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<editorsnote> Hi, I'm Jen Friel, and we here at TNTML examine the lives of nerds outside of the basements and into the social media, and dating world.  We have over 75 peeps that write about their life in real time. (Real nerds, real time, real deal.) Sit back, relax, and enjoy some of the stories!! </editorsnote>

 

 

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Entries in what is lifecasting (10)

Saturday
Jan082011

What is #Lifecasting? 

Wow ... I just had the most interesting conversation on OkCupid today that just made so many things click in my head. Read ...

 

CLICK!! *lighbulb* I get it.

You all have to understand - everything has been done in real time. Normally people don't start telling a story until the end. Being done in real time creates a different paradigm for all the parties involved. For sure. I have to sit there as the storyteller and with direct intent tell the story so that you can recall it a certain way and retell it the way that I want you to. My problem is, is I don't know the story. I can only tell you first hand that this is my everyday experience on the most incredible ride of my life. That's it. Sounds so simple, but could not feel more complicated.

I've said this before, I will say it again, this website has nothing to do with you. Literally, if not a single person in this world read us - I'd totes mcgotes be awesome with that. I don't know how to stress that enough. I've been scribbling in journals my entire life, and have always been lifecasting to a certain degree before the medium was even established. Lifecasting is unlike anything I've seen before. It's not masturbation, or whatever someone put in the comments recently ... although, hahaa that made me laugh - I was like dude, don't knock masturbation. I do it as often as I can. I am a horny, horny, horny human being.

Lifecasting to me is clearing my head. I have 7,000 ideas, songs, patterns, whatever bopping around in my head all day everyday. Getting to post on whatever I am feeling is just a release. Period end of sentence. If you were here, or you weren't - I'd still need that release. This is just the healthiest and most productive form it can manifest itself in.

What I love though is this by product of a shared experience. By me saying, yes this is what I am feeling, COUNNTTTLLESSSSSSSS others are able to feel the same way and think, wow! I'm not alone!! Get it? That's also why our official hashtag is #nerdsunite! There's always a reason ... My ultimate goal is more about making people understand that no matter who they think they are, what their circumstances were, or are ... they too can change. They are not a product of their past, and they can move forward and do something in the future. I documented a shift in consciousness. That is fucking RADDD!! And something I am so so so so so so proud of. I look back at posts from last year, and think wow - I can see this, or I can see that ... and a year from now, I'm sure I'll look back and say wow, I see this AND that. I faced all of my own fears and recognized my own unapologetic awesomeness - and owned it through and through. That doesn't make me any more special than ANNYYONNNEEE else on this planet, it only makes me awesome. What's your awesome? By you being awesome doesn't make me any less awesome - or vice versa. It's like this quote from my dear TNTML friend Armeni ...

"And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

That was my intention ... liberate my own soul. It wasn't about you, it wasn't about creating a brand even just so much that I just got sick of being so sick and tired all of the time. I wanted to just be happy, and consistently surround myself with AWESOME people.

Being a social butterfly and a complete computer nerd from the womb made that a very very very easy thing for me to do. Social media saved me. There's no doubt about that. Had it not been for every email, every tweet, every facebook message ... I have no idea if I would have been able to keep trucking through the last year. It's been hella stressful, but also hella fun. I made a HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE change in my life, and it inadvertently inspired a lot of other people to do the same because of the powers of the internet. I use a lot of I statements, and speak from a lot of personal experience not to say nah ne nah ne nah ne, but to say - yes, first hand, this is what I felt ... but you can get through this like I did, and here's how. That's it. I found my light, and I let it shine bright. It doesn't mean your candle can't be lit just as bright. Please by all means ... if anyone EVVERRRR has a site to promote, or wants me to help them do something in social media or lifecasting - I would be so so so happy to help. I would utterly adore it, and over the years have been able to study a lot of best practices.

For reals, I look to give back and be of service as much as humanly possible. So please, do not ever ever ever hesitate to just ask.

Your awesome is organic, and all I wanted to do was find mine and be happy for the first time in my life, completely independent of outside influences. That's it. Freedom. I wanted freedom from my own negative thoughts and subsequent negative actions. I had no idea if it would work, I just used this site as a sounding board. It then grew ... and grew ... and grew ... where it will go next, is no longer up to me. I'm just kinda riding the wave.

Lifecasting is a glimpse inside my brain. Sometimes it doesn't make sense to you ... but I hope no matter what you can all take away a feeling or an emotion in some capacity. Just FEEL .00005% of the CRAZY UNBRIDLED PASSION that I have for what I do. If THAT is even conveyed in a digital forum for even a millisecond, than I am fine with it.

Look at this ... this moment was shot in October after I had received a call with literally the worst news I had ever received in my entire life.

No joke ... my only instinct was that I needed to hit record. I didn't know what I was feeling, but I knew it was intense - and through shared experience of said emotion, I might be able to help someone else, which will no doubt help myself. Reading your tweets, emails, and comments after totally made my life. That helped me through a very very VERY difficult time in my life. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, seemingly perfect strangers reached out to offer their support not their sympathy. (Sympathy was actually the last thing that i wanted. I recognize this shit happens to everyone. All I wanted to do was just have some sort of platform where I could release my own voice and process what I was feeling.) It just became this unified force at a moment when I needed it the most.

