• Saturday, 10/07/23 ** 17:48 The biggest aspect of the US - of Germany, of Italy, of most other places I've been - is the lack of eye contact and body language in Stockholm. Growing up in Portland suburbs, my dad would say 'hey' to everyone we passed by on morning walks - and though I wasn't that explicit, I would always make eye contact, smile, nod; acknowledge the other person, and they would almost always acklowledge me back. In social scenarios, an eye contact and a smile is a sign - "I want to talk to you", or "you seem interesting", or "thank you for sharing this space with me".

I'm used to giving and receiving those kinds of looks everywhere. In Stockholm, I get nothing back. No matter how sparse or densely crowded a street is, nobody will make eye contact; they aggressively look in the other direction, like they're deliberately avoiding acknowledging the other person. This girl who sat down after me - next to me - on the bus five minutes ago - ACNE Archive bag, beautiful red leather jacket - and amazing outfit, honestly! - I wanted to ask where the jacket was from, so I looked for some social cue from her to consent to my reaching out, to say that somehow it would be okay for me to talk to her - and though I made it very clear that I was open to conversation through my social signals, I thought, she gave nothing back, positive or negative - not even an acklowledgement. Keep staring at the phone. Don't acknowledge the environment.

This isn't incredibly uncommon - I feel like I experience this with someone else at least once a week. Interesting person, no idea how to talk to them, they don't broadcast any social signals. This isn't something I've experienced anywhere else - even in Copenhagen, quite close (culturally and physically), I had something to go off of - and people interacted with me non-verbally! Where is that here? ** 19:28 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hql6doE-Ccw

Dave2D's video presentation is really interesting. He films everything in one take - or hard cuts if he needs another, but that doesn't seem to happen frequently. He adjusts on the fly and lets it happen - left a joystick off, for example, or doesn't realize how to do something at first - and doesn't brush it off, necessarily, but acknowledges that it's part of the experience.

It's this seemingly casual, ad-hoc delivery that makes him a good speaker, I think; he feels personable, like he could be you experiencing a device, unlike a lot of the other tech review content production out there. His videos are clearly very planned, though; he hits on all the points at the right times, and the progression of the story - feel in hand to build quality to cool quirks to gameplay experience to who would buy this - is standard, and he hits his marks every two or so minutes to transition between them. He makes this happen, though, through a conversation, one that's briskly filmed without cuts. Dave films his own face and the device at the same time, and isn't afraid to cut out to his face or to the full device view if he needs the room, but he is in complete control of to what degree his face - his opinion - about the device is shown.

More of Dave's face? More opinion. More of the device fills the screen? Facts about the device, because you're looking and making the decision for yourself rather than talking to him. Brilliant!

His varying tone of voice also really brings points home; when he needs to make some sort of disclaimer or note for the more serious people, he always - always - 'inlines it' by using it as a fourth point in the five paragraph essay structure he uses, speaking quickly and with a lower tone of voice, so that most people brush over it but the people who care absorb the information; it's required for him to convey in some way. Headline sentences or leading paragraphs have his voice dipping up and down, slowing when mentioning device names or Bringing. Points. Home., like It's All. About. The. Joystick. or something like that, then continuing to deliver with a faster cadence; 'you see, well...'.

Another observation - his style is very deliberate but he still bookends a lot of his points with filler; filler that would be common in a conversation, but not necessarily in a prepared script. This makes a video feel like a conversation. ** 20:05 Oh, Fujifilm is in Stockholm because Hasselblad headquarters are in Gothenburg. Was wondering why they were so into coming here first when choosing Europe...