Blogs from a Phone

Now, I wasn't sure I was going to do BEDA. I honestly don't remember if I did last year or not. I do know, however, that I haven't posted a blog post since early February. Now, that's just horrendous.

Especially since most of my money comes from here, hah. XD

So, it's about 45min till midnight and I have just now decided to attempt BEDA again (again?)

The catch, like with MarchTravisSays, is that I won't have a lot of time. YouTube isn't my job (yet). Travis gots ta get paid, son!

So, I'm trying this new thing called texting. It's pretty new. Only really big in Japan right now. But anyways, I'm using my phone to type this blog and post it without needing a computer. I'll probably see if I can do this consistently from my phone.

But the thing is, I wanted to find a Blogspot app to type this up with. Problem is, there's no Blogspot app. There's Blogger and Wordpress and, so help me God, an Altavista mail server, but nothing Blogspot.

But after twenty minutes of Googling 'Bogspot vs Blogger' I find out they're the same thing.

Great. That's just how I want to start this BEDA off. I am an idiot. ;(
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posted from Bloggeroid

Just Trollin Along

So, I have been known to troll from time to time.

I even have a few secret YouTube accounts, yes, with videos, that don't have any affiliation with me or the WhatTravisSays name. What started out as a few secret projects have turned into a slew of social media experiments.

To give an example on what I'm finding, it's that people don't exactly know how to take "me".

In some of the channels, I'm myself. I'm talking about random things, and to my knowledge, no one who knows me as "Travis from WhatTravisSays" has seen any of the videos.

On other channels, I'm totally trolling.

For those of you who are new to the internet, the online definition of a troll is, "someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into a desired emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion." Trolling is a game about identity deception, albeit one that is played without the consent of most of the players. Which, in light, is something that I've grown quite fond of.

Now, I don't harass people and I don't deface internet tribute sites, but I do give certain impressions which I find hilarious.

I troll on my Facebook status quite often and I find it pretty funny when people take me seriously.

I made a fake Fizzylimon-esque Twitter account and used it to troll Justin Bieber fans on their horrible use of grammar in their Tweets.

I have a few Tumblr accounts which are very non-Travis and they're starting to gain a bit of attention.

I have a YouTube channel where I'm singing songs in a British accent while in the shower.

I have another channel where all the guy (me) does is beg for subscribers. He uses primarily one-take videos, horrible quality, little lighting, and he sounds really annoying.

It's fun.

I plan to post a troll video or two on my WhatTravisSays channel soon but I will not give any indication on where to find these that I have listed.

Go find them yourself. ;D
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I'm Not a Fan of the Super Bowl

So, to a lot of you, it's no surprise that I really don't take part in the American tradition, aptly named "The Super Bowl" or, for people in Europe, El Fútbol Americano de Supor.

What? You're not Spanish, you say?

Sorry but this is an equal opportunity blog.

It's a good thing you don't read Spanish because that did not read "The Super Bowl". I think it was closer to "The Football of Super" or "The Super Football". And for those of you flexing your little Spanish commenting fingers, HA. I pulled the floor out from beneath you by admitting my poor translation.

Gold star, Travis.

But I am getting off topic!

I'm not a huge fan of watching sports on television to begin with and it takes a lot for me to watch a sport live, even. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-sports. I played soccer in elementary, middle, and high school, I played baseball up until high school, I swam in middle school and high school, and I did Tae-Kwon-Do for almost seven years. It's just that something is lost when I'm watching others play. I'm not into it nearly as much as other people and I don't ever feel like I have anything invested in the outcome.

Seriously, the only sport I really like watching on TV is celebrity poker. Yah rly.

Football is the same story. I was in band in high school and we always had to watch the football games. I understood them, I cheered along, but mainly because of being with friends, not the sport.

But I know I'm not alone in all this. Some people are like me and just can't get into watching sports on the television, and some people enjoy watching sports but hate the Super Bowl just because it's the Super Bowl.

The one amazing thing people can agree on about the Super Bowl is that the commercials are awesome. Every year, at least five or six are gold. But with the burst of the use of YouTube and our culture wanting information as fast as now and to keep pleasure on repeat, the commercials are probably all online already and at the time of this blog post, the Super Bowl is still going on. I had to sit through the Super Bowl to watch commercials and I don't have to do that anymore.

