AlmostLikeLife

Okay, so over the last 24 hours I've been going back and forth with my buddy about the different feedback we've gotten and how we can apply it. Here's how it's gone so far. - The goals we have for the channel are almost completely different. I would like it to be a genuinely entertaining channel with a wide audience that enjoys the videos we make. Whereas his was to just have a channel that uploads regularly that our "die-hards" (aka friends) watch. - I pitch going HD. He shuts it down and says it's not necessary because "we're known for our crap quality". - I pitch cutting all our old stuff and basically hitting the reset button. He shuts it down, saying he wants to keep the old ones up to "show our evolution" as a channel. - I give up ground, agreeing to keep the old videos online, but put them on an alternate channel. Nope. Then I agree to keep them on the main channel, but put them all together in a separate playlist. That seemed okay with him. - I suggest re-recording our Metal Gear Solid 2 playthrough, which we've only done an hour of so far and haven't posted any of it yet. Nope, because he doesn't want it to "go to waste". - I concede, agreeing to keep doing it the way we're doing it, but to integrate the new HD stuff with our regular schedule. Still says it's not necessary. Decides that we could use the HD PVR for N64 games and there's "no other use for it". (the capture device I have now doesn't capture N64 for some reason) - I make one final push for HD. Saying that, at the very least, HD footage makes for a good looking thumbnail in searches that people would be more apt to click on. He counters with "Why don't we make thumbnails then? saves money. can't be hard to do." I gave up all my ground in this argument, and now if he's going to start getting bitchy about it, then fuck the entire channel.

Duh. My bad. Here ya go: http://www.youtube.com/user/DumpsterGameplay

My buddy and I started our YouTube channel - DUMPSTER GAMEPLAY - last December. We have 22 videos up and just passed 500 total views today. We have 9 subscribers but they're all our personal friends. Most of our videos struggle to get to 15 views. I would like to take the channel to a new level, but my friend doesn't want to change anything. We don't record in HD and we play some no-name indie games just for laughs. One person I talked to suggested getting a HD PVR, taking all the existing videos down, and starting fresh. I came around to the idea fairly quickly, because we have no subscriptions outside of our circle of friends so it doesn't really matter. My friend on the other hand feels that removing all the videos is a bad idea because he wants to show "how we evolved" and doesn't feel HD is necessary because "we're known for crap quality". He doesn't want to wait to do new HD videos because "we don't get views if we don't have any content up", even though we hardly get views now. He also doesn't think word of mouth promotion ever reaches past our circle of friends. I have been trying to talk him to at least a middle ground, but he's steadfast on not changing a thing and being content with only 10-15 views on any video we post. Anyway, I digress. Please, if you have some time to kill, could you look up the channel, check out some of the videos and let us know what you think/how we can improve.

I'm a die-hard Baltimore Ravens fan. Have been since 2006. So, tonight was supposed to be a night of celebration, the team just won the Super Bowl for christ sake. Can I enjoy it though? No. Because my mom decided tonight would be a great time to bring up more of her cry-baby antics. In the second half of the game, the 49ers started to come back into the game. I, being a passionate fan, started feeling a bit upset. Nothing over the top. Just head-in-the-hands and heavy sighs and such. My mom, being the wannabe actress that she is, decided to storm out of the house. She came back after the game and started screaming, "THERE IS NO MORE FOOTBALL IN THIS HOUSE!", tearing down the streamers we set up, and slamming doors, etc. She comes to me later and says she gets that way because she's afraid I might kill myself if they lose. Excuse me? So I say I get frustrated because I'm passionate about my team. She says, "It's just a fucking game!" Once again I say excuse me? If her Oakland Raiders have to punt on their opening drive of the season, she starts bawling and writes them off for the whole season, screams at anyone who tries to talk to her, etc. And she dare tell me that it's "just a game"? I didn't get to enjoy the Ravens' first Super Bowl win in 2001 because I wasn't a fan then. This one was supposed to be mine to enjoy, and now I can't because she just had to ruin it.

