#FML: YouTube Unavailable?

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Jordan. He was one of the first writers here on TNTML and he's a really rad mofo. I forget how we first started talking - but he lives allllllll the way over in Kansas and wants to talk to you about life from his side of the monitor in the keyword of nerd. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT JORDAN!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @SaintPepsi

Remember when things were free on the Internet? Some of you may not. Still, I have grown accustomed to ads and having to wait to see things I’d like to see here and there. Seems like any form of popular media has ads a plenty before it. I have accepted that this is the way things will need to be for people to keep giving us the content we so desperately crave. Still, there are issues on the Internet that I doubt I will ever become used to. The main one of which currently is the inability to watch YouTube on anything but a laptop or a desktop. Sure you say there are things you can watch on your phone or tablet, still some of the most popular searches turn up with nothing that you are looking for. Even though you know it’s there. I just dealt with it as I went. We as a market tend to just accept any new legislation put upon us from the net gods.

You see my final straw came when YouTube allowed its content to stream on X-box live. I love the fact that I can now waste even more of my time on X-box but I found myself once again running into the inability to access certain media, be that music video’s or popular clips from revered sites. They have even taken it to the level of not allowing the embedded video on Facebook to be played without going to the actual YouTube page it came from. If artists want their videos to be seen, to share them with the world, and gain the popularity these creations will garner them, then why is it that the most accessible items in your day to day life are inaccessible?

It goes contrary to all reason when you don’t allow videos to be played on tablets, phones, or now the X-box. Everyone these days seems to have a smart phone and with that comes the ability to stream live videos in the palm of your hand. Yet when you suddenly want to show your friends, as they patiently wait for you to pull up this new find you came across, you find yourself vid blocked because you are on your phone. You pull out your tablet expecting different results... wait...YouTube views it as a mobile device as well. Fucked again! Well you’ll just have to wait till you get home because they just added YouTube to X-box. Again you are restricted. More frustrated now than ever you hop on Facebook to check that link you were sent and you are commanded to visit the original video post. This time you are just fed up. Sad and weary that you had to jump through so many hoops just to see a music video.

This is why media is always so far behind technology. You may recall the shit storm surrounding pirated music back in the day. It’s still illegal of course, but no one cares anymore because after some 10 years the music industry has finally gotten on board with the fact that everyone uses digital copies of everything. The Movie Industry only recently started including a digital copy of there movies because the only people that want a DVD are collectors. To be able to handle something in a tangible way. The rest of use are fine to declutter our life as much as possible. This is why Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, Last FM, and YouTube are all so very successful. Because they addressed the advancement of technology and allowed their media to stream live without the need of a player.

So why the step backwards YouTube? What gives? You were way ahead of your game for years allowing the upload of any kind of content and showing the worlds music videos before anyone else. MTV never had a chance, especially after they stopped playing music. See people know their audience too. So well right now, that video’s are usually only released online for streaming. As they grow, so to do increasingly annoying ads and interjections in the form of pop-ups. We allowed it. May we please not have to choose between our streaming devices. Allow all content posted on your pages to be just as easy to access on my phone as it is on a computer. Allow us to enjoy the same media no matter what device we hold in our hands. When we download a YouTube app we should be able to access all that YouTube has to offer. Not just the limited videos allowed to each device. Honestly, I don’t even understand why they would limit the mobile content.
I do realize that in a general sense it is the artists themselves or the companies that represent them that block the ability of their video’s to be shown on all devices.

To this I implore all artists, creators, and collaborators to allow access to all your media. Why else would you put it on a video sharing site if not to share it. We the audience are not your enemy. We are the creatures that crave your creations. Limiting our ability to consume will only make us hunger for something we can catch easily. Sadly, with the attention span that this world has adopted waiting to see your video when I get around a device that will allow it... well it will most presumably be forgotten by the time I make it there. We are what keeps your art in the lime light, I suggest a new form of attack. You want to go viral. Be it bad or good the public will make you famous. It’s up to you the creator, to allow us to pull you up to heights you never dreamed you could go. We are the fuel that burns the fires of relevance and all you have to do is provide the drive. Bring us your best and we’ll project it across the world. Bring us your worst and well show you just why you need to try harder to be better. We are the reason any of you are famous. Start taking us, the Internet audience into the equation. Allow us to be able to share you with anyone and everyone all the time. It’s the wave of the future my friends either get on board or get sucked back out to sea and die in the under toe of underwhelming restricted content.

#nerdsunite

click here to follow Jordan on the twittah!

