September 2024 – The Procrastination Pen

Sleeping with ASMR

Eye exams seemed a rich resource after the item from Moran Core. In the drive to find more ASMR videos I have tried a number of avenues. Mostly I find that ASMR devotees are there way ahead of me, sometimes by decades.

And so here, with the first comment referring to the video being “relaxing” made seven years ago. As the saying goes: the best time to watch an ASMR video was ten years ago, the next best time is today.

The video is this one:

Eye Exam Wilmington Delaware (www.SimonEye.com)

It’s a professionally produced video and therefore there are notes: “28 Aug 2009

An explanation of what goes into an eye exam. How is it done? What is the Doctor looking for? And what you need to be aware of. For more information, please visit Simon Eye Associates http://www.simoneye.com”

At just less than ten minutes this is a staple length for us and features Dr Brian Gardener (probably misspelled) as the medical professional here.

There are several links to the organisation https://www.simoneye.com/ so that we’re in no doubt what we are talking about. Brian has a great voice. There is limited to no background noise and the approach is methodical. So far, so fantastic.

The video quality is fuzzy to hazy, not a problem if we are just listening in order to get some sleep.

The “patient” is Sean (possibly misspelled) I think women with a similar name often have this spelled as Sian so there is a strong chance it is wrong. The comments refer to Sean (I’m standardising on that spelling) featuring in other videos, if we can spot them that maybe a theme for another article.

I would say that Brian has a better voice than Sean, but neither is a terrible voice for our purposes.

The channel is Simon EyeAssociates and it only has a total of eight videos. Despite the comment, Sean only appears in one of them (on this channel in any case). However, eight videos is not a terrible number to review in a blog post, particularly as it would appear that some of them are not what we are looking for.

In no particular order, the videos are as follows:

Children’s Eye Exam (www.SimonEye.com)

The medical professional is not identified. The “patient” sounds like it might be “Elon” so I’ll stick with that. It is a little loud, but a charming presentation nonetheless. As before it has notes: “18 Mar 2014

In this video we show you exactly what’s involved in a children’s eye exam.

For more information, please visit our website: http://www.simoneye.com”.

This one has comments but not any that refer to it being used for ASMR purposes. However, I think we may have a candidate video.

It is only slightly less than five and three-quarter minutes and on balance I think this can go in the Procrastination Pen playlist. It might fall prey to a subsequent weeding but we will see.

How to Choose the Perfect Pair of Glasses for Your Face Shape

I notice that these videos fall into two distinct age groups, those posted nine years ago and those posted thirteen years ago, of which this is one of the more recent ones.

This is two and three-quarter minutes and the presentation is fine but sadly it is dotted with distracting background noises.

This one also has notes “18 Mar 2014

In this video we show you the various glasses that look good on different faces. Judy will take you through and show you exactly what you need to know in order to choose the perfect pair of glasses.

For more information, please visit our website: http://www.simoneye.com”

There are some comments about the client “Lauren” but nothing about it being an ASMR video. There is another client, Patti. There are no comments at all about Patti. The next client could be LaSandra (almost certainly misspelled). There are no comments about LaSandra either.

In any case the background noises ensure it does not belong in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

How to Insert and Remove Contact Lenses (www.SimonEye.com)

The medical professional self-identifies as Carey (almost certainly misspelled), a contact lens tech.

As before there are notes: “18 Mar 2014

In this video we show you how to correctly insert and take out your contact lenses.

For more information, please visit our website: http://www.simoneye.com”

It’s just shy of four minutes so not a huge length video, but sadly in the background random noises as before. It is as if it was filmed in a backroom of an active shop or similar. Carey has a good voice, but the background noises mean that this one will not get into the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Delaware Optometrist | Simon Eye Associates (www.SimonEye.com)

Oh no! The fear of any ASMR video watcher, funky background music. Urrgh. It could be an advertising video. I’ll skip right over this one then.

