State Your Topic

sick sick sick. our bbq party last night resulted in a nasty case of gastroenteritis. yay! but i did manage to get myself together and film this, which i'm proud of despite the fact that it wasn't what i really wanted to film today. that's okay, i had to do something low-impact since i did stay home from work and all. tomorrow i'm working a marathon shift from noon until closing, if i understood correctly, so that's a thing. hopefully i'm feeling better than i feel right now, but it seems the worst of it is behind me. pun intended. spent a lot of time in bed today, not a lot of interesting things to report. tried to work on schoolwork that is late, but just couldn't focus. time to return to bed. goodnight.

Tartelette

this weekend was gloriously unproductive, though i did manage to get my laundry done. christin and i also had the quintessential american memorial day barbeque, which was only a moderate failure. i didn't film, but i suppose i can do that in the morning or after work. not sure which it's gonna be, but it's much more likely that i will end up sleeping in rather than waking up early to film stuff. i have this episode scripted out, but i'm struggling to find the motivation to actually produce it. maybe i'm bored with this format already, and maybe i shouldn't have chosen to do it for an entire week. i may actually end it tomorrow, but i have an idea for thursday that fits perfectly. it may or may not be mind-blowing.

at this point, i wonder if my blog has retained any readership whatsoever. i've been late so often that i feel like now people just don't read anymore. maybe i shouldn't expect loyal readers to catch up with 4-5 entries at one time so quickly, or maybe people skip them. i can't do that, but that's just how my brain works. actually, i skipped several television series episodes, and now it's kind of making me crazy. i should probably fix that, but i just don't have the time. work tomorrow at 11, and it's 3am now. i guess that means i should get to bed so i can hopefully wake up and smell the filming.

Utah Educational Savings Plan

catching up. it's sunday, for realsies though. hopefully, this is the last recovery of failure for some time, but we'll see how that goes. i say that a lot. today, i slept in because my church alarm didn't go off, or maybe it did and i passed out again afterward. i really don't know at this point. what i do know is that i missed the service, and yeah. weird. but we had a good day of vegetation in front of the television, in which we did the same thing we did yesterday, except without the drinking and the chinese food [besides the leftovers]. good times.

tomorrow, i need to film for tuesday and thursday, though christin does have the day off and i'll want to hang with her. she may help me film, but i dunno. we'll see. we also have to do laundry, which i've been putting off for a while now. i also need to catch up on homework, which will be easier to do when i actually have the book for the class. silly textbooks and amazon's inability to notify me when my order has been canceled in a timely manner. blah. anyway, it's my last class. that's great. i'll be glad when it's over.

if i had won the youtube contest, i'd be on my way to chicago tomorrow. that's kind of a depressing thought, since i'm not going, but in the end, i'm sort of glad i'm not going. we couldn't afford it. speaking of things we can't afford, christin needs a new car soon. not sure how that's going to work itself out, but i sure hope it does. i need a new job, or for my current job to pay me enough. i also need to finish school so i can go back to full time without stressing out too much. anyone want to pay me to produce video? i'll do it cheap. ;-P i'm beyond tired, and i'm all melodrama'd out. goodnight.

Venus DeMirror

after work [which i left early], i picked up a case of corona and a handle of 100 proof captain morgan and headed home to my lovely wife. we spent the remainder of the evening drinking, eating awesome chinese food, eating over half a cake [single layer — we're not that fat], and watching netflix. yeah, it's grey's anatomy. what can i say? i'm a woman. i didn't know you could stuff that much drama into one single television program, but yeah. you can. we watched, like, half a season tonight. tomorrow's prognosis: the same thing. and it's gonna be great. tonight was a great night in, and i wouldn't trade it for the world. i love my wife.

