If you read the topic of this post and immediately said "there is no fucking way to justify that," then you and I are in total agreement! But let's talk about how I've witnessed this actually happen, thanks to the 'ol internet. It's actually a topic I've started writing about in the past but never got around to finishing. This worked out fine, because there's recent news.
You see, I used to be a big fan of this Youtube channel called Dave's Farm. Primarily there were lots of car stunts and stuff out on his farm full of dirt roads and hills, which honestly wasn't really my cup of tea. But he also had mechanical repair and building videos, including some specifically devoted to explaining how something worked. He'd cover topics from refrigerators, to microwaves, to car transmissions. Plus he'd put together some crazy mechanical contraptions. I'd never really had a lot of mechanical interest beforehand, and I learned a lot by watching these things, to which I honestly have to credit him with improving my knowledge and confidence enough in this stuff to be a catalyst in eventually learning what I know today. Combined with my existing electronics knowledge, I do most of my own car and lawn equipment repairs now, and am able to help friends and family at times as well. Money has definitely been saved.
Then eventually I came to find out that Dave himself is a convicted pedophile, involving his own children. It had happened years beforehand, but the revelation kind of exploded across Youtubers who knew him or knew of him. I was pretty shocked myself. A news article came out in a Canadian newspaper about it, since by that point Dave was kind of a local name where he lived I guess, making lots of money and views from Youtube by that point. The fan base fractured, with some believing Dave's side of the story, that he simply was suffering from untreated manic depression and supposedly wasn't really a pedophile. Others totally shunned him, unsubscribing and/or bringing down negative attention on him when possible. Then you had the third group of people who didn't necessarily like what he did, but wanted to watch his videos anyway. But this led to lots of arguing in the comments.
Well, regardless of why people still watched, it didn't last for long. His ex-wives had gotten together with some of his "hater group" to push Youtube to close his channel, citing that he was using it to attract young boys to his farm. And they weren't really wrong, because people visited him all the time, including kids, so it was rather easy for one to make the accusation. Dave himself admitted that his target audience was teen males. So his channel got shut down. Then it came back, and got shut down again. I can't remember how many times it happened, to the point that eventually he was trying to get everyone to come to a different video site altogether. Then he essentially disappeared for a while.
Well, sometime later, a news program interviewed him, doing the story in a negative light. Dave came out in defense mode over it, making new videos to respond to everything he felt was wrong about the report, and I think threatening a lawsuit. Shortly following that, Dave cooperated for a documentary about himself, by a guy who actually turned out to just be an opportunistic creep. He let Dave think he was on his side to get the gig, then turned it around on him and dumped a bunch of dirt, some related to Dave's father potentially molesting him as a boy. It was just a big debacle, with that guy raging at people who torrented the documentary and everything. I think Dave compared the whole situation to blackmail, but he's been known to exaggerate, so. I can't remember if lawsuits were involved with this or not.
Regardless, Dave is back on Youtube these days. He doesn't post videos too often, and he's not part of the partner program anymore I don't believe (meaning probably no money is involved), but he's there. More drama crept back into his videos related to accusations of theft against someone who had been going to the farm for years, which split the fan base a bit further. Blind loyalty to Dave continued, with many wholeheartedly believing all of his accusations against the other guy. This was spilling over into this guy's Youtube channel and everything, and resparked the pedophile debate over and over.
And so now we finally come to present day. Despite Dave's repeated attempts to convince everyone he's not a pedophile, he was arrested on charges of child pornography a few days ago. We've heard no word out of Dave about the incident other than what the news article said, where he defended himself by claiming the content they found was simply nudist videos (since yes, Dave is a nudist, as it turned out). But come on. This is a guy who has already been in trouble with the law for recording children; does he really not have enough sense to not be present around naked children, and sure as hell not be filming them? And this isn't even the first time accusations of inappropriate conduct with children have occurred in recent years, it's just the first one that's gotten him arrested.
So now we're back to comment wars across channels associated with the farm, with people blindly and rabidly defending Dave no matter what. Some of them even completely dismiss what he did, selfishly arguing that people need to leave it alone so that he can keep making Youtube videos. Meanwhile, another Youtuber who essentially got his own start by being in Dave's videos, has now officially distanced himself from Dave and the farm. And this is a guy who's nice to everybody, not to mention keeps a trailer out on the farm for the summer, so I think that has some bearing on fan opinions. Another Youtuber, who had been the one accused of theft by Dave, pretty much put up an "I told you so" video about the news article of Dave's arrest, which is where I learned the news to begin with.
I've always been a bit torn on this issue myself, because I did take a
lot away from Dave's earlier videos, and it's really a shame that this
is how it all turned out. I know I'm not the only one to have learned
from his videos, either. But that doesn't mean I can simply ignore
what's going on. I personally believe many of the experts when they say
pedophilia can't be cured, only treated. And you can't treat a problem
when you don't acknowledge you have one, especially while continuing to
put yourself into situations in which you can feed the compulsion. He may have done his time for his past actions, but in this case, obviously his past wasn't left in the past. You don't reform from pedophilia with simply jail time.
There is so much more to this story that I haven't mentioned, mostly because I knew this would be long (and hence why I never finished writing about this topic before). But I just thought that this was all worth mentioning because it reinforces something I've talked about before, and that's the fanboy plight. Whether it's Shaycarl, Katers, Cory, Olga, Charles and Alli, or anyone else on the planet with a fanbase, there will always be blind loyalty, even in the face of blatant hypocrisy or wrongdoing. This particular situation proves that even if you film and piddle your own kids, you'll still have quite a number of people who will aggressively defend you, thanks to the magical mental distortion field of internet anonymity.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Charity Choosy
Hey look, the world still exists, and hundreds of thousands of people who actually thought something bad would happen are facing the revelation that they're completely gullible instead of dead!