You can like lifecasting, or not ... I don't take any of it personally ... whatever knocks peoples socks off. I just really really really am PSYCHOTIC about the love that I feel for what I do, and hope that it is able to help others in similar situations, but if not - cool beans. I still wouldn't change it for the world.

All my love, and all my heart TNTML. Thank you for being in my life.

You be you, I'll be me. Let's be awesome.

Click here to print out your permission slip to be Unapologetically Awesome.

 

Saturday
Dec252010

#Category: YAY LIFE!!

 

DUDE!!! He totally texted me back saying he'd love to go out on a date! Woahh ... I have such a crush on this guy. We've been friends for years and years and years ... and he's incredibly nerdy ... we just reconnected when he came to my birthday ... wow ... im totally blushing ... stop being such a chick Jen. Stop being such a chick. Be more like the dude, be more like the dude ... totally could use one of these ...

*whew* MUCH BETTER!! Font is now biggeerrr!!

I only have one thing left to say ...

HIT IT POINTER SISTERS!!!!!!

#nerdsunite

 

Friday
Dec102010

Say whhhhaaaaa???

A big part of my job is just constantly being available. I never know what the interwebz is going to throw at me. But I just operate in this world where at any given moment if you want to talk to me - you can.

Because of that, chats on Facebook like this happen ...

 

Are you kidding me? And her name is Jennifer too. So all THREE lifecasters on this site would be named Jen. I dunno ... I'm on the fence. I asked her to send me an assignment, we'll see what she does with it.

She'd actually be a pretty solid candidate. I looked at all of her stuff on Facebook. She's definiitteelllyy interesting.

Thoughts?

Wednesday
Nov172010

#TNTML gets real ... like really real ... prolly TMI type real

Alrite, so after great debate all week on how exactly I want to launch this project - I have come to the decision that I only want 1 other lifecaster to start in stage 1.

I follow the KISS mentality of keep it simple stupid - and honestly, this site keeps me so busy as is on the day to day, launching 4 lifecasters just doesn't make sense right now. I have to follow my gut, and training 3 other people to do my job is just going to stress me out. Jen stressed is totally not kosher for anyone's passover! Plus, I need to see how you all react, and tweak things here and there - and tweaking one other person is way easier.

I have chosen @JenSquard as the other lifecaster. One, just based on popularity. You guys love her ... and two, because she and I are SOOO different!!

@JenSquard was born the rebel, and is currently a mommy and wifey.

I on the other hand, was raised the goody goody, and a year ago said this wasn't the life for me, so I started a website.

Good girl gone bad, bad girl gone good. 2 very different lives under the same name, brought together under the keyword of nerd.

One is in the booming social space, and attempting to balance her IRL social life ... the other is in the baby booming state balancing the duties of being a wife, mother, and photographer. Each in their own jungles, battling their own day to day lions and wildebeests.

I can't deny the angst that I feel for tradition, that's my constant. I just have to figure out a way to add value to that and not alienate the audience.

This is a total dream come true, and I can't think of anyone who could be a better fit for this then @JenSquard. YAY!!

Stay tuned nerds ... it's gettin good!

#nerdsunite

 

 

Tuesday
Nov092010

What makes a good #lifecaster? 

Operating as a 1 woman camera crew in 2008. That's the web cam, attached to a netbook, which ran off of a sprint air card. Awkward situations not included.I've been racking my brain all day trying to figure out if there is such a thing as a "perfect lifecaster." I have 3 people I already know I want to come on board to lifecast, just because I know I find them to be great storytellers and incredibly interesting people overall ... but there is no formula for this type of shit yet. Which is kinda awesome ... gives you room to play. MTV's Real World pretty much solidified the reality TV stereotypes ... "the hot chick, the dumb jock, the thoughtful one, the class act, the gay one, and the two that always ended up dating for the entire season." But what the hell makes a good lifecaster? It's definitely not something everyone can do. I've tested that theory, it's just not pretty. 

First off, I've just been thinking about what the hell is a lifecaster? The best definition I could come up with is someone who dictates their life across the workable elements of social media. That's my standard definition when people ask me what I do. At any given moment, you can find out what I'm watching (via @gomiso), where I am (via FourSquare), what I'm listening to (via pandora), what I'm thinking (via twitter) ... and be told the entire story combing all of those elements via this loverly little website. 

I tell good stories. No joke, I've been waiting for something like this to happen my entire life. A lot of weird, crazy, random shit happens to me. For reals!!! I've been like this little magnet forever and a day for interesting situations to just be attracted to. Total awesome sauce! But just having interesting things happen to me doesn't make a good lifecaster. You have to be able to tell the story. 

In reality TV you have producers, editors, directors, a whole SLLEEWWW of people behind the scenes that watch what you do and figure out a way to tell the story with the footage they've captured. Lifecasters have to be able to tell the story in real time as it is happening in 140 characters, followed up with either a video or blog post after. It's night and day. I think eventually this art form will have producers, directors, and whatever else ... but we're currently in the trenches. So, we've got to figure this shit out for ourselves. 

I'm totally figuring this out today, so if you guys have any ideas on what makes a lot of this interesting, and what doesn't I'm totally game to hear it. I need to write up these guidelines to give the lifecasters before they officially begin ... and I'm kinda just stuck. 

Tweet me: @JenFriel or Facebook my butt: Facebook.com/jenfriel

Thanks in advance!! xoxo 

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