I don't know why I was naive enough to think Katers17 would leave the internet forever. But I guess we can talk about it. Again.
Someone linked me the video (thanks for that, by the way) of her explanation as to why she left again. It's on an entirely new channel and everything, and appeared to have probably a couple dozen videos already. The gist of the whining was her claiming she got hacked, claimed she got sick, and now claims she's broke. So she's back to vlogging and literally begging people to send her money. I never thought I'd see the day that it came to outright panhandling.
But let's take this apart objectively rather than being a generalizing asshole about the situation.
So, the hacking. They hacked her wifi, she said. They got into all of her accounts, and then deleted them. She didn't say a word about them stealing her identity, stealing her money, stalking her, no. Nothing reasonably attributable to a crook, or even a lunatic fan. This person just got into her wifi and proceeded to post messages as her before inevitably deleting her accounts.
This is 2014, and yet despite the world becoming a much more technology-savvy place, television still has everyone convinced that hacking is a magical skill which lets you break into literally any piece of technology in roughly five minutes and have full control over it and its information. And yet that's not how it works at all, no matter how hard they tried to make you think Chloe Sullivan characters can really exist.
Without getting too deep into the techno-babble if possible, let's just briefly touch on what exactly the common ways are to "hack" wifi. There are basically three common ways to run your wifi: open (no password at all), WEP, or WPA/WPA2. Right off the bat I'll tell you that WEP is useless. It's literally like putting a deadbolt on your front door and leaving the key sitting in it. It keeps out the casual person trying to borrow your internet, but someone who wants to take a look can do so within seconds, and that's no exaggeration. It's a broken encryption algorithm. That leaves you with WPA and WPA2, which are safer, but only so long as you used a proper password. If you used your house address, or a simple dictionary word, then you're much more easily screwed here because it can be brute-forced. But all routers default to using WPA or WPA2, so assuming you weren't dumb enough to turn it off, and used a decent password, then you should be reasonably secure.
And before you think web encryption methods such as SSL are going to save you on an open or vulnerable internet connection, think again. Look up terms like "man in the middle", "arp poisoning", "sslstrip", "self-signed certificate", etc, and various combinations. Encryption is only as safe as its ability to be used, and there are ways to simply circumvent it once you have access to the person's internet connection.
But for a moment, let's actually believe her. She was "hacked". So Kate either falls into the category of being stupid enough to use her internet on a vulnerable connection, or she used a stupid password. This is a girl who has admitted to being stalked by fans before, so if it was her who failed to secure her own internet properly, then she was practically begging for this to happen. But sure, okay, for a moment, she was "hacked".
So you broke in; what kind of hacker are you? Are you a thief? Are you a stalker? If you're either, then wouldn't common sense dictate that you're going to want to stay hidden? You finally got into her internet, you got into her accounts, wouldn't it now make sense to just lay low and consume her information while she's completely oblivious? Why would you start making posts as her? (Which she didn't mention the nature of.) Why would you start deleting accounts? What does that possibly gain for you? Especially if you're a thief; you just cut off a source of her income for you to steal! If you're a stalker, you just cut off her vlogs. And in both cases, you revealed yourself and are probably going to get locked out now, unless you were able to exploit something in the browser to get a hold on the machine itself. Though if she suspected hacking she would probably reinstall everything, too. So you're out. And the final outcome is that you gained nothing except some girl's misery.
No, the only way that the hacking thing makes sense is if someone was wanting to be vindictive towards her personally, and that gets into a whole 'nother category of lawbreaking. Yet she never once commented to being the victim to anything this sinister. She was simply "hacked". The kind of thing you just shrug off as something that sucks, something that randomly happens, but that's life.
Yeah, no.
The reason I don't buy it is because she honestly looks like she flipped her shit at some point. She said after the hacking that she got "sick" but she never told what from. What it sounds like is that she had a breakdown or some similar mental disorder, cut off her hair, said some crazy stuff online, deleted her accounts, and then after they treated her in some place, she's "better" now. And now she regrets it and is going to play the "I was hacked" card, the same one that politicians and celebrities love to pull when they do something stupid, in order to try to get her accounts back and gain public sympathy.
And the Katers 17 channel? She claims she never logged into it during this entire period of weeks during which she was compromised. Yeah, sure. You're an internet celebrity, and you never once logged into your primary account to check for messages or anything?
I personally think she stopped vlogging for some sudden career change (since vlogging had been her career), maybe left Cory for some other guy around the same time, and when neither of those things worked out, she realized just how bad she had fucked up and she just fucking lost it. But that's just my assumption, who knows.
As for her begging for money, fuck that. Her dad was sitting on the couch behind her while she was making one of those scenes. If she's stooped to begging her audience for money, then she can ask her dad for money. And I'm sure he'd only be too willing to help his daughter. Hell, he'd probably be willing to move her back to where he lives and let her stay there for a little while until she gets on her feet. But no, instead, she's going to pandhandle for money to stay in expensive CA and keep trying to get her career going while drinking Starbucks, while resorting to vlogging again in the meantime.
This is basically the typical celebrity trainwreck failed success story, except by someone who was still down at e-celeb status and got too big for her britches too quickly. She wasn't Shay-Carl. She wasn't Charles Trippy. She was still practically an internet nobody. And she thought she could leave vlogging for a real career, apparently. Looks like she shouldn't have been so ready to fuck her audience over, because it's going to take her a while to ever build that back up again.
Anyway, whatever. I think I ran out of steam on this one. Hopefully it's coherent in expressing my thoughts on the subject without needing a follow-up. There are other things I wanted to post about here lately, but I ended up back on this topic again, unfortunately!
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Saturday, June 28, 2014
The End, Again?
Oh wow, deja vu.
Remember when Kate gave her audience the proverbial middle finger and left, leaving all of the fanboys to bawww and claim that there must be a reason, that she'd never just leave her fans like that?
Well, apparently she did it again, just as abruptly. And probably for good this time.
As George Bush once so eloquently butchered: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
I wasn't shamed though of course, and likely nor were the kinds of people who would read this blog. I'd come to accept the kind of person she was. Or the kind of person she became, rather. So none of it was particularly surprising. In fact, none of the stuff I've been hearing lately comes as a surprise. The only surprising part is probably that it took me this many months to learn about it. I've been busy and never even thought to look at the comments here or I'd have known sooner.
I'm just going to cut right to the chase. I doubt that her deleting her channel has anything at all to do with stalking or anything of the sort. I also don't think she deleted it simply from being tired of it. That channel would have still gotten thousands of views a month, and that was free money. We know how much Kate loves money, as seen when she felt it okay to trick her fans into voting for her to win $20k of furniture, so she wouldn't have given that source of income up lightly.
No, the more obvious reason here is that she's gotten herself mixed up with a new crowd of people and doesn't want her newfound fame potential to be marred by anyone finding the vlog. Re-inventing yourself is hard when you have video evidence readily available of what you used to be. This would help explain why the main channel still exists, because that's resume material. I heard someone say it was hackers who deleted her accounts, and that she managed to re-upload her Katers17 channel, but no. All of the original dates are on those videos.
If you need further proof of her new life, just search Google. You can see her and her freshly sheared head posing ridiculously next to some people I've never seen before in my life, on some kind of lower-key red carpet event. Since she never quite managed to achieve Charles Trippy/Shay Carl level of Youtube celebrity despite how hard she tried to insert herself into their circle, and since Cory proved that he was never going to move further up in the world and was actually on the other side of the creative hill, she's gone and shoehorned herself into some other group of people to ride on the coattails of.