I was going to write a different post, related to some Youtube drama, but I realized it would be long, so maybe next time. I haven't watched the last three Katers videos, either, so there might be something to talk about in those as well.
I mostly wanted to touch on something I mentioned last time, which I received a comment about. That would be Project for Awesome. I don't want to imply that it's a bad thing, because it's a charity, and charities usually help somebody somehow. Helping people is good. But the question is, who do you want to help, and how do you want to help them?
To me, P4A just comes across as a gimmick, particularly in being a way for Youtubers to self-promote by getting to the top of the charity video list. I honestly don't think some of the participants even care about their charities, they just want the extra views/likes/publicity that come with doing it. Think about it; they not only make money from the views on the video itself, but bring in potential new viewers in the process. Why would an established or even aspiring Youtuber NOT be part of it?
Something else important to keep in mind is that while P4A gives 100% of your money to the charities (minus the cost to make the promotional items you might buy), that doesn't mean the charities themselves use 100% of your money to help anyone. Being a non-profit agency does not mean it's run purely by volunteers. Most of these people make money, particularly the management. Always look into a charity before you toss them money, because there just might be a better one.
This is particularly a problem given that some 'tubers start selecting weird lesser-known charities just to avoid having the same one as someone else. What if one Youtuber wants to promote the American Cancer Society, but makes a less good video than someone else, someone with potentially with a bigger subscriber base as well, who promotes Jim & Bob's Hair Loss Prevention? What if the top five videos, which get the split of all the money donated, are all charities which you aren't totally satisfied with?
Last year, for example, one of the charities was to get prom dresses to girls who can't afford them. And sure, that's a fine thing. But is it more important than a cancer patient, or Alzheimer's? And this year, another charity is the One Laptop Per Child thing. And don't even get me started on that, because I could do an entire article on why that's a waste of money. But come on, at the end of the day, these are first-world problems. Cancer and debilitating conditions aside, plenty of kids need winter jackets or clothes without holes in'em, too. Adopt an angel from the Angel Tree and I guarantee you'll make some kid happy, right in your own home town.
Point is, charity is still charity, and if you want to donate to P4A, then more power to you. I just have my own issues with it, and I would prefer to give my money to causes I personally care about. I don't need popular Youtubers to decide that for me, especially if their intentions are potentially of the less charitable nature. So that's why I just skip most of the P4A videos altogether, that way nobody gets my "vote."
I was going to write a different post, related to some Youtube drama, but I realized it would be long, so maybe next time. I haven't watched the last three Katers videos, either, so there might be something to talk about in those as well.
I mostly wanted to touch on something I mentioned last time, which I received a comment about. That would be Project for Awesome. I don't want to imply that it's a bad thing, because it's a charity, and charities usually help somebody somehow. Helping people is good. But the question is, who do you want to help, and how do you want to help them?
To me, P4A just comes across as a gimmick, particularly in being a way for Youtubers to self-promote by getting to the top of the charity video list. I honestly don't think some of the participants even care about their charities, they just want the extra views/likes/publicity that come with doing it. Think about it; they not only make money from the views on the video itself, but bring in potential new viewers in the process. Why would an established or even aspiring Youtuber NOT be part of it?
Something else important to keep in mind is that while P4A gives 100% of your money to the charities (minus the cost to make the promotional items you might buy), that doesn't mean the charities themselves use 100% of your money to help anyone. Being a non-profit agency does not mean it's run purely by volunteers. Most of these people make money, particularly the management. Always look into a charity before you toss them money, because there just might be a better one.
This is particularly a problem given that some 'tubers start selecting weird lesser-known charities just to avoid having the same one as someone else. What if one Youtuber wants to promote the American Cancer Society, but makes a less good video than someone else, someone with potentially with a bigger subscriber base as well, who promotes Jim & Bob's Hair Loss Prevention? What if the top five videos, which get the split of all the money donated, are all charities which you aren't totally satisfied with?
Last year, for example, one of the charities was to get prom dresses to girls who can't afford them. And sure, that's a fine thing. But is it more important than a cancer patient, or Alzheimer's? And this year, another charity is the One Laptop Per Child thing. And don't even get me started on that, because I could do an entire article on why that's a waste of money. But come on, at the end of the day, these are first-world problems. Cancer and debilitating conditions aside, plenty of kids need winter jackets or clothes without holes in'em, too. Adopt an angel from the Angel Tree and I guarantee you'll make some kid happy, right in your own home town.
Point is, charity is still charity, and if you want to donate to P4A, then more power to you. I just have my own issues with it, and I would prefer to give my money to causes I personally care about. I don't need popular Youtubers to decide that for me, especially if their intentions are potentially of the less charitable nature. So that's why I just skip most of the P4A videos altogether, that way nobody gets my "vote."
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Vlog Overflow Error
I've gotten busy lately, and suddenly I find myself with way too many Youtube videos to watch. But "Project for Awesome" has started, again, so that means we're going to have lots of Youtubers rambling on about that for their entire video(s), which I can simply skip!
And hey, what a surprise, I'm already facepalming at these Katers videos. Not only am I tired of every other scene of these videos being about that dog or of her obsessing over getting back home to the thing, but now this dog is her excuse for why her video production quality is going to suffer. She spent a fortune on this mini pet factory animal and associated items, and now she can't even afford to fix her camera. You know, the thing which makes her her living. And if that wasn't stupid enough by itself, what does Cory do? He takes the camera from her and violently shakes it around trying to be funny. And emphasis on "trying" because his antics really aren't amusing me anymore.
Speaking of Cory, what happened with that huge thing he was working on with leaving Youtube? Seems his excitement has suddenly fizzled out, pretty much as I already predicted in a previous post.
And Christ, in this next video, Cory has his hand stuck inside some glass head.