But let me know what you guys think!
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Making Money with eBay

I really need to start posting these before midnight.

Anywhoozle.

The most monumental thing I did today was create an eBay account for the multiple plastic tubs of items I have in my room that need to be sold. As some of you know, I gained a rather large interest in "American Pickers" and "Pawn Stars" over this past summer which translated into me buying and selling things I came across during months when it was actually warm out.

I had just started my current job and I was getting a regular paycheck and anywhere from 40-80 dollars a week would go to me purchasing items which I thought I could resell and make some extra cash. I would go to flea markets, garage sales, thrift shops, and rummage sales and buy things I knew I could make some money with.

These things ranged from old cameras to vintage jewelry, from electronics to Harley memorabilia. I put a few hundred dollars into plethora of things now sitting in those blue tubs but I think I can easily sell most items for triple what I paid. A few of those rummage sales I went to, they were charging three dollars for an entire paper bag filled with whatever could fit. I spent about twelve dollars on a few hundred dollars worth of stuff.

So, needless to say, I'm excited.

The only issue, is that a lot of time goes into listing items online, waiting for the auction to end, and then paying for the shipping before the money coming back in PayPal. But, slowly but surely, I'm generating a pretty strong income.

For example, one of the first items I bought over the summer was a small plastic tub of spoons at a garage sale. Now, these spoons were collectible spoons, most of which were from other states, and some which were from other countries.

She wanted $15.00, I said I'd give her $10.00, and we settled at $12.00. I counted them when I got home and had, in my ownership, a total of 87 spoons, 60some collectible, the rest silver and very beautifully designed. Over the next month, I sold most of the state spoons and made $450.00.

I was pretty pleased with myself.

Do you have any epic money-making stories that happened to you or a friend recently?
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I'm Not Late. I'm On Time. Kinda.

This blog is going up the night of Friday, so I don't feel bad for it being past midnight and into Thursday already.

You'll live.

I just wanted to state that, in the past, I've always had an issue with getting to my events on time. Not all, but maybe a good fourth of them. I always felt like I was rushing against the clock to make it somewhere on time, or waking up late, or calling a friend to tell them that I was ten minutes further along than I actually was.

Lucky for me, none of those friends read this blog.

Having said that, minus exceptions of crazy weather, I feel that I've been doing a lot better with getting to things on time.

Up until the end of 2010, the clock in my car was not set on the correct time. It started out on time but somewhere in my mind, I thought it would be a good idea to bump it forward a minute. So, in theory, I would get to my location a minute earlier.

I failed to take into account that a minute was barely enough time to change my habits of lateness and I found myself being even more stressed, at first not remembering that the car was a minute fast. Then I bumped it up to five minutes fast which seemed to help for a while. But since five minutes was so easy to do the mental math with, I always knew how late I really was.

Then I bumped it up to eight minutes, I guess, to trick myself into thinking that it was still five minutes fast, which would, again, in theory, only give me three minutes buffer time. That didn't work either. So, it kept going and by the time December 2010 rolled around, my clock was a full eighteen minutes fast.

Now, my fear was that if I set it back to the correct time, I would still think, "Oh, I have eighteen minutes more than what's presented in front of me," and assume that the clock was fast. And this was something I dreaded more than anything. I had created a theory/construct/thing that I felt couldn't be calmed. I was always gong to have assumptions about the clock's time.

But after multiple people commenting on the time once they got into my car, I got sick of explaining this story to them. So, in January 2011, I thought, "I should fix this". And fix it I did.

For the first few days, it was the correct time. Then I bumped it up a minute "for kicks" and to make sure my clock would never be behind. Then I passed a bank and its time was a minute faster. So I bumped it up again.

And I left it there. For good reason.

I don't need that beast released again. I will not be a slave to my clock.

I am become on time.

So far.
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SAW

Now, to be honest, I'm a big fan of the "Saw" franchise.

And even though they seem to come out with a new one every Halloween, and some of the torture scenes still make me cringe after multiple times...