Worrywart

i never knew that word was spelled with an 'a' until right now. interesting. today i made a thing, and that thing is this. you should probably check it out. tonight, i will be spending time with the wife after our super-exciting meeting of the minds at the workplace, and tomorrow, i will be working a weird shift. 1-8 or something, on a saturday. i hope it's busy. anyway, today was not busy and quite uninteresting, with the exception of the bit of time i got to spend filming when i got home. it was intense, and i came up with some good stuff off-the-cuff. good to know that i can still improvise decently, even with all this new gear.

the adjustment to real hd and an awesome camera/lighting setup is slow, but steady. i'm liking it, and i'm up to the challenge, but i really do put a lot more time into it. i also feel like, as my values increase production-wise, and as my content stays level or appreciates, my viewership remains somewhat stagnant. i don't really know what to do to push myself up. some of my friends are trying to help, that's for sure, but i just feel mediocre. i don't like feeling mediocre. i want to be great. i want to make videos that people say 'everyone needs to see this.' or at least, videos that people say 'so-and-so needs to see this.' i'd settle for that.

Xena: Warrior Princeps

instead of reading this blog, which may be updated daily but contains little to no real content, i would advise that you check out my friend kelly's blog, which can be found here. she tells some great stories about growing up, reflecting, and motherhood. i tell you about my day, if i remember to write about it that day. this day, i did not. well, i did remember, but i didn't actually write anything because i was either too busy/tired at the end of the day to write anything, or i decided not to do it. likely a combination of both, really. so yeah. check out her blog, it's good. highly interesting and entertaining, and i recommend it.

Yodelheim

so this is a thing i did today. been hard at work with the videos, spent a lot of time on this one today, though not as long as i would've liked. i probably could've gotten the audio sounding a bit better. granted, i think it was good times railroad. i still can't remember why i say that, but i think i got it from josh. i miss josh. i should write him an e-mail or get his number and call him and catch up some time. i probably won't, but i should. he's a good guy, or at least, i think he is. he was. he's good people. i'm rambling. end of paragraph.

this week has been all about going, going, going, non-stop, insanity. i finished my second-to-last class ever for my b.a. and that's exciting. i got a 100% in the class, aced the final of course, and i just feel really proud of myself. gotta finish strong, can't mess up the last one. pressure's on! well, not really, it's the last class. it can't be that hard. i've had senioritis since three classes ago, so this is not what i want to be thinking about right now. how about we think about the fact that my sister is coming in just over two weeks! that's exciting times. woot!

Zoobiliee Zoo?

it took me a few seconds too long to find out the proper spelling of the words i wanted to use for this title. that bothers me. i must be slipping in my old age. well, as if you couldn't tell already, i'm catching up on my blogging. it's been a few days too many, and i've been working way too hard on this show that i'm doing on my youtube channel. here's the first video, and i'll link the second on the day that i actually made it, since this is supposedly tuesday. oh yeah, happy tuesday! good times. i worked this day, and i was excited because i had the next two days off. yep. that'll do, pig.

Arlington, VA

ever feel like you're just way too far behind? i do. right now. that's what i feel like. i remember when i was a kid, and by kid i mean teenager, and i would get so excited whenever i'd see stuff with the number '311' in it. like getting that number for my to-go food order, or having a total come up to $3.11, or anything like that. i would get so excited, because 311 was my favorite band at the time. i don't think i'd classify them as my favorite anymore, but the band will always hold a special place in my heart because of the time i spent as a huge fan of the band.

it's not even the music so much anymore, though i could still recite nearly all of their songs, but it's the nostalgia associated with them at this point. i saw the number show up today at taco bell, when i was picking up my order, and i thought about it. the thing i thought about was how, regardless of the fact that it no longer gives me that feeling of awesomeness every time i read it, it still affects me. the way that it affects me is strange and empty, because what i'm feeling is the reminder that this experience isn't part of my life anymore. things change. people change, people grow up. people move on, people start again.