I never considered giving up on life before age 25 as an option, but apparently I have no choice in the matter now. I'm sick and tired... of my dead-end meaningless job, of my hypocrite family members, and of everything in this shit-hole town. Every day I have to sit and watch as my window of opportunity to do something with my life closes inch by inch. I have no money, no support, and nothing to fall back on because my dumb ass didn't spend an ass-load of money to go get a worthless degree. All I want to do with my life is become a professional wrestler. That's it. But I've had the unfortunate luck of being born in a damn tar pit. Anything that happens to fall in here gets stuck and can never leave. I can't enjoy anything anymore. Yesterday, for instance, I was nothing more than a husk. A mindless shell just going through the motions. I went to work then went to a friend's place, but I wasn't really there for any of it. I just sat there watching everything and had no emotions toward any of it. If I have a bad day, can I vent about any of it to my family? The one group of people who you'd think would have an open ear about it? No. My mom will just start in with the whole "well you could be at the supermarket pushing carts all day. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT" thing and tell me not to be so negative all the time. Then, less than a week after that, she finds out the food delivery truck will be a day late with her fucking cheese-filled potatoes and she starts throwing a fit... walking around saying "A natural death just takes too long." and then yelling at the dog for shedding. Or she'll come crying to me because she started yet another Facebook argument with yet another family member over shit that is none of her business. If I happen to disagree with her at any point, she starts crying around and yelling and then storms outside to have another fucking cigarette. One time I was trying to have a serious discussion with her about pro wrestling as a goal of mine, and she said "Ugh, why don't you want to be something normal?" Where the hell does she get off telling me that my dreams, my goals, my aspirations aren't normal? Then she asks "Why don't you want to be, like, an x-ray technician? It's what your uncle always wanted to be." That has stuck with me for the last year, and it pisses me off every time I recall it. I hate my job, and I want to leave it and pursue my dreams... but I have no money to do so... so I have to work at this job I hate. It's a vicious cycle of irritability that just won't end. I can't stand it. I know lots of other people have it worse than me, but that doesn't mean I can't be upset.

I'm getting pretty damn sick of my job. More-so, the customers that inhabit my job. I work at a fitness center that a lot of people seem to mistake for a day care service. I put up with idiots all the time. People that can't clean up after themselves, people with no manners, people that can't read important notices on the front door, etc... Anyway, tonight I had a lady come in and she wanted to pay for her and her son's memberships. Her's was $30, her son's was $20. How did she decide to pay? Not with $50 cash or a $50 check. Instead, she chose to use a Money Order made out for $62.50. I called my boss and apparently it's an okay thing to do for some reason, I just had to give her $12.50 in change which I did. At closing time however, the till was $12.50 short. Imagine that. I called a fellow employee and we got it worked out after about 30 minutes. Okay, fine. Still though after that I had to clean up a mess that 8 kids left in the building that took another 15 minutes to do. When I got home, was I able to tell anyone about all this mess in any way, shape, or form? No. Because, if I did, I would just get yelled at about how I could always be pushing carts for a living and how I shouldn't be so negative. Fuck. I'm just getting sick and tired of everything, really.

I'm sick of my mom's crap. I'll start with today. Me and my family are all big NFL fans. Me, a die hard Ravens fan and her a Raiders fan. Today, her Raiders held the unbeaten Falcons to a tie until the literal last second of the game, but they ended up losing by 3. I was impressed by the Raiders' performance, so I sent her a text saying that they played well and that it was a good game. She responds with, basically, "No, that worthless team played horribly and they never had a chance to win it. It's too embarrassing to be fan of theirs, I'm done with them." To which I wanted to reply by telling her to refund my $80 I spent on her replica helmet, but I didn't. What I did say, was that she should be proud of her team's performance and that losing by 3 to an undefeated team on the road is much better than losing in a blow-out. She just says, "It's just easier for you to see it from that side cause your team won." Fast forward to when I get home from work. My dad and I are talking about the games today, when she walks in and interjects with, "Everyone else's teams win but mine. I'm done being a Raiders fan, until they become a better team." You're a real devoted fan, not wanting to root for them unless they win. Then later tonight she starts going off a mess of anti-Aaron Rodgers speech, at one point uttering the phrase "Discount double-check bullshit." All of this coming just days after she used the phrase, "Natural death just takes to long." when going on a hissy fit after finding out that the food delivery guy would need an extra day to deliver her cheese-filled potatoes. And she has the nerve to tell me not to be negative and gets mad at me when I'm just telling a story about some idiot customer at work. I need to get out of here soon.