I mean, seriously, the girl's hair in the crank pulling back further and further until her scalp starts tearing?
The girl getting sprayed with water in the freezer until her body shatters?

*shiver

Anyways, I don't enjoy them especially for the torture or the terror scenes, but the way that the entire story fits together perfectly. It is incredibly thought out and intricate in what the audience is told.

The first "SAW" was a great movie in and of itself with wonderful twists and an epic ending.

The second "SAW", now that, it was sort of a flop. I mean, c'mon, Marky Mark? I mean, there were some good parts but in my mind, it was like another version of a "SAW" movie.

The third "SAW" made up for the second. It tied all three movies together and by the end, it felt incredibly well-rounded.

The fourth time around, it asked questioned I hadn't even thought of during the first three and answered said questions.

The fifth time, a lot of people were starting to get sick of the franchise. It was around this time that the slogan, "It's Halloween so that must mean SAW" came out.

And so on and so on. Asking more questions, answering those questions, and explaining more about Jigsaw's past. With time shifts, things happening at the same time as other things in different movies, characters becoming involved when it wasn't previously thought that they were involved, people once thought dead ending up still being alive at the time of events in a later movie, I thought it was all amazing.

I mean, think of the studio's mindset.

They have this major idea for a multiple movie series but they're not sure how it'll all pan out.

They release the first one with overwhelming positive results. But in doing so, they're keeping the movie as one storyline. Things that aren't answers are understood that they're not meant to be answered. It's a perfect sphere in and of itself.

It's kind of like the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. It's a great thing by itself but when you learn about the compass not pointing North, lines from the first one make more sense. "A compass that doesn't even point North..." because it was pointing at what he wanted the most.

WHICH IS LEARNED IN THE NEXT MOVIE.
Mindblown.

So, in closing, I'm about to watch "SAW: The Final Chapter" and in doing so, I'm hoping that it'll be as great as the first few.

The first few minus the second one of course.
Seriously. Marky Mark.

I'm never going to let that go.

I'm a bigger fan than most, I just hope my high expectations will not damper the well-thought-outness of this movie.

"I promise that my work will continue."

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I'm Sorry, Tongue

After staring at this blank white screen and blinking cursor for seven minutes, I bit my tongue.

But let me explain.

I was eating Ritz crackers while sitting here looking at this blank screen.

That actually makes a bit more sense. It gives reason to why I happened to bite my tongue.

But honestly, that's not a good enough story, is it?

I'm eating Ritz crackers because I'm hungry.

Well, that's an obvious fact but it's in the evening and I'm not eating dinner.

Why am I not eating dinner, you ask?

Well, let me explain.

I ate lunch around 2pm but that doesn't explain why I'm not eating dinner now.

I finished eating what I had for lunch around 4pm.

Ah, that makes a bit more sense. But I did have a lot of food for some reason.

Let me explain.

I went to McDonalds for my lunch break and because I didn't want to venture out after work for dinner, I bought enough food for lunch then and dinner later.

Which turned out to be around 4pm.

Why didn't I want to go out for food later?

Well, you see, I only got a break and a lunch today and I used my lunch to scrape my car off, go to MCDs and get food and drive back.

Why? Because a break wasn't long enough to scrape off my car, go to MCDs, ooh you mean why did I have to scrape off my car?


Because of the ice.

From the wind.

And the snow.

I thought I told you that already.

Oh, I didn't tell you that it was snowing? Well, it was.

Pretty badly.

Not badly enough to call off work. Obviously. Cause I was working.

But that's not to say I didn't try.

I tried calling off work. And then I figured I could get rid of the ice on my car, drive really slowly, and punch the snowstorm in the face.

Yea, it was a snowstorm.

And that's basically the end of my story. I woke up, there was a snowstorm and that's why I bit my tongue.

Kinda.

Anyway, I'm sorry tongue.

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Februaryyyyy

This year is going by pretty decently if I do say so myself.
A lot of things are falling into place.

Work is going alright, the Slytherin video is back on track, I have my dates for Florida planned out, and I haven't busted my Evo yet, which I'm pretty proud about.

