Matt Smith: The Eleventh Doctor

BEDA: April 10, 2010

I told myself I wasn't going to talk about the new series of Doctor Who until I watched a few more episodes but since I'm halfway through episode 2 while typing this, I figure now is as good a time as any.

Matt Smith is The Doctor.

I don't mean that as a painfully obvious statement of fact; I mean it as he actually carries the role quite well. I mean, he's no David Tennant, but I digress.

There are a lot of pros and cons with any regeneration of The Doctor. People are going to love it, hate it, or judge the actor before they even give him a fair watch. I have no idea how the series will continue to progress but I will say that I'm starting to notice some heavy similarities and differences with the Matt Smith version than, say, the David Tennant version.

The Eleventh Doctor acts much more brash than his previous incarnations and he's not afraid to show a bit of an eccentric side, not hiding the fact that he has a very alien way about him. He seems to let emotions get the better of him sometimes, getting annoyed when things don't go as planned, which happens rather a lot. The Eleventh Doctor doesn't seem to ever have a master plan and it's more of a minute by minute, figuring it out as he goes, kind of solution. In a preview clip, it even shows Smith's Doctor firing a gun; something that Tennant's Doctor was adamantly against (usually. I mean, there was that tiny situation in his last episode...)

Apart from his overall youthful nature, the Eleventh Doctor seems to have a firm grasp on social media, citing Twitter and Facebook. He has an eidetic memory (I learned of that ability on The Big Bang Theory) and is able to scan a mental image for clues.

There are also many similarities he holds with previous incarnations including the fact that he can taste something to be able to tell the age. He also sometimes arrives incredibly late, mistakingly piloting the TARDIS years from where he intended. But most importantly, like his preprocessors, he has incredible leadership skills.

Matt Smith, you are The Doctor.

The Day Pun of the Day Almost Didn't Happen

BEDA: April 9, 2010

My Pun of the Day project started out smoothly, at first. I was having all of my friends submit videos, the jokes were really funny and I had no problem getting to a computer everyday for the first couple weeks. YouTube goes by Californian time so I had until 3:00am my time to get videos up for the previous day. I had a couple close calls, but I would always get the POTD video up before 3:00am, my time.

Then, it happened.

I was waiting for my friend to come out of her dorm building because she and I were going to the bars in town that night. After waiting for the first ten minutes, because she's a girl and girls think they're allowed to take as long as they need, I glanced at my clock radio and realized that it was past 12:30am and our plan was that we go out to the bars until 2:30am, when they close.

Now, you could be thinking, 'Okay, the bars were going to close at 2:30am. If the bars are in town like you said, wouldn't that mean you could drop her off real quick and run home to post the POTD video before 3:00am?'

That would have been the case if we weren't walking.

You see, I'm over the age of 21 and I'm pretty responsible when it comes to drinking. Especially when it means losing my license, car, or parental 'cred'. And I live in a college town. There are cops everywhere and they pull people over randomly. I am not too keen on getting pulled over after drinking one beer.

Which is why we were walking.

Also, sometimes people send videos without the ending so I'd need to convert the file to work for my movie editor and then attach the ending, export the file, and upload the video. Lots of work for a small timeframe.

Plus, YouTube, you know I love you, but I wasn't about to explain to this girl that we had to go back to my apartment so I could upload a video to you(Tube) before we went to the bars. I'm all about acting like a nerd in my social life but when it comes in the way of my social life, sorry, but you take the backseat.

So, anyway, I'm sitting in my car, realizing all of this, basically panicking that I wouldn't get that night's video up on time. I pick up my phone and I call John who says he'd be able to upload the video before 2:00am and I don't even bother telling him how to add the ending because a video without an ending is better than no video at all.

After I get done explaining the password to him and what information to copy from the previous video, my friend walks out to the car. I get off the phone with him and she gets in the car. I could tell she had a moderately disappointed expression and I asked what was wrong.