Brawltimore

slept in today. way in. rested a lot during the day and thought about what to write for my second to last final paper of my undergraduate career, though my wife surely assumed i was just being lazy. actually, i know she did, because she told me that when she went to bed tonight. anyway, the paper is indeed done, and a day early at that! the reasoning behind this has to do with the fact that i have to close tomorrow night [sad times] as well as upload a video in the daytime [hooray!], the combination of which leaves little time for paper writing. this has effectively ruined my perfect streak of procrastination, and for the first time at ashford, i've turned a paper in before it was due.

not sure how i feel about that, actually.

so now i'm trolling facebook, watching youtube videos, and scripting out tomorrow's video in hopes that i can get it rolled out before i leave for work at 1:40pm. granted, i probably won't finish editing and upload the video until after work, but one can dream. i just hope i budget enough time to get all the filming done without compromising on length or quality, like i feel i did with my last video. i don't know why, but i'm feeling self-conscious about that video. it's not like it got negative reviews, or people didn't comment, or anything like that... it's just that i felt like it was really good and deserving of heavy sharing, but that didn't materialize. oh well, can't win them all, i guess.

next week's videos will be done in the style of a variety show, with segments and all. i'm very excited about that. the subject matter will be mostly english-based, with a few outliers and just outright bizarre/humor situations. it's mostly about exploring the format and trying to work the educational aspects into a natural flow of a television program, so i hope i can accomplish that at the very least. i think it'll be fine. this week, i will be starting my last class at ashford. that's very exciting to me. what am i going to do with my spare time when school is over? what a silly question that is. goodnight, sports racers. enjoy your burrito.

Crawdaddy

well, it's saturday the 21st and i guess the rapture didn't really happen. that's a big shocker, eh? wonder what camping is going to say. it looks like they're saying he's holed up in his house and not saying anything. i wonder if he's trying to hide and pretend like he was the only one that got raptured or something. that would actually be pretty funny, i think. lol. whatever. i'm just glad all the hype and nonsense is over, and atheists can get back to just hating God instead of hating on christians in general for the beliefs of one whackjob and his followers.

today was a long day. got up at 8, which is super early for me, and headed in to open the store by 9am, our new opening time. today was slow, especially for a saturday, but being there until 5:30pm and the slowness really took its toll. nikkie came in a few hours later than she was scheduled, so i was by myself for those two hours and didn't get a lunch break until like 2pm. that was kind of lame, but honestly, the day would've felt so much longer if i had taken it earlier. so i'm kind of grateful for it, actually. i had arby's for lunch, which was a mistake, but i think that goes without saying, really. i'm thinking heartburn!

after work, i headed home, where christin and i got to chill with mike and katie [the newlyweds] upstairs. they brought two not-so-little puppies that were found on her dad's farm. they're underfed and ridden with ticks and fleas, so they looked like hell, but they were super cute even despite that. took a bunch of pictures of them, but i'm way too tired to upload any of them right now, so yeah. if you're friends with me on facebook, look them up tomorrow or something. i have a bunch of pics i'm meant to post, but i've been busy. we went to applebee's tonight to hang with becky, which was fun. just got back and now it's way past my bedtime. i just felt like i needed to catch up on blogging before i hit the sack. which i have done. goodnight.

Deerhooves (Plural)

so, according to the whackjob harold camping, tomorrow is the rapture or something. which i don't really believe in, so whatever, but people are being weird and freaking out on twitter and facebook and such. some of the jokes are funny, but it's mostly just annoying to me. it really does go to show how shocked people are going to be when the world actually does end, which it surely will someday. but going out and predicting it and spending millions of dollars to promote said prediction and 'warn people' about it... that's just stupid. come on, people, learn your lesson.

anyway, yeah. dumb. so today i worked for quite a while and took some nice pictures while i was there. a few pictures, at least. worked with becky and nikkie closing, which was interesting. we had a weird evening. lots of changes are happening in the store, some good and some just weird, but for the most part things seem to be going forward pretty smoothly. i got some homework done, and i can't believe my final is due in three days. i should probably write it, huh? well, i've got the research and outline done, all i really need to do is 'write' it, which is the easiest step. that's okay. time to sleep for a short while, then wake up super early to work again.

