Steve's Journal
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "protopod" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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02:16 pm
[Link] | It looks like it's going to be another hot Summer.
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08:32 am
[Link] | So, I've recently started writing ebooks. It seems to be going well. I've only published two, so far, but I plan to have a lot more, eventually. I'm currently working on the third. Eventually, I hope to novelize my Commander Neat web show, since it's probably going to be a long time before I actually finish it, if I even do. Right now, that's not looking too likely. Turning the series into an ebook, or a series of ebooks, would, at least, allow the entire story to be told much more quickly than it would take to produce it in video format.
Unlike the videos I make on YouTube, which I just do as a hobby, the main purpose of writing ebooks is to eventually turn it into a career that actually results in a little cashflow. Since I seem to be stuck in a state of perpetual unemployment, with no income whatsoever, I'm hoping that establishing myself as an ebook author will, in time, allow me to compensate for that.
I really don't like self-promotion because it's too much like spamming. Right now, there's not really any other way to advertise and get the word out. I generally leave that to people who actually like my work and who do it because of that reason.
My current and future ebooks can be found here.
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/protopod
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03:23 pm
[Link] | It's February, at least for several more hours. This is the obligatory monthly post. Feel free to throw confetti at it.
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05:30 am
[Link] | Hi, 2012.
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05:51 pm
[Link] | Bye, 2011.
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09:06 am
[Link] | Welcome back, Standard Time.
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05:57 am
[Link] | Hi, October.
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02:40 pm
[Link] | Bye, September.
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07:13 pm
[Link] | Well, it's the end of another month. It's been a long one and I'm glad it's almost over. I'm not really a fan of the Summer months.
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11:40 am
[Link] | Happy Julymas.
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10:00 am
[Link] | I've been thinking about starting a gradual move out of video blogging and into audio podcasting. I've been making video blogs for over five years and have grown a bit tired of the format, talking into a camera and such, so I think trying something new for a while would be a nice change. It might even become a permanent change, if it works out. I haven't decided anything, though, so we'll see.
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06:16 am
[Link] | I just woke up from a dream about being at some kind of acting school. Every time there was a read or a rehearsal, I never knew my lines, so I sometimes improvised them, which made everyone be like "yeah, whatever." The instructor told me she (or he, can't remember) e-mailed them to me and I told her that I never got them. Later, I found the lines for a few reads printed out, inside a photo album that I had forgotten about.
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08:41 am
[Link] | So, I'm messing around with starting another web comic called Ugville, which was inspired by a couple of "ug" tweets I made on Twitter, apparently. I wanted to make my own character models for it, but I couldn't come up with a unique design for them and ended up using models from the net for the first strip. I don't like to spend a lot of time and energy on making models and they looked better than anything I could make quickly, so I used them. I should probably start giving credit to the actual creators of the models I use, though.
We'll see how long this thing lasts, I guess. For now, I'm using Blogger for it, but that might change.
http://ugville.blogspot.com/
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08:55 am
[Link] | People on YouTube keep making comments on my videos, as well as sending private messages, asking me if I work, what I do for a living, how I support myself, that kind of thing. I don't approve those comments or, generally, reply to those private messages because I don't like discussing those subjects online with the entire world. How I currently support or don't support myself is a private matter and no one's business but my own.
To attempt to quell speculation that I've noticed, I will say this. Yes, I am unemployed, due to the fact that I don't currently have transportation of my own to go to and from a potential job. I no longer have a car and there are no public transportation systems in this area, which makes it virtually impossible to travel to a job every day. I have looked into working from home, but have found nothing but scams in that area.
I'm not and never have been on welfare, nor have I ever collected any kind of unemployment or disability insurance. I've never applied for unemployment compensation because I see it as basically getting paid for doing nothing and I don't approve of adding to the burden of our financial system like that. I've never applied for disability insurance because I'm not disabled, mentally or physically, which is a prerequisite for it.
It would be nice if people would just be satisfied with what I do volunteer about myself on the Internet, without wanting more. One of the things about having an online presence is that people seem to think that, if they can watch you online, that must mean you're online for them.
To those people, let me say this. I'm not online for you. I'm online for myself.