But the hair. Good God, the hair. She looks hideous. People can try to defend it as much as they want, but she's no Annie Lennox, not with those pearly white horse teeth sticking out when she smiles, which are far more noticeable now. No, she's down closer to the Britney Spears tier, but I don't even think she can blame insanity. We're talking worse than Britney Spears, because it was more likely a publicity stunt. I mean, this is someone who staged the beginning of a relationship for views. Once you go that far down that path, nothing is out of the question. At least temporary insanity is excusable. Attention-whoring is not.
Meanwhile, I hear Cory was seen with Steph again in one of his videos. I haven't seen it, I don't know the context, and I'm not sure I care enough to go find it. But I just roll my eyes to that whole thing. No surprise whatsoever. He's one of those people who just can't deal with being alone, and will go back to whatever's available, even if that's something which only resulted in misery before. To be someone with a bit of fame and looks, he sure doesn't seem to be able to make new friends outside of that same old circle. That was the case during all of the vlogs, for both him and Kate for that matter. And the handful of friends you ever did happen to see them with were rarely anything to write home about. I never could understand that. They must have had pretty bad personalities off-camera.
Anyway, maybe I'm being too harsh, but whatever. I lost all sympathy for these people, or for the people who kept clinging to the smattering of videos they tossed out. If your feelings are hurt, then good, you should be mad, you should be upset. Maybe this will be a good learning experience on who to trust, and when to stop trusting them. You're never too young to learn that lesson.
In a world where faking everything for money has become business as usual, never take anything for face value.
Remember when Kate gave her audience the proverbial middle finger and left, leaving all of the fanboys to bawww and claim that there must be a reason, that she'd never just leave her fans like that?
Well, apparently she did it again, just as abruptly. And probably for good this time.
As George Bush once so eloquently butchered: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
I wasn't shamed though of course, and likely nor were the kinds of people who would read this blog. I'd come to accept the kind of person she was. Or the kind of person she became, rather. So none of it was particularly surprising. In fact, none of the stuff I've been hearing lately comes as a surprise. The only surprising part is probably that it took me this many months to learn about it. I've been busy and never even thought to look at the comments here or I'd have known sooner.
I'm just going to cut right to the chase. I doubt that her deleting her channel has anything at all to do with stalking or anything of the sort. I also don't think she deleted it simply from being tired of it. That channel would have still gotten thousands of views a month, and that was free money. We know how much Kate loves money, as seen when she felt it okay to trick her fans into voting for her to win $20k of furniture, so she wouldn't have given that source of income up lightly.
No, the more obvious reason here is that she's gotten herself mixed up with a new crowd of people and doesn't want her newfound fame potential to be marred by anyone finding the vlog. Re-inventing yourself is hard when you have video evidence readily available of what you used to be. This would help explain why the main channel still exists, because that's resume material. I heard someone say it was hackers who deleted her accounts, and that she managed to re-upload her Katers17 channel, but no. All of the original dates are on those videos.
If you need further proof of her new life, just search Google. You can see her and her freshly sheared head posing ridiculously next to some people I've never seen before in my life, on some kind of lower-key red carpet event. Since she never quite managed to achieve Charles Trippy/Shay Carl level of Youtube celebrity despite how hard she tried to insert herself into their circle, and since Cory proved that he was never going to move further up in the world and was actually on the other side of the creative hill, she's gone and shoehorned herself into some other group of people to ride on the coattails of.
But the hair. Good God, the hair. She looks hideous. People can try to defend it as much as they want, but she's no Annie Lennox, not with those pearly white horse teeth sticking out when she smiles, which are far more noticeable now. No, she's down closer to the Britney Spears tier, but I don't even think she can blame insanity. We're talking worse than Britney Spears, because it was more likely a publicity stunt. I mean, this is someone who staged the beginning of a relationship for views. Once you go that far down that path, nothing is out of the question. At least temporary insanity is excusable. Attention-whoring is not.
Meanwhile, I hear Cory was seen with Steph again in one of his videos. I haven't seen it, I don't know the context, and I'm not sure I care enough to go find it. But I just roll my eyes to that whole thing. No surprise whatsoever. He's one of those people who just can't deal with being alone, and will go back to whatever's available, even if that's something which only resulted in misery before. To be someone with a bit of fame and looks, he sure doesn't seem to be able to make new friends outside of that same old circle. That was the case during all of the vlogs, for both him and Kate for that matter. And the handful of friends you ever did happen to see them with were rarely anything to write home about. I never could understand that. They must have had pretty bad personalities off-camera.
Anyway, maybe I'm being too harsh, but whatever. I lost all sympathy for these people, or for the people who kept clinging to the smattering of videos they tossed out. If your feelings are hurt, then good, you should be mad, you should be upset. Maybe this will be a good learning experience on who to trust, and when to stop trusting them. You're never too young to learn that lesson.
In a world where faking everything for money has become business as usual, never take anything for face value.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
The End?
So hey, I haven't written here in forever. Been busy, and haven't thought of anything particularly interesting enough to ramble about. But somebody commented to tell me that Katers and Cory broke up. I didn't know whether to believe it at first, but I found the vlog and confirmed it. Given how much I've blabbed about them in the past, I figure it only makes sense to say my piece and wrap this topic up for good.
About the only thing I can say regarding the breakup itself is that I'm not surprised. At all. These are two people around ten years apart in age from two completely different parts of the world. Cory gives the impression of being an emotional roller coaster, and seemingly content to keep doing what he's doing, while Kate gives the impression that she's too motivated to sit still or to want to deal with someone or something she perceives as holding her back. He was her proverbial stepping stone to live and start a career in America, but she's apparently ready to step forward again.
As for Cory's vlog about it, I can't comment too much on his reaction. These people are actors, even in their vlogs, and I have to take all of it with a grain of salt. He appeared upset, and I suppose some small part of me still feels bad for him if he's hurt. But then I remind myself of how the audience was misled and lied to, including about their relationship, which just makes me have mixed feelings. Call it karma, perhaps. Especially if some of the other accusations we heard about were true.
I didn't see any comment from Kate about it. I looked at her channel, but I don't particularly enjoy sitting through her videos anymore to find anything. She's even more different now than when I stopped watching. Skipping through, I never saw anything that looked like tears, so I assume she hasn't said anything. Then again, who's to say she would even cry about it? She sure didn't in her "the vlogs are over" video. Not to mention, she took up that mentality of making sure her channel was based entirely around positivity, deleting or banning anything negative in her comments to enforce that, so perhaps she wouldn't mention it at all. Especially when it could mean a possible drop in views. I think the initial potential romance drove some of her viewers to keep watching, and then it peaked when the relationship began. A relationship ending is pretty much the credits rolling for those people.
The thing that bugged me about Cory's video though was that here he was, publicly sharing this with everyone, and yet at the same time telling people not to talk about it in the comments. You're dropping a bombshell on people who have followed this saga for years, and now you're telling them not to voice their feelings? But at least he told his fans, which I guess is more than I can say for Kate (to my knowledge).
Like I said, they're from different parts of the world. Kate might have lived in America for a few years now, but England is still her home. I doubt she feels particularly anchored. She could probably decide to move anywhere for her career if it fancied her to do so. I mean, she moved across the ocean for it to begin with, after all. I don't think Cory would be as willing. Cory's also older, more at an age where he would want to settle down a bit, where as Kate's just getting started. People like Kate, who lived much of their early life as more of a hermit from lack of confidence, are going to spend more time being carefree after coming out of their shells.