Two or three more Katers videos skipped through in less than a minute. Now we're to one where Cory said he hasn't finished Christmas shopping for Kate because he's going to wait till after the 21st in case the world ends. Please let him have been kidding, because the amount of facepalming here is at critical levels.
On the bright side, this same video has them out shopping and doing things away from the house and the dog for most of the video for a change. Cory was a bit loopy, throwing things and all as usual, but at least this one was a bit entertaining again. But then the video concludes with him dropping the camera Kate can't afford to fix from the upstairs.
Wow I didn't expect to tear through so many videos so quickly. So much for this being an interesting post! All that was left was some electrical and automotive channels, some Wheezy Waiter, some Boogie, etc. Nothing to really talk about. Oh well!
And hey, what a surprise, I'm already facepalming at these Katers videos. Not only am I tired of every other scene of these videos being about that dog or of her obsessing over getting back home to the thing, but now this dog is her excuse for why her video production quality is going to suffer. She spent a fortune on this mini pet factory animal and associated items, and now she can't even afford to fix her camera. You know, the thing which makes her her living. And if that wasn't stupid enough by itself, what does Cory do? He takes the camera from her and violently shakes it around trying to be funny. And emphasis on "trying" because his antics really aren't amusing me anymore.
Speaking of Cory, what happened with that huge thing he was working on with leaving Youtube? Seems his excitement has suddenly fizzled out, pretty much as I already predicted in a previous post.
And Christ, in this next video, Cory has his hand stuck inside some glass head.
Two or three more Katers videos skipped through in less than a minute. Now we're to one where Cory said he hasn't finished Christmas shopping for Kate because he's going to wait till after the 21st in case the world ends. Please let him have been kidding, because the amount of facepalming here is at critical levels.
On the bright side, this same video has them out shopping and doing things away from the house and the dog for most of the video for a change. Cory was a bit loopy, throwing things and all as usual, but at least this one was a bit entertaining again. But then the video concludes with him dropping the camera Kate can't afford to fix from the upstairs.
Wow I didn't expect to tear through so many videos so quickly. So much for this being an interesting post! All that was left was some electrical and automotive channels, some Wheezy Waiter, some Boogie, etc. Nothing to really talk about. Oh well!
Monday, December 10, 2012
Unjust Justifications
So hey, let's talk more about Katersoneseven's new dog. Or should I start with her deleting my comment when I pointed out how much she paid for it? Yeah, that happened.
In her newest vlog, Kate linked to the website of the woman she bought the dog from, so I went and took a look. Maybe she assumed nobody would actually do that! But when I saw the $600-1000 price tags, I almost Shih Tzu'd myself. I mean, you've got to be fucking kidding me, right? You handed this lady potentially ten times or more the cost of a shelter dog? The same person who tells people how bad breeders and pet stores are, while suggesting they donate to animal causes? And this doesn't even count the probably hundreds of dollars she spent on items for the dog beforehand.
This woman breeds more than one type of dog. They might have a litter of five on average, each. Dogs can usually have pups twice a year. They're freaking four-legged dollar signs for this lady, I don't care how nice she seems. And of course she's going to be "one of the sweetest people you'll meet" to the suckers stupid enough to hand her hundreds of dollars a pop to keep her puppy factory running.
So when I made my comment regarding my shock at the cost, and that this woman was obviously in it for the money despite her personality, and that I was disappointed in Kate for not getting a shelter animal, she deleted it. Pretty quickly, too! And I could tell that mine wasn't the only one, because I have a tendency to check her vlog comments for criticism, because she has a history of deleting and banning people who say things she doesn't want to hear. There were scattered ones missing by the time I refreshed, but I can't really remember any specific content from them (maybe something about someone talking about not getting adopted and comparing it?), just that there were gaps.
At the end of the day, it's just a comment; nothing but bytes floating around out on Google's servers somewhere. But the fact that someone can't take honest and justified criticism of their actions, who makes a living putting their life on the internet for a hundred thousand people to see and judge every day, is a bit ironic. This blog isn't my first foray into writing, nor with negative comments, and I never deleted anyone's opinions. Hell, there's even some negative ones on this blog. And sure, a blog is a bit different from a daily vlog. But unless it's a blatant troll or spammer, you either reply to'em or you ignore'em. Anything other than that comes off too much as trying to protect your brand by keeping others in the dark.
Oh, and while we're talking about comments, I saw one from Cory on a vlog or two prior to this one. He was replying to someone leaving criticism about not getting from a breeder, seemingly peeved at them about it, then went on to say that Kate "did the right thing" over and over, and implied there's no need to question her about it. Sorry, buddy, but saying something often doesn't make it true. Obama's still not a Muslim, global warming still exists, 9/11 wasn't an inside job, there will never be a "Year of the Linux Desktop," and Tupac is dead. Didn't work for these things, and it's not working for you either. Kate did the right thing, for her. She didn't do the right thing, ethically. There's still a puppy sitting alone in a shelter somewhere (or already put to sleep) because she opted for the puppy factory version. Nothing he can say changes that fact.
Anyway, I just wanted to make a post while I was a bit steamed over what she paid for the damn thing, combined with the comment incident. But I've about run out of steam on the issue. Kate will be Kate, to which I can simply continue thumbing down her videos, and question whether I want to remain subscribed at this point, or simply fast forward through all her incessant hyperactive cooing over the puppy. Seriously, I had to skip the goofball stuff when she visited the animal store when her dad's car broke down. They must have thought she was nuts from that caffeine high she was on.
So yeah, that's enough about that nonsense.
In her newest vlog, Kate linked to the website of the woman she bought the dog from, so I went and took a look. Maybe she assumed nobody would actually do that! But when I saw the $600-1000 price tags, I almost Shih Tzu'd myself. I mean, you've got to be fucking kidding me, right? You handed this lady potentially ten times or more the cost of a shelter dog? The same person who tells people how bad breeders and pet stores are, while suggesting they donate to animal causes? And this doesn't even count the probably hundreds of dollars she spent on items for the dog beforehand.
