My favourite story in The Courier this week was the one about Derek Bowman.
You might know him better as Ginger Man With A Cam.
He’s the Fife carer who has become an internet sensation, thanks to his short videos about the towns and villages he’s visited across the glorious kingdom.
Now Fife is renowned for its picturesque charms.
St Andrews boasts golf and beaches and a university fit for a future King and Queen.
The East Neuk is so beloved by second home buyers that the locals can’t get a house there for love nor money.
But those are not the destinations that have won Derek the admiration of expats and Fife-ophiles the world over.
For it’s when he turns his attention to the kingdom’s less loved corners that the real magic happens.
Towns like Kennoway and Rosyth are unlikely to grace the pages of the Lonely Planet guide any time soon but through his lens they become places you’d love to spend the day in.
Methil is a favourite destination. He says the sea views are amazing.
Newburgh is so friendly that a stranger welcomed him to her house for a cup of tea and some cake.
His most popular video is the one he made in Markinch, which has been viewed almost 50,000 times.
The Ginger Man secret? Be nice
Ginger Man With A Cam’s unique selling point is to find something positive in every town he visits – even if it’s just a bench or a tree swing.
And that’s it. No side to him. No snark. Just a good guy doing something nice for other people to enjoy.
The internet and social media get the blame for many of society’s ills. Often rightly so.
We know that platforms like Facebook and Instagram understand the harm they’re doing by fuelling outrage and feeding into young girls’ insecurities.
I see it in my own feeds. The Twitter pile-ons and the “Why aren’t you angry about this?” posts.
I could jump in and add to the collective rage but honestly I’m just there for the puppies and the breaking news.
Like anything else the internet is what you make of it.
Ginger Man With A Cam makes it a better place for everyone and that’s the energy I’m taking into 2022.
Can I have a Wordle?
Talking of the internet, have you discovered Wordle yet?
It’s the funny wee word game that’s taken social media by storm.
If you’ve been anywhere near Twitter this week you might have noticed people posting mysterious yellow, green and grey blocks.
It couldn’t be simpler.
Go to the free website and take six shots at guessing the five letter word of the day.
Guess a letter right and the square turns yellow, get it in the right place it turns green.
Jesus Christ, that's it, me life is RUINED. I'm now completely OBSESSED with this wretched bloody thing and I'm SHITE at it… 😭😭😭😭😭😭
Wordle 201 6/6⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩— MarianKeyes has written a sequel to RachelsHoliday (@MarianKeyes) January 6, 2022
And that’s it.
It’s remarkably addictive. In November it had 90 players. By the start of this week there were 300,000.
And here’s the really great thing. It was created by software engineer Josh Wardle for his partner, who loves word games.
It’s free. There are no ads. No one’s making money off it (yet).
He just did it because it was a nice thing to do.
Which takes me back to Ginger Man With A Cam.
Nice people doing nice things. They walk among us.
Resolve to seek them out this year and they might just make life better for all of us.