As for what I said about Cory being her stepping stone, I won't go as far as to say that I think Kate used him. There's no way to really know that for sure. But I think it's safe to say that without him she probably wouldn't be where she is. It's also safe to assume Kate will bounce back just fine and move on, but Cory is the one to be more concerned about. He seemed somewhat clingy towards her, and his emotional state goes to such extremes that you'd almost worry that he might do something stupid. As far as I know, he's never done anything like that, but you can't help but wonder. Hopefully there's people around to keep an eye on him.
Anyway, yeah, like I said, it was inevitable. I saw people saying in Youtube comments that it's all a total shock, but perhaps I'm at an age where I'm able to see these things more easily. These kinds of relationships just don't tend to work out. They not only grew up in different decades, but on different continents. There's not enough in common in the long run. And that's completely aside from the personality differences. It wasn't meant to be.
Oh well, it was a long time coming, but at least the soap opera is over. I doubt I'll have any reason to look in on either one of them from now on. So I wish them just as much luck as either deserves, whether that's for better or worse, in finding what they're looking for.
About the only thing I can say regarding the breakup itself is that I'm not surprised. At all. These are two people around ten years apart in age from two completely different parts of the world. Cory gives the impression of being an emotional roller coaster, and seemingly content to keep doing what he's doing, while Kate gives the impression that she's too motivated to sit still or to want to deal with someone or something she perceives as holding her back. He was her proverbial stepping stone to live and start a career in America, but she's apparently ready to step forward again.
As for Cory's vlog about it, I can't comment too much on his reaction. These people are actors, even in their vlogs, and I have to take all of it with a grain of salt. He appeared upset, and I suppose some small part of me still feels bad for him if he's hurt. But then I remind myself of how the audience was misled and lied to, including about their relationship, which just makes me have mixed feelings. Call it karma, perhaps. Especially if some of the other accusations we heard about were true.
I didn't see any comment from Kate about it. I looked at her channel, but I don't particularly enjoy sitting through her videos anymore to find anything. She's even more different now than when I stopped watching. Skipping through, I never saw anything that looked like tears, so I assume she hasn't said anything. Then again, who's to say she would even cry about it? She sure didn't in her "the vlogs are over" video. Not to mention, she took up that mentality of making sure her channel was based entirely around positivity, deleting or banning anything negative in her comments to enforce that, so perhaps she wouldn't mention it at all. Especially when it could mean a possible drop in views. I think the initial potential romance drove some of her viewers to keep watching, and then it peaked when the relationship began. A relationship ending is pretty much the credits rolling for those people.
The thing that bugged me about Cory's video though was that here he was, publicly sharing this with everyone, and yet at the same time telling people not to talk about it in the comments. You're dropping a bombshell on people who have followed this saga for years, and now you're telling them not to voice their feelings? But at least he told his fans, which I guess is more than I can say for Kate (to my knowledge).
Like I said, they're from different parts of the world. Kate might have lived in America for a few years now, but England is still her home. I doubt she feels particularly anchored. She could probably decide to move anywhere for her career if it fancied her to do so. I mean, she moved across the ocean for it to begin with, after all. I don't think Cory would be as willing. Cory's also older, more at an age where he would want to settle down a bit, where as Kate's just getting started. People like Kate, who lived much of their early life as more of a hermit from lack of confidence, are going to spend more time being carefree after coming out of their shells.
As for what I said about Cory being her stepping stone, I won't go as far as to say that I think Kate used him. There's no way to really know that for sure. But I think it's safe to say that without him she probably wouldn't be where she is. It's also safe to assume Kate will bounce back just fine and move on, but Cory is the one to be more concerned about. He seemed somewhat clingy towards her, and his emotional state goes to such extremes that you'd almost worry that he might do something stupid. As far as I know, he's never done anything like that, but you can't help but wonder. Hopefully there's people around to keep an eye on him.
Anyway, yeah, like I said, it was inevitable. I saw people saying in Youtube comments that it's all a total shock, but perhaps I'm at an age where I'm able to see these things more easily. These kinds of relationships just don't tend to work out. They not only grew up in different decades, but on different continents. There's not enough in common in the long run. And that's completely aside from the personality differences. It wasn't meant to be.
Oh well, it was a long time coming, but at least the soap opera is over. I doubt I'll have any reason to look in on either one of them from now on. So I wish them just as much luck as either deserves, whether that's for better or worse, in finding what they're looking for.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Media Martyr
So hey, everyone's giving their two cents on the Trayvon Martin case, so I thought I'd actually give mine, which is likely based more in reality and fact than the majority of anything else being vomited across the web as we speak.
What nearly everyone whining about this case seems to fail to understand is that George Zimmerman was never on trial for whether he killed Trayvon Martin. This was established already, because, you know, he admitted it. From the start. He never denied killing this kid. This trial has always been about the motivation of the act. And based on that motivation, there were only three possible verdicts: guilty of 2nd degree murder, guilty of manslaughter, or not guilty. A jury chose the latter, because the other two could not be proven.
So for all of the "hurrrr if Zimmerman didn't kill Trayvon, then who did" people, which I've seen a million of at this point, shut the fuck up already. You've already proven that you have absolutely no understanding of this case, so you no longer are allowed an opinion of it.
Now let's look at the actual facts that were available in this case, which, again, most people don't bother with looking into:
- Zimmerman never owned a gun until roaming pit bulls in his neighborhood posed a threat, one of which cornered his wife at one point, after which an official told him the best way to protect himself and his family was to "get a gun." To be such a terrible racist murderer, he certainly seemed to have no interest in guns until his family was threatened by vicious animals. This also explains owning the hollow-point ammunition.
- Zimmerman was appointed head of his local neighborhood watch group. This implies that he was a likable individual in his community, and that they trusted him with this position.
- The neighborhood had been robbed multiple times within the last year alone, by young black males matching Trayvon's thuggish description.
- Trayvon was a self-proclaimed thug. He was interested in drugs and guns. Everything from his Facebook posts to his court-obtained text messages prove this. Given his appearance and body language, Zimmerman's concern over him being in the neighborhood, acting in the way that he was, when it was dark and raining, was justified, as someone who was dedicated to watching out for his neighborhood from the same description of people who had robbed it previously.
- During the initial 911 call, when Zimmerman was calmly talking to the dispatcher from his truck, he indicated that Trayvon spotted him following and then made a gesture at his waistband, giving the implication that he was armed.
- Trayvon suddenly ran. Zimmerman got out of his truck to follow him. Dispatch recognized that he was following based on his winded voice, and told him that they didn't need him to do that. So he stopped. You can hear this in the 911 call very clearly. He completely lost sight of Trayvon.
- Zimmerman stays on the line with the 911 dispatcher for several more minutes after giving up pursuit. You can listen to the call for yourself and see that Trayvon has a lifetime to escape the area, or to run home, which he was very close to.
- After Zimmerman hangs up, Trayvon then returns to confront Zimmerman, and the physical conflict ensues.
- Zimmerman is pummeled in the face multiple times while laying on his back on the ground.
- A single gunshot kills Trayvon. The autopsy showed skinned knuckles from his assault on Zimmerman, and no other injuries, since Zimmerman never even got a punch back on him.
These are the facts of the case. These are known based on the timing sequence of the 911 calls, and by the physical evidence taken when the police arrived.
