watch as Dan was most definitely NOT the sort of influencer that someone of Mr. Beast's ilk would typically be interacting with. I mean, Dan does long form video essays about deep topics --gaming related or not-- and is the polar opposite of Mr. Beast's stuff. 

After watching Dan's video, I still had no desire to go visit Mr. Beast's site on the internet. I mean, Dan had pretty much reinforced my opinion that Mr. Beast was NOT for me.

Finally, I opened up my email last morning to find this from (of all places) Lowe's Home Improvement:

This arrived in my INBOX on 5/18/2026.

You're kidding me, right? 

Lowes? The hardware company that partners with the NFL and sports figures like Messi?

No, I'm still not interested in seeing Mr. Beast's stuff, and after having watched Dan's video, I think that Beast Industries is throwing jello at a wall to see what sticks. After all, I'm about 45 years too old to be Beast Industries' target audience.

***

The presence of Monsieur Beast in my email provided me a necessary intro into something that I'd been thinking about after my attendance at the Dayton Hamvention: the prevalence of YouTubers and other influencers.

Outside of Salty Walt, I noted the presence of several other YouTubers at the Hamvention. One of the first people who came by our tables on Friday I recognized immediately.

"Hey, it's the CB guy!" I exclaimed.

"Yes it is," he replied with a slightly sheepish grin.

It was Erik of Farpoint Farms, whose YouTube channel focuses a lot on CB radio with a side helping of shortwave and scanner radios, solar power, and other items he uses at his farm in the mountains of North Carolina. He was a pretty genial guy, so he was exactly like he presented himself on his channel. That morning he was just rummaging around for anything interesting to purchase, not record for the channel.* Alas, one of our club members tried hard to sell him on items rather than let him look in peace, but at least Erik took it in stride.

However, as the Hamvention progressed, I noted other YouTubers around, some livestreaming with cameras and some without, but obviously all looking at things with an eye toward content. There was one moment where I was walking in one direction of the flea market, saw a well-known YouTuber with phone on a selfie stick, recording, and I spun around in the opposite direction and "noped" my way out of there. When I was looking at antennas with one of the indoor vendors --hey, I'm a ham, what do you expect?-- another guy appeared at my elbow and began talking to the vendor, explaining he was a YouTuber, and wanted to ask him some questions. After a quick side glance to make sure he wasn't recording at just that moment, I skipped out again.

I get it, people are creating content for a living. That's the name of the game. But holy cow did there seem to be so many of them around. And given that while the Dayton Hamvention has attendees worldwide, there are only ~730,000 hams in the US. (Yes, it's on the public record; as the link shows.) There were around 36,000 Hamvention attendees, and probably 25,000-30,000 of them were actual amateur license holders.** So the size of the potential audience in a YouTube channel isn't all that great to begin with, and it certainly seems that a lot of folks are fighting over that smallish slice of the pie. 

But you know, that's okay. I can just do my thing as long as they don't intrude on it, and I'll let them do their thing. 

***

I do realize that I'm griping a bit about this on a blog, which is the older form of social media. I have enough self awareness that I can acknowledge that, but there are two significant differences: scale and goals. as my other influencer post pointed out, I'm not even close to their league in terms of visibility. And for someone who prefers to keep himself largely out of the spotlight, that's perfectly fine with me. The second is that I'm not doing this to generate clicks and/or income. I'm doing it as an outlet for my urge to write. I don't have to worry about critiques, rejection letters (if I'd even merit one out of a slush pile), and god forbid any chaos that'd arise out of any potential professional publications. 

Isn't blogging a form of self-publishing?
From Imgflip.

The YouTubers do put themselves out there in a way I never do, and consequently open themselves up to criticism I don't receive. For that, I salute them, and yet I'm glad I am not them.

(Also, I have now developed what appears to be Con Crud, that low grade cold that afflicts people when they have been to a conference of any sort. I was just telling my wife this past evening that this was the first real "cold" that I've had since my health scare in 2021. Not sure what kind of record that breaks, but for me it feels like forever. And I simply hate hate HATE a sore throat.)

