Steve Lookner Considers Learning to Cook for Himself

There is a new video on the Lookner channel on YouTube entitled “Should I Learn To Cook For Myself? (Possible Major Life Change!)".

This live stream takes place at Steve’s desk in the living room area of his apartment. He’s using his lights to light the wall behind him, and has switched up the sides of the blue and purple/pink lights. He’s also using his new microphone, and it seems to sound good. Steve additionally gives an update on the BestBuy price matching request from the earlier microphone video.

Getting to the topic of cooking, Steve wants to explain why he doesn’t cook for himself. He says he likes going out to eat, as it gets him out from the office or home or wherever he is. He’s not an expensive eater, so it’s not a budgetary matter. He also says he’s busy, and needs to be on-call to report on breaking news on his Agenda-Free TV channel, so he also doesn’t want to spend a lot of time cooking.

Steve explains how he likes to eat healthy, but also has to eat something substantial for lunch. He doesn’t want to eat fast food, pizza, or fried food. He also doesn’t want to eat fancy, as he can’t accord it and doesn’t like it. Once he rules those out, there’s not much left, at least when it comes to casual places.

He says that what he wants is a bowl of chicken, beef, or shrimp, plus some vegetables and flavor, like Chinese food. He’s been in Atlanta for over a year, but can’t find any good places. He’s come to realize that he could probably just make food like that himself, as long as it doesn’t take overly long to do. He says he did learn how to stir fry a long time ago, but has since forgotten how to do it. He also adds that he wants to buy the ingredients in advance, and not every day.

Steve asks the viewers what they think. Lots respond in the chat saying he should do it. One viewer says that stir fry could take 15 minutes. Another suggests he try frozen dinners, but Steve says he wants fresh food. Some suggest an “Instant Pot”, which Steve looks up, but it sounds like it could take up to 90 minutes to cook meat.

He emphasizes that it needs to be fast, as in within 30 minutes. He doesn’t want ramen noodles, as he doesn’t think they’re healthy enough. He also doesn’t want a prep day, because minimal preparation is important to him.

Steve searches the Internet for how to stir fry. It does sound like what he wants. He says he doesn’t realize that it’s possible to buy bags of frozen stir fry veggies. Regarding stir frying, he thinks he could try it, to see how it goes. He’s also curious how long chicken breasts last, so he searches about it and finds out it can sometimes only be a day or two. He can’t go the grocery store daily, and freezing isn’t an option because he doesn’t want to have to defrost them, although microwave defrosting might work.

One viewer suggests he try making sandwiches, but Steve says he tries to avoid white bread and processed meat, so sandwiches aren’t really an option.

Steve says he should just try making stir fry sometime. He says he used to know how to do it, just before or after graduating from college, but he forgets how to do it now. One problem might be that he doesn’t have a wok. He’s not sure if it’s called a frying pan or a skillet, but that’s all he has. He looks up the difference between a skillet and a frying pan. Eventually he gets up and brings over the pan so he can show the audience. He asks if he can use the frying pan for a one-time stir fry test, and the viewers suggest that he can. He points out that he doesn’t want to buy lots of equipment, and just wants to take small steps like he’s been doing with his Lookner channel and its equipment.

He mentions that he doesn’t eat pasta, and explains how his metabolism slowed down a few years prior, and how he gained 20 pounds. He says he likes white rice, but doesn’t eat it. There are some Chinese or Thai restaurants around where he lives, but he doesn’t really like them. At least the grocery store is close by.

Steve says he thinks that the best thing to do is to try to make stir fry. When his metabolism started changing, he started grilling food. He links to the grill he used. But he eventually stopped using it, and then gave it away. He needs more than just a piece of meat for his meals. So he plans to watch some stir fry videos, do some research, and then do a live stream where he makes some stir fry and then eats it.

He talks about some other kinds of streams he could do for the Lookner channel. As an Amazon affiliate, he sees a list of items that other people have bought that he’s gotten referral fees for, even if he didn’t directly recommend the products. He might do a live stream where he goes through the list and shows items, since some of them are unusual to him. He has done small versions of this before. A viewer suggests he do a movie review stream, and Steve says he’s open to it, he’s just not sure what to do about viewers who might not have seen the movie. A Q&A stream is suggested, as well as having on guests. Steve says he’s open to having guests on, but he’s just need to find people. Somebody suggests he stream himself doing a 3-day cleanse, but it sounds risky. A stream about things he likes is another option.