Everybody Dance Now

today i made this. i kind of like the way it turned out, sort of like a half-sketch, half-vlog thing. the vlog part at the end is really short, but i think the point was made. i could've made the whole thing a vlog, or the whole thing sketch [the latter of which was the original plan], but i thought the hybrid approach was more interesting. i wanted to try doing a multi-angle sketch with no characters, and this idea popped into my head last night, so i did it. it came out well, though the color correction and audio sync were a bit of an issue. the microphone on this camera really is as bad as matt said it was. maybe worse, actually. oh well. sleepy time.

Fran Drescher's Dracula

work work. done building ship! today i opened the store, which was an interesting experience to say the least. the investors came yesterday and pretty much went bananas on the kiosk, changing policies and ripping off sneeze guards. weird, but probably good. i worked with tibet all day, which is always fun, but it's sad now that i know she's quitting soon. she got a job at a catering company that pays more, which is good for her, but it's no fun that we won't be working together anymore. we'll always have memories, and we'll hang out, i'm sure. harry potter!

speaking of harry potter, christin priced her tattoo today and it looks like it's going to be pretty cheap to get both of them done. about $210 for two pieces, both with color. mad cheap, yo. tonight, after christin went to sleep, i attempted to write a script for tomorrow's video, but i think what i came up with in trying too hard to come up with a topic is going to be pretty hilarious. we'll see if it plays out the way i'm hoping. intrigued? i sure hope so! yep. watched some youtube, ate some potstickers. life isn't perfect, but i can't complain. i close tomorrow. blah. goodnight.

Gopher Smell

ahh, content. herein i shall produce thee. clicketh! so yeah, that was a thing. back to work tomorrow morning, which will not be exciting. tonight i worked on homework mostly, which is why i'm up way too late and will likely forget to finish writing this and post it [good guess], so there's that. we had our weekly meeting with pastor taylor at the fields' place, which was quite wonderful. we talked about all sorts of topics, from harold camping to the importance of focusing first on the holiness of God before anything else. interesting stuff, and we learned a lot. we ate stouffer's lasagna, which was surprisingly delicious. it was a good day, but i'm making it sound boring now. yeah... that's all i've got.

He Is Lemming

it's monday, monday, gotta get down on monday. i pre-recorded tomorrow's video today and it looks fantastic. the quality is just... it's mind-blowing. compared to my old videos, these new ones will just look so amazing. i'll include a screencap of one of my favorite parts of the video, just so you can see the clarity. quite phenomenal. i got the adapters/holders for my lights today, as well as my second monitor, so that's a thing. i managed to work a way to get both softboxes attached to one boom microphone stand, though it's a bit ghetto. i'll need to buy a second stand soon to get something i can adjust a little better, but it works for now.

speaking of things i got today, i was pleasantly surprised when i went to the mail [i'm expecting a stipend check from my financial aid] and found a refund check from the i.r.s.! apparently it took so long for them to process our return because they somehow ended up sending us a paper check instead of electronic direct deposit. weird. i put in all of my bank information and stuff, you'd think they would default to the easier method of payment. maybe i entered something wrong and it didn't go through or something. no idea.

anyway, today was great. spent the rest of the evening cooking my wife spaghetti, which was wonderful, and we watched the last episode of community season 2 together. amazing. i started downloading the last two big bang theory episodes so we can watch the finale on thursday on actual t.v., which is something we rarely do, but the internet was hating on me. for some reason, our connection has been terribly slow all night, but really more like off-and-on slowness. sometimes it goes back to normal for a short time unexpectedly. weird. anyway, it's time to get some shut-eye. long day of doing many interesting things tomorrow!