*That came later. Judging by the footage, I was not around the booth at the time; probably at a forum or something. Oh, and for the record, while I might disagree with some of Erik's stances on things, he is living proof that people can disagree without being disagreeable.

**For example, I only got my license in the Fall of 2025, and I'd attended around 5 times or so before this year.

Meme Monday: Exhaustion Memes

This Meme Monday is what you get when you're wiped out after spending long hours on something. For me, it was Hamvention. And then work before that. 

But you get the idea.

I saw my eyes on Saturday morning, and they
looked like that. From Memebase.

Yeah, I feel ya. From Pinterest.

Yeah, right. From Cheezburger.

I notice that you don't see your MMO toons sleeping...
from Imgflip.

Yah, of COURSE you do, Jack.
From Boarding Group (and Imgflip).

Me too, Mr. Coffey. From Cheezburger.

Time for a Nap

I'm back.

I seriously considered heading back up today (Sunday), but I was too tired to pull it off. I needed the sleep.

In both days, we hit the road up to Xenia early, because the club space in the flea market portion of the Hamvention was being set up at 7 AM. So... a one hour drive means we leave Cincinnati at 6 AM. Any prep beforehand means I'm getting up at 4 - 4:30 AM.

On Friday, I got up at 4:15 AM to get ready for the club president to pick me up at 6 AM. I'd prepped a lot of stuff the night before, but let's be realistic: I did NOT want to forget something important, like my ticket, so I built in an extra 15 minutes to get ready. I'm glad I did, because my first 15 minutes of wakefulness are more akin to the walking dead, so I didn't have to rush around like a nut just to be ready to roll.

By the time we arrived up at Xenia, the lines of cars stretched for what seemed like forever. Luckily, we had a flea market vendor pass, so we were able to get inside by taking an alternate entrance to the Fairgrounds. We pulled in, parked, and walked to our spot, where the setup was already under way. At 9 AM, we were ready to go, the morning sun was beautiful with wonderful, pleasant temperatures, and things looked bright. 

This pic was Saturday morning, but Friday's was
an exact duplicate.

Of course, this being the Dayton Hamvention, that didn't last. 

You know the old joke about the Midwest that if you don't like the weather, wait 20 minutes and it'll change? Replace "Midwest" with "Hamvention", and you get the idea.

By the time the club president and I had left a forum hosted by Walt Hudson, "Salty Walt" of the Coastal Waves and Wires YouTube channel, the sky had already darkened, and soon enough a wave of rain hit the Hamvention. This became a bit of a theme of the past two days, as things would start off fine to brilliantly beautiful, and then we'd have a round of rain (or three) and then things would have cleared up by mid-afternoon. 

A view of the central area, complete with food trucks.
This doesn't really do the place justice, as there were
a lot more food trucks ringing the area and giving
the place a "coney island" type of vibe. All that was missing
were games such as Skeeball and Ring Toss.

This was one of the most popular food
areas, complete with grilled chicken (left)
and pork chops (right). The deep
fried mac and cheese was toward the back.

I saw plenty of people in scooters and/or service animals, which I guess shouldn't have surprised me due to the aging of the overall amateur radio population, but I did wonder about the long term health of the hobby.

I'd never seen a rottweiler as a service dog
before, but here one was. Oh, and the skies were
about to open up again...

After that first day, I konked out at 8:30 PM (ish) and woke up at 4 AM on Saturday. This time I was picking up the club president at her house, and then we were going to carpool with another couple of club members. That meant I had to pick her up at 5:30 AM then get to his place by 6 AM in time to leave. We had one big problem, where a stretch of a major east-west connector in Cincinnati was closed right when we wanted to use it, so I had to navigate through the back roads to get back onto the highway. 

Still, we were only delayed by a few minutes (thanks to it being before 6 AM on a Saturday), and hit the road shortly after 6.

Passing by Kings Island amusement park around
6:20 AM.

