More responses:

These are from Kassie, Christina, and Lauren.

Video Blogging, My Story Part 2.

So, last week I interviewed my close friend Hayley, who is a well-known youtuber, and I posted the audio of the interview, but as promised here is the video:



And Hayley made a parody of the interview here:


But, still, I'm left asking myself...what is everyone else's personal reasons for video blogging? So, it was a long shot, but I decided to ask my subscribers.


And, they answered.
I've gotten a few video responses, these are the only ones I've cleared permission with so far, so take a look at what Kai and Clare have to say:




So, where did we leave off? Right, I met a fellow videoblogger at orientation. This girl, that I mentioned beforehand, is named Hayley Hoover and as of this blog post she has 49,865 subscribers. Hayley spear-headed the collab channel movement, and is highly humorous but also insightful and her self-proclaimed painful high school experience has given teenagers all over the world hope that there is life beyond the lockers. Or something.
Hayley and I met at interesting points in our lives, we had finally left our high schools behind and could fully appreciate ourselves and find people to simply exist around, something that's a rare feat if you think about it. Finally content on finding more people in the world with my sense of humor I concluded that I loved college, and you know what? I did. Fall quarter freshman year very well may have been one of the best periods of my life. Was it because I had found friendship? Was it because I was out? I think it was a mix of things, but I began to realize that I'm at a place in my life where I can try to right my wrongs...so I sought out to do that.

If I had said befriending a famous youtuber came without benefits I'd be lying. But, it wasn't notoriety it was something that surpassed what I could have expected-friendship. For the first time in my life, people were listening to what I had to say and I realized that my story had gone unsung for far too long, and I looked the camera in the eye, and as out of fashion as it was I told the truth without fear of consequence. Soon, youtube knew everything from my sexuality, shattered family, daddy issues and my hopes and fears. My storytelling often left people speechless, but I didn't care-if I could inspire a moment of true thought in this sea of liking and stars and subscribers.

I befriended so many good people, people who didn't know what to think of me, but good people none the less. With the truth and friendship on my side, how could I lose? I ran into the storm, expecting my family to take my news well.

I was wrong.

Tech Fails.

I've been having a lot of trouble with my interview,and I still plan to post it in video form,but for the time being here's the audio:

http://soundcloud.com/yourfavoriteperson/interview

Ignorance is Bliss, Cherish It.

When I was ten I started the fifth grade, and that was my favorite year of schooling. I found Harry Potter, I became my own person, and I had the best teacher ever. Though, it got off to a rocky beginning, and I think my imagination bloomed as a result of my escapism from a trauma that shook the world.

I'm not going to build up the morning of September 11th. The week my mother and I were going to take a special weekend outing to a festival in Indiana with my best friend. We'd been planning it for a year. I was in school, I went to go outside for morning recess and we were pulled back into the building in an abundance of screaming. I'll never forget the look of fear in our playground advisor's eyes. I ran inside and we were told only that they weren't allowed to talk about it. It's creepy as an adult to see a bunch of adults remain silent, and it's even more petrifying as a child. A classmate ran up to me and said that she'd seen my mother, and let her into the building so she could pay my tuition. My first thought was: idiot, we're on lockdown, that was a mistake. Then I took a sigh of relief. My mother was fine, and I could focus on finishing the day, so I could go home and find out what had happened.

Grandmother was waiting for me in the parking lot.

"What was it, what happened?" I screamed.

"Do you remember the twin towers we visited when we went to New York?"

"Yes, of course," I said, searching her face for more hints.

"They're gone."

We rushed to my godmother's house which was across the street. I sank to my knees at the sight of what was on the news, tears streaming down my face as the news anchors explained to me the situation and that was when I became aware of Osama bin Laden and all I could say was "I hope they find him."

A decade went by, and I just watched a video of Obama telling the world that bin Laden is dead. My country, my school, my culture is singing aloud like a scene from MunchkinLand.

I'm scared. Why am I strange? What is wrong with me to not have the first reaction of happiness when the man who had caused a world so much trouble is dead?

And, what's going to happen to us now?

Oh Dear.