This woman breeds more than one type of dog. They might have a litter of five on average, each. Dogs can usually have pups twice a year. They're freaking four-legged dollar signs for this lady, I don't care how nice she seems. And of course she's going to be "one of the sweetest people you'll meet" to the suckers stupid enough to hand her hundreds of dollars a pop to keep her puppy factory running.
So when I made my comment regarding my shock at the cost, and that this woman was obviously in it for the money despite her personality, and that I was disappointed in Kate for not getting a shelter animal, she deleted it. Pretty quickly, too! And I could tell that mine wasn't the only one, because I have a tendency to check her vlog comments for criticism, because she has a history of deleting and banning people who say things she doesn't want to hear. There were scattered ones missing by the time I refreshed, but I can't really remember any specific content from them (maybe something about someone talking about not getting adopted and comparing it?), just that there were gaps.
At the end of the day, it's just a comment; nothing but bytes floating around out on Google's servers somewhere. But the fact that someone can't take honest and justified criticism of their actions, who makes a living putting their life on the internet for a hundred thousand people to see and judge every day, is a bit ironic. This blog isn't my first foray into writing, nor with negative comments, and I never deleted anyone's opinions. Hell, there's even some negative ones on this blog. And sure, a blog is a bit different from a daily vlog. But unless it's a blatant troll or spammer, you either reply to'em or you ignore'em. Anything other than that comes off too much as trying to protect your brand by keeping others in the dark.
Oh, and while we're talking about comments, I saw one from Cory on a vlog or two prior to this one. He was replying to someone leaving criticism about not getting from a breeder, seemingly peeved at them about it, then went on to say that Kate "did the right thing" over and over, and implied there's no need to question her about it. Sorry, buddy, but saying something often doesn't make it true. Obama's still not a Muslim, global warming still exists, 9/11 wasn't an inside job, there will never be a "Year of the Linux Desktop," and Tupac is dead. Didn't work for these things, and it's not working for you either. Kate did the right thing, for her. She didn't do the right thing, ethically. There's still a puppy sitting alone in a shelter somewhere (or already put to sleep) because she opted for the puppy factory version. Nothing he can say changes that fact.
Anyway, I just wanted to make a post while I was a bit steamed over what she paid for the damn thing, combined with the comment incident. But I've about run out of steam on the issue. Kate will be Kate, to which I can simply continue thumbing down her videos, and question whether I want to remain subscribed at this point, or simply fast forward through all her incessant hyperactive cooing over the puppy. Seriously, I had to skip the goofball stuff when she visited the animal store when her dad's car broke down. They must have thought she was nuts from that caffeine high she was on.
So yeah, that's enough about that nonsense.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Shit Zoo
Couple things or so I wanted to mention about recent Katers vlogs before I move on to something else.
First is the fact that Kate is in Vegas again with her dad, and I gotta admit, the vlogs have been more enjoyable to watch again. With these last few videos, I've actually clicked on them not long after seeing them pop up, as opposed to letting them sit in my notifications for possibly days before getting around to them. Part of me wants to say that it's because Cory stayed behind, and maybe Kate's more herself when she's just with her dad. But I also kinda enjoyed the ones when they were visiting Cory's family too. So maybe I'm just bored of the monotony of their apartment life, I dunno.
Second thing I wanted to mention was in the recent episode where Kate bought the hat or whatever it was for that girl she saw in the gift shop. At first, I thought that was a pretty nice thing of her to do. And I do still think that, don't get me wrong. But later on, when it crossed my mind again, I realized how my parents and I might have reacted to a stranger buying me something like that. While being generous is a good thing, I don't think my parents would have really appreciated someone buying me something without their permission, and certainly something so costly. And in the case of this girl, obviously her mother had been trying to teach her financial responsibility, which might have resulted in the situation playing out a bit differently had she asked the mother first. Instead, the girl got a rather expensive item responsibility-free. But worse than that, her mother was likely feeling embarrassed at being barely able to have bought this for her child by herself, along with from knowing a stranger was watching this and pitying them enough to buy something so costly. Some people are very prideful and refuse to take charity, some to the point of feeling insult. You never know who that's going to be, so I would be a bit wary before offering something so expensive to a young person, and most especially when having not asked permission to do so. But, it was still a nice thing to do, and I don't want to pick at her for it too much. Just, you know, take other peoples' feelings into consideration too. Sometimes not being able to afford something is a lesson young people need to learn, and helps shape them to be more responsible with money as adults.
The last thing to mention is something I just saw on Facebook. Kate is determined to have a Shih Tzu, and with quite a specific laundry list of expectations about the particular animal she wants, from shedding to barking restrictions. So she found a breeder who can supposedly give her one. That immediately set off my hypocrisy detector, because Kate has always been a strong proponent of shelters, and to avoid breeders and pet stores. Not to mention, I believe she herself was burned by a breeder giving her a sickly animal once upon a time. So Kate seems to be trying to justify her current actions by commenting that this woman is "very supportive of adopting from animal shelters when you can." Irrelevant! The women breeds animals! Give me a break. She's just being sympathetic of Kate's feelings on the matter in order to make a sale. If the woman really felt this way, she should be taking in strays or shelter animals for people to adopt, not breeding new animals into the world for people with very picky expectations of what they want in a dog, while yet another unadopted shelter dog gets put to sleep. This really kinda bugs me, to be honest. It's one thing for random strangers to give business to breeders, but for Kate to do it is just simply ridiculous. I honestly don't want to hear any more from her about donating to animal charities or getting shelter animals when she's too hypocritical to practice what she preaches. Come on.