There are so many things I want to type about right now, but the truth is, it wouldn't feel right not mentioning them first on YouTube. See, now I have your interest peeked. Sorry.

;D

A lot of you saw Brittany in my Anne Hathaway/Dark Knight Rises video. I had been trying to get her to sign up for YouTube the three weeks before that video went up and she was nervous that people wouldn't like her or care what she had to say. But she received an overwhelmingly awesome response. Already, she's getting a few hundred views each video. I has Internets pull, yo.

Thank you, guys.

Yea, yea I know. You're still wondering what I "can't" type about. What I "have" to wait to say first on YouTube.

I'll give you hints.

One of them involves the Florida trip, one of them involves a contest, one of them involves secret videos and one of them involves the Slytherin video.

So, in an effort to not sound like a radio announcer, stay tuned.

http://www.youtube.com/WhatTravisSays

Also, I may try to blog every day this month. But they won't be long and drawn out. They'll be short, synct, and to the point. Like this one.

Thoughts?

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Doctor Who Series 5 is Near-Perfect: Part 4

Here we go. The fourth part in my four part blog about why I believe Series 5 of Doctor Who is Near-Perfect. It doesn't have completely to do with the fact that the Matt Smith Doctor-age is like a giant puzzle and it doesn't have completely to do with the fact that I think Matt Smith is a better Doctor than David Tennant, although it has to do with both.

...and half of you have stopped reading already.

Really? I think Matt Smith is a better Doctor than David Tennant?
YA RLY.

What is this Whovian blasphemy? Let me explain.

Now, I loved David Tennant as The Doctor and as I said in Part 3, David Tennant is one of the most amazing actors I have ever had the pleasure of watching perform. He was great in his version of Hamelt (which I am 4/5ths of the way through. What? It's long.) and even wonderful in the, what, fourteen seconds he was in "Harry Potter". But as The Doctor, he was...human.

Tennant could play angry and he could play a heartbreaking sad attitude as well. Sure, he would always talk about the misfortunes and the wonders of humanity but at the same time, he held many of the ideas, thought pattens, and consciousness of a human. Albeit, a human genius, but a human nonetheless.

Smith's Doctor has the alien-like aura to him which he brings to the screen in an amazing way. He's youthful, bright, bubbly soul, and he's not as self-centered. He's clumsy and funny, and he even makes a lot of mistakes. Which, oddly enough, makes him a better Doctor.

In the very first episode of Series 5 where The Doctor needs to find Prisoner Zero, he's without a fully working TARDIS, his sonic screwdriver gets busted, and he's in a tiny town with nothing more than "a Post Office, which is closed!" All of the classic Doctor trademarks gone, and he has twenty minutes to ward off the destruction of the planet Earth. He tries something, it fails. He tries something else, it also fails. He seems to have no way out. And then he comes through when he notices tiny, tiny things wrong. With nothing more than a cellular phone, The Doctor comes through.

Now, the first time I watched that episode, something felt off and I didn't know why. I knew that I was beginning to like Smith's acting but I was firm to the belief that Tennant would always be my Doctor. And to an extent, he always will be, but something was different about Smith.

In "The Beast Below", Smith's Doctor showed anger towards the human, "Nobody human has anything to say to me today!" but he also showed selflessness. In "Victor y of the Daleks", he was able to keep his humor firm but still poignant by shouting at a Dalek, while brandishing a biscuit, “All right, it’s a Jammy Dodger, but I was promised tea!” And in each episode along the way, The Doctor shows a new side of himself. Sometimes completely alien, and sometimes compassionately overwhelmed with feelings of longing towards humans. Which, still, to be fair, is very alien.

And as I watched Smith's episodes, I realized what felt "off" to be about Matt Smith. He was alien. He made mistakes. He had a real sense of humor, to himself and others thought he was odd. He didn't aim to change the course of time "unless there were children crying", and he sure as heck didn't have a God-complex. His performance was much lighter than Tennant, with the ability to go just as dark. "Hello, I'm the Doctor," he warned the Atraxi in the premiere. "Basically...run."

Ooh, still gives me chills.