So, hi. Tuesday, I was prepared to come to class, discuss ALL THE THINGS, and then talk to Lydia like a boss about flakey bookclub members. Then, I woke up when class was over having set my alarm for PM instead of AM like a notboss, and then had my rear handed to me in email form about the new bookclub style.

I'mma let that stew in passive-aggression for a bit.

So, from my perspective something really amazing is starting to happen int he video blogging community and instead of taking notes on it I thought I'd blog my thoughts at this moment-

When I first gained momentum as a blogger, I worked in direct opposition to what I saw. I posted painfully honest videos in efforts to break the norm of rehearsed bullshit content and to let people know that it's okay to be exactly who they are.

For once, on this front, I do not feel completely alone.

Video bloggers have begun to rebel, they're getting angry. But, at who? This story seems to be developing...

Culture. Easter? Yes.

My family...if you asked them...would identify as being Christian, so we observe the holiday of Easter. For various people in my family this means various things. As I had an emotional reunion with my father, my little sister bitched about how she couldn't find the Easter Basket mom hid for her. My grandmother took me to see my aunt, whom stuffed my face with food and candy while I enjoyed the Hello Kitty Coloring Book.

I ate a lot of resse's eggs. The end.

Like, Movie Night, or Whatever. (Blogging With a New Voice...an Annoying Voice)

So, in my dorm-thingy, it's not uncommon for there to be these movie nights. Tonight they coupled it together with some charity so the groups of people were making blankents for kids or puppies or something, I wasn't paying attention because that makes me tired.

Tonight we watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I, which as far as I can tell is about a bunch of people with sticks that can make stuff explode. Pfft, they call that magic? You know what, real magic is the ability to download angry birds in 30 seconds on an Ipad. Which I cannot do. Thanks OU internet!

During this time, people like talked-they call that interaction and apparently that's illegal in the UK. Also, people hugged, did homework and even ate pizza.

Here's a piechart explaining how much pizza I've eaten:



The same chart made of actual Pizza:



Here it is after I ate it:


Here is an updated chart:


In conclusion, talking makes me tired.

Video Blogging, My Story Part 1.

So, I've been a fan of youtube since its creation, and I've been a fan of the internet since I got a WebTV back when I was still in single digits. I've also been into expressing myself in many different mediums but I'd never considered film.

In 2006 a news story broke on Lonelygirl15, a youtube blogger who was a production. I became enthralled-over the next few years I would go on to create youtube accounts and interact with the characters as well as branch out to other webseries.

Though as the years went on, on a personal level, I was trapped in high school. A secretive quiet kid, still in the closet with a past that's as fractured and complicated as poorly-constructed simile. I was so tired of hiding every little thing, and I hated myself for the lies that my mind began to eat away at itself, and so for the first time I used youtube to describe the way I felt:



As I sledged through my depression and ended high school, I looked forward to the future of college-having at the very least found someone or something to tell my feelings to. It's interesting how most people find themselves privatizing what they put on the internet, but in my case the opposite is found.

I went to orientation with little sleep and anger at the fact I had been forced to go so late by my mother, but a surprise was waiting for me. Hope was born that day through a chain of events that led to my salvation.

I met a fellow videoblogger.

Casa Fiasco, a Cultural Event.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Ally. Terms I hope everyone understands, Ohio University is known for its liberal concepts and acceptance of all people. So, it’s natural that the LGBT scene is hopping, and this week is Pride Week.
I had hoped to blog about the Casa dance I went to on Saturday, a monthly event sponsored by one of the LGBT groups, Open Doors.

Despite having gone here since fall of 2009 I’ve never gone to one of these dances despite protest from my friends. Went to this past one, and somewhere between the drunken groping and the puke of someone else on my shoulder I realized it might be better to pick a different topic.

Tonight I attended a panel discussion on transsexual people and how to better educate yourself regarding those. I don’t mean to tread on any toes or disrespect any beliefs, but I think it’s imperative to be kind to everyone and try to understand everyone’s’ viewpoints. We were told about Gender Neutral Housing a program that’s going up next year and was spearheaded by a good friend of mine.
So yeah, no new information on my end, but it was a good night and I am very tired, see you tomorrow morning.

