A narrowing amount of time to deal with blog posts as I am about to be out of the country for a while. I was reflecting this week on the stresses of being able to travel. All the documentation, insurance, tickets, booking forms and online details. Then there are the things to remember, the money, the property information, the boarding passes, the passports, the details of the rental car. There’s the need to be up-and-Adam at stupid-o-clock. A lengthy journey to an immense building designed to beat the resistance out of the most chipper individual. The interminable queues. The seating crammed with strangers’ backsides. The security akin to an abattoir holding pen.
After all that the wedging into a tiny space for hours entertained by a constant background droning, coughing, sneezing, snoring and children crying. Pitching out somewhere strange. The need to find the car rental, the place you are staying, the negotiations over check in. Then and only then the rest that this entire process was supposed to promote.
And I reflect that every one of these is a first-world problem that many in the world would fight to have the possibility of.
I begin to see that it is all kind of mad and perhaps we are all a little mad for continuing to indulge in it.
Perhaps when such events are normal it is unsurprising that life is not that beneficial for sleep and many of us have to adjust in any way we find feasible to get what shut-eye we can. If we just can’t get enough sleep to afterwards compensate with any legal chemical (such as caffeine) to keep going when getting enough sleep is looking unlikely.
In such circumstances if you have managed to find even a few minutes to look at the Procrastination Pen I reflect upon the miracle that must have relied upon. I welcome you, however briefly.
If you have not been here before, this little blog really tries to find anything that is restful. To review it for its restfulness and to present it as a possibility to listen to when your mind is racing and will not be assuaged by visions of jumping sheep.
As is usual this week I have a track from Calm. Calm is a paid-for service and I appreciate that you probably pay for way too much already. The advantage, for me, is that it does not have advertising. You will not be interrupted whilst you are trying to get some sleep. The disadvantage is that it does not provide a mechanism for assembling playlists that I have been able to ascertain (In the web-based version at any rate) and of course the need to pay before listening.
This week’s Calm track is this one:
https://www.calm.com/app/player/PTAKI4ZSz_
Daily Jay
Self-Stories
NARRATOR
Jay Shetty
It is about the stories that we tell ourselves. How these stories influence our self-image and self-worth. It isn’t obviously sleep material. To date though I have found the Calm dailies to be better in terms of restfulness than the Calm material that is supposed to be about sleep. Jay isn’t the most restful voice on Calm; I think that is Tamara Levitt. However, Jay does great inspirational material. I find myself listening to him more often than not.
Recently I have been reviewing YouTube videos for professional ASMR artists and being hyper critical. Often finding much to be critical about. As I review professional ASMR artists I find that the inadvertent ASMR videos, I have been looking at, have actually been maintaining a higher standard than I had previously given credence to. With this history in mind, I approach this week’s video. I had noticed that since I reviewed an ASMR video with a steampunk theme the purely medical nature of the YouTube videos that appear in my recommendations has filtered down somewhat. Perhaps the variety will appeal to my audience. Then again perhaps it will not. Feel free to let me know if you are not really appreciating the direction of travel.
This week’s is
[ASMR] Vintage Reverie | Traditional Scalp Healing Ritual
straight away I realise that the video is not going to be merely based upon speaking. There are occasional taps, hisses and noises of items being moved.
It is twenty two minutes long and so positively whistling past in comparison with some we’ve heard. There are notes and refreshingly these are kept very short: “21,293 views 10 Sept 2025
Back to 1920s again~
==============================
Hello Guys!!! I’m Miranda, if u like my videos, u could click “LIKE”. More videos of mine, “SUBSCRIBE” and watch more~!!! LOVING U~
我是MT，喜欢我的影片的话，希望大家按下【喜欢】，想收看更多我的影片请【订阅】哦~~感谢大家的支持~
微 博：MTkoala
bilibili：https://space.bilibili.com/6881318
网易云音乐：http://music.163.com/#/djradio?id=662…
荔枝fm：http://www.lizhi.fm/1256826/”
The clue is right there; the video is not in English. However, I do rather like the voice and, although the presenter could be swearing for all I know, I’ll blithely assume it is all relevant material. Just not in a language I can understand.
The site is Mandarin Whispers 官方频道 with 69.6K subscribers there are three hundred and forty eight videos and three playlists so this site also seems to be punching above its weight in terms of subscribers. There are comments but a number of these have responded in Chinese characters so I have no idea if they are positive. Given the halo around ASMR professionals I will make a guess that they are.
The voice tends towards the whispery but is a good voice nonetheless. There are ceramic noises, hair brushing noises and a noise of a stone being applied to skin. There are liquid noises and cloth rustling noises. These additional noises seem to me distracting. Others may find them the bread and butter of what they are looking for in an ASMR video. Personally, the video wasn’t the greatest. I would have preferred the same thing but just with the voice. At least some of the more irritating aspects of other videos are missing (such as startup music or air conditioning noises). It’s a bit of faint praise though I fear.
Based on that, let’s move onto the normal Procrastination Pen material, which is all about inadvertent ASMR videos. (Videos designed with a different purpose in mind but which nonetheless turn out to be restful). Habitually, I select these based upon the voice of the participant.
Another week, another video, another chance for rest and relaxation. Perhaps a good alternative to the Friday evening glass of wine for relaxation. Given the usual posting date more likely a Monday evening, but I’ll gloss over that; who knows when you might be reading this.
This time a video that comes from a technique to which I have not given much time on this blog (that might be about to change).
The Alexander Technique
This one is incredibly brief at slightly over three minutes. One would hope it does not have time to do anything too loud or off-putting. It is a professional video and hence it has notes: “54,429 views 30 May 2014
http://www.concordmedia.org.uk/produc…
A demonstration of the Alexander Technique.
A clear demonstration of the Alexander Technique. Dr Barlow uses a young woman previously unfamiliar with this therapy to show how posture has to be learned, and the great benefits it can bring.
Distributed by Concord Media
Website: http://concordmedia.org.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ConcordMedia
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ConcordMedia59”
The comments reveal that this is a snippet of a much longer video available for purchase from here http://www.concordmedia.org.uk/products/the-alexander-technique-by-dr-wilfred-barlow-210/
But I would not be able to share the purchased version with you, so for our purposes, there is not much point in going down that route.
It is (as commentators have noted) a shame that more is not available on YouTube as Dr Barlow has a great voice. It was apparently filmed in 1990 so it has been around for quite a while.
There are no extraneous noises – material like this is the reason that I keep looking each week on YouTube. Sadly, it is all over so quickly.
The channel is Concord Media. It has 1.4K videos and 13.8K subscribers – wow.
There are a number of playlists but none at all seem to be concerned with The Alexander Technique. Therefore, sadly this one is it. More next time.
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 DeepAI
The Procrastination Pen 