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.

Video Games

BEDA: April 3, 2010

So, for those of you that don't know, I don't play video games that often. It's not that I don't enjoy video games; quite the contrary. I've owned a PlayStation back in middle school and I bought a PS2 when it came out but if I ever played anything on a PS3 it would have been my brother's and if I played on a Wii or X-Box, it would have been at a friend's house. Having said that, I get rather into the video game when I get the chance. This weekend is no exception.

So, my brother is off at school and left his PS3 here, at our parent's house, plugged into his nice new flat-screen HDTV. Then I noticed that he had bought Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and what happened next was inevitable.

I've always been a Star Wars nerd. Most people don't know that Nar Shaddaa is the largest moon of the Nal Hutta. Even fewer people know that in Ewok, "Yub yub" means "Let's go". Nerd cred acquired.

I had played TFU in the store before but only for about ten minutes. It was one of the most fun ten minutes I have ever spent with a video game. Needless to say, I was excited to play the game at my parent's home when I saw it laying there.

It is easily one of the most fun video games I have ever played, and I have played a lot of video games, many of which were Star Wars. It's always fun to play the bad guy, getting rid of anyone who stands in your way. In this game particular, the motion of the character flows easy, the graphics are great, and the ability to use the Force on your enemies is a huge plus.

That being said, I'm going to go back to playing it.

One Thousand Subscribers

BEDA: April 2, 2010

Today, I broke one thousand subscribers on my YouTube channel. A happy day, indeed. Other awesome stuff happened yesterday, but I won't get into that any time soon. Due to the success of Nerd, my parody of the song 'Tik Tok', I jumped up 300+ subscribers in two days. I would have never been able to gain as much viewership of the video if I didn't have the help and promotion of RockstarRaquel, AlanDistro, and the one and only, John Green. Oddly enough, it went in that order. Raquel contacted Alan who in turn contacted John. A chain of awesome.

I'm still smiling.

In two days, it has garnered over 14,000 views with unbelievable praise. At this moment, it holds the #32 - Top Favorited (This Week)) - Entertainment, #47 - Top Rated (This Week)) - Entertainment, and oddly enough, #96 - Most Viewed (Today)) - Entertainment in Israel.

I'm finding it hard to get used to having so many viewers now. It's weird watching a video climb up past 800 views in a matter of one day where it used to be, a few days ago, I thought 300 views was a pretty solid number. I don't think this will ever get old.

I appreciate you all! : )

BEDA: I Might As Well, Right?

BEDA: April 1, 2010

Okay. So, in March, I filmed, edited, and posted a video on my YouTube channel every weekday of the month. Now that it's April, the torch has been passed on and I am no longer under any self restrictions to post videos at a specific time. A lot of YouTubers try to post videos on two specific days of the week but I've never really thought that necessary.

But I'll probably touch on that at some other April day.

I've decided to try my hand at BEDA, Blog Every Day in April, not the worldwide #1 oxygen lancing equipment you might find if you Google the word BEDA. I'm feeling pretty good about this, going in. I mean, I completed NANOWRIMO, I did a video every weekday in March, I even did a Dailybooth picture every day in March and I was only attempting to do it on the weekdays.

I can do this. I will do this. I will find something to write about every single day of April. Future subjects include, things going on in my life, things going on in the world or interesting musings that I would just rather share in a text based forum. Besides, if you read my last post, my apology to my blog, I really think BEDA is just what I need to get back into the typing spirit.

But I want your guys' input and comments on here. It'll motivate me to post more frequently, even past April. I do enjoy blogging and I'd like an excuse to do it more. Right now, I'm going to go work more on my Super Secret Second Project. I'm excited.

You should be too.

An Apology to My Blog

Hi, blog. I know it's been a while. Again. For that, I am sorry.

I know, I know, I've been off on other sites while you've just sat here, on this URL, waiting. Waiting, hoping, that I might one day return to you.

So, you might be asking yourself, what other mistresses have been vying for my attention? To be honest, it's the more addictive addition to the online world, Twitter. I really don't know what I'm doing. Somehow, I find myself textually communicating with cyberspace from my phone in less than 140 characters rather than logging into you and giving you the well deserved sentence structure you so desperately need. Sometimes on Twitter, by stroke of luck, or by someone's pity, I gain a follower or two. I get to see that people enjoy what I have to say so much that they want to know every time I say something. A lot of the time, I find myself wondering, 'Who is this person who wants to follow me?' but, it is a wonderful feeling, blog.