She replied, "I can't find the charger to my phone and it's near dead. I just wish I had twenty minutes or so to charge it before we left for the bars." I took a look at her phone and saw that it was the same brand as mine.

"I have a charger for this back at my apartment," I replied, now realizing how horrible of a pickup line that could have been perceived as.

So we started driving back to my apartment. I was beaming on the inside because I knew while her phone was charging I could covertly upload that night's POTD.

Crisis averted!

My Phone

BEDA: April 8, 2010

I need a new one. Really.

My phone, for those of you creepers out there, my current phone is a MOTOROKR, and when I got it two years ago, it was the sleekest phone I had ever owned. Because, let's face it, when it comes to phones, I'm not very up on the times.

My first phone didn't slide, it didn't fold, it didn't even have texting. It had a one inch, thick plastic screen and a green/blue backlighting. My parents got it for me becasue it was free with the plan they were applying for and I only really needed it for calling when I wasn't coming home from school that day. This was back in my senior year of high school, mind you.

The fate of that phone was almost cut short by a line-dance at a country party just over a year into its short lifespan. It's one of the many reasons I avoid country parties nowadays. That, and I just don't care for the music.

Sorry, "y'all".

So, back to that fateful night. I got swindled into doing a line-dance with some friends because, like all situations guys find themselves in, there was a girl involved. My roommate convinced me to go dance in the group with him because he was kind of eyeing this blonde chick from across the party. Reluctantly, I became his wingman, seeing as how I already had a girlfriend back at home at the time.

So, we're dancing around in circles and squares and other geometric shapes, while the country fans are getting quite a workout and us other people were trying to keep up with the awkward kicking. Then we ended the number and someone shouted, "Hey, who lost a phone?"

It was me. I had lost my phone.

As I was getting my phone back from the guy, I noticed a sharp rock, half the size of a golfball, lodged into the thick plastic screen. During the dance, it had flung out of my pocket onto the gravel to be trampled without my knowledge. But it survived, somehow.

I mean, the screen had a huge hole in it but other than that, it worked fine. It survived another year with me until I could get a replacement phone.

And now, if I run out of ideas for BEDA, I can tell you about my next three phones!

Oh joy, right?

The Day That Almost Didn't Come to Be

BEDA: April 7, 2010

The title sounds more dramatic than the actual situation.

Today is the closest I have ever gotten to not completing a day of BEDA. Seeing as how it's only the 7th day in, it could be said that the future doesn't look very bright. I'm starting typing this at 11:44pm and the only subject racing through my mind right now is completing today's BEDA.

And pie, but we'll get to that later.

The reason it's taken me nearly all day to type today's BEDA blog is because I actually put having a social life above the internet. Surprising, right? After class today, I hung out with some friends on campus, talked with some friends later on Skype, went and purchased on-sale Easter candy at the local connivence stores (and even got more edible Easter grass!) and then hung out with some friends playing Settlers of Catan. Fun times.

Now, it's 11:47 and I feel pretty confident that I will have today's BEDA completed in plenty of time. Earlier, I was even thinking about making deals with myself.

"It's okay, Travis. You don't have to do today's BEDA. Just miss a day here and there. People will understand." No, voices inside my head. I set out to conquer this task and so help me, I will.

I'll just have to start a bit earlier tomorrow.

The Awesomeness of Nerds

BEDA: April 6, 2010

Now, when I was coming up with the lines for the Nerd video parody of Ke$ha's 'Tik Tok', I figured most of the views would steadily increase over time because, ya know, it's a parody of a popular song.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Today, the video passed 31k views. I only had around 600 subscribers before the video went up and have since gained over 1,100 subscribers. I love you guys so, so much. I mean, 31,000 views on a video is a lot, even for a YouTuber with thousands of subscribers. And I knew the video could stand on its own, being a parody and all, but I had no idea it would be such a big flame, catching interest like a wildfire throughout Nerdfighteria.