Indescriptably Drastic

wow. today was a blur. got up a bit early and met cody and justin, who were parked [understandably] upstairs at lindsay's house. let them in and said hello, but then it was straight off to church! it was a long service today, or maybe it just felt that way because there was no piano. that always makes some parts of the service a bit strange. like the singing. anyway, i really enjoyed the time, and the Lord's supper is always wonderful to partake of. i don't think i've had it in a long while now, considering our attendance has been so spotty. no good.

the message was on james 1:19-20, about dealing with our tongues and being swift to hear slash slow to speak. this is something i really need to learn and process and handle in my everyday life. justin could related as a reporter, and cody took it very much to heart. we're a lot alike in many ways, even some of our downfalls. it's interesting, now, reflecting upon how our friendship has grown from me trolling his youtube videos to us being great friends. look at me, getting all sentimental and such.

anyway, i'll spare the details on the trip to d.c., but i'll say that we met up with some other youtubers [ev and crystal and crys' sister, cheryl] and had dinner at a fancy schmancy restaurant. it was like asian/spanish fusion. everyone enjoyed their food but me, but that's really no surprise. i'm too picky for fine dining, and my tandoori chicken did not taste like any indian food i had ever eaten in my life. blech. but it was a fun time, and that's what counts. to contrast, after that, i had probably the best frozen yogurt i've eaten in years at a place called fro-zen-yo. we enjoyed that as we walked to the national mall and hung out at some monuments after dark.

if you're friends with me on facebook, there's a photo album of the events here, for your viewing pleasure. if you're not friends with me on facebook... why not? anyway, it was a fantastic day, and it was sad to say goodbye, but we'll likely see one another soon enough. after all, cody and justin only live about three hours away in central pennsylvania, so i'll probably be taking a trip up there some time in the near future. as for now, it's definitely time for some rest, followed by a likely lovely two days off. new stuff tomorrow, hopefully!

Jerksalot Of Camelot

ahh, work. what's to say of you? not much, if you ask me. which you didn't. so i won't even say not much. i will say not anything. this morning was spent doing not much of anything, though i did get up at a reasonable hour today. tonight at work, we were going to have a great night, but it ended up being not-so-wonderful. tibet didn't come, so it was just me and becky, and we didn't get our big nugget tray from chick-fil-a for dinner. sad times! christin and i got in an argument, and i had a big, bad plate from sbarro for dinner. it was terrible.

but i got home and played around with my camera a bit, trying out settings and lighting and such. tomorrow will be an action-packed day of adventure, as i'll be heading out to d.c. with some friends from youtube. that'll be good. but for now, there's nothing really going on tonight. i was going to attempt to get to bed at a decent hour, but i ended up cleaning up the house [since we're having visitors] and getting all that squared away. but now it's far too late, so it's time for bed.

Kerning

it's friday! i got my new stuff today. excitement! new computer, much faster than my old one by a factor of, like, thousands. maybe not that much, but it's pretty exponentially better than the old thinger. dinger. majigger. i got one out of two monitors and the computer itself, as well as a 32gb memory card for the new camera... which i bought afterward! best buy was out of them, i was misled by the website. but i got it at hhgregg, and honestly, i'm kind of glad i did. i ended up getting a 3-year 'oops' plan that basically allows me to replace the camera/lens if anything happens. and the best part is that they give me the newest version of whichever one. good times.

oh, i posted this video today. check it!

after i got everything and set up the new p.c., i recorded a little bit to see what the camera can do. without the lights, there isn't a whole lot i could do in the house, but i got a taste of what good depth of field looks like in a viewfinder. after that, i headed out to see christin at work and bid farewell [for a short time] to judy [a friend of ours], who is getting shipped off to russia soon. did some homework while i was there, and we headed to applebee's afterward for drinks and late dinner with becky. that was fun! i actually took some video and edited it when i got home. this was the result. bedtime.

Leaving You Alone

that's right, you guessed it. more filler! i like pie. really, i do. actually, i like cake better, but pie is quite delicious. at the time of posting this blog, i'm watching this, which you should watch too. it's my friend justin's new band, sea breezes. they're good. it's like his old band, age sixteen, procreated with a shoegaze group and had this band as a child. i like it a lot, and i look forward to a proper release. wish the songs were longer, though. good times. okay, i think this paragraph is long enough. i hate posting these filler blogs. blah. wish i could remember thursday.

