Septemblog

Hey this thing is still here and I haven't updated it. Let's try that!

I mentioned before that I still had Shaycarl on Twitter and Facebook. Well, I dumped them ages ago. Still don't miss'em at all. In fact, seeing Shay on like CTFxC/Katers/Olgakay/etc during their recent trips to Vidcon made me roll my eyes. He's so far from what he started out as that I just can't even stand to watch him.

Since I mentioned CTFxC, let's talk about that. I'm kind of bored of it, I gotta admit. There's still some things that can be entertaining, but a lot of it is just more of the same. To be honest, I think the best clips are when they're with Alli's mom, cause she seems fun. Now they're doing this whole cinema club thing, which just bored me immediately. I guess it's not as bad as that drunk gaming junk though. And another thing that irks me lately is the product placement. I've basically just skipped along through several of the vlogs lately trying to find interesting parts rather than watching the whole thing.

In other words, CTFxC is turning into Olgakay2 or Vlerabrite for me, cause I do the same thing for their vlogs. But I've pretty much done that from the beginning on theirs, since there's only so many vlogs I can watch in a day. Though I do always stop to listen to Terabrite rehearsing their music, since what's why I subbed to start with.

I guess since I rambled so much before about Cory (smpfilms / dudelikehella) and Steph that I should mention that recent "development." The one where Cory admitted what everyone already knew, that they were separated. You know, the same thing which fanboys denied adamantly for months in the comments. My feelings on the subject is that Cory wasn't always a vlogger - he just happened to live with one (Kate aka katersoneseven) - so he didn't have to necessarily share his personal life with the camera. But now that he vlogs, I think talking about these kinds of things has a bit more relevance with the fans. So I'm glad he finally decided to talk about it. Yet now he's decided to take a break from vlogging while in England, even though he's pretty much had Kate's camera in his hand for half the length of her recent England vlogs.

And speaking of Kate's vlogs, as I mentioned, she's finally back in England. I was looking forward to this trip for a while, actually. I enjoyed seeing her hanging out with people like Beth, who you could always tell were genuinely closed friends of hers. For some reason fans really liked "The Loud One" too, who I was just never particularly a fan of. Though I actually disliked various people she befriended in America more than anyone in England (which I believe I've covered in a previous post), so at least he's not on the same list as those people. I'd just prefer to see her hanging out with Beth, or that other girl whose name escapes me at the moment. Or better yet, her mother, who also seems kind of fun.

Anyway, yeah, Kate is still my favorite vlogger at the moment. Don't know who would be second. I don't really look forward to any others, unless you count DudeLikeHella, which is almost the same thing (and therefore I look forward to also). Well, I enjoy seeing certain automotive ones when they pop up, and other less-frequently updated users like say Laurbubble and Eemma. But I guess there's just no other daily vlogs I'm a huge fan of, when I think about it. Which is funny, considering I subscribe to several!

Hey It's June

I haven't posted anything recently, after getting on kind of a posting track there for a bit. I guess I'll mention that I'm pretty "ehhh" about Kate's contest thing now. At first I thumbs-downed some videos involving Living Spaces out of principle, but then I decided I just didn't care anymore. And I've been watching Cory's new DudeLikeHella channel, which is practically like having a double Katers vlog every day, so whatever. I don't tend to hold grudges. The vlogs still entertain me well enough.

I have to say though, I just honestly haven't missed watching the Shaytards. I still have him on my Twitter feed and Facebook, and I see him posting these videos with these crazy titles or promising this or that, but I always know that it's going to be nothing like that. I haven't watched a whole Shaytards in weeks now. I'm over it. Kate/Cory's still my favorite right now, followed by CTFxC.

For now it's back to throwing things in Duke Nukem Forever.

Bigger Beggar

Gotta say, I was really on the verge of unsubbing to Katers17/Katersoneseven yesterday. That furniture contest was just out of control. I'd decided to try to ignore it all and not contribute, since I didn't feel it was fair that she was using her subscriber base to boost her view count. All the other entries from average folks had no such backing so they stood no chance. I blame the contest creators as well to some degree for not thinking this thing through, but Kate realized what she was doing just the same.

But it was just nonstop reminders in her videos and especially on Twitter to view this video. It was getting to the point of desperation. So when she started actually tricking people into viewing her contest entry again under the presumption that it was something else, I was really aggravated. She took advantage of her fans on that one. Even though I didn't want to participate, she got a few more unintended views from me.