Fun with #Facebook: Nerdy thoughts on a dislike button

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet Jordan. He's been writing for us for a while now ... actually come to think of it, he was one of the first writers on this site - so he's been here a superly duperly long time. He's got a lot of thoughts inside that big head of his, here are some of them ... HIT IT JORDAN!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @saintpepsi

What I am about to speak of has been bantered about the websphere for ages. It is something every single facebook user has thought about. Just like every male in the world at some point has thought about having sex with his female friends. Why isn't there a dislike button? No doubt you have seen the pages dedicated to petitioning facebook for one. Articles listing the reasons why. Others listing reasons why not. Still the thumbs down remains absent. Even with the plethora of reasons for it, still it is assumed that anything that you can dislike becomes negative. Why would facebook assume this? Disliking things isn't always negative. In fact there are things that demand dislike. “My grandmother just died in a car wreck, I found out I have cancer, or I lost my job because of downsizing.” These are things that should be disliked. Things that you then have to comment on because you can't just hit dislike. Resulting in an awkward conversation. Generally, even if people post depressing things on facebook they aren't looking to talk about them, just to keep people informed. The forced comment starts conversations. Where as a simple dislike allows someone to let them know we are thinking of them without engaging in a sore subject. On top of that the forced conversation often leads to angry statements such as, “I don't want to talk about it!” This is fine if you let it go at that. Still people tend to get confrontational at responses like this, “We take the time to comment and you don't even want to talk about it.” Suddenly, something that was just a dark spot in someone’s life or day becomes a battle to maintain privacy.  Ending in the deletion of the thread or people yelling at someone, “Why post about it at all if they didn't want to talk about it.” Sometimes, we just like to keep people informed without having to draw it out into a giant story. That's what notes and blogs are for.

This, “only think positive” trend seems to be saturating the net. With Googles +1 and Twitter's Favorite. Luckily, YouTube sacked up and put a thumbs down on it. It's almost like content control. It allows people to understand just what if something they did really is horribly offensive, or just plain sucks and should be taken down or left up as a testament to douchebaggery. Sometimes, we do or say things that need others to verify that they aren't good. As a people we tend to rationalize anything we do. It's how we get through the day. If we can convince ourselves that whatever we do is funny, essential, or good for us we can do that thing. Even if that thing is good, bad, or self destructive. Still that outside perspective can be a powerful motivator for change. It can open your eyes to your own faults. Or it can quickly open your eyes to overzealous creepy people, or jealous people. Let's say you are interested in a girl or guy and after you friend them they go through your photo's and dislike any picture you have with another girl or guy. Instantly, you are clued into their jealous streak and can avoid the relationship that would no doubt end shortly after this person punches a close friend of yours in the face for hugging you. Sure you can get the same feeling from them liking every single photo of you or liking everything you post or write, but with a dislike button it narrows that margin of error. Making it all the more creeptastic if they take the time to write something on each picture and status update. With a dislike button next to their comments you would be allowed to subtly let them know that they are creeping you the fuck out without having to unfriend them or block them right off the bat. Instead things tend to go way to far, way too fast. Your Mom can't just let you know she thinks your pictures are a little immature with a dislike, she has to comment on them. We lose the power of subtly.  Sure you can always simply like something to let people know you saw it, but you don't always like everything you hit that button on. I know plenty of people who simply write out dislike. Still at that point the other person knows you took the time to write. If you take that time you may have well have written a comment. It's a no win situation. In the end generally we just don't bother.

If you want to test this theory simply post something really happy one day. Chances are you will get a lot of “likes” and a few comments. The next day post something horrible or depressing. You will get 1 or 2 “likes” from people you will automatically think are dicks. You know that's true. Hell if people post awful things that happen to them and anyone “likes” it even if it's not my status I think they are dicks.  On top of that a whole shit ton of comments and questions on why you feel this way or asking what's wrong. All of which could have been avoided by a “dislike” button. Simple as that facebook. If youtube can add a “thumbs down,” you can surely add a “dislike” button. After that we'll talk about the “meh” button. Which shall be the new hot topic on the interwebs soon enough. Allowing people to voice their utter un-amusement and disdain for status updates and posts of irrelevance without having to commit to “liking” it or “disliking” it.  

#thatisall

click here to follow Jordan on Twitter!