Steve mentions a Roberto Blake video he watched about making 100 crappy YouTube videos. The idea is to just make videos, even if the quality isn’t very good. Steve finds the video’s advice to be very direct, and he recommends watching it. He doesn’t think it just applies to videos, but also for making other stuff, too. He does say that he doesn’t want to do taste tests or other reviews, as so many other people are already doing that on YouTube, and would rather do things that are different.

He talks about how doing a live stream is a bad way to attract new viewers, but he likes the interactivity of the live chat. He thinks that people new to the channel who watch the videos once they’re archived might expect a well-produced video, but are then surprised when they get a live stream recording instead. He doesn’t think that people who stumble upon the archived videos will keep watching.

Steve indicates that he’s thinking about doing Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve streams on Agenda-Free TV. He will show photos and videos of Christmas trees and other stuff submitted by viewers.

He checks to see if his current live stream appears in the YouTube live videos section. What he doesn’t understand is why more and more people are showing up even though it’s near the end of the stream. He says that sometimes it feels like an interactive talk show, where a bunch of different topics are covered during a stream. He mentions that he’s thinking about doing a random talk show like stream, with no fixed topic.

One viewer gives a large donation, and has offered to pay for Steve to travel to Austin, Texas. Steve would have to figure out some technical issues first, like getting a good quality signal for his phone. He shows the web page of a device that can combine multiple phone services, but it’s too expensive. A viewer suggests that Steve pre-record the content, but then have a live stream while reviewing the video, and be in the chat room while the video is premiered. Steve also points out that while he wants to travel, doing so makes it harder to report on breaking news.

He wonders why people keep joining the stream. Maybe people just join a stream if it stays on longer, he suggests.

Steve talks about some fantastic car washes in Alabama. A viewer says she’s giving a bug zapper, which Steve showed in an earlier stream, as a gift. He show it, pointing out how its battery cover got lost during a move. He highly recommends it, and says it’s good for small flies.

He checks his Amazon referral earnings, and is at $98.95. He looks at some candles that a viewer mentioned buying. He mentions that he’s not sure what a lot of the items in the list actually are. He tries to figure out what the melt things are, and is still confused even after looking up what the product is. He says that if someone sends him a scent device, he’ll try it and live stream it, but won’t pay for it himself. A viewer says she’ll buy one and send it to him.

Steve checks again to see if he shows up in the live section of YouTube, but can’t find his stream listed. He briefly looks into a vehicle fire near LAX airport that’s being reported about online. He also talks about possibly using StreamLabs.

He talks about his background lights, and about possibly doing a 3 AM stream at some point. He also talks about the third-party microphone situation some more, saying that the third-party reseller has changed their name. He mentions that he normally works out late at night, but doesn’t have to because he’d worked out earlier, and will watch stir fry videos instead. He talks about wanting software where you can talk and it will type into wherever the cursor is, but it’s not built in.

The viewers are asked what time the Christmas Eve special should start. Steve’s thinking 7 PM or 8 PM Eastern time. The viewers generally want 8 PM Eastern. He talks about doing a 24 hour life stream at some point. One problem is that he can’t stream for longer than 12 hours for the video to go into the archive. He thinks it would be miserable, but he’d do it if people would donate. If news came up he thinks he might just leave the Lookner stream running while reporting in the other room on his Agenda-Free TV channel. One of the viewers says he would match donations made that day.

Steve starts to thank the viewers and moderators, but accidentally hits some ad-insertion button, and apologizes. He checks to see if he ordered his frying pan from Amazon, but it doesn’t look like he did, and he thinks he got it at a store. After over 3 hours of live streaming, he finally wraps up the stream.

This was a long stream! While he did talk about learning to cook and stir frying, there was also a lot of discussion about so many other topics, too. I think some of his ideas for future live streams could be interesting, and I’d like to see what he manages to come up with.

• Karl