Anyhow, enough about that. I actually was going to comment on peoples' naivety concerning the importance of money after seeing some of peoples' comments on a recent Wheezy Waiter daily vlog. Since this post is already getting a bit long, I'll just get right to the point: a lot of people are just stupid about money.
You see, some people either grow up with money in their hands and never learn how hard it is to actually earn or keep it. Other people truly think that money is a bad thing and that society should/could exist without it. You will often see both of these kinds of people, along with a few other generally naive individuals not really fitting into either category who just want to appear as if they have this profound understanding of something, who will go around insisting that money isn't important. They go on and on about how it's the root of all evil, how it doesn't buy happiness, blah blah.
But you know what money does buy? It buys food. It buys water. It pays your mortgage. It pays the taxes for the land your home even sits on. It buys gasoline. It pays your car payment. It pays your medical and pharmacy bills. It buys your entertainment. It pays for your internet which allows you to make these kinds of ludicrous comments to begin with. You can't barter for everything, and certainly not if you want to live in the 21st century. Your ISP doesn't want your chickens for six months of internet service.
Money is important, folks. Nothing is free in this world; not even water (or rain). Money does buy happiness, but not necessarily in the life-fulfilling way some people hope. Money buys you peace of mind, which has an extreme impact on your happiness. If you make $15k a year and have countless medical bills and general debt looming over your head, you're going to be a much happier person if you make $250k+ a year and can actually pay all of these on time and go to your next appointment or hospital visit without concern. And knowing you can buy your kids what they want for their birthday or Christmas, or buy your wife/husband that anniversary gift you think they deserve, gives you a strong sense of satisfaction. There's certainly a limit on what amount of money can make you happy. But the fact is, that amount is still usually more than a lot of people make. If you make minimum wage working full-time in America, you're still living below the poverty line.
So this blind cynicism that money is a bad thing is just immature. Either you have too much of it, and/or you're out of touch with its importance. Currency was created for a reason, and it's because not everyone who has something you want or need necessarily needs the goods or services you yourself can provide. While the American dollar may not necessarily translate directly to something of value anymore (as in gold), it does still represent work performed or goods sold, which is the entire point of it in modern society. A piece of paper still has value if society as a whole deems it so.
Anyway, that's enough of my rambling. Probably should have broken this up into two posts, but I doubt anybody reads most of this stuff anyway!
First is the fact that Kate is in Vegas again with her dad, and I gotta admit, the vlogs have been more enjoyable to watch again. With these last few videos, I've actually clicked on them not long after seeing them pop up, as opposed to letting them sit in my notifications for possibly days before getting around to them. Part of me wants to say that it's because Cory stayed behind, and maybe Kate's more herself when she's just with her dad. But I also kinda enjoyed the ones when they were visiting Cory's family too. So maybe I'm just bored of the monotony of their apartment life, I dunno.
Second thing I wanted to mention was in the recent episode where Kate bought the hat or whatever it was for that girl she saw in the gift shop. At first, I thought that was a pretty nice thing of her to do. And I do still think that, don't get me wrong. But later on, when it crossed my mind again, I realized how my parents and I might have reacted to a stranger buying me something like that. While being generous is a good thing, I don't think my parents would have really appreciated someone buying me something without their permission, and certainly something so costly. And in the case of this girl, obviously her mother had been trying to teach her financial responsibility, which might have resulted in the situation playing out a bit differently had she asked the mother first. Instead, the girl got a rather expensive item responsibility-free. But worse than that, her mother was likely feeling embarrassed at being barely able to have bought this for her child by herself, along with from knowing a stranger was watching this and pitying them enough to buy something so costly. Some people are very prideful and refuse to take charity, some to the point of feeling insult. You never know who that's going to be, so I would be a bit wary before offering something so expensive to a young person, and most especially when having not asked permission to do so. But, it was still a nice thing to do, and I don't want to pick at her for it too much. Just, you know, take other peoples' feelings into consideration too. Sometimes not being able to afford something is a lesson young people need to learn, and helps shape them to be more responsible with money as adults.
The last thing to mention is something I just saw on Facebook. Kate is determined to have a Shih Tzu, and with quite a specific laundry list of expectations about the particular animal she wants, from shedding to barking restrictions. So she found a breeder who can supposedly give her one. That immediately set off my hypocrisy detector, because Kate has always been a strong proponent of shelters, and to avoid breeders and pet stores. Not to mention, I believe she herself was burned by a breeder giving her a sickly animal once upon a time. So Kate seems to be trying to justify her current actions by commenting that this woman is "very supportive of adopting from animal shelters when you can." Irrelevant! The women breeds animals! Give me a break. She's just being sympathetic of Kate's feelings on the matter in order to make a sale. If the woman really felt this way, she should be taking in strays or shelter animals for people to adopt, not breeding new animals into the world for people with very picky expectations of what they want in a dog, while yet another unadopted shelter dog gets put to sleep. This really kinda bugs me, to be honest. It's one thing for random strangers to give business to breeders, but for Kate to do it is just simply ridiculous. I honestly don't want to hear any more from her about donating to animal charities or getting shelter animals when she's too hypocritical to practice what she preaches. Come on.
Anyhow, enough about that. I actually was going to comment on peoples' naivety concerning the importance of money after seeing some of peoples' comments on a recent Wheezy Waiter daily vlog. Since this post is already getting a bit long, I'll just get right to the point: a lot of people are just stupid about money.
You see, some people either grow up with money in their hands and never learn how hard it is to actually earn or keep it. Other people truly think that money is a bad thing and that society should/could exist without it. You will often see both of these kinds of people, along with a few other generally naive individuals not really fitting into either category who just want to appear as if they have this profound understanding of something, who will go around insisting that money isn't important. They go on and on about how it's the root of all evil, how it doesn't buy happiness, blah blah.