Based on these facts, how can you prove that Zimmerman killed Trayvon with malicious intent? There's absolutely nothing here to justify that line of thinking other than personal bias. The facts indicate that Trayvon was the aggressor. It doesn't matter that Zimmerman followed Trayvon; that did not justify the physical assault on Zimmerman which resulted in Zimmerman firing his weapon in alleged self-defense. If you recall from the 911 call, Trayvon had already made a gesture to indicate that he was possibly armed, giving Zimmerman even more reason to fear for his life.
So you might be thinking, okay, you can't prove malicious intent from Zimmerman, but why did he not get charged with manslaughter? Well that's because the terminology of Florida's manslaughter statute does not apply. It specifically says that an act of negligence does not constitute the crime, nor if it were self-defense or other excusable reasons.
But even if it were a typical involuntary manslaughter charge of another state, you would have still had a hard time proving negligence. There was no law which stated Zimmerman couldn't carry his gun while performing neighborhood watch duties. And he stopped following Trayvon when the 911 dispatcher asked him to. Other than the risk he put himself at to follow a potentially armed criminal, there simply was no provable negligence in this case.
The media has exploited this case to massive proportions. It took the death of a child and turned it into a ratings frenzy, carefully crafting its narrative of Zimmerman being a villain in the death of a black person in order to fuel racial tensions and public debate. They carefully left out the details such as how Zimmerman himself was mixed race, including black in his family tree. Or that Zimmerman had previously been responsible for the capture of criminals in his neighborhood. Or that Zimmerman had once fought on the side of a black homeless man who had been beaten by the city's police, and accused them of covering it up. That Zimmerman tutored disadvantaged children (read: black) for free. Instead, they turned him into the antichrist. And people fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.
The facts of this case are simply indisputable. And they never changed, from the point in which the local police initially cleared him, until even after the media forced the case open again and dragged him through court. I urge you to go and research them for yourself if you're still in doubt.
Trayvon had the opportunity to escape, but he chose to return and assault Zimmerman. That decision cost him his life. It shouldn't cost Zimmerman his as well for defending himself.
What nearly everyone whining about this case seems to fail to understand is that George Zimmerman was never on trial for whether he killed Trayvon Martin. This was established already, because, you know, he admitted it. From the start. He never denied killing this kid. This trial has always been about the motivation of the act. And based on that motivation, there were only three possible verdicts: guilty of 2nd degree murder, guilty of manslaughter, or not guilty. A jury chose the latter, because the other two could not be proven.
So for all of the "hurrrr if Zimmerman didn't kill Trayvon, then who did" people, which I've seen a million of at this point, shut the fuck up already. You've already proven that you have absolutely no understanding of this case, so you no longer are allowed an opinion of it.
Now let's look at the actual facts that were available in this case, which, again, most people don't bother with looking into:
- Zimmerman never owned a gun until roaming pit bulls in his neighborhood posed a threat, one of which cornered his wife at one point, after which an official told him the best way to protect himself and his family was to "get a gun." To be such a terrible racist murderer, he certainly seemed to have no interest in guns until his family was threatened by vicious animals. This also explains owning the hollow-point ammunition.
- Zimmerman was appointed head of his local neighborhood watch group. This implies that he was a likable individual in his community, and that they trusted him with this position.
- The neighborhood had been robbed multiple times within the last year alone, by young black males matching Trayvon's thuggish description.
- Trayvon was a self-proclaimed thug. He was interested in drugs and guns. Everything from his Facebook posts to his court-obtained text messages prove this. Given his appearance and body language, Zimmerman's concern over him being in the neighborhood, acting in the way that he was, when it was dark and raining, was justified, as someone who was dedicated to watching out for his neighborhood from the same description of people who had robbed it previously.
- During the initial 911 call, when Zimmerman was calmly talking to the dispatcher from his truck, he indicated that Trayvon spotted him following and then made a gesture at his waistband, giving the implication that he was armed.
- Trayvon suddenly ran. Zimmerman got out of his truck to follow him. Dispatch recognized that he was following based on his winded voice, and told him that they didn't need him to do that. So he stopped. You can hear this in the 911 call very clearly. He completely lost sight of Trayvon.
- Zimmerman stays on the line with the 911 dispatcher for several more minutes after giving up pursuit. You can listen to the call for yourself and see that Trayvon has a lifetime to escape the area, or to run home, which he was very close to.
- After Zimmerman hangs up, Trayvon then returns to confront Zimmerman, and the physical conflict ensues.
- Zimmerman is pummeled in the face multiple times while laying on his back on the ground.
- A single gunshot kills Trayvon. The autopsy showed skinned knuckles from his assault on Zimmerman, and no other injuries, since Zimmerman never even got a punch back on him.
These are the facts of the case. These are known based on the timing sequence of the 911 calls, and by the physical evidence taken when the police arrived.
Based on these facts, how can you prove that Zimmerman killed Trayvon with malicious intent? There's absolutely nothing here to justify that line of thinking other than personal bias. The facts indicate that Trayvon was the aggressor. It doesn't matter that Zimmerman followed Trayvon; that did not justify the physical assault on Zimmerman which resulted in Zimmerman firing his weapon in alleged self-defense. If you recall from the 911 call, Trayvon had already made a gesture to indicate that he was possibly armed, giving Zimmerman even more reason to fear for his life.
So you might be thinking, okay, you can't prove malicious intent from Zimmerman, but why did he not get charged with manslaughter? Well that's because the terminology of Florida's manslaughter statute does not apply. It specifically says that an act of negligence does not constitute the crime, nor if it were self-defense or other excusable reasons.
But even if it were a typical involuntary manslaughter charge of another state, you would have still had a hard time proving negligence. There was no law which stated Zimmerman couldn't carry his gun while performing neighborhood watch duties. And he stopped following Trayvon when the 911 dispatcher asked him to. Other than the risk he put himself at to follow a potentially armed criminal, there simply was no provable negligence in this case.
The media has exploited this case to massive proportions. It took the death of a child and turned it into a ratings frenzy, carefully crafting its narrative of Zimmerman being a villain in the death of a black person in order to fuel racial tensions and public debate. They carefully left out the details such as how Zimmerman himself was mixed race, including black in his family tree. Or that Zimmerman had previously been responsible for the capture of criminals in his neighborhood. Or that Zimmerman had once fought on the side of a black homeless man who had been beaten by the city's police, and accused them of covering it up. That Zimmerman tutored disadvantaged children (read: black) for free. Instead, they turned him into the antichrist. And people fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.
The facts of this case are simply indisputable. And they never changed, from the point in which the local police initially cleared him, until even after the media forced the case open again and dragged him through court. I urge you to go and research them for yourself if you're still in doubt.
Trayvon had the opportunity to escape, but he chose to return and assault Zimmerman. That decision cost him his life. It shouldn't cost Zimmerman his as well for defending himself.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Easy to Forget
Oh hey, it's been three months, maybe I'll post something on here for a change!
You know, it's funny; every few weeks something would remind me of KatersOneSeven, and I'd realize to myself how I went from watching her videos every single day, even looking forward to them, all the way to rarely even thinking or caring about her. I checked her channel just now, and there's only been a dozen uploads since her big middle finger to the internet. I can't bring myself to care enough to watch them, since I'm sure it would just be a lot more facepalming and eye rolling. If anything relevant even happened, give me the cliff notes version. Actually, in some of the comments here, somebody mentioned that she's pregnant and that they're going to get married, but I would question that solely on the basis of a) her not wanting to mess up her California girl image and career, and b) that costs money, which she would rather blow on her dog and herself. But who knows.