Mariachi Sucker

this is a filler post, because i was unable to blog this day and it's too far beyond the day. i have no idea what i did! i'm a bit nuts, so i can't stand there not being something posted for this day, as well as the next day, so i'm posting this nonsense here. don't read this. it's not interesting. there s nothing of value. actually, i do remember that on this day, i posted this video. you could always go watch that, if you're not doing anything else. if you've already seen it, or aren't interested, just move on to the next day. actually, skip tomorrow too, because it will be more filler. good day!

Nearslighted

i accomplished many things today, but only a few of them were things i had set out to do. many of the things i had set out to do were not accomplished, as i was seriously impeded by lack of creative energy. couldn't write a good set of lyrics and a song structure to save my life. i had a song stuck in my head [which i won't mention, because it's embarassing], and usually the way for me to get it out is to listen to it way too many times. i did that. it didn't work. i listened to it on my way to and from the gym, which was nice to go to, but yeah. didn't work.

earlier in the day, i went and visited the lovely wife at work. she pulled a double today, so i'm sure she's ridiculously tired. seemed like it, since when she came home she immediately plopped down on the bed and nearly fell asleep before i could even rub her feet! so yeah, hanging with carter and her for a few hours around lunchtime was cool. came back to the house with the intent of writing, recording, and filming the song/video for tomorrow, but got none of that done. i did record what i had intended to be friday's video [will end up being wednesday's — no song this week], so that's good. but most of the time was spent being uninspired and chatting.

tonight, i priced computers and cameras. it looks like i'll be picking up a well-priced gateway i7 number from a wholesaler, because honestly it's cheaper than buying the components and putting it together myself, plus i get the added bonus of a warranty and legit operating system. i also found two pretty nice 23" acer led monitors for under $300, so that's good. if the wife approves the deal, i'll be buying the computer and camera as an early graduation present for myself. kind of lame, i know, but i don't want to ask people for money. i want to make good videos and sell them real products. would help to get over the writer's block first, though. perhaps new gear will bring new drive/inspiration.

Octopus Complex

so today at work, becky and tibet bought a party platter of nuggets to share [with lego man] for lunch. when the people at chick-fil-a asked how many people were in the party, tibet responded quite enthusiastically with, 'two!' that made me laugh. i made this before i headed off to work, and edited it when i got home. i'm pretty satisfied with it. the funny thing is, in the beginning of the video i play with the macro function [to simulate nervously adjusting focus á la luke conard], and i was afraid that i had accidentally left it on macro for the remainder of the video.

i didn't. that was a relief.

yeah, my wife called me at work to inform me that the switch was 'on the mountain,' which was nice of her to do. speaking of work, i had a pretty good time. me and flanda chilled, it wasn't busy at all, so we didn't do a whole lot of anything besides clean. we cleaned a lot... i have tomorrow off, then two days of opening before a free friday [w00t!] and a saturday of closing. hooray for decent work schedules! i have no idea what next week is going to be like, but i hope it will enable me to play with my new camera if i end up ordering it this week. excitement!

Permeate

too late again. too much on my mind. too much food in my belly today. too much salt consumed. tomorrow i close the shop, today i went to church. i'm a member of the orthodox presbyterian church now, which is good news. tomorrow i'll film and produce a video, and maybe it will be good and enjoyable and people will like it and share it around the internets and i will enjoy that. or it will be not good and the opposite will happen. who knows? not me. now it's time for sleep with hopes that i don't sleep too long. tomorrow is swiftly approaching. goodnight.

QI

i've said it before, and i'll say it again: opening the day after you close should be illegal. it's always no fun, even if you work with awesome people [which i did]. on top of that, i got three hours or less sleep last night, and today is the day before mother's day. granted, i did have a lot of fun at work and the time went really fast because we were busy, but i was really tired by the time i got off. i had a pretzel from auntie anne's after work, which i bought with my tip money, and it was good... but not as good as the amish market. blah.

unfair comparison, really.

so i came home and spent some time with the wife. we went out to applebee's for her second day in a row, and got some delicious food, then headed home to watch movies. we watched 'easy a' [love that movie. emma stone and amanda bynes ftw!] and 'dead alive.' holy crap. i hadn't ever seen the latter before, but it was totally ridiculous. blood-and-guts b-movie horror status. i'd heard the name many times, but never watched it. now i need to see 'bad taste' to complete the peter-jackson-bad-horror-flick experience. but for now, it's bedtime. goodnight, sirs and madams!