#Fact: You don't need a college degree to be successful

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet Jordan. He's been writing for us for a while now ... actually come to think of it, he was one of the first writers on this site - so he's been here a superly duperly long time. He's got a lot of thoughts inside that big head of his, here are some of them ... HIT IT JORDAN!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @saintpepsi

College, It's what you need to get a job. It's what you have to have to be considered an adult. It's what you HAVE to have to get anywhere in life. That is if you are looking to get a specific degree in a certain field that you can only learn in college. For the 90 percent of other people, college is 6 years of partying and slacking off. You cram before exams and you push yourself to manage this new found freedom with the still odd sense of responsibility you have with a looming GPA. You see we are told time and time again college is necessary for advancement into adulthood. The thing is though if you are just getting a degree to say you have a degree then all you really get is a check mark on a resume. You will pay some 20 grand to be able to check graduated college. That's an expensive check mark. So you get your check mark and you go into a job interview. What's the first thing you get asked? Do you have any experience in the work force? Well you had that job in high school and a part time job in college to pay for beer and gas. Still it was just a way to get by without having to ask your parents for money that facebook would tell them is going to the bars. Unless your parent's paid your whole way through college in which case you have no experience in the job market at all. So the answer ends up being NO. Well, really we need someone with workforce experience they say. You walk out thinking but I have a degree. Doesn't that mean anything? A master’s degree does. That's another 4 years in college and another 20 grand in debt. With only a hope of getting a job in whatever field you are looking into with all the other people in this job climate clamoring for the same position. Each having a similar degree. Creative writers turn to blogs, Anyone with degrees in history pray to the old literature god's that they can sub at a school just enough to be worth a real teaching gig, in a time when teachers are being cut left and right.

You see I have a degree; I went to school to become a minister. What did I get from that degree? I got a 20 grand check mark on a resume. Telling employers I can finish something I start. That's not worth 20 grand. I do now have 6 years training at a supervisor capacity and with that comes the ability to say, “Yes! I have had experience in leading people, working with others, and managing time.” So when I go to look for jobs having the ability to turn to my old employment for a reference, a place where I made money and didn't just funnel it into an education I'm not using, these new employers will be more likely to say great we need someone who knows how to lead and direct. The college degree will help but the experience will be what sells me as a worthwhile candidate. Did I need to go to college? Not really. It was a good rite of passage. It was fun meeting new people, but as far as people I went to school with I talk to maybe 3 of them still. The people I work with I am very close with. We formed a bond in servitude to the wage statement. I know I'll get parents and others who will tear me down for saying this, but sending yourself into crippling debt and coming away with a lack luster degree isn't a great way to start adulthood.

With the ability to learn just about anything you want from the internet for free teachers have become slightly unnecessary. In college teachers refer to pre-created power points, recorded lectures from TED talks and other things that you could be watching on your own time for free on the net. If you have a passion to learn something you will take the initiative to learn it whether you are in college or not. We have the tools in our hands and they are offered for free. Once you start following your passion nothing can stop you. If anything college shows you how to avoid your passion; as it heaps class after class of things you should have learned in high school if you were paying attention. That's just a fact. Gen Ed courses are high school all over again. Except this time you are paying a grand a class. I write for this blog. I didn't go to Jen Friel and say I have a college degree. I simply started writing for it. A position some creative writing grads would probably kill to have. Why? Because it's a noteworthy place. People actually read what I write. I write for a local paper called the Hype. A position I got because I write for this blog. I do commission art work for people all over the world. Currently, working with Misti Dawn on her new site. A job I got because of my own skills unlearned in college and because of this blog. Truth be told this blog has afforded me more opportunities than any college degree I could have ever gotten.

How much did it cost me to get into this blog? Nothing and while I may not be paid to write for talknerdytomelover I do it because it's a passion I have. Passion is what fuels us and without it we spiral into oblivion and repetition. So I say if you know what you want to do in life after you get out of high school do it. Forgo College and run right into the career you want. Do the research you need to in order to know the field and surprise them with that knowledge. Right now my college degree has earned me nothing but debt. My passion has acquired me the most amazing and inspiring friends I have ever had, adventures I can recount to anyone who will listen, and contacts in the fields I love. Truly getting ahead in life is based on your passion and your contacts. Who you know will ultimately secure your place in this world.

Stop being stepped on and taking yourself for granted. Stop wondering how people keep getting hired without the degree you have. Start doing. Start working towards just what it is you want to be. Start living.  

#nerdsunite

Click here to follow Jordan on Twitter!