I've lost interest in a lot of Youtube in general, actually. I still watch some automotive and gaming channels though. Since it's spring time, various motorcycle vloggers have started coming out of hibernation, but I haven't had quite enough time or interest to watch everybody that I was into last year. I still enjoy people like Boogie2988 though with his opinions on various topics, along with his Francis rants of course. And I've been facepalming quite a bit from the Yogscast guys, as a matter of fact. If you haven't heard of them, it's basically a network of Youtube channels of people who play various games, with the core group having a focus that seems oriented on Minecraft.
That's as good a topic as any, actually. Yogscast. People who have over a million subscribers, are paid lots of money just to play games, yet they put absolutely no research into how to actually do it. They've become so content in being able to just upload a video and get thousands of automatic views that they don't seem to really care what they film anymore. I don't know if any of you watch them, or play Minecraft and/or its mods, so I'll try my best to explain this. One of Yogscast's most popular series was Tekkit, based around the Minecraft modpack (a collection of mods from various developers) with the same name. It had a good mix of humor, plot, and building, and lasted for almost a hundred episodes. When it eventually ended, people had liked it so much that they kept asking for it to continue, or to start a new one of some kind.
Around that time, they started a new series called Voltz, again based on a Minecraft modpack of the same name, both of which under the Technic umbrella of modpacks. Voltz started out well, had some amusing episodes, until gradually it seemed like they were cheating and fibbing to orchestrate scenes for the audience rather than playing the game legitimately. At first I didn't mind too much, because it could be pretty entertaining, but eventually I felt more and more like it was just being misleading. It also became more and more apparent that they didn't really know what they were doing, and wouldn't check the various wikis out there which would have helped them figure something out within moments, bumbling around on camera forever instead. But they still made pretty decent progress and people liked it.
Several episodes into Voltz, they introduced the new Jaffa Factory series, which was a direct continuation of Tekkit, but with a whole new modpack of their own under the FTB umbrella now instead of Technic. This alone caused fanboys to freak out in comments, because Tekkit vs FTB is like ATI vs Nvidia to them, except that these modpacks are literally publicly-available mods developed by people not directly affiliated with either modpack, simply using different front-end launchers to start the game, making it a completely moot argument. Yogscraft (their FTB modpack) used updated versions of all the very outdated mods from Tekkit, and various new ones.
But suddenly the Yogscast gang were like deer in headlights, even with the mods they should have been familiar with. They weren't making any progress, they couldn't figure anything out, there was no kind of plot development or plan, and every episode is basically twenty minutes of them trying to figure out how to make things and usually not even managing to do that. Ten episodes in and they still had no shelter whatsoever, despite tons of items available (cheated in and otherwise), despite the original Tekkit series having had ten times the progress and having started from nothing.
Meanwhile, the Voltz series also seems to have been quietly migrated to an FTB-based server, probably a combined Yogscraft and Ampz pack, because despite still calling it Voltz, it has at least over half a dozen mods which don't belong. With the addition of these extra mods, they're now a deer in headlights yet again, trying to use these other mods' features but not really accomplishing a whole lot. But at least they're still motivated by the fact that it's one team versus another team, as opposed to one big clusterfuck like in Jaffa Factory.
It's all fairly frustrating to watch, to be honest, because a) how the hell can a group of people have played Minecraft mods for this long and still not know the basics, and b) how the hell can you get paid so much money and yet put so little effort into planning your content? They still make some pretty funny content, such as when they play Garry's Mod, but it seems to all be becoming few and far between. The only reason the Garry's Mod stuff is funny is because they're playing with stuff that they didn't even make, with their lack of prior experimentation resulting in some amusing results in that case. The comments on Jaffa Factory, on the other hand, are overwhelmingly negative, asking for more Voltz or trying to tell them how to play the game. I don't think they even look at comments anymore, though. Why would you need to when you get that many views without even trying?
Anyway, enough about Minecraft. Maybe somebody will actually know what I'm talking about! Otherwise, all you need to know is that it's pretty much another case of success going to peoples' heads, as far as I'm concerned.
You know, it's funny; every few weeks something would remind me of KatersOneSeven, and I'd realize to myself how I went from watching her videos every single day, even looking forward to them, all the way to rarely even thinking or caring about her. I checked her channel just now, and there's only been a dozen uploads since her big middle finger to the internet. I can't bring myself to care enough to watch them, since I'm sure it would just be a lot more facepalming and eye rolling. If anything relevant even happened, give me the cliff notes version. Actually, in some of the comments here, somebody mentioned that she's pregnant and that they're going to get married, but I would question that solely on the basis of a) her not wanting to mess up her California girl image and career, and b) that costs money, which she would rather blow on her dog and herself. But who knows.
I've lost interest in a lot of Youtube in general, actually. I still watch some automotive and gaming channels though. Since it's spring time, various motorcycle vloggers have started coming out of hibernation, but I haven't had quite enough time or interest to watch everybody that I was into last year. I still enjoy people like Boogie2988 though with his opinions on various topics, along with his Francis rants of course. And I've been facepalming quite a bit from the Yogscast guys, as a matter of fact. If you haven't heard of them, it's basically a network of Youtube channels of people who play various games, with the core group having a focus that seems oriented on Minecraft.
That's as good a topic as any, actually. Yogscast. People who have over a million subscribers, are paid lots of money just to play games, yet they put absolutely no research into how to actually do it. They've become so content in being able to just upload a video and get thousands of automatic views that they don't seem to really care what they film anymore. I don't know if any of you watch them, or play Minecraft and/or its mods, so I'll try my best to explain this. One of Yogscast's most popular series was Tekkit, based around the Minecraft modpack (a collection of mods from various developers) with the same name. It had a good mix of humor, plot, and building, and lasted for almost a hundred episodes. When it eventually ended, people had liked it so much that they kept asking for it to continue, or to start a new one of some kind.
Around that time, they started a new series called Voltz, again based on a Minecraft modpack of the same name, both of which under the Technic umbrella of modpacks. Voltz started out well, had some amusing episodes, until gradually it seemed like they were cheating and fibbing to orchestrate scenes for the audience rather than playing the game legitimately. At first I didn't mind too much, because it could be pretty entertaining, but eventually I felt more and more like it was just being misleading. It also became more and more apparent that they didn't really know what they were doing, and wouldn't check the various wikis out there which would have helped them figure something out within moments, bumbling around on camera forever instead. But they still made pretty decent progress and people liked it.
Several episodes into Voltz, they introduced the new Jaffa Factory series, which was a direct continuation of Tekkit, but with a whole new modpack of their own under the FTB umbrella now instead of Technic. This alone caused fanboys to freak out in comments, because Tekkit vs FTB is like ATI vs Nvidia to them, except that these modpacks are literally publicly-available mods developed by people not directly affiliated with either modpack, simply using different front-end launchers to start the game, making it a completely moot argument. Yogscraft (their FTB modpack) used updated versions of all the very outdated mods from Tekkit, and various new ones.
But suddenly the Yogscast gang were like deer in headlights, even with the mods they should have been familiar with. They weren't making any progress, they couldn't figure anything out, there was no kind of plot development or plan, and every episode is basically twenty minutes of them trying to figure out how to make things and usually not even managing to do that. Ten episodes in and they still had no shelter whatsoever, despite tons of items available (cheated in and otherwise), despite the original Tekkit series having had ten times the progress and having started from nothing.