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08:05 am
[Link] | Daylight Standard Time is gone, Daylight Saving Time is here. I'm looking forward to Standard Time's return in November.
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07:42 pm
[Link] | It's been a long day. Between making the video today, cutting the grass and dealing with the dog, I'm worn out and ready to go to bed. The fact that I woke up a little before 5:30 AM this morning might also have something to do with it.
I'm thinking about skipping TV tonight and going right to bed after I shut the computer down in a bit. There's nothing on, so I'd just end up watching Babylon 5, anyway.
Since I'm doing the video-a-day thing this month, I guess I should come up with something for tomorrow. I think I'll worry about that tomorrow, though.
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07:05 pm
[Link] | There's not really anything going on. I'm about to shut down the computer for the night and watch a DVD, then go to bed. I'm still trying to get rid of all this extra mucus that got stuck in my head when I took a couple of small tablets, 24 hours apart, to get rid of sinus drainage. Well, they got rid of it, all right. They stopped my head up so the mucus didn't have anywhere to go, so it just kept growing and growing and... You get the picture. Hopefully, the excess will be gone soon.
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06:33 am
[Link] | Windy weather woke me up at around midnight, last night, when it blew some rain against the window. I spent probably over an hour trying to go back to sleep, because my leg was restless, for some reason. Once I did, I managed to sleep until 5:30 AM.
Right now, I've got the bedroom's window open to let in some fresh air, even though it's around 49 F right now. The wind is periodically howling through the trees and it's still cloudy, but it's supposed to clear up later.
So, November is finally over. Happy December, everyone.
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08:29 am
[Link] | So, I submitted a design graphic for a shoe to Zazzle a day or two ago, which had to be reviewed before they would allow use of it, for some reason. I'm guessing it was because the design would go specifically on a shoe and shoes are on their list of items that need approval. Anyway, they e-mailed me to inform me that it couldn't be used because they thought it might violate copyright laws. I thought that was odd, since I made the design from scratch and it contained no copyrighted material. It simply showed a 3D rendering of the TARDIS from Doctor Who on one side of the shoe and "DOCTOR WHO" on the other side. Saying it violated copyright was like saying a stick drawing I drew by hand of the TARDIS, with "Doctor Who" written under it, violated the copyright.
I e-mailed them back and explained that I made the design myself with 3D software, without using any copyrighted sources. This morning, they replied and insisted that it infringed on the BBC's copyright.
So, I guess they shouldn't have approved those other shoes that use an actual image from the show, then. (cough)
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10:13 am
[Link] | Well, it's Halloween again, which means I'm working on a special video for it. I've been doing Halloween videos since 2006 (but skipped 2008) and have kind of lost interest in making them, so the one I'm throwing together now will probably be my last one.
For some reason, I woke up this morning at 12:30 AM. I didn't really feel sleepy, so, since it was technically Halloween, I decided to start recording today's video. I sat against a wall with my camcorder, lit by a little desk lamp on the floor (Mr. Lamp, for anyone who remembers it) and recorded several takes. I tried to act creepy, but I'm not sure if it came across the way I wanted it to, so having several takes to choose from will help a little. After finishing, I went back to bed a little after 1 AM.
I woke up again around 5:30 AM and decided to record it again outside, hoping the different ambience would work better. It was still dark, so I turned on the lights outside of the garage and began recording. Thinking back, it would've looked better if I had taken my glasses off, but I didn't think about it at the time. Since the recordings I made outside weren't as "creepy" as the ones I made inside, I decided not to use them.
A few hours later, after wrestling with the idea of how to make a chase scene with a demon, I decided it wasn't very practical to try to do that because it would be too difficult to manually motion-track the demon, since I would be holding the camcorder and have no idea how to do automatic motion tracking. I decided to just have the demon and I looking at each other, each fading in and out, depending on the perspective, then have the demon run or fly towards the camera, then cut to blackness.
Of course, now, after spending time writing all of this, I have even less interest in working on the video than I did before. Currently, I'm entertaining the thought of scrapping the whole demon idea and just posting a video of me trying to speak creepily, with no 3D or anything, with maybe a few sound effects thrown in.
That's how things are at this point. We'll see how it works out, I guess.
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