But you know what money does buy? It buys food. It buys water. It pays your mortgage. It pays the taxes for the land your home even sits on. It buys gasoline. It pays your car payment. It pays your medical and pharmacy bills. It buys your entertainment. It pays for your internet which allows you to make these kinds of ludicrous comments to begin with. You can't barter for everything, and certainly not if you want to live in the 21st century. Your ISP doesn't want your chickens for six months of internet service.
Money is important, folks. Nothing is free in this world; not even water (or rain). Money does buy happiness, but not necessarily in the life-fulfilling way some people hope. Money buys you peace of mind, which has an extreme impact on your happiness. If you make $15k a year and have countless medical bills and general debt looming over your head, you're going to be a much happier person if you make $250k+ a year and can actually pay all of these on time and go to your next appointment or hospital visit without concern. And knowing you can buy your kids what they want for their birthday or Christmas, or buy your wife/husband that anniversary gift you think they deserve, gives you a strong sense of satisfaction. There's certainly a limit on what amount of money can make you happy. But the fact is, that amount is still usually more than a lot of people make. If you make minimum wage working full-time in America, you're still living below the poverty line.
So this blind cynicism that money is a bad thing is just immature. Either you have too much of it, and/or you're out of touch with its importance. Currency was created for a reason, and it's because not everyone who has something you want or need necessarily needs the goods or services you yourself can provide. While the American dollar may not necessarily translate directly to something of value anymore (as in gold), it does still represent work performed or goods sold, which is the entire point of it in modern society. A piece of paper still has value if society as a whole deems it so.
Anyway, that's enough of my rambling. Probably should have broken this up into two posts, but I doubt anybody reads most of this stuff anyway!
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Boogie Tonight
I don't talk enough about Youtubers that I still like, so I thought I would take the time to do that while I'm not busy at the moment. Don't know how much I'll have to say, but I guess we'll find out!
Today I'll tell you about a fellow I stumbled onto by accident a while back. It was of a morbidly obese guy with a lisp, ranting and screaming about some video game, probably World of Warcraft. While part of me wanted to facepalm, another part of me thought that this was pretty funny to see him raging so animatedly like that. So, I clicked to see what other videos this "Francis" fellow had, since he seemed to have a lot, and I thought watching him scream and throw things might be mildly entertaining enough to watch a bit more of.
Turns out, this guy is not actually named Francis. He goes by the name Boogie (Boogie2988 to be exact), has no lisp after all, and his real voice more suited to doing radio. Francis is a character he plays sometimes, along with other characters like a redneck named Jessy. Boogie himself is not much like either of these characters. He's actually turned out to be one of the most insightful people I subscribe to on Youtube.
Boogie's Youtube description pretty much sums him up: "I'm fat, I make internet videos. Sometimes they're funny, sometimes they're serious. Deal with it." He's very comfortable in front of the camera, so he tackles a large array of topics, from video games and trading cards, to bullying, to politics on occasion, all the way to mental illness, depression, and suicide. He's shared details of his past with his viewers of his less-than-stellar upbringing, dealing with his mother's mental condition, and his own struggle with obesity, which led to rough points in his life. But instead of using this as a crutch for excuses or sympathy, he uses it to encourage, motivate, and educate people.
The guy just doesn't need any sympathy, and he admits it. He's engaged, he's losing weight, has a career through Youtube doing what he enjoys, and has an ever-growing following of viewers who support him in his endeavors. He seems pretty genuinely thankful of his subscribers, and often interacts with them directly in live shows. Though his growing fame still has its unfortunate side, both due to his weight being an easy target for trolls, along with all the people who stumble onto Francis videos and think he's for real. But he deals with these people fairly well, and sometimes uses it as a talking point.
I've never dealt with being overweight at any point in my life, so I can't relate to him directly in that sense. But, oppositely, I have had health issues which resulted in me combating being underweight in the past. I think a lot of people have dealt with health issues, either for themselves or a loved one, and/or have known people who have struggled with obesity, and/or known people who have had mental health issues. So I think a lot of people can find things to relate to with Boogie's ramblings on various topics. The insight he's shared on certain issues has even enlightened me a bit at times. And it indicates to me that he actually thinks about these kinds of things, where as many people simply dismiss them in favor of happier thoughts.
Now, I won't go as far as to say I watch every single one of his videos. I'm not really a big fan of the Jessy character most of the time despite my southern upbringing, and some of the trading card or video game videos I'll skip just because I don't necessarily play whatever he's talking about. But I would say that I still watch the majority of his normal videos, as well as his live streams, and always click on any of the Francis skits, all of which enough so that I can recommend people check him out if they're ever looking for somebody a little different from the average Youtube vlogger. Just look for boogie2988.
Today I'll tell you about a fellow I stumbled onto by accident a while back. It was of a morbidly obese guy with a lisp, ranting and screaming about some video game, probably World of Warcraft. While part of me wanted to facepalm, another part of me thought that this was pretty funny to see him raging so animatedly like that. So, I clicked to see what other videos this "Francis" fellow had, since he seemed to have a lot, and I thought watching him scream and throw things might be mildly entertaining enough to watch a bit more of.
Turns out, this guy is not actually named Francis. He goes by the name Boogie (Boogie2988 to be exact), has no lisp after all, and his real voice more suited to doing radio. Francis is a character he plays sometimes, along with other characters like a redneck named Jessy. Boogie himself is not much like either of these characters. He's actually turned out to be one of the most insightful people I subscribe to on Youtube.
Boogie's Youtube description pretty much sums him up: "I'm fat, I make internet videos. Sometimes they're funny, sometimes they're serious. Deal with it." He's very comfortable in front of the camera, so he tackles a large array of topics, from video games and trading cards, to bullying, to politics on occasion, all the way to mental illness, depression, and suicide. He's shared details of his past with his viewers of his less-than-stellar upbringing, dealing with his mother's mental condition, and his own struggle with obesity, which led to rough points in his life. But instead of using this as a crutch for excuses or sympathy, he uses it to encourage, motivate, and educate people.