Meanwhile, the Voltz series also seems to have been quietly migrated to an FTB-based server, probably a combined Yogscraft and Ampz pack, because despite still calling it Voltz, it has at least over half a dozen mods which don't belong. With the addition of these extra mods, they're now a deer in headlights yet again, trying to use these other mods' features but not really accomplishing a whole lot. But at least they're still motivated by the fact that it's one team versus another team, as opposed to one big clusterfuck like in Jaffa Factory.
It's all fairly frustrating to watch, to be honest, because a) how the hell can a group of people have played Minecraft mods for this long and still not know the basics, and b) how the hell can you get paid so much money and yet put so little effort into planning your content? They still make some pretty funny content, such as when they play Garry's Mod, but it seems to all be becoming few and far between. The only reason the Garry's Mod stuff is funny is because they're playing with stuff that they didn't even make, with their lack of prior experimentation resulting in some amusing results in that case. The comments on Jaffa Factory, on the other hand, are overwhelmingly negative, asking for more Voltz or trying to tell them how to play the game. I don't think they even look at comments anymore, though. Why would you need to when you get that many views without even trying?
Anyway, enough about Minecraft. Maybe somebody will actually know what I'm talking about! Otherwise, all you need to know is that it's pretty much another case of success going to peoples' heads, as far as I'm concerned.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
F.A.Q.
It's been a few days, but "Let's Talk" about what was said in comments to Kate's similarly-named video. There were certainly still some things to be asked, but since I'm blocked, I just had to hope that there were enough other people out there wondering those same things, who also had enough balls to ask without fear of insulting Great Leader. Turns out, people do!
First on the list is the screenshot of Cory's Facebook switching to "in a relationship" in October 2011; a screencap which was made before people even knew that Kate and Cory actually did kiss that month. The official verdict? Neither Kate nor Cory have any idea what it's about, and assume that the screenshot must be fake, because they don't remember it. O-kay. I still think Cory just got over-excited at the kiss and is now too embarrassed to admit that he changed his status (assuming they haven't actually been in a relationship that whole time, of course).
Second, we have the Seann Larson comment, about Cory cheating on Steph with Kate. Official verdict? Kate swears that it's absolutely, positively false, and that maybe Seann is the one with something to hide. It was an adamant denial, so you either have to believe it or think Kate's just a total liar. Personally, I dunno, I guess I'm inclined to believe it. I don't think she would respond to the question at all if she was going to have to lie to it, and in turn imply Seann is the liar in the process. Then again, it did seem to have quite a few thumbs-up, so maybe she felt she had to. But I go back to what I said before, about how Cory had stopped wearing his wedding ring ages before Steph ever moved out. You just don't live with your ex for that long if cheating was involved.
Third, it was asked why she was still Tweeting/Facebooking/Keeking/etc if she had been worried about her safety. Kate made a good point on this one, I suppose: it shows where she's at every day. That could be enough information for a crazy person to have an idea of where to watch for her. Though she doesn't go to the same places every day, and her vlogs are normally a few days late anyway, so I dunno. Either way, take it as you will. I still say it was a knee-jerk reaction.
Fourth, the Facebook screenshot of Cory telling someone to keep it (their relationship) a secret, since as far as everyone's concerned "we're new." Kate said that this was related to a private joke, which nobody else would have understood and misinterpreted. Yeah, I don't really think I buy it, pretty much like the other Facebook screenshot. I actually used to doubt both of these screenshots to varying degrees, but given that this latter one turned out to be real (which is the one I doubted the most), I don't know what to think anymore.
I saw someone ask if Kate and Cory were sponsored by Keek, but that one never got answered.
So yeah. Regardless of the truth involved, at least there was a direct response to these things. All one can do now is wait to see if she or Cory slip up at some point and reveal whether any of it was false. I heard she put up some vlogs since I last watched, but I can't bring myself enough to care to see what they're about, so somebody else will have to keep an eye out for any shenanigans.
I really do think I'm done with Kate now. I truly have no remorse from unsubscribing and have no urge to go see what she's up to. I just wanted to make one last post of the info I saw recently, to conclude this whole series of posts about all of this.
First on the list is the screenshot of Cory's Facebook switching to "in a relationship" in October 2011; a screencap which was made before people even knew that Kate and Cory actually did kiss that month. The official verdict? Neither Kate nor Cory have any idea what it's about, and assume that the screenshot must be fake, because they don't remember it. O-kay. I still think Cory just got over-excited at the kiss and is now too embarrassed to admit that he changed his status (assuming they haven't actually been in a relationship that whole time, of course).
Second, we have the Seann Larson comment, about Cory cheating on Steph with Kate. Official verdict? Kate swears that it's absolutely, positively false, and that maybe Seann is the one with something to hide. It was an adamant denial, so you either have to believe it or think Kate's just a total liar. Personally, I dunno, I guess I'm inclined to believe it. I don't think she would respond to the question at all if she was going to have to lie to it, and in turn imply Seann is the liar in the process. Then again, it did seem to have quite a few thumbs-up, so maybe she felt she had to. But I go back to what I said before, about how Cory had stopped wearing his wedding ring ages before Steph ever moved out. You just don't live with your ex for that long if cheating was involved.
Third, it was asked why she was still Tweeting/Facebooking/Keeking/etc if she had been worried about her safety. Kate made a good point on this one, I suppose: it shows where she's at every day. That could be enough information for a crazy person to have an idea of where to watch for her. Though she doesn't go to the same places every day, and her vlogs are normally a few days late anyway, so I dunno. Either way, take it as you will. I still say it was a knee-jerk reaction.
Fourth, the Facebook screenshot of Cory telling someone to keep it (their relationship) a secret, since as far as everyone's concerned "we're new." Kate said that this was related to a private joke, which nobody else would have understood and misinterpreted. Yeah, I don't really think I buy it, pretty much like the other Facebook screenshot. I actually used to doubt both of these screenshots to varying degrees, but given that this latter one turned out to be real (which is the one I doubted the most), I don't know what to think anymore.
I saw someone ask if Kate and Cory were sponsored by Keek, but that one never got answered.
So yeah. Regardless of the truth involved, at least there was a direct response to these things. All one can do now is wait to see if she or Cory slip up at some point and reveal whether any of it was false. I heard she put up some vlogs since I last watched, but I can't bring myself enough to care to see what they're about, so somebody else will have to keep an eye out for any shenanigans.
I really do think I'm done with Kate now. I truly have no remorse from unsubscribing and have no urge to go see what she's up to. I just wanted to make one last post of the info I saw recently, to conclude this whole series of posts about all of this.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
All Good Things
Well, it's over, folks. KatersOneSeven finally posted a video to address the situation, and it's essentially the tearful explanation I predicted before. We learned a little from it, while it still managed to leave plenty of unanswered questions.
The first half of the explanation for the vlogs ending is indeed what was being alluded to: she was scared for her safety. And I don't question for a second that she has dozens of fucked up fanboys who hang on her every word, to the point that their lives practically revolve around her. And I'm sure there's varying degrees of them as well, from the simple comment warriors all the way to the crazy fucks who would actually think it's okay to go to her house or mess with her stuff. Those people need a pop in the nose, and it'd be funny if Kate or Cory gave it to'em.