With you, it used to be so simple. People could respond with ease and I'd smile when I got comments, but with Twitter, the popularity contest is almost unbearable. I mean, sure, it'll be a while before I get my first thousand followers, but all I can do is try, right? Don't think of this as a lost battle between you and Twitter. I am planning on publicizing your existence more in the future. Yes, even on Twitter.

Another contender has been YouTube. Sometimes, I'd think that a situation or idea would be humorous to type about but then I just end up filming it for almost the same reason as why Twitter is so addicting. The subscribers.

The numbers are there and society nowadays wants their entertainment easy, quick and visual if possible. That's why the allure of YouTube is so possible. But, in reality, do I really only want to gain subscribers who would rather watch me than read what I have to say? In all honesty, yes. Don't get me wrong, I love every one of my subscribers, but if someone offered to subscribe to me on YouTube but not read my blog posts, I would still like them to subscribe. Does that make me a bad person? No, it doesn't. But I am a bad person for thinking that anything I can post on you could be 'updated' into video format.

Honestly, here's my point. I miss you. I miss not having to worry about 140 characters, not having to take time to edit video, and I love to be able to type the way that I speak. I miss fine tuning the words until it sounds perfect; conversational, even. You understand me better than any 140 character site or video site ever will. You are substantive, blog. I mean that.

If it wasn't for you, I never would have tried NANOWRIMO this year and I wouldn't have been able to succeed. It's all because of what's been growing between me, you, and the other blogging generations that I've used in the past.

So, here's what I'm proposing. I promise you that I will blog more. I'll put the camera down, log off of Twitter, and give you the attention you deserve. We all go through phases. I won't give up on you, blog.

On VidCon and Employment

Okay, wow. So, my last post is a bit old. August, to be more exact. My how the time has flown. Not really. A lot of things have happened since August.

On December 9, 2009, Hank Green, of the Vlogbrothers, announced VidCon, the world's first ever community-based online video conference. VidCon will take place from July 9th to July 11th and it should prove very, very fun. For those of us able to go. A dilemma of mine has existed since, oh, about the time that Hank introduced VidCon to us. My dilemma is this: Money. Like many other would-be-VidCon-ers, I lack the funding to be able to hop a plane from Ohio, probably layover in IL and then fly to Los Angeles, pay for the hotel, Con fees and food.

But recently, opportunity struck. Kinda. I was offered the chance to live in Florida for the summer and work in food service in St. Augustine. Okay, let me backtrack a little bit...

I have never worked in food service. Yes, I'm in college and I have never worked in food service. Mind-blowing, I know.

My first actual job, I worked at a movie theater. It was a great job because it was work I actually enjoyed. Also, I mean, come on, free movies. I am a movie fiend. Closest I got to food service was buttering popcorn. No big deal.

My second job, I was a lifeguard. No food there.

Third job, I worked for a computer consultant agency on campus. If students had issues with their computer's software or internet connection, I was called. No food.

Fourth job, lifeguard at a new location. Again, no food.

Now, back to Florida. Up to this point, as you may have well deduced, I tended to steer clear of food service. Not because I was worried about sanitation like my friend Laura and not because I didn't see the point in tips like my friend Paul. I guess, now that I think about it, I never really had a reason not to go into food service. I mean, other than the fact that nearly everyone I knew who worked in food, hated it. This bleak insight into the food industry wasn't really possible motivation to try my hand in food service. Except for now.

Now, if I do move to Florida, it will be a nice, drastic, change of scenery for me. I've been in Ohio far too long. That being said, St. Augustine is a tourist location, meaning that I could be making $200.00-$300.00 some nights, easy. That is another great perk. Plus, I mean, it's Florida. Who wouldn't want to live in Florida for a few months?

Aside from a change of scenery, the money to be made, and my new motivation to work in food service, it opens up all sorts of doors for VidCon.

I'd be in FL from mid-April to mid-August which gives me almost four months of work. A plane ticket from FL to CA plus a hotel stay for a week adds up to about $900.00 plus food. And if you don't know about how I work with costs, I always aim very, very high. If I were to get a VidCon hotel for only the three nights that the conference is going on instead of six nights like I had calculated for, that would nearly cut the $900.00 in half. I just liked to overestimate because, I mean, hey, it's California. I'll probably want to fly a few thousand miles and stay more than three days.

So, back to my math. Even if I make $50.00 a night, I'll easily pay for VidCon in a little over a week. What do you think? Sound promising? I mean, sure, I'd pay my rent and buy food while living in FL but I wanted to type it out and get a feel for the possibility of it all. Let's just hope I'll be able to work in Florida this summer!

BRGDS.