The guy just doesn't need any sympathy, and he admits it. He's engaged, he's losing weight, has a career through Youtube doing what he enjoys, and has an ever-growing following of viewers who support him in his endeavors. He seems pretty genuinely thankful of his subscribers, and often interacts with them directly in live shows. Though his growing fame still has its unfortunate side, both due to his weight being an easy target for trolls, along with all the people who stumble onto Francis videos and think he's for real. But he deals with these people fairly well, and sometimes uses it as a talking point.
I've never dealt with being overweight at any point in my life, so I can't relate to him directly in that sense. But, oppositely, I have had health issues which resulted in me combating being underweight in the past. I think a lot of people have dealt with health issues, either for themselves or a loved one, and/or have known people who have struggled with obesity, and/or known people who have had mental health issues. So I think a lot of people can find things to relate to with Boogie's ramblings on various topics. The insight he's shared on certain issues has even enlightened me a bit at times. And it indicates to me that he actually thinks about these kinds of things, where as many people simply dismiss them in favor of happier thoughts.
Now, I won't go as far as to say I watch every single one of his videos. I'm not really a big fan of the Jessy character most of the time despite my southern upbringing, and some of the trading card or video game videos I'll skip just because I don't necessarily play whatever he's talking about. But I would say that I still watch the majority of his normal videos, as well as his live streams, and always click on any of the Francis skits, all of which enough so that I can recommend people check him out if they're ever looking for somebody a little different from the average Youtube vlogger. Just look for boogie2988.
Friday, November 16, 2012
How to Destroy Your Career
I felt this was worth writing about, so I thought I'd do it now before I forget again.
So, Cory Williams aka SMP Films announced on his Facebook that he was "done with Youtube." He listed off a myriad of other websites like Newgrounds as examples of other places which he has also been "done" with in the past. He went on about change, and how that's good and necessary. Then he said there was another place for SMP Films instead of Youtube, and to stay tuned.
The comments to this Facebook post where about what you would expect, with a mix of the typical "I'll support you no matter what" from the brown-nosers, and people expressing some degree of concern that this perhaps wasn't a smart move.
If you've read this blog for any period of time, you've probably guessed that I would fall into the latter category.
If we look back at Cory's career, he had his initial success on Newgrounds. That was in a time in the pre-Youtube days when vlogging and internet video was still very young. Lots of people still had internet that was so slow, and had to use plugins which were so crappy (RealPlayer), that streaming video wasn't exactly the most desirable media at the time. But to his credit, he still managed to get his start, with the right technology appearing on his heels, to turn his initial success at Newgrounds and Myspace into something of an actual career. Particularly so with Youtube rolling around when it did.
But that's the thing. His career now is on Youtube. It presently revolves around the partnership program that Youtube provides, based on the tens of thousands of subscribers who regularly view his videos, which allows him to buy his food and pay his rent. When you cut Youtube and his subscribers out of the equation, suddenly the career part kind of goes away with it. Your options for making money outside of that environment are not nearly as easy or advantageous, and to cut off that huge resource of user and monetary potential without at least gradually migrating to something different is pretty much how you destroy everything you built so far.
Now sure, Cory is sometimes premature in his excitement, and prone to positive and negative emotional extremes. One time he'll be so excited to tell you how good everything is going (like right now), and then suddenly a week or two later he'll be totally depressed again. I think he gets his hopes up on things which have a good chance of not working out, or he doesn't think something through, and disappoints himself. It was like with that whole stupid wrestling thing, which lasted all but a month before you never heard about it again, despite fans telling him from the start that it's a crazy idea with all of his back problems. That may be all this is, and he might be on Youtube for years to come, but his impulsive nature makes it hard to tell at this point.
If that's not the case, then his options are a bit iffy. There's Vimeo, the only other streaming video site which has had anywhere near the success of Youtube. Then there's sites like Ustream, too, but they tend to cater to live streams as opposed to uploaded media. He could have his own custom website made for serving up his videos, too. But the problem is that there's absolutely no revenue in any of these by default. I'm fairly sure that Vimeo and Ustream still lack any kind of affiliate or partnership programs. He could always use these services to host video on a custom website, but then that begs the question why not just use Youtube's player? You could put ads on a custom website of course, which makes it really the only option worth looking at, other than ads inserted into videos themselves. But then you still have the problem of viewers, making your revenue source a moot point if nobody's watching.
Let me be blunt here. Cory's success is almost entirely based around the communities of the websites he's been a part of, not by the quality of his content alone. If someone had to actually go and look on a separate website to find his stuff, his career would have likely never gone anywhere. Convenience is a huge factor in success. I subscribe to things on Youtube which I would never bother going to find elsewhere on the internet. Hell, that even applies to him and Kate, and any other vlogger I've watched over the years. I wouldn't actually seek out vlogs normally, it's just convenient for me to watch them when in my list of other subscriptions.
There's also the potential of using social media these days to promote yourself entirely, of which he already has a Facebook and Twitter presence. But he only has around twenty-two thousands likes on Facebook at the moment, which is a drop in the bucket compared to his Youtube following. And even then, you're counting on people sharing the video to ever branch out to new subscribers, because Facebook isn't designed to promote media randomly to others like a dedicated video site is. Youtube's been doing this for years, they have the "related videos" thing down pretty well now.
So basically, any other website Cory moves to means an immediate and drastic drop in views. That also means an equally drastic drop in profits, other than money he'll continue to make from stuff currently uploaded there (assuming he doesn't delete it). People don't want to leave Youtube, people don't want to check another website, and people don't like being abandoned. I've seen it before, when someone thinks they're sick of Youtube and starts posting click-through placeholder videos on Youtube linking to their actual video on Vimeo. People get pissed, they thumbs the video down, they leave a bunch of angry comments, and they never click through, out of spite and/or laziness.