#Fact: My mom thinks I'm an alcoholic because of Facebook

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet Jordan. He's been writing for us for a while now ... actually come to think of it, he was one of the first writers on this site - so he's been here a superly duperly long time. He's got a lot of thoughts inside that big head of his, here are some of them ... HIT IT JORDAN!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @saintpepsi

My mother thinks I'm an alcoholic and I can't say I blame her. I did what every young adult dreads and friended my mother on facebook quite a while ago. I didn't mind really, in the moment mostly I was proud that my mother had gotten an account and was using social media to keep in contact with her children. Soon however, this became an issue. You see, she sees all the crazy things I post from status updates, photos, and things I would share. I got complaints about the nude art I posted, questions about my faith based on things I had posted, scoldings from curse words I had used in updates, and quite a few angry phone calls on things I had written about on TNTML. The Fleshlight review I did sparked a very interesting conversation. One I never anticipated having with my mom. It came down to the fact that I had a growing audience of people that paid attention when I wrote things. Something I had never really fathomed. Apparently, quite a few of my mothers co-workers at the hospital she works at enjoy my articles. I know, I talk a lot! Knowing people are listening is all together terrifying and new. Yet, I still never really edited down my crazy. I mean I could have, but what's the point in writing things if they don't spark some kind of reaction. So keep that in mind when I tell you why facebook has turned us all into assumed alcoholics.

When facebook came out it was only a social network for college students. You had to have a college email to even use the damn thing. I went to a private Christian college and apparently it wasn't recognized as a real college in the eyes of the facebook gods. So it wasn't until I had to take a science class at K-State that I got a legit college email address. When that happened I finally was allowed access to the realm of facebook. So I started out small. I did what everyone else in the world did I crept on anyone I knew that had facebook. They found me as well and I was willing to accept any new friend that asked. This later had be culled as I found out I was friends with peoples pets and babies. BABIES CREEP ME THE FUCK OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Still, I loved the ability to tag your friends in photos and find new ones through tags in your own. Making the ability to meet and greet so much easier. Who was that at the party last night? Oh right they were in a picture my friend took and tagged.  Soon I had plenty of people to tag and more so photo's of me in crazy situations started surfacing. Now I have never been shy about my personal life. Ask me anything I'll tell you the truth. So I never untagged myself. This became one of those hot button issues when employers started creeping on peoples facebook accounts to see what kind of people they would be hiring. There in lies the problem.

Why do you take your camera out? You assume whatever party or function you are going to will be photo worthy. People don't take pictures of themselves at home just relaxing. That's what myspace was for. Bathroom photo shoots. No you take your camera out for fun occasions and as soon as you aren't in high school anymore and maybe while you are in high school those functions generally contain alcohol or other substances. So naturally you become documented having drinks, being drunk, or all manner of depravity. The dreaded red and blue cup of assumed intoxicating liquid. Those pictures find their way to facebook and you look at them and love them because they remind you of the crazy night you had. The stories you tell your friends are lent credence with the photos from the event. Seriously, Keisha showed up, got naked, and ran around setting things on fire! Don't believe me look at the photos. So when my mom or other older generations check out these pictures that magically surface onto their accounts because for some reason they are only friends with their immediate family; your crazy drunken antics are plastered all over their newsfeed. They sigh and wonder how all their good parenting had been flushed down the toilet with way to much tequila and cheap beer. This is the internet mark of who we are. Look through any of your friends photos if they were brave enough to keep themselves tagged painted half purple doing a keg stand. You would have to surmise that they were alcoholics. Hell! They only have pictures of themselves at parties and getting plastered. I realize there are many people out there that have a modicum of decency and immediately un-tag themselves from any compromising photo's for fear someone might judge them. Those people are probably smart and cowards.

No mom I'm not an alcoholic. I really don't drink that much. Maybe, twice a week at most depending on the week. I mean Halloween and Saint Patrick's Day have to be celebrated for at least a week if not more. I didn't spend a month making a costume to use it once. This isn't a wedding dress. As far as drinking in excess; that happens even less. However, I bet I had a camera. I had a camera because I knew that that night would be crazy awesome and documenting it meant two things. I had proof that certain shit happened and I could piece together why my pants got ripped, I lost my favorite necklace, and I had a black eye. It's the responsible thing to do. Still to assume based solely on pictures that we are who those pictures proclaim us to be, would be jumping the gun a bit I think. I have to tell you ½ of my life is pretty drool. I spend a lot of it in front of my computer, playing video games, or reading. Each of these things are not photograph-able or interesting. Unless you have found a way to turn Mario Party into a drinking game... which we have. Still not much of a drinker at all. Usually, drinking in public is expensive and in this current economic climate I just don't have the funds unless there is a damn good special at the bar. Further more it takes a lot to get me drunk. I'm a beast and so add expensive to a lot and I have two very solid reasons not to drink.