The interior spaces were very crazy early on, and I took advantage of Saturday's early morning slow start to get a chance to take some photos inside some of the indoor booths...

One of the few times Gigaparts wasn't swamped.

On Friday the Yaesu booth was an absolute nuthouse,
so it was nice to actually get a chance to look around
on Saturday.

I couldn't even get over to the Icom area on Friday, and
this was the closest I dared on Saturday.

After we finished up for the day and packed up everything we hadn't sold from the flea market, we drove back home. I got back to my house sometime after 7:30, ate dinner, and basically vegetated before heading to bed at 10:30 ish. 

***

Was it fun?

Yes. Unlike prior years when I'd attended*, I felt like I truly belonged there. Having that license helped a lot, but the knowledge I'd gained over the past year meant that I could follow people's conversations more readily than I ever could before. Sure, there's a ton of things I didn't know, but at least I was able to follow along more than I had in the past.

Would I do it again?

Yes. As the club president said, getting up so early in the morning was a killer, and so I was getting awfully sleepy by mid-afternoon. On both Friday and Saturday, I was at a mid-afternoon forum presentation and both times I nearly dozed off. Still, except for that early morning rise-time, I was enjoying myself.

Did I feel like a drowned rat at times?

Absolutely yes. I sent a selfie to my wife, who told me that she was glad the rain jacket was working, and then another one to my Questing Buddy, who told me that it looked like fun and that she missed the rain (she lives in Las Vegas). Believe me, in the middle of the rain it certainly didn't feel like fun when we'd scrambled to protect all of the items we had for sale. 

I was happy that I wore shorts on Saturday, so I wasn't in sopping wet jeans during the worst of the downpours.

Okay, that's that for another year. Time to get back to bed for another nap.

*I last attended in 2006, and this was my fifth Hamvention.

Pass the Coffee

By the time you read this, I will be on the road up to Dayton, OH. 

Okay, my destination is really a small town east of Dayton, Xenia*, but you get the point.

What's up in Xenia? The 2026 Dayton Hamvention.

The official logo of the 2026 Hamvention.
From hamvention.org.

Why is it named the Dayton Hamvention if it's held in Xenia? Because the Hamvention began in Dayton in 1952, and it remained in the immediate Dayton area until it moved to Xenia following the closure of it's previous home, Hara Arena, in 2016. More importantly, the name "Dayton Hamvention" has been a trademark of the convention since 1953 or so, and the Hamvention itself is run by the Dayton Amateur Radio Association.

I volunteered to help set up and man the flea market booth that my club reserved, but I fully intend to take advantage of my time up there this weekend to explore everything that's going on.

Before you ask, no, you don't have to have an amateur radio license to attend, but it certainly does help. I mean, there's a ton of electronics and whatnot that aren't explicitly for hams, which is how I initially was attracted to the convention back in the 90s, but there's also a metric ton of other equipment and vendors that are expressly there to cater to hams. 

I'll probably take some photos of the place and provide a trip report, because that's what I do. I'll still sleep back at home, because it's a lot cheaper to drive back and forth than get a hotel (even given the current gas prices), but in the meantime I'd better pay attention to where we're headed.

See you in a few days!

*Xenia is most famous for the F5 tornado that destroyed the town in the Supercell of 1974, known colloquially as The Day of the Tornadoes. Here's a longer special report on the 50th anniversary of tornado. That was the same Supercell in which I witnessed a tornado that crossed the Ohio River and hit Sayler Park, the westernmost neighborhood of Cincinnati. As I've said before, if you've ever seen a tornado live, you never forget it.

Wanted: A Living Breathing Instance

In the MMO world where it seems that speed (and loot) is king, my fondest memories of dungeons/instances are those that simply feel alive.

I've made my feelings pretty clear on how game developers simply don't make instances on the size and scale of a Blackrock Depths (Classic WoW) or Garth Agarwen (LOTRO) anymore. Instances are now designed as bite-sized chunks for a quick dopamine rush, where the fun is less an experience of an epic place but more of a test of skill in your speed at completing the instance. 