Thinking Outside the Box (Boxes 1, 2, and 11 to Be Precise.)

Hello everyone! There should be, by my calculations, two possible groups of readers looking at this blog. My usual readers and my classmates/teacher in my English class: Writing About Culture. Some of you know me, some of you don't, so I'll introduce myself all over again.

My name is PJ, I'm twenty years old, and I'm an undecided sophomore at Ohio University. My interests include pizza, videoblogging, pizza, art, pizza, writing, pizza, video games, pizza and nutrition. I'm a little aimless when it comes to my personal goals for the future considering I have so many interests, as you can see above, but I consider myself to be, first-and-foremost, a storyteller so I was very excited to see the subtitle for this class to be "Storytelling."

I've only been in this class two days and already I'm starting to realize that one could make a case for almost anything being a culture or a subculture. Thank goodness, too, because today's assignment requires answering box 1; in which we list some of the subcultures we attribute to ourselves. Here's one of mine:

Group

Blogging. The highest form of narcissism, in which I list everything about myself in some form or fashion and expect you to acknowledge it.

Location

The amazing thing about blogging is that you can basically do it anywhere: it is a subculture of the writing culture and it, in itself, has so many different subcultures within it just based on how one chooses to do it. You can write personal blogs, you can tweet in 130 characters or less, you can even video blog if you're especially brave, and but your talking face out there for the world to see. And, for anyone who's interested, you can find my various blogging accounts here, here, and here.

Behavior

Personally, I treat blogging as an escape but that doesn't mean I take it lightly. I personally intend on making people stop and think about what's going on and I do that by being brutally honest. You'll find everything in my work to insure this from funny stick figure comics relaying childhood anecdotes to my entire coming-out story video. I'm not always sure of the reaction I'll get, but I don't seem to mind so long as people are honest and they learn from it.

Insider Phrases

The internet itself has many different phrases and slang terms. Depending on the site, you have jargon that pertains to actions you can do. "Like" meaning to click a thumbs-up icon and approve of something, subscribe to add your youtube channel's name to a list to insure that account gets someone's videos when they're uploaded, at reply, retweet, hashtag, trending topics are all based on twitter. The list goes on, and on.

Rules or Rituals

Rules are typically self-moderated. In some cases obviously you can't break someone else's copyright or just plain take what's not your's, but from there on out you can be as open or closed as you like. What you might do also depends on the medium. For example, I'm obnoxious and random on twitter with hashtags/atreplies and make it my duty to make mobile tweeters pay for their impetuousness. Youtube is where I can be creative and serious, happy and sad, angry and joyous. But, that's just me!

So, box 2 says to look at a routine of mine from an outsider's perspective. Let's pretend I am not me, in this moment I am someone else: someone without dashing good looks and technically know-how...okay, fine, I'll keep the good looks.

I watch this person take their small box. Adjust the lighting, fix their hair, and on occasion change outfits then think pensively for a moment...a flick of the switch, a button snap and then a beep. The ritual of video blogging has started, and the speaker is talking a mile a minute, occasionally messing up and repeating themselves. They've stopped, now they're clicking away, angrily cursing at something called "Adobe Premiere" then flailing fists, before happy sigh and uploading has finished.

The idea of someone talking to a computer is odd, I'm pretending I've never experienced a computer before: an odd box with tubes and wires that glows and does amazing things. Virtually the world is at your fingers so, seeing someone take the world and put it into their lap, and then talk to it. The amazing...and scary thing is that sometimes, the world talks back.

So, then, it shouldn't be a surprise that I choose to study videoblogging as my subculture. I have my reasons for talking to the camera, and I know it's such an intimate act that you have to wonder how married I am to the subculture and if I can study it subjectively. The thing is: everyones' reasons are different, everyones' videos are different, the subject is ever-changing and evolving; and mixed with how the world views this content creation I think it'd be hard to be married to one view of it.

Not to mention, I would like to understand the way others view things in order to be a better producer but also in order to understand people better which is ALWAYS a plus.

So, class, Lydia, and my faithful readers-I just hit box 11 harder than a cow's indigestion hits the ozone. I look forward to this study, and can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with. See you in class! Unless...you don't go to my...class. Whatev's.