CRoN4_kG6XM "Keywork Entity Extraction I: Domino the Destitute" - Coheed and Cambria Favorite band of all time. Just amazing.

Some lyrics from one of my new favorite songs of all-time: "Welcome, to the ever-lasting all-time low. Please put your hands together for the ever-failing one man show. DOMINO! Ladies, and broken gentlemen... the undisputed champ of misery. And in this corner, we find his challenger. The pride of Utopia. The greatest thing ever." from "Keywork Entity Extraction I: Domino the Destitute" by Coheed and Cambria

Here's a song I wrote almost 3 years ago. People have said they find it to be relaxing. (The quality is pretty crappy due to my lack of recording equipment.) DkOoKUODWSI I still consider it the best piece of music I've written.

What's the longest amount of time that one of those door-to-door salesmen has actually been inside your home? I'll bet that it's not for very long. Well, how about a whopping 4 and a half hours? Yeah. This salesman came to the house about 11:30 this morning and wasn't out until roughly 4 pm. It wasn't as if we just couldn't get him out... No, my mom saw fit to just let him hang around. Sit down, watch some tv, chit-chat a bit, etc... I don't get how her mind works sometimes. This guy is selling vacuums, don't know what brand and really don't care. Anyway, we already have 4 vacuums in this house and still only one of them really gets used, and yet she deems it perfectly fine to pay almost $3,000 to buy this new one! She paid this snake oil salesman almost 3 grand, and thinks it's okay just because he said he's selling them to pay for a trip. He didn't even specify what kind of "trip" it was. Here I sit, a guy who's goal is to move halfway across the country and attend wrestling school (a risky and expensive venture, I admit) and I can't even get a vocal show of support from my parents, let alone monetary. Yet they're perfectly fine buying a $3,000 vacuum from this guy so he can pay for a "trip." I swear, every time I try to sit and have a serious conversation with my parents about my goals, it ends one of 4 ways. Either, A) My mom leaves the room. B) My mom starts telling me I should be an X-Ray Tech, like my Uncle always wanted to be. Then leaves the room. C) My mom starts talking about how successful my sister's friends are. Then leaves the room. D) My mom goes outside to have a cigarette. I just don't get it.

'Twas a fairly good day. I edited and uploaded a video to YouTube today. The first of many new videos that will be on my friend and I's comedy channel soon. I also got to yell at a group of trouble-makers at work today. That was refreshing. And now I'm listening to some Reel Big Fish. Impossible to not enjoy it.

I have 641 dollars to my name, that's why. Believe me, once I get a chance, I am out of here.

I'm about to reach the breaking point with the people in this town/family. I work at the town civic center, a place where people can come in and workout or play basketball. However, the entire town seems to think it's a baby-sitting service. Every time I'm working, I get at least 30 kids in there, and no parents. They just drop them off and tell them they'll pick 'em up at closing. Except I always have to tell these kids to call for rides, and even then I have to force them out of the building so I can close down. It's to the point now that if there are people still in there the moment the clock strikes closing time, I'm going to ban them for a month, regardless of age (yes, I can do that), because I have to clock out right when it hits 5 or 9 or whatever time we close, so I don't get paid to do anything else that I do after that time. Besides, a lot of the kids that get dropped there are little shits that don't follow the rules or do what they're told. Then, after I get done putting up with all those little brats, I have to come home and listen to my mom talk about her troubles with my cousin, his wife, and her family. My cousin and his wife are both, how do I put this gently... bat-shit crazy. My cousin used to break in to his own parents' house to steal pills for shit's sake. His wife and her family members have been arrested on everything from assault to theft. My mom, who is extremely computer illiterate (she asked me to turn it off once), apparently posted or did something on Facebook that my cousin and his wife took the wrong way. Now, seemingly every member of her family is after my mom on Facebook and my Uncle won't talk to my mom because he wants to "stay out of it". It's to the point where my mom doesn't want to leave the house because my cousin's wife's family is notorious around here for ganging up and jumping people when they're alone. If anything were to happen, it's not like the cops could be called. The squad in this town is so corrupt it's seriously not funny. This town... no, this state is full of nothing but underachievers, drug-addicts, children, and grown men and women that act like children. Don't ever come here. Rant over.

I've been listening to this band called The Mayan Factor a lot recently. They are very, very good.