I was thinking about this last night when I responded to Kurn's blog post from Sunday, in which she asked what was people's favorite Classic WoW instance. While I ultimately chose Deadmines as my favorite because of its status as a gateway drug (and the conclusion of the main Defias story throughout the Stormwind territory), I have to give plenty of props to the "big guns" of Classic WoW instances: Stratholme, Blackrock Depths, and Blackrock Spire.

By comparison, Scholomance is a short instance.

Compared to modern instance design, those Classic WoW instances --well, most of them save for Dire Maul and Scarlet Monastery-- are gigantic places that were meant to be living, breathing locales. The devs took their cue from RPGs and the big dungeons found in tabletop games, such as Expedition to the Barrier Peaks or The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, and created expansive places to explore. Yes, you had to make multiple forays into a lot of the instances to complete quests --not just for loot-- and more than one of them were informally gated by level difficulty, such as Uldaman, where if you did the early portion at-level you'd find yourself vastly underpowered at the end of the instance. 

Over time, however, these strengths of the older instances grew to be looked at as less than a key feature and more of a bug, and were consequently smoothed out of dungeon design. I suppose you could say that as MMO design focus changed from the leveling journey to endgame raiding, instances grew to be looked at as a stepping stone for the player. With the introduction of timed challenges (Retail WoW's Mythic Plus) and perpetually increasing difficulty modes, instance design is now far more about the mathematical and skill-based exercise of speed and precision rather than the integration into a game world. At that point, instances have grown to be looked at as an endgame in itself, complete with a story-mode (with or without AI-assisted NPCs) all the way to a perpetually increasing challenge mode (Mythic+). 

***

For all the speculation of a Classic Plus to Vanilla Classic WoW, and for the record I am still highly skeptical that a true Classic Plus is coming*, one of the hallmarks of anything that would classify as Classic Plus would have to be a return to grand, sprawling instances. If Blizzard were to put all of the Classic Plus content after the Naxxramas raid, then the vertical progression would kill off any real sense of a Classic Plus. It would just be an alternative to the official WoW timeline but keeping all of the problems contained therein. 

Of course, I am in a pretty small minority here, because the popularity of the modern instance design speaks volumes. When most people talk about Classic Plus, they speak of "NOT the official timeline" rather than "more stuff for the leveling journey" in Vanilla. It's a reaction to how things are now and deciding that taking another fork in the road is a better idea.

From  the Star Trek: The Next Generation
episode "Relics". (via Tenor).

Answering the question "What does Classic Plus mean" will go a long way toward understanding what Classic Plus we might get, and knowing the Blizzard of today I'm not sure I trust them to answer it in a way I'd like. 

*I believe that it's equally likely that Blizzard would announce the ability for people to purchase their own private server software so they can host "official" Vanilla WoW versions. Blizz might even allow those purchasers the ability to manipulate some things, such as difficulty levels and buffs/debuffs to players and mobs to make the experience easier or harder. If there's one way to kill off the private server market, it's that.

Meme Monday: Mother's Day Memes for 2026

Sure, it's a day late, but Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

Can't have an MMO-related blog without
the appearance of Alexstrasza, the Dragon Queen.
From Blizz's X page.

This is definitely NOT a Mother's Day meme,
but I found it amusing. From
Facebook's WoW page.

Obviously, somebody took the Battle for Azeroth
trailer and "Mother-ified" it...

...and this is where my fear of wire hangers
comes from. Thanks, Mommie Dearest...
From Mommie Dearest and No-Guilt Life.

Um, yeah. About that... From Pinterest.

Um... Excuse Me...

I wasn't exactly expecting to post anything today, but this dropped in my Inbox...

From an email from May 7, 2026.

Okay, I get it: Blizz wants to sell you a statue of Dalaran, the floating city version. (Old time Warcraft RTS players would argue that's not the "real" Dalaran, but I digress.)

But. "Azeroth's Greatest City"? 

From Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan.
(Meme from Yarn.)

I believe it WAS Azeroth's Greatest City, but not anymore...