Dry Eye Syndrome – Delaware Eye Doctor (www.SimonEye.com)

This is just shy of ten minutes so a more substantial video again. Featuring Dr Tessa Payne (probably misspelled). Dr Payne (or other common variants of that spelling) does not seem to be on the current doctors list so apologies Dr Payne if I got that wrong.

Dr Payne has a great voice but yet again the video is polluted with conversations going on in the background. In places this rises above merely a hubbub and disqualifies this one from becoming a favourite one for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Optometrist Wilmington, Delaware (www.SimonEye.com)

This starts with music again – usually a warning sign. It is a narrated video and the narrator has a good voice. However, this stacks up as another advertising video (which is of some length for such a video at over seven minutes). The music fails to abate despite continued watching. I do not think this one is for us.

Simon Eye Associates – Wilmington, Delaware – Eye Exams, Contact Lenses, LASIK (www.SimonEye.com)

More music, and at just over half a minute not much time to get away from that music. There is background noise and it stacks up as an advertising video (again). So, another one I will not be including.

Eye Exam Wilmington Delaware (www.SimonEye.com)

Of course, this is where we came in

So just a couple this time, the SimonEye playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:

I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.

I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.

If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

If you’re struggling for some rest and night time just brings nightmares, this is the place to stumble upon in your internet browsing. Each blog post brings you a new restful video usually drawn from YouTube. The aim is to create a great long playlist of restful videos so you can lie there being lulled off to sleep.

The playlist is regularly reviewed and the less-great videos in it archived off so that it remains a useful resource for the sleep deprived. A number of the people appearing have voices that are so good you may find proper ASMR effects from the videos (but as these seem to differ between people, only you will know if you get them).

I always put the playlist at the end of each blog entry so you can just scroll to there and pick it up if you’re short of time.

For regular readers you might remember the article from which the term “sandwich breath” originates. This is a term exchanged between ASMR devotees to check if you are suitably in the know about ASMR material. There are a few such terms and, thus far, I have only got to the bottom of very few.

In that article we encountered Dr James Kelly and the blog item focused on his voice. However, the “patient” was Pat LaFontaine, who I had never heard of up to that point in time. Readers of that item (or more especially those who watched the video) may have noticed that Pat too had a very good voice for our purposes, in that it is measured in delivery and not excessively loud.

And so, we come to today’s video:

NHL Hall of Famer Pat LaFontaine Shares His Story

This is another professionally produced video and hence comes with notes:

“3 Feb 2012

Hear hockey great Pat LaFontaine recount the steps he took during his recovery after several brain injuries forced him into retirement

Watch more clips of Pat LaFontaine – • Pat LaFontaine & … .

For more information about brain injury and PTSD, please visit us at https://www.brainline.org.”

The previous blog item was also from this channel and so it is turning out to be quite the resource.

Today’s video is just less than half an hour so reasonably substantial in terms of the videos we look at habitually. It is lovely to be reacquainted with Pat’s voice. It is like meeting an old friend.

I decided that we would not just follow the brainline channel again. I have mined it heavily and there are no further Pat La Fontaine videos in there to be had. Plus the video is such a good one that it would be a hard act to follow.

However, to show how famous the Dr James Kelly Pat La Fontaine video is, I discovered that parodies of it are now being made. This one is just a piece of fun and is in no sense going into the playlist.

The Pat LaFontaine Cranial Nerve Test Except It’s Jeremy and Hannah [ASMR Parody]

It shows how established the ASMR category of videos is that there are so many people dedicated to watching such videos. In some cases it looks like they spend a considerable amount of time in this activity, otherwise how would so many new ASMR videos continue to be made.

The Brainline playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:

I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.

I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.

If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

ASMR fans are like Miss Marples. I happen across a video and it seems to me it must be one of the hidden gems that no one could possibly have come across before. I read the comments and I find that a number of people have come across it before I have. I then discover that they comment how relaxing the whole thing is. So it is with today’s video.