But, as we've previously covered, finding out where she lives isn't very hard, so she shouldn't be too surprised that eventually she would start having these kinds of issues. Several of the big vloggers I've watched, such as Shaycarl, have remarked on similar issues of people just showing up uninvited. Some are nuts, and some are truly just stupid enough to think it's okay to just show up. It comes with the territory, particularly for an attractive girl on the internet. When you have 100k people watching you as Kate does, then you're certainly a celebrity, only on a smaller scale than the Hollywood variety. She should be better prepared to deal with this, and I don't even say that out of criticism, but just in general regard for anyone in her position against all the idiots out there.
Now for the second half of her reasoning for ending the vlogs: haters. I'll give her that one, to some degree. People can be assholes, many times intentionally wanting to hurt someone's feelings or rile them up. The cover of anonymity brings out the worst in people, whether they're simply having a bad day, jealous, or just outright trolling. But dealing with haters is something you have to do, more so than with the crazy folks. Ask Justin Bieber. If it's going to upset you to the point that you're crying "every day" then it's probably time to find a less stressful occupation.
I do have a bone to pick with this excuse, though; I think she's combining the average troll with people who offer constructive criticism or question things which she doesn't want to talk about. If enough fans don't like a particular something, then perhaps she should be listening. Also, under that definition, then I myself am a hater. Despite taking the time to write what I do here, I don't hate Kate, I don't wish ill of her, nor would I ever say anything to her simply out of spite. I wouldn't be writing this at all if I hadn't enjoyed her vlogs at some point along the way. I don't feel I'm a hateful person, but I would certainly admit I'm cynical. So I do believe that she's changed, and I do believe that there are occasional incidents which lead to suspicion. You better believe that I'm going to talk about it and ask questions, because that's just how I am. I don't believe everything I see and hear. And as it turned out, I had good reason.
This brings us to where Kate said she didn't lie about anything. "Lie" is a strong word, which I won't use directly without specific proof. But she certainly misled. Their relationship began in October all along. It was a kiss and an admission of feelings for one another; whether they acted on it again in the following two months is beside the point in my opinion, because it was a major event of their friendship/relationship. My problem with it though is that, in the videos which followed the New Years kiss, they talked and cuddled and were admitting on camera the first times that they'd felt that way, how this was all a new thing, and essentially as if they'd never expressed feelings prior to this. Kate didn't have to actually tell us at the time of the first kiss, but you would think that she'd have offered this information soon after New Years. Given that she didn't tell us about this to begin with, we're still taking Kate's word that this new information is any more factual than the last. And even if it's true, she still made a conscious decision to mislead the fans. I don't remember if she specifically apologized for doing so (and honestly don't really care enough to go and look), but it doesn't inspire trust, regardless. Though she may in fact be telling the truth this time, which I won't really dispute based solely on her leaving details out.
She said that if there's any more questions then to just ask in the comments. I was certainly going to do so, but it looks like I'm blocked. Apparently I'm one of those people bringing too much negativity to her life! I don't know if she associated my comments on her channel with this blog (if she even knows anything about it), or whether it was solely from the comments themselves. Based on how fanboy behavior is very predictable, I'm somewhat confident that a handful of white knights have sent her links to here. Whether she ever actually looked at it though is the question. And hey, maybe I actually was an ass to some people in the comments, depending on your point of view. I made quite a few comments, so I won't pretend to be completely innocent. But if it were related to the blog at all, then I'd be slightly disappointed. This is my place to talk about how I feel about things which interest me, where I think out loud in deducing a situation, and don't actually direct what I say towards anyone. You have to seek me out to hear what I have to say. So block me for making comments, not for having opinions. But at the end of the day it just doesn't bother me enough to find out why or attempt to get it undone.
This all still leaves us with unresolved questions, such as Seann Larson's remarks, or all of the screenshots from Facebook regarding Cory in a relationship. Maybe the former is lying, and maybe the latter was Photoshopped. But let's consider something regarding the latter: what are the odds that people faked an image from Facebook, which has apparently been circulating the web for a little while now, based on the exact same month when Kate and Cory did in fact kiss for the first time (unbeknownst to the fans till now)? Don't you think that's a huge coincidence? Could be that Cory simply overreacted to the kiss. I doubt we'll ever know for sure.
As for the future, it looks like the "vlog idea" Kate had is just combining multiple days into one video, which still does next to nothing for her privacy or the haters, the very things which she says stopped her to begin with. But I won't likely be watching. I'm blocked, for one, which will be a constant reminder that she's not interested in my opinions, so why should I continue to be interested in hers? And second, there's still unanswered things to be suspicious about in my opinion, leaving me to presently question the legitimacy of her future vlogs. And last, but most importantly, I meant what I said before about Kate not being the same person anymore. I don't care if hearing that kind of thing is part of why she quit vlogging, it's true. Don't get me wrong, people change; Kate will continue to change, just as all the rest of us will. But she doesn't entertain me the way she used to. It's like a TV show which you aren't entirely interested in anymore, but you still watch because you want to know what happens to the characters. Sometimes, though, you come to a point where you just can't bring yourself to keep watching. And based on how I feel at this particular moment, I think that time is pretty much here for me and KatersOneSeven (and all of Cory's channels, by relation).
Her vlog used to be one of the highlights of my time online, much as Shaycarl or CTFxC used to be, but unfortunately I can't say that anymore. The tears she expressed in her explanation video didn't really move me, although there was a time when they probably would have, which I think says a lot. I don't see the same genuine girl anymore, I see an aspiring actress who only wants to portray happy things instead of real life; someone who would mislead her fans and hide aspects of her life, things which I believe she once would have shared, in order to mold our perception. I watch vlogs because I want to watch real people with real problems, just the same as all the rest of us have. For example, I liked back when Shaycarl was a normal fellow, working a radio job, paying a mortgage, and raising a family no different than anyone else. But much like with Shaycarl these days, Kate's problems, the ones she actually still chooses to share, are just not relatable to me anymore. I'm just not really interested in what constitutes her life most of the time now. I very harshly referred to her before as a stereotypical California girl, but as mean as it might sound, it's just how I see her most of the time now, especially more recently. I would very likely never associate with a person like that in real life (and vice versa), which is probably why I'm so critical of her vlogs these days, because I would in fact have associated with someone like the old Kate. There's moments when I think she's still being genuine, but then there's also lots of times now when I actually stop to question it, which is never how it's supposed to be. There's still some Youtubers/vloggers out there which I never stop to question.
So perhaps this is the end of the line for me. I'm sure it is for many others as well. Plenty of people on the fence will probably accept Kate's explanations though, and the rest will question it but keep watching anyway. And this doesn't count the fanboys, who are probably proudly strutting around the comments about having stuck by her. Regardless of which you are, this incident likely won't hurt her views/subscriptions much at all. Everyone's shock will wear off now that she's posting again, and things will start to return to normal. The only thing that could really will hurt her popularity at this point is switching to the somewhat-weekly format and thinking her occasional skits could make up for the lack of views. It's certainly not going to help her much with any of the reasons she quit to begin with, though.
I'm sure I still have things to say about all this as they come to mind, and I'm sure new information will still come about in the following days until all the dust has finally settled. She did say that people can ask questions in the comments, so maybe people will ask some of the stuff mentioned here. But as far as I can tell, for the most part, it's pretty much over.
The first half of the explanation for the vlogs ending is indeed what was being alluded to: she was scared for her safety. And I don't question for a second that she has dozens of fucked up fanboys who hang on her every word, to the point that their lives practically revolve around her. And I'm sure there's varying degrees of them as well, from the simple comment warriors all the way to the crazy fucks who would actually think it's okay to go to her house or mess with her stuff. Those people need a pop in the nose, and it'd be funny if Kate or Cory gave it to'em.