Remember All That

ahh, friday. i closed up shop tonight and headed back home to work on excessive amounts of late homework that took way too long. meanwhile, my wife went out to applebee's with her friends and my co-worker/friend becky. boo them! well, boo homework for preventing me from going out with them. it's okay, i got everything done and that's good news. anyway, this class is good. i've got a 100% in it, despite the fact that i thought it was going to be way harder than my previous classes. good to know that i'm still good enough at school and research and study that i can pass a class that is actually somewhat challenging.

i'm also learning a lot in this class, a lot of it which is dispelling some pretty blissful ignorance. now that i think about it, a lot of my education throughout this degree program has done that. i know a lot more about the american education system, especially when displayed in the context of the global position and outlook on bilingualism [read: they support it, we don't] and it's pretty easy to get depressed and disillusioned. it almost makes me want to quit, but at the same time, it makes me want to change things that much more. i hope that by making educational resources aimed in the right direction and encouraging the right things, i can make a difference. hopefully i'm not just being idealistic.

Scram, Maggot!

no work again. instead, i stayed home and made this, which is a parody of this. you should watch both, but if you only watch mine, you'll still find it humorous. because it is. i didn't plan to do this video, but the other night on tinychat, cody, justin and i came up with the idea to rewrite the video to be about myspace instead of youtube while illustrating some of the absurdities of the original video. i think it worked out pretty well, and the response has been pretty phenomenal. love it. that is enough for today, i'm a tired monkey. goodnight.

Texas Tea

a.k.a. black gold? sure! i worked today, but it was only between 2pm-8pm. weird. oh, i didn't mention in yesterday's blog entry that i walked a lot and did the laundry. while the latter is not important [though it provided a means for the former], the former is kind of important. see, i need to exercise more, because i am getting what the french call 'le fat.' i know, i know, that's not really what the french call it, but it's what i call it to make something somewhat serious sound funny. i eat like hell, and i drink too much soda, and i am just generally a bad person in that department. that changes, starting today.

instead of pepsi, i'll be filling my massive, 44oz. cup with unsweetened iced tea, because it tricks me into thinking that i'm drinking something delicious in a way that just drinking water doesn't. the flavor has to be there, or i won't 'want' to drink it. yum. tea. anyway, i'm trying to eat a bit healthier as well, and working out is a gradual thing for me. i walked for about an hour yesterday, and tomorrow i'll be heading to the gym because it's my day off. i'm also going to film a video! it's going to be awesome, as long as i don't mess it up. i have a great idea, courtesy of justin strawser a.k.a. thejealousone a.k.a. justtubed. he's awesome btw.

anyway, more about today! i got to work with tibet and becky, which was pretty epic. we talked a lot and did stupid things and said stupid things. we decided that we need to start making some youtube videos and become famous there so we don't end up selling nail kits. long story. don't ask. maybe i'll explain it some time soon, but i doubt it. i got the results from my paper that i wrote on monday night [which i didn't tell you guys about], and i got a 100% on that. so i've got a 100% in the class so far, which is hilarious to me because i thought this class was going to be really hard and involved. it's not that way, really, i just have to pay a bit more attention and do a bit more research/study on it.

in other words, i spend 5 hours per week on it instead of 2.

when i got home from work, christin and i watched an episode of the cosby show together [she is almost through season five, which is impressive even for her] and once she went to bed, i watched a lot of youtube videos and chatted with friends on skype. my queue is down to 46 now, including a lot of videos that were posted today and a few that i found on facebook and twitter. i'm plugging away here, really, i am. i'll get caught up soon enough, then i'll have nothing to do but be productive and stuff. who wants to do that?!?!? well, maybe then i'll actually finish my album and website. ha! i should... probably prioritize those things, though.