Well, then I found out she deleted a bunch of the negative or unhappy comments from the video, and was blocking people. Some of the comments I know for a fact disappeared, because I remembered seeing them earlier on. That's some bullshit right there. You're aggravating your viewers with your actions, and then you silence them when they try to voice their opinions? Fuck that attitude.

In the end, she got third place, so it was slightly satisfying that she didn't take the top at least. But there was still a big prize for that. Cory got first place, and he was doing some pretty similar douche moves himself. He made some sappy video about how he needed to win this contest for his self-esteem. Then he was faking out links on Twitter. He even made a video trying to make people click through to his contest entry video to see the second half of the one you were watching (he'd put the continuation link in the description of the contest one). I closed it and never watched the other half, because like with Kate entering, I didn't think it was fair for Cory either since he had even more subscribers than she did.

Well, here's the kicker: the rules said one entry per household. Kate and Cory live in the same house. Doesn't matter if they're moving soon, they entered and completed the contest under the same roof. They broke the rules. So technically one of them doesn't deserve the prize. I think it's only fair for Cory to keep his, since he had the most views, and Kate to be disqualified, letting one of the "little people" take her spot. I really want one of those average contestants with no big subscriber base to have a big prize, to be honest.

It's also worth mentioning that there were some fanboys in the comments cheating for Kate (and probably Cory too) by running view count bots to help boost her score. Obviously didn't help in the end, but it was cheating nonetheless.

Anyway, the whole thing just pissed me off with how Kate acted about it. That's not the person I subscribed to. Begging and sucking up to fans to win you furniture, and hushing up all the ones who disagree with it, is just bullshit. She's done it before with other smaller contests with less importance, but never to this extreme. Some of her fans may be pretty big tools, but fans are not tools to be used for winning prizes.

It's all a shame, because up to this point, she'd become my favorite vlog. But if it happens again, I'm done. No doubt about it.

Work Is Hard

Oh Shaycarl, I'd hoped you would stop giving me reasons to frown at your videos, but you did it again already.

In his attempt to defend the move to L.A. this summer, he revealed another bombshell: he's going to stop editing the videos himself. That's right, he's going to hire some guy to do it for him. He then proceeded to complain about how it takes 4 hours to edit and upload the videos. Wow, that's rough. It's a good thing nobody else has to work for 4 hours in an air-conditioned room in a comfortable chair with no boss, all to make tens of thousands of dollars.

Yes, I'm bitter. I come from a family who has worked their asses off to make ends meet, with obstacle after obstacle preventing them from getting ahead. And going by Shay's stories of old, you'd think he would be the same. But to hear him complain about doing a little work for his "dream job" just really aggravated me. Especially when this is all with the intention of making even more money by working for places like The Station.

I honestly don't think he ever truly experienced being hard up for money, based on him talking about being in tens of thousands of dollars of debt before. It sounded like he's always had a love for spending money, even if he didn't have it. And he comes from what appears to be a well-off family who I'm sure lend plenty of hands. I've known people like that. Money and possessions are their only goals in life. I won't say for sure if Shay is like that, but it's an ugly way to live, and he's sure showing signs of it.

So yeah, fuck it. If somebody else is going to edit the videos, why bother watching? He might be in them, but it won't be his personal touch editing them for humor and whatnot. And just knowing that he's too lazy to do it himself will leave a bad taste in my mouth anyway. If he's ready to ignore Shaytards even farther to focus on his solo career, then he's going to have a rude awakening on the day that he realizes it wasn't simply his own personality that made him successful. It was the entire family dynamic, and his personal interactions with the fans. You know, the very thing he's willing to throw away now just so that he can be ready for the future.

I don't think he actually plans to come home from L.A. Wouldn't be the first time I've caught him fibbing to the viewers.


p.s. And the fanboys are all over this one. Quick, how fast can you defend every one of his decisions! Bonus points for broken English.

I Nonhate Too

Just to show that I don't have to always made harsh posts in regards to the Shaytards, I'll take the time to mention that tonight's Shaytards was actually pretty pleasant, even with Shay in the majority of it and Mommytard hardly there. The voiceovers for Rocktard were funny. And despite the oddity of Carly sniffing Cascade, even that whole part was amusing. Nothing rubbed me the wrong way or anything.

Sometimes things happen that irk me, sure, but sometimes they're good episodes too. I just wanted to point that out. But now there's been like three posts in a row about Shaytards, so moving on!