Then, as I was watching Smith's Series 5 play out, I realized how each episode was a puzzle piece that fit together. In Eccleston's Series and the begging of Tennant's, Bad Wolf played a part in most of the episodes much like the Time Crack in Smith's episodes. But by the end, we find out that "Bad Wolf" was created by Rose to lead herself there. But there are a lot of inconsistencies and gaps in the story where the viewer forgets about Bad Wolf and then when it's explained, it's kind of a flash in the pan reaction. Like, that was it?

Smith's episodes are much more consistent. The Time Crack is shown in nearly every episode and even plays a large role in half of them. The viewer never forgets about the Time Crack and is constantly learning more about it. Each episode fits together like parts of a well-oiled machine. If you miss an episode, you miss important information. And even more-so, Series 5 and Series 6 will be linked together by "Silence will fall". Rather than rebooting a story-arc every Series, I think this continuous theme is something wonderful.

So, in closing, David Tennat will always be my first Doctor, but I believe Matt Smith is a better Doctor.

Now, please. Put your pitchforks away and talk amongst yourselves in the comments. I'm curious as to what you guys feel.

Go back and read: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3


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Behind the YouTube: WhatTravisSays (Part 1/2)

I'm going to do this in the format of a "Behind the Music" special. And it's only going to encompass things that happened during the year of 2010. Just sayin'.


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Travis. A young man from Ohio whose video entertainment brought joy to tens of twelves of people he would never meet. Allured by the video posting website YouTube, Travis didn't know what sorts of things would be in store for him throughout the year of 2010. This is that story.

(Intro title)
Behind the YouTube: WhatTravisSays

In the beginning of January 2010, Travis had been a video blogger on the channel WhatTravisSays for eleven months. Travis felt that he was picking up some steam and gaining attention for himself. He had a few hundred subscribers and enough time between his college and social life to make videos a few times a month. Things were going well.

In mid-January, he rediscovered YouTube user RockstarRaquel and became enthralled with her New Year's Resolution to post a video everyday for the month of January. Travis found himself making sure he watched all of Raquel's videos as they came out, for fear that he would miss one. He found this constant video output rather addicting. And extremely entertaining.

As February came around, Raquel was finished with her project and mutual friend Steve (Fizzylimon) had taken up the reigns for vlogging everyday in a month. A project which Steve would soon dub the Vlog Every Day Mannor or VEDManor. Again, Travis found himself constantly wanting to keep up with Steve's postings, and by the midpoint of February, Travis wanted to take the challenge of March.

In March, something Travis called MarchTravisSays consisted of the idea that he would post a video every weekday of the month of March, no matter what. Stressful, because Raquel and Steve had each done a wonderful job posting every day that they had aforementioned, Travis found himself close to missing the deadlines multiple times. But as this project was stressful, it was also a creative brainstorm. Travis was writing ideas down more often as the project was forcing him to create entertaining content on a regular, nearly daily, basis.

During the midpoint of March, Travis had an idea.

(commercial)

Travis had an idea. He was going to write another parody song music video. He had done this nearly five months before with his song 'Zombies and They're Eating Brains', the parody to Miley Cyrus' 'Party in the USA'. 'Zombies and They're Eating Brains' had taken just over a month to write, plan, get the cast, shoot, and edit, but Travis had limited time. March has just over two weeks left and he needed to get a move on if he wanted to post a parody video in time.

Going back to where VEDManor all began, Travis asked Raquel and Steve to take part in the video as well as fellow nerds Megan (meganhibner) and Kiera (ianswertobob). They all seemed to love the plans. And although she was incredibly busy at the time, Travis asked fellow TwoSinglePeople-ian Angela to take part as Nerd Girl. She accepted.

After gathering the footage to be used for his parody video, Travis began working on piecing it together early on March 30th, a day before it was to be posted. Also, at the same time, he was piecing together March 30th's video, a video in which he said thanks to his viewers, asked if they remembered the first of his videos that they saw, and got excited about the prospect of tomorrow's video, all without making sure not to give away any information.

Very early into the morning of March 31st, around 4am, Travis posted his video for 'Nerd'.

And to him, this YouTube hobby would never be the same.

(commercial)

(Part two will be posted soon!)
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