Underapprehended

having a day off after only one day of being back to work from vacation rules. wow, that was a confusing sentence. anyway, today i made this, which is a response to this. you should watch the second link first. i think it came out pretty good. i like using buford as a sarcastic rhetorical device to illustrate the lack of common sense present in the world today. i sort of made that video on a whim, instead of the other video i was going to make today [talking about losing the contest] which i was going to make instead of the other video i was going to make today [with chinese me]. whew! full of confusion today.

i spent a long while last night [read: tomorrow] catching up on blogs, and i did everything but this one, so i'll be posting two tomorrow. i mean right now. i'm even confusing myself now! i need to type something non-confusing into this here box in order to make myself feel centered. hello. my name is buel burton newman the fourth. i like jellybeans. excellent! not confusing at all. and who doesn't like jellybeans, really? now i'm sitting here wondering if jellybeans is actually a word, or if it's meant to be two separate words. chrome apparently thinks it's one, so we'll go with that.

most of tonight was spent on tinychat with my friends cory and justin, as well as a bunch of other people that i don't really know that well from the internets. it was fun. i met a few people, but when more people started joining and going on camera, it just got overwhelming and weird. so i kind of tuned out for a while, then just left to work on clearing out that good 'ole youtube queue. i've got that massive queue down to something like 60 or so, including videos that have come out today, so i think i'm doing okay. too many subscriptions still, methinks.

speaking of which, i unsubscribed from like 20-30 people today, because i've realized that i can't possibly continue to watch this many people, and my subscription count was just too high. so now i'm under 150, which is good, and i got rid of some people that never made videos and others that just made stuff i didn't like. others included some big youtubers that i just don't care about that much, so i just dumped 'em. meh. they don't need me. i hope i never get to the point where i am regarded as expendable by people, though. that would be just really sad. i won't take it to heart, though. time for bed, as i am up way too late. goodnight.

Varian Wrynn

i didn't win. sad news. sad day. lots of depression had today, but also lots of encouragement from a lot of folks and friends of mine who support me and are generally rad. my wife is a big one of those, and i love her very much. we had a great weekend, and it sucks to come back to something like this, but sometimes reality has to slap you in the face. i'm trying to rationalize it and make it seem like not a big deal, because i couldn't really afford to take two months off from work and the whole thing would be really bad timing and i'd miss my sister's trip out here... but who am i kidding? it still really sucks that i lost.

had my first day back at work, and i'm kind of excited that i have tomorrow off immediately after that. i actually found out that i had lost the contest last night, and spent about 2 hours confirming that i had actually lost and watching videos made un-private by the people who had won. it was really sad, and i actually did cry. mostly because i felt led-on by youtube because of the verbage in the e-mail i had received. i think i made the finals and just wasn't selected by the schools in the end. it's okay, at least my friend gretchen made it. she's awesome, her video was great.

anyway, because of that whole situation, i hadn't slept much which made working at 9am to open the store pretty tough stuff. working with tibet made it a bit better. she's funny. had a decent day at work, and headed back home to hang out with christin. she made me potstickers [comfort food of choice for me] and we caught up on community and the big bang theory. awesome times. that made me feel a lot better — my wife always knows how to comfort me and make me feel better when stuff like this happens. it'll be okay, but i feel like i'm sort of entitled to a few bad, depressing days now and then.

Wall's Street

oh sunday, wonderful sleep-filled day of rest. i did feel a bit bad about not going to church, but we'd planned to be away today anyway. i was so tired from the weekend [less than 10 hours over three days] that i wouldn't have really been able to function in church anyway. christin and i got a lot of much needed rest today, and didn't really do much, so there's little to talk about. i'm excited that i get to find out for sure about the contest tomorrow, so i'll definitely be filling everyone in on that department when the time comes. sorry for the short [and obviously super-late] update. thanks for reading. ;-D