And I recognize that he specifically mentioned SMP Films, which perhaps excludes Mean Kitty from being moved. And if I'm to be honest, Mean Kitty is the only one of the two channels I care much about. Though, still being honest, the Mean Kitty videos as of late have been a bit lackluster.
So I dunno, it's just all silly if you ask me. What I do know is, for a guy who has complained about money problems on more than one occasion, he sure doesn't seem to think these things out very well. While he can legitimately and proudly consider himself a trailblazer in internet video, that time is over. Crazy videos of guys doing stupid shit are a dime a dozen on the internet now, as are cat videos for that matter, and he's not going to stand out from them while doing what he's always done, regardless of what website he might take them to. There are ways to reinvent yourself without shooting yourself in the foot in the process.
So, Cory Williams aka SMP Films announced on his Facebook that he was "done with Youtube." He listed off a myriad of other websites like Newgrounds as examples of other places which he has also been "done" with in the past. He went on about change, and how that's good and necessary. Then he said there was another place for SMP Films instead of Youtube, and to stay tuned.
The comments to this Facebook post where about what you would expect, with a mix of the typical "I'll support you no matter what" from the brown-nosers, and people expressing some degree of concern that this perhaps wasn't a smart move.
If you've read this blog for any period of time, you've probably guessed that I would fall into the latter category.
If we look back at Cory's career, he had his initial success on Newgrounds. That was in a time in the pre-Youtube days when vlogging and internet video was still very young. Lots of people still had internet that was so slow, and had to use plugins which were so crappy (RealPlayer), that streaming video wasn't exactly the most desirable media at the time. But to his credit, he still managed to get his start, with the right technology appearing on his heels, to turn his initial success at Newgrounds and Myspace into something of an actual career. Particularly so with Youtube rolling around when it did.
But that's the thing. His career now is on Youtube. It presently revolves around the partnership program that Youtube provides, based on the tens of thousands of subscribers who regularly view his videos, which allows him to buy his food and pay his rent. When you cut Youtube and his subscribers out of the equation, suddenly the career part kind of goes away with it. Your options for making money outside of that environment are not nearly as easy or advantageous, and to cut off that huge resource of user and monetary potential without at least gradually migrating to something different is pretty much how you destroy everything you built so far.
Now sure, Cory is sometimes premature in his excitement, and prone to positive and negative emotional extremes. One time he'll be so excited to tell you how good everything is going (like right now), and then suddenly a week or two later he'll be totally depressed again. I think he gets his hopes up on things which have a good chance of not working out, or he doesn't think something through, and disappoints himself. It was like with that whole stupid wrestling thing, which lasted all but a month before you never heard about it again, despite fans telling him from the start that it's a crazy idea with all of his back problems. That may be all this is, and he might be on Youtube for years to come, but his impulsive nature makes it hard to tell at this point.
If that's not the case, then his options are a bit iffy. There's Vimeo, the only other streaming video site which has had anywhere near the success of Youtube. Then there's sites like Ustream, too, but they tend to cater to live streams as opposed to uploaded media. He could have his own custom website made for serving up his videos, too. But the problem is that there's absolutely no revenue in any of these by default. I'm fairly sure that Vimeo and Ustream still lack any kind of affiliate or partnership programs. He could always use these services to host video on a custom website, but then that begs the question why not just use Youtube's player? You could put ads on a custom website of course, which makes it really the only option worth looking at, other than ads inserted into videos themselves. But then you still have the problem of viewers, making your revenue source a moot point if nobody's watching.
Let me be blunt here. Cory's success is almost entirely based around the communities of the websites he's been a part of, not by the quality of his content alone. If someone had to actually go and look on a separate website to find his stuff, his career would have likely never gone anywhere. Convenience is a huge factor in success. I subscribe to things on Youtube which I would never bother going to find elsewhere on the internet. Hell, that even applies to him and Kate, and any other vlogger I've watched over the years. I wouldn't actually seek out vlogs normally, it's just convenient for me to watch them when in my list of other subscriptions.
There's also the potential of using social media these days to promote yourself entirely, of which he already has a Facebook and Twitter presence. But he only has around twenty-two thousands likes on Facebook at the moment, which is a drop in the bucket compared to his Youtube following. And even then, you're counting on people sharing the video to ever branch out to new subscribers, because Facebook isn't designed to promote media randomly to others like a dedicated video site is. Youtube's been doing this for years, they have the "related videos" thing down pretty well now.
So basically, any other website Cory moves to means an immediate and drastic drop in views. That also means an equally drastic drop in profits, other than money he'll continue to make from stuff currently uploaded there (assuming he doesn't delete it). People don't want to leave Youtube, people don't want to check another website, and people don't like being abandoned. I've seen it before, when someone thinks they're sick of Youtube and starts posting click-through placeholder videos on Youtube linking to their actual video on Vimeo. People get pissed, they thumbs the video down, they leave a bunch of angry comments, and they never click through, out of spite and/or laziness.
And I recognize that he specifically mentioned SMP Films, which perhaps excludes Mean Kitty from being moved. And if I'm to be honest, Mean Kitty is the only one of the two channels I care much about. Though, still being honest, the Mean Kitty videos as of late have been a bit lackluster.
So I dunno, it's just all silly if you ask me. What I do know is, for a guy who has complained about money problems on more than one occasion, he sure doesn't seem to think these things out very well. While he can legitimately and proudly consider himself a trailblazer in internet video, that time is over. Crazy videos of guys doing stupid shit are a dime a dozen on the internet now, as are cat videos for that matter, and he's not going to stand out from them while doing what he's always done, regardless of what website he might take them to. There are ways to reinvent yourself without shooting yourself in the foot in the process.
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