But, as we've previously covered, finding out where she lives isn't very hard, so she shouldn't be too surprised that eventually she would start having these kinds of issues. Several of the big vloggers I've watched, such as Shaycarl, have remarked on similar issues of people just showing up uninvited. Some are nuts, and some are truly just stupid enough to think it's okay to just show up. It comes with the territory, particularly for an attractive girl on the internet. When you have 100k people watching you as Kate does, then you're certainly a celebrity, only on a smaller scale than the Hollywood variety. She should be better prepared to deal with this, and I don't even say that out of criticism, but just in general regard for anyone in her position against all the idiots out there.
Now for the second half of her reasoning for ending the vlogs: haters. I'll give her that one, to some degree. People can be assholes, many times intentionally wanting to hurt someone's feelings or rile them up. The cover of anonymity brings out the worst in people, whether they're simply having a bad day, jealous, or just outright trolling. But dealing with haters is something you have to do, more so than with the crazy folks. Ask Justin Bieber. If it's going to upset you to the point that you're crying "every day" then it's probably time to find a less stressful occupation.
I do have a bone to pick with this excuse, though; I think she's combining the average troll with people who offer constructive criticism or question things which she doesn't want to talk about. If enough fans don't like a particular something, then perhaps she should be listening. Also, under that definition, then I myself am a hater. Despite taking the time to write what I do here, I don't hate Kate, I don't wish ill of her, nor would I ever say anything to her simply out of spite. I wouldn't be writing this at all if I hadn't enjoyed her vlogs at some point along the way. I don't feel I'm a hateful person, but I would certainly admit I'm cynical. So I do believe that she's changed, and I do believe that there are occasional incidents which lead to suspicion. You better believe that I'm going to talk about it and ask questions, because that's just how I am. I don't believe everything I see and hear. And as it turned out, I had good reason.
This brings us to where Kate said she didn't lie about anything. "Lie" is a strong word, which I won't use directly without specific proof. But she certainly misled. Their relationship began in October all along. It was a kiss and an admission of feelings for one another; whether they acted on it again in the following two months is beside the point in my opinion, because it was a major event of their friendship/relationship. My problem with it though is that, in the videos which followed the New Years kiss, they talked and cuddled and were admitting on camera the first times that they'd felt that way, how this was all a new thing, and essentially as if they'd never expressed feelings prior to this. Kate didn't have to actually tell us at the time of the first kiss, but you would think that she'd have offered this information soon after New Years. Given that she didn't tell us about this to begin with, we're still taking Kate's word that this new information is any more factual than the last. And even if it's true, she still made a conscious decision to mislead the fans. I don't remember if she specifically apologized for doing so (and honestly don't really care enough to go and look), but it doesn't inspire trust, regardless. Though she may in fact be telling the truth this time, which I won't really dispute based solely on her leaving details out.
She said that if there's any more questions then to just ask in the comments. I was certainly going to do so, but it looks like I'm blocked. Apparently I'm one of those people bringing too much negativity to her life! I don't know if she associated my comments on her channel with this blog (if she even knows anything about it), or whether it was solely from the comments themselves. Based on how fanboy behavior is very predictable, I'm somewhat confident that a handful of white knights have sent her links to here. Whether she ever actually looked at it though is the question. And hey, maybe I actually was an ass to some people in the comments, depending on your point of view. I made quite a few comments, so I won't pretend to be completely innocent. But if it were related to the blog at all, then I'd be slightly disappointed. This is my place to talk about how I feel about things which interest me, where I think out loud in deducing a situation, and don't actually direct what I say towards anyone. You have to seek me out to hear what I have to say. So block me for making comments, not for having opinions. But at the end of the day it just doesn't bother me enough to find out why or attempt to get it undone.
This all still leaves us with unresolved questions, such as Seann Larson's remarks, or all of the screenshots from Facebook regarding Cory in a relationship. Maybe the former is lying, and maybe the latter was Photoshopped. But let's consider something regarding the latter: what are the odds that people faked an image from Facebook, which has apparently been circulating the web for a little while now, based on the exact same month when Kate and Cory did in fact kiss for the first time (unbeknownst to the fans till now)? Don't you think that's a huge coincidence? Could be that Cory simply overreacted to the kiss. I doubt we'll ever know for sure.
As for the future, it looks like the "vlog idea" Kate had is just combining multiple days into one video, which still does next to nothing for her privacy or the haters, the very things which she says stopped her to begin with. But I won't likely be watching. I'm blocked, for one, which will be a constant reminder that she's not interested in my opinions, so why should I continue to be interested in hers? And second, there's still unanswered things to be suspicious about in my opinion, leaving me to presently question the legitimacy of her future vlogs. And last, but most importantly, I meant what I said before about Kate not being the same person anymore. I don't care if hearing that kind of thing is part of why she quit vlogging, it's true. Don't get me wrong, people change; Kate will continue to change, just as all the rest of us will. But she doesn't entertain me the way she used to. It's like a TV show which you aren't entirely interested in anymore, but you still watch because you want to know what happens to the characters. Sometimes, though, you come to a point where you just can't bring yourself to keep watching. And based on how I feel at this particular moment, I think that time is pretty much here for me and KatersOneSeven (and all of Cory's channels, by relation).
Her vlog used to be one of the highlights of my time online, much as Shaycarl or CTFxC used to be, but unfortunately I can't say that anymore. The tears she expressed in her explanation video didn't really move me, although there was a time when they probably would have, which I think says a lot. I don't see the same genuine girl anymore, I see an aspiring actress who only wants to portray happy things instead of real life; someone who would mislead her fans and hide aspects of her life, things which I believe she once would have shared, in order to mold our perception. I watch vlogs because I want to watch real people with real problems, just the same as all the rest of us have. For example, I liked back when Shaycarl was a normal fellow, working a radio job, paying a mortgage, and raising a family no different than anyone else. But much like with Shaycarl these days, Kate's problems, the ones she actually still chooses to share, are just not relatable to me anymore. I'm just not really interested in what constitutes her life most of the time now. I very harshly referred to her before as a stereotypical California girl, but as mean as it might sound, it's just how I see her most of the time now, especially more recently. I would very likely never associate with a person like that in real life (and vice versa), which is probably why I'm so critical of her vlogs these days, because I would in fact have associated with someone like the old Kate. There's moments when I think she's still being genuine, but then there's also lots of times now when I actually stop to question it, which is never how it's supposed to be. There's still some Youtubers/vloggers out there which I never stop to question.
So perhaps this is the end of the line for me. I'm sure it is for many others as well. Plenty of people on the fence will probably accept Kate's explanations though, and the rest will question it but keep watching anyway. And this doesn't count the fanboys, who are probably proudly strutting around the comments about having stuck by her. Regardless of which you are, this incident likely won't hurt her views/subscriptions much at all. Everyone's shock will wear off now that she's posting again, and things will start to return to normal. The only thing that could really will hurt her popularity at this point is switching to the somewhat-weekly format and thinking her occasional skits could make up for the lack of views. It's certainly not going to help her much with any of the reasons she quit to begin with, though.
I'm sure I still have things to say about all this as they come to mind, and I'm sure new information will still come about in the following days until all the dust has finally settled. She did say that people can ask questions in the comments, so maybe people will ask some of the stuff mentioned here. But as far as I can tell, for the most part, it's pretty much over.
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