Alan Lastufka tweeted about it.

John Green tweeted about it.

Hank Green tweeted about it multiple times.

Alex Day commented on it.

Alan even embedded the video as the main video on his channel!

Not to mention, the hundreds of nerds who tweeted the video or sent the link to their friends. The Insight on the video says that 21,000 views came from people clicking on links that were presented to them through a viral form of video sharing.

Awesome!

I'm still reeling in the awesomeness of the Nerd video and I will continue to post entertaining videos to keep you guys happy, not to mention some secret projects that will be revealed, actually, kinda soon!

(Follow my TWITTER to learn about them before other people!)

You've all made me smile a whole bunch this past week.

DFTBA!

I Should Be Doing the Dishes

BEDA: April 5, 2010

Today was different, to say the least.

I was running around. A lot. I did a lot of figuring out what to do about school/work/summer stuff today. I should be doing the dishes right now. But to be fair to the dishes, I did wake-up around 11:00am. Sorry, dishes. I should have finished you earlier. Actually, I should be finishing you right now, but instead, I'm doing my BEDA entry. Come to think of it, I still have to put up the Pun of the Day video today. Hm, this is quickly becoming a To Do list.

Oh, well. Go with the flow.

TO DO:

Post today's Pun of the Day video.

Yup, gotta head to the lab in a while and do that, probably while talking on the phone to a certain YouTuber.

Turn in the rest of the job applications.

I went all around town today picking up job apps and only finished filling out about half of them. I don't have class until 4:00pm tomorrow so they should be completed and turned into their respective businesses by 3:00pm.

Figure out Florida apartment stuff.

Most FL apartments only rent out to people who can sign a 12 month lease. Either that, or a month-to-month is about $800/month. There is one place that offered to rent to me for a cheap month-to-month, provided I stay there for four or more months. I only need a place for four months. The thing is, she won't know about any available apartments until mid-April. Have to get that figured out.

Dishes.

Self-explanatory. Have to do them. Probably right after I post this.

DISHES.

Okay, okay, internal dialog. I'll do them now. Promise.

Happy Easter: Don't Be Sexist

BEDA: April 4, 2010

Easter is the central religions feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to Christian scripture, Jesus was resurrected from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. According to American scripture, a large bunny comes around laying eggs filled with candy and hiding them. In turn, children of the neighborhood are forced to work for their sugary goodness.

Pfsh, how 'American' is that? Working for their sugary goodness and all.

Easter is, of course, celebrated in America by spending time with one's family and eating an inordinate amount of food. I'm sure other countries do other things on this holiday but frankly, I'm too full to get into all of that.

My family went to my grandmother's house today. I ate a lot. Not as much as when I eat there at Christmas, but still, a lot. There was a very wide spread of chicken, turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, yam, casserole, corn, and a lot of other stuff that made its way to my tummy. It was all a very standard Easter at gma's house until my sister and I were asked to hide plastic eggs for the youngins.

Now, I have never participated in an Easter egg hunt that wasn't purely against my younger brother, who is five years younger than me, and younger sister, who is eight years younger than me. It was never much of a challenge. I would beat them within minutes. I knew all of the hiding spots. It's no fault of theirs, I was just much more adept to my environment. Also, I was the only Ohio kid in my family around my age so they never opted to have an Easter egg hunt while the family was together until there were more younger kids to play. Obviously, now, I was too old to beat them at an Easter egg hunt.

So me, being able to hide the eggs was kind of a big deal.

In short, it was fun. The kids ranged from age 7-11 so I hid the eggs with all layers of difficulty. and the kids were finding eggs pretty consistently for about twenty minutes. It never got boring.

My aunt wanted the only girl (my second cousin) to have a head start. I called my aunt sexist. I told her that women have been fighting for too long in this country to gain the same equal rights as men and that I wasn't going to let her take that away from someone in my family.

She laughed.

I was serious.

Hope you all had a happy Easter.