Hating on Haters

I may not care enough to say anything later, but I just watched the newest Shaytards, and thought I'd comment.

It's such a shame that we can go from such a great vlog yesterday back to one which just irks me. I mean, the part with Babytard and Mommytard gardening was really nice. Like I said before, she seems to be more talkative when the other kids aren't around, so it's fun to see more of her personality.

Well, then Shay happened. They were riding in his new truck, and he had Rocktard in his baby seat in the front. He knew he shouldn't have Rocktard there, he even pointed out the airbag being right in front of him, but then he tried to justify it by saying that plastic thing on the baby seat maybe made it okay. But what irked me is when immediately after that he started mocking "haters" and pretending to quote legal codes about babies in cars, and saying he'd have to put Rocktard in the back before somebody started nagging on him in the comments about laws and safety. And then what made it worse is him digging deeper and saying it's people who don't have any kids trying to tell him how to raise his, or people who have just babysat, etc. When Shay acts like a jerk, it's just a total turn-off. Anything fun that may have happened prior is spoiled by that kind of attitude. The irony is that I bet there are a lot of babysitters who have a lot of knowledge that Shay could take advantage of. Like, you know, not haphazardly throwing developing children around. But in this case, the fact remains, he knew Rocktard shouldn't be in the front, but he decided to be a douche to redirect blame.

Then Shay goes on about how he was saving up for that truck for a year, blah blah. Whatever, we all know he makes enough on his Youtube partnership for the Shaytards channel alone to pay for that truck in less than a month. No exageration. Dave's Farm, which wasn't near as popular as Shaytards, was making $15-20k+ a month in its prime, maybe more. Not to mention, it's not hard to find the tax records for the new house they moved into, so I know how much it's worth (and fully paid for at that, since they're debt-free). So let's not pretend like the audience is stupid here.

But then what irked me more is him taking another dig at haters again later. I can't even remember what it was over now, but by that point I think I just sighed and realized why I've seriously considered stopping watching the vlog. Shay is really not the same person he used to be. Or maybe he is, and now that he has money and fame he doesn't care to show that side of himself more. He could lose a thousand viewers and it wouldn't hurt him much financially.

The final irk-factor was hearing him listening to more of that conservative radio garbage, where they were quoting lyrics from that rap song of the guy who was invited to the White House. All of conservative radio and TV pundits (Fox News) like to play just enough of it to make it sound like the guy was promoting cop killing, instead of actually telling the song lyrics in context. It's all such bullshit, and hearing people listen to sources which promote that kind of trash news really affects what I think of them.

Anyway, so yeah. Like I said, I won't care about any of this later. But it bugged me enough at the moment to say my thing about it. I guess that makes me a hater, eh? If you're not with'em, you're against'em, etc. Better not try to offer him any advice!

A Pleasant Surprise

Blogger is sure acting up tonight. Let's see if I can even post this!

Anyhow, coincidentally enough, despite me recently airing my thoughts about the Shaytards vlogs these days, they go and post one tonight which totally contradicts that. Let me just paste the comment I left on that newest video to sum it up:

I just wanted to say that I think this is the best Shaytards vlog I've seen in a long time. Not a lot of craziness like there's been so much of lately, just some truly entertaining and sweet moments. Babytard was much more talkative, which was nice to see, and I couldn't help but laugh from Rocktard with the towels. Even Sontard's explanation for the salt and pepper shakers was funny just because he was so confident about his answer. This one made my night. Thumbs up, guys.

And I meant every word of it. When Babytard is by herself with Mommytard, she's like a different person sometimes; talkative and interesting to listen to. Shay and Princesstard's excessive hyperness is one of the things that's turned me away from the Shaytards, so I thought it was funny that them barely being in this episode resulted in it being one of the better ones in a while.

Don't get me wrong, I started watching Shaytards because of Shay's personality. And there's still times when he acts like he used to. But without all the craziness in this episode, it really reminded me of why I started watching. It's because I'm old enough to want kids of my own now, and I always enjoyed seeing the family interactions in just an ordinary family. Watching Mommytard interacting with the kids in this newest vlog reminded me of that old feeling again, which, to be honest, is not something I've felt in a long time from watching. While I do wish success for them, unfortunately I think it's success which is leading them away from what made the vlogs good to start with. I hope they can find that again one day. Or if nothing else, just tone down all the crazy stuff.