So there you have it Mom. Your son of whom you worry, isn't as bad a seed as you might have thought. Trust me when I say your parenting is well used. I have grown into a well adjusted young man with morals and scruples. I treat women with respect, I don't often over indulge, and I am a stead fast man for my friends. The life lessons you imparted on me are well used and implemented on a day to day basis. I may say things that rile you up. I may post things that get under your skin. Still to this day when I tell people why I am a good man and not a douchebag alcoholic it is you and dad that I credit for that. You raised me right and I assure you you will never have to worry about ending up on the Jerry Springer show with me screaming about how you screwed me up as a child. You raised me right and for that I thank you. Don't take me for what the pictures tell you I do all the time. I can safely admit my life is far more boring than that.  

#thatisall

Click here to follow Jordan on Twitter!

#NerdsUnite: A saint reflects on the fate that will meet us all ...

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet Jordan. He's been writing for us for a while now ... actually come to think of it, he was one of the first writers on this site - so he's been here a superly duperly long time. He's got a lot of thoughts inside that big head of his, here are some of them ... HIT IT JORDAN!!! </editorsnote>

I just got back from one of my closest friends father's funeral.  I must say I have never been super phased by death. I know it happens and when it does I accept it. It was a joy to see the impact this man had on those attending and those that couldn't make it. He had lived to see his grand children and loved his wife for 31 years. I will still find myself drawn to tears at these events. It is sad to see a loved one go. To see them pass from this life to whatever lays beyond the veil. Still the love of those there was tangible. So saying that, I will usually go to funerals for people that I believe have lived lives full and found their peace in the end when they go to meet their creators. I still went and cried over the loss of my Grandma Orth and my Aunt Connie. Both powerful forces in my life. People that shaped me into the loving and overly joyous person I am today. It's never easy to lose the ones we care about. I have found that I do not go to funerals for those whom die young. To me those are tragedies. To lose someone in the prime of their lives. I have avoided the funerals of young family members and friends alike. I have been set upon by those in attendance for my lack of vigilance.

Still I will tell you true why I do not attend. When my cousin Rachael passed, I know I would have been granted leave to go and see her funeral. I know that work complications were not an issue and nor was my ability to get there in some form or fashion. To me it was something altogether different. You see the last time I saw her alive we rejoiced in our time together. We rarely got to see each other and so it was a moment of jubilation to see each other again. We had gone to Tulsa for an Anime convention and when I say we, I mean my friends Amy, Laura, and I. It was a perfect reason to see Rachael. So I took it, she may have lived in a very dodgy neighborhood and I may have gotten lost and had to ask a cop who was pulling a gun away from a man how to get back to the interstate. Still in that I got to spend some time with her. Later on a few years down the road, I found out she had passed. When my family asked if I wanted to go see her funeral I declined. I wanted to remember her alive. I wanted my final memory of the two of us to be together laughing and sharing stories of our grand adventures as children.  You know I do accept her passing, I acknowledge her absence in my life. Still I feel like she's just out of my reach and still somewhere out there. I haven't had to face the body of the dead. In that they live on in my memory alive and well. I cannot allow my final memory with someone my age to be of me looking down at what's left of them in this world cold and gone.

The same held true for my dear friend Dan Valentine. Whom had fallen ill with complications due to cancer. A cancer they failed to diagnose till it was too late. We had enjoyed some pretty marvelous adventures between the two of us as well. Not to mention countless conversations outside of Maes. I had gone with friends to see him while he was in the hospital; having refused Chemo he had also accepted his fate. Our time then may have been sad, but he was alive. He was smiling. We shared laughs and jokes at each others expense, which was pretty typical for us. I had even said, “I wished I could have lost as much weight as he had he was looking trim.” My phones ringer being set to, “Dun Dun Dun!” went off right after saying that. He smiled at me and said, “Did you plan that?” I replied, “Hell NO! That was just ridiculously bad timing.” We just laughed. It was as good a final meeting as we could have had. I think I knew as I left that hospital that it would be the last time I saw him. That I wouldn't get a chance to hear his voice or join in laughter again. So in that moment we made the very best of our time. I told him I loved him, I hugged him, and I walked out of his room and about a hallway away broke down. My friends and I just held each other and cried. Then went and had dinner and shared stories. A few weeks later after his passing they asked me to go to his funeral. I just couldn't Once again I didn't want my final memory of him to be me standing there looking at what life had left behind. It wasn't fair to take either of them at that time. Life can be a bitch like that sometimes. Still do not think me cold or callous for refusing to go to a young friends funerals. It isn't like that. It isn't my desire to not be there and hold my friends and remember. I will find them later and be there for them then. For me it has always been to remember them as living, loving, and caring friends that have moved me in life. Have impacted me in small and large ways. I will celebrate the short time they have had here. I will delight in my chance to have shared and walked with them in these moments we have been granted. So please understand that it is only out of love for their memory alive that I refuse to see them in death. 

#thatisall

click here to follow Jordan on Twitter!