The problem with coming at videos from random searches or YouTube recommendations is that you do not get to see them in the order that their creator intended. This one for example is obviously one of a series (and not the first one):

Examination of the Hand – Part 3

The notes are somewhat brief “19 Mar 2018 The Medical Assessment of Impairment”.

It starts with funky music sadly, but Roger Pillemer has a very quiet and relaxing voice, so it is worth enduring that music. The patient is “Chris” (probably misspelled) who has literally nothing to say.

The examination is methodical and gentle, just the sort of thing we are always looking for. There is zero background noise. This is a great little video for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Roger Pillemer is also the name of the channel.

This channel has twenty-four videos, which is rather too many for us to read about in one lump. There are only two playlists, one of which is seventeen videos in length.

I think the approach here is to select only those videos that are connected with the hand. Including the first one, we have four such videos. But I have no doubt that with a voice this good we will return to Roger in the future.

Taking the Examination of the Hand series in the order which it is supposed to appear, this one would appear to be video one of the series:

Examination of the Hand

At over thirty minutes it is a chunky one. Same funky music to start. There are no notes this time. There are however, yet more ASMR comments. By far the bulk of the video is given over to Roger speaking, but the latter part does include a medical examination. However, it is a quite fascinating presentation.

In the early part of the video the funky music continues to play along behind Roger’s voice. That is just not fantastic in relaxing, get-back-off-to-sleep terms. The impact of this can most deeply felt in the brief periods where the music is not playing, which is just so much better. Sadly, I think this disincludes this video from the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Examination of the Hand – Part 1

I can’t be certain but this simply seems to be a section taken from the half hour version reviewed previously. There is no medical examination in this video and sadly Roger’s voice is backed by constant funky music which makes it less than fully relaxing. This is not great when you’ve woken from a particularly vivid nightmare that you need some soothing background noise to wind down from.

I notice that one of the commentators contributes if the video only included Roger’s voice it would be much enhanced and I have to say I wholeheartedly agree.

I think like the previous one this does not belong in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Examination of the Hand – Part 2

This seems to be taken from the main “Examination of the Hand” video rather than being an entirely separate recording. Again, it has the background music. It has several fans in the comments, whether ASMR fans or medical students is not clear. However, given it has the same limitations as the previous video I do not think this one is going to be in the Procrastination Pen playlist either.

Examination of the Hand – Part 3

This is where we came in and by happy chance I happened upon the best video in the set. It is sad because Roger has a great voice but the way these have been recorded means that this is the only one lacking a backing track of funky music.

This is also the last video of the set and as it turns out the only one to go into The Procrastination Pen playlist.

The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:

I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.

I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.

If you liked this article, why not follow this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by Anna Lacroix on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Welcome to the Procrastination Pen and the latest series which is featuring ASMR. More specifically, videos which will soothe you back to sleep after you have woken for the third time from your most tenacious nightmare.

The output of these articles is a playlist of videos which you can watch in shuffle mode on YouTube (or more probably if you are trying to get some sleep – listen).

I will always put the playlist at the end of the article, so if you have no time, scroll straight to the end and pick it up from there.

Still here? Fantastic, let’s take a look at today’s video. As usual, I am not the first to look at this as a potential ASMR candidate. Some of the comments indicate that others were here before me and obviously at least some of them have found it helpful.

HEINE Direct Ophthalmoscopy — How to perform Ophthalmoscopy

It is a professionally produced video and as we have found with professionally produced videos it has notes to clarify what the contents are about.

“5 Mar 2010

How to perform direct ophthalmoscopy using the direct ophthalmoscope. HEINE products and Mr. Brian Little.

0:00 Intro Ophthalmoscopy

0:55 The Ophthalmoscope

2:29 Examining the Red Reflex

4:37 Examining the Fundus

6:14 Direct Ophthalmoscopy Limitations

6:55 Ocular Pathology

▬ About this channel ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

On “HeineOptotechnik” you will find videos about high-quality diagnostic instruments from HEINE, compact information about their handling as well as application examples.

Subscribe now and stay up to date!

Subscription link: https://www.youtube.com/user/HeineOpt…”

At eight minutes twenty-two seconds not the longest that we have seen so far. This has a good narration track (potentially Brian, if so he has a good voice).

After a few minutes I found that the approach was wonderfully relaxing with, thankfully, no background noise at all. As an instructional video it is methodical and well-paced and gratifyingly, no unpleasant surprises.

The channel is HEINE Optotechnik with one hundred and thirty-three videos at the day I am looking at it. There are thirteen playlists so it seems best to identify a playlist which contains this video. Sadly, none of the playlists contain this video. The next technique I usually adopt is to scan all videos to see if the same “patient” or the same medical professional is in any of the others.

In this case there is not a fantastic view of the medical professional and there appears to be only one video with this “patient”.

In this case I tried videos which feature Brian Little as the narrator and came up with three (Including the one reviewed at the beginning of this article).

HEINE Indirect Ophthalmoscopy — The Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscope (Part 1)

Again, there are notes “29 Jun 2010

The development, the optics, the controls and the clinical examination for the Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscope explained by Mr. Brian Little.

Learning Objectives Part 1:

0:53 Development

1:30 Optics

3:36 Controls

Clinical Examination: • HEINE Indirect Op…

▬ Recommended videos ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

► HEINE Indirect Ophthalmoscopy Part 2: • HEINE Indirect Op…

► HEINE OMEGA 500 Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscope: • HEINE OMEGA 500 I…

▬ About this channel ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

On “HeineOptotechnik” you will find videos about high-quality diagnostic instruments from HEINE, compact information about their handling as well as application examples.

Subscribe now and stay up to date!

Subscription link: https://www.youtube.com/user/HeineOpt…

▬ Social Media ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/heineopto…

►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heineoptote…”

The voice is as good as before, the approach is still methodical but there is no patient examination in this particular video. There are no ASMR comments with the video, so it does not appear as popular as the last one. However, it lacks distracting background noise and has potential for relaxation, I think.

HEINE Indirect Ophthalmoscopy — The Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscope (Part 2)

notes again “29 Jun 2010

The development, the optics, the controls and the clinical examination for the Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscope explained by Mr. Brian Little.

Learning Objectives Part 2:

0:46 Clinical Examination

5:42 Summary

▬ Recommended videos ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

► HEINE Direct Ophthalmoscopy: • HEINE Direct Opht…

► HEINE OMEGA 500 Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscope: • HEINE OMEGA 500 I…

▬ About this channel ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

On “HeineOptotechnik” you will find videos about high-quality diagnostic instruments from HEINE, compact information about their handling as well as application examples.

Subscribe now and stay up to date!

Subscription link: https://www.youtube.com/user/HeineOpt…

▬ Social Media ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/heineopto…

►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heineoptote…”

Familiar voice, similar approach, professionally recorded, there seems little to dislike. No comments from ASMR fans again so this is probably another unpopular one.

This one does include a patient examination (unlike the last one). Therefore it is more in tune with our standard approach, which is to feature medical examination videos.

Examining the rest of HEINE Optotechnik, there seems little else of value ASMR-wise at this moment in time, so I am unlikely to revisit. Still, we have three more videos for the playlist and we do not always find that.

The HEINE Optotechnik playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:

I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.

I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.

If you liked this blog article why not follow this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by Pourya Gohari on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Some people have echoed the concern that the material to write a blog dedicated to ASMR is soon enough going to dry up and I shall come to an abrupt halt. Recently, however I have signed up to an ASMR group on Facebook. This group receives ASMR posts daily and a great many of them. It seems likely that there will always be ASMR material. It also seems that the popularity of ASMR isn’t going to wane in the short term. ASMR seems to have now been established as an interest for a sufficient time that I think it unlikely that this is a fashion or a fad.

What will perhaps be more challenging is the area I have chosen to explore, which is of ASMR-inducing videos where that was not the initial intent of the video. I find this a great deal more interesting, like uncovering a diamond in a coal mine.

It does mean quite a bit of work in sifting through the very many unsuitable videos. However, the mental reward when the like of Hollie Berry or Shane Brun are discovered does to some extent compensate for that. Although, unsurprisingly, there are many more videos which are not of that calibre.

Every once in a while, I will take a side route to illustrate videos that are not quite on theme but might be of interest. If, one day, I cease to discover new inadvertent ASMR there is always the world of professional ASMR to take a look at. It might even be that readers of this blog will encourage that direction, perhaps to advertise their own ASMR material, for example.

For now, I have another video to look at.

Head to Toe Assessment: Greta Garber

This is quite brief in terms of the videos we have looked at of late, at just over six and a quarter minutes.

The notes are informative: “18 Nov 2020

Head to Toe Assessment done by Greta Garber on November 18th for NSG 261 Skills Test #2”

NSG261 appears to be one in a series of exams with NSG262 and NSG263 material also being readily available in terms of study guides, quizzes, advice and so on. So it does not appear to uniquely identify a specific institution. Where colleges offer NSG courses these seem to be in relation to a nursing qualification, so it might be that NSG is just an odd abbreviation for nursing.

Greta Garber is the medical professional in this video, the “patient” is Audrey Stephens (almost certainly misspelled). Given this is filmed in 2020 it might have been when Greta was at Miami University.

Miami, of course has its own channel with around hundred and ninety-seven videos at the time I am looking at it. However, we have experience of university channels now and mostly they are about promoting the university (unsurprisingly) and experience tells us it is a poor source for ASMR material.

The address is given which sounds like “233 Gaslin”, but which almost certainly is nothing like that. Many of the commentators have mentioned that whoever is handling the camera probably had a bad cold that day, or at the least is used to breathing through their mouth. At times it sounds like someone trying to make a certain kind of telephone call.

The poster for Phi Mu turns out to be a “fraternity” at Miami. I’m not at all informed about what a fraternity would do or why they exist. This one seems to exist as a way to meet like-minded women, which amongst other things, seems to be involved in some charitable events. Perhaps that is why all fraternities exist. Interestingly, the word seems to originate with the term brotherhood, which makes its re-use as a term to define a group of women interesting. American websites seem to more typically use the term “Sorority” to define a group like this. I’m not sure of the ramifications (which could potentially be political).

Although it starts a bit energetically – it seems like it was quite hard to take it all seriously – the video settles down and becomes quite gentle (in places anyway).

The channel is Greta Garber there are four videos of which this one is by far the most recent. The others do not look very promising as ASMR candidates.

cheer winter

Given the music and photographic content I would say it is a nostalgic celebration of success designated for participants only. Definitely of no use for an ASMR video.

meniscus

well, the title is medical so it promises to be more interesting. The music at the start is a lot less so. It is slightly over two and a half minutes so really not very long. The video includes the channel owner and someone called Kayla, who on the face of it has a much better voice.

It was obviously filmed in the equivalent of a canteen with the background noise that we have come to expect from such locations. It then appears to move to a more medical room with a similar level of noise. There is the air conditioning unit running which could have doubled as a cooling plant at Chernobyl. It could have been a very good video in principle but I think it is more likely to keep you awake than lull you off to sleep.

VOTE GRETA GARBER FOR SECRETARY

Loud, so loud. Really not at all what we want to hear.

So that’s it. Not a huge one this time I’m afraid, but I’m sure that we will have next time another for your delectation.

The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:

The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:

I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.

The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:

I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.

I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.

If you liked this blog article why not follow this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae