Calling Mr. Safety

In this episode, I decided to make a telephone call to YouTube star Cory “Mr. Safety” Williams, best known for making the “Mean Kitty” videos and whom I have cited as the man who influenced my YouTube career. This video was part of an interactive phone game video he put forth back in late 2008, but this version was one that I redid last summer.

The Librarian

This is it, folks. This is actually the first episode of my brand-new Blip.tv series that I have created based on my blogs. Sorry that it is out of order in terms of when I uploaded it to blip.tv but I did not have the syndication settings set up yet. So whenever I post a new video on blip.tv, it will automatically show up as a blog post. And that’s not all. I also managed to get my new blip.tv channel linked up with my YouTube account so chances are that any new videos will automatically be posted to YouTube. It will however look slightly different from a regular YouTube video page being that Blip.tv is mainly a TV-formatted website so it will appear as a TV web series. Score 1 for me!

It’s only fitting that I would use my most-popular live video on YouTube (closing in on 5ooo hits) to start off my new web series. For the uninitiated, I originally shot this video in June of 2008 right when I was actually starting to film myself for YouTube videos. Since I learned that popular YouTuber LisaNova was allowing YouTube community members to use collab clips featuring several characters that she played in many of her videos, I decided to jump at the opportunity and sure enough, I managed to work a video around a sexy librarian character she played. And sure enough, the rest was history.

I was amazed how well-received the Librarian video was and it did really well during the whole Sarah Palin vice-presidential campaign (partly due to the fact that LisaNova also portrayed Ms. Palin in numerous videos during the election season.) As far as making the video goes, I shot at my house first and for my “library scenes,” I shot those scenes in the gift shop at the Herkimer County Historical Society which I thought worked pretty good in contrast with the LisaNova clips.

So anyway, I hope that you enjoy this video and I should have the next episode up (which will be number 3. Number 2 was the Ilion Little Theater video I posted Friday night) later on in the week.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Ilion Little Theater Club

In this installment, I end up getting transported back to Ancient Rome where I become involved a world filled with swords, sandals, beautiful dancing girls (one of whom happened to carry a whip?!) and happen to break out in song at every turn.

 

Sounds bizarre to a regular person, but for me it’s just another day at the office.

 

Well, not quite. Actually in this episode, I reveal one of the Mohawk Valley’s best-kept secrets: The Ilion Little Theater Club, located in Ilion, NY which is a hop, skip and a jump from Herkimer, where I live. The Ancient Rome settings that I mentioned above was their cover of the Sondheim musical “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”

 

Note: This video, originally uploaded to YouTube in March of 2009, is actually the second episode of my new internet series on blip.tv. The first episode was the “Librarian” video I did with LisaNova back in the summer of 2008 that became wildly popular during the whole Sarah Palin thing.

 

Oh, and one more thing: I got the Internet working again on the regular computer and a good thing too. My brother-in-law’s laptop apparently has a mind of its own.

Outlook

And the hits just keep on coming.

I started this week with a bit of a cold, brought on by the sudden 50 degree warmup we had Sunday night into Monday morning. The warm-up, while I would take it, was definitely murder on my sinuses. They’re still pretty screwed up even as I write this.

And my sinuses are not the only thing that’s screwed up this week. As of yesterday morning, I have no Internet again. The computer that I operate from is pretty messed up with viruses and the antivirus that we recently installed expired pretty quickly. And since the phone is connected to the Internet, we also have no phone here except for our cell phones. So that means until it gets fixed, which will hopefully be on Friday, I have to operate from my brother-in-law’s laptop because his computer has a wireless connection. The thing is that I have to use it for a limited amount of time because it too is not the greatest. In fact, I am writing this on the laptop right now. 

However, there is one thing I can still do on the other computer and that is edit videos. I recently installed another editing program on a free download. The editing program I added is Corel VideoStudio 12 from the Ulead software company. I heard that they’re supposed to be a good editing program. Most of the big name YouTubers use the iMovie program for their video editing needs. And I need a good editing program, especially for my new blip.tv channel where I will be posting my regular videos from here on out.

Last week, I uploaded the “Librarian” video to the new blip.tv channel and so far it’s doing pretty good. I was going to add two more videos to the new channel this week, but I can’t because of the whole situation with the computer. I have also been going through my old “Black Cat Weekly” vids on my other blip.tv channel and I have been taking them down and reuploading them with thumbnail pics to help with the ad revenue. That’s something else I can’t do on YouTube unless I am in the Partner Program in addition to making videos over 10 minutes. Although blip.tv doesn’t draw the number of people that YouTube does, it at least gives YouTubers who aren’t in the Partner Program such as myself an opportunity to make money off their videos.

Not that I am abandoning YouTube completely, mind you. I am still going to be posting some things on there. I am also trying to link up my YouTube with my blip.tv account so I can upload my blip.tv shows there. Got so much planned as far as YouTube goes, but I am not really going to get into it right now because I’ve got to get going now. Hopefully the next post I do on this site will be on the other computer.

This Horrible Weather!

Just to give you an idea as to how much snow Herkimer got.

Have I mentioned that I really hate snow? Well, I’m gonna mention it again for old time’s sake. The weather the last couple of days have been horrible. In fact, I had to cancel yet again on another trip to go see my brother. It’s not so much the snow, but the wind gusts are horrible, especially in the Mohawk Valley, where I live. I hate the fact that the wind causes the snow to drift all over the place making the roads horrible and hard to travel on.

I was pretty much all set to go down and see my brother yesterday. I had to stay overnight somewhere else because the trip from Central New York to where my brother lives is about two hours, even longer during bad winter weather. So I ended up coming home yesterday afternoon. It just wasn’t worth it with this horrible weather. And the thing is that it’s supposed to snow all week. I’m gonna try to go down again next weekend. Hopefully by then things will have calmed down a bit.

I would have gone online sooner yesterday afternoon, but I wasn’t feeling too well. I had a bit of an upset stomach and so I had to lay down for the remainder of the day. I got up a little later and had dinner with my brother-in-law and my sister’s family. I was also able to catch up on my emails and Twittering that I missed during the day I was out of town.

Anyway, it looks like I’m gonna be shovelling tomorrow morning at the Historical Society. There’s probably gonna be about a foot of snow on the ground over there. Sigh. A winter warrior’s work is never done. I swear, if anyone has a reason to harbor a personal grudge against Old Man Winter, it’s me.

2010

Well, here it is, folks. Today is officially the first day of 2010. That means 2009 has officially bit the dust as well as the last decade where I basically came of age via relocation, getting involved in a community project, and a shift towards what I hope will be a new career.

I started the first two years of this past decade back in my old neighborhood of Tivoli where I had a job at Grand Union. Back then, that company was going bankrupt and were about to be taken over by the Stop and Shop grocery chain. At first I was uncertain as to whether or not all of the Grand Union employees would be picked up. In order to prepare for the worst, I ended up taking a side job at McDonald’s in Kingston. That didn’t work out as planned. I started there on New Year’s Day in 2001 and I only lasted about four weeks. They were bad as far as scheduling went. My last week there they had me scheduled for nine hours, which was not enough to get by.

Eventually, I didn’t have to worry about being laid off from Grand Union as Stop and Shop automatically retained all of the employees, including me. And so there I remained for about a year and a half until my family ended up relocating to Central New York, partly because of the rising costs of living down there and the amount of people that were moving up from the city after 9/11. After I moved out, it took me about a month before I got another job, which was as an overnight employee at Wal-Mart in Herkimer. And that’s where I’ve been ever since.

Not that my job took up what I’ve done during the previous decade. I moved around about a couple of times. A year after moving to the Mohawk Valley, I rented an apartment in Ilion for about a year before moving into my current house in Herkimer. And prior to moving to the area, my Internet activity was very limited to the public libraries, starting while I was still living in Tivoli and I mainly used it to stay up on the latest movies that were in development. It was a habit I later took up while I was in Ilion and when I first moved into Herkimer.

Then came my involvement in the Chester Gillette Centennial commemoration events. When I first heard about the case, I began researching the case and as a result, I created an email account and my life and career as Blackcatloner officially began. While I continued working on the case and participated in the centennial events, I began to respond to the call of the Internet as far as blogging and social networking went. Even then, I was still operating out of the public library and later at the library at HCCC for a little over a year. However it would be 2008 when my Internet career would really begin to take off.

By that year, I finally got Internet hookup at my house which meant that I can do more than just blog. I can also do videos. Very late in 2007, I became involved with YouTube and was starting to make videos at that time. I started with cat videos before doing live videos. I also added Twitter and Facebook to my online activities and before I knew it, I have found my true calling.

Anyway, as far as my outlook on this year goes, last year was basically spent soul searching in terms of both my career and my life. This year I’m hoping that this will be the year that everything finally comes together because I do deserve it.

A Christmas Blog

‘Tis the morning of Christmas and all through the web, I am here posting my latest blog. After all the aggravation I had to endure at work over the last month, it is nice to finally get a three-day Christmas weekend from work.

So far for Christmas, I got a new digital coffee maker from my sister and my brother-in-law. I’m supposed to get some more stuff from my folks when they get here. They’re supposed to be here a little earlier today because the weather is calling for sleet and freezing rain, hardly what one would call a “white Christmas.” We haven’t had a white Christmas up here in quite a while. I do remember my first Christmas in Central New York in which we had a really big blizzard.

As far as the sleet goes, it is supposed to be really bad tonight into tomorrow morning. As of right now, I am not sure if I am going down to my brother’s house tomorrow yet being that travel conditions will be extremely difficult. I was originally planning to go tomorrow, but now I am not sure. I was also hoping to get some footage from the Hudson Valley to show my peeps where I came from and how much the area has changed in the several years since I was last down there. So we’ll have to see.

In the meantime, I redid my Christmas video from last year in which I added a new shot of a Snoopy Christmas decoration that I walked past during one of my many trips back and forth from home to work during my lunch breaks, and rerendering the video in HD. I guess after uploading this video, I am going to do a few more videos before taking a break from YouTube to focus on getting my new web series on Blip.tv started. 

Right now I am sitting here watching ”A Christmas Story” on DVD. That movie never gets old. With all the 24/7 showings that movie gets every year on cable, no wonder that movie was named the greatest Christmas movie of all time. And with that, I guess I better get back to celebrating the holidays. If I get any more updates, I am sure that I will be posting them on here.

Until then… Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

‘Tis the Season

Well it’s that time of year again. Inches of snow falling on the ground, covering the roads and sidewalks so bad that people who use the sidewalks are forced to walk on the roads putting them at risk at either getting hit by a car or getting hit by a plow. Frigid winds blowing snow everywhere making visibility impossible. Temperatures hovering in the 20’s or lower degree range Fahrenheit. All this happened this past week, a clear sign that Old Man Winter has reared his ugly head at last.

This type of weather is one of the reasons why I hate living in New York and want to trade it in for warmer pastures, most notably California and Florida. Hell, I’d even trade it in for Australia because I hear summer is starting down there. Of course that is if I can afford to travel, which I can’t because the economy here in the States as everyone knows sucks.

But other than the awful winter weather we had this past week, things are good more or less. As expected, my 11-day stretch at work last week translated into a big paycheck which also included holiday pay. That is good, but still doesn’t change much. Still looking for a new job and still considering going to college because I need to try and advance my career on the Internet. I heard that HCCC has a really good broadcasting education program up there. I know people who are in the TV and radio industry who graduated from HCCC so that’s something I should definitely look into.

Anyway, today I am planning to do some Christmas shopping today, even though I already have finished Christmas shopping for my two nephews. Probably going to end up going to Wal-Mart today like I usually do. Hopefully it won’t be as crowded today as it was on Black Friday. Usually two weeks before Christmas is perhaps the best time to go shopping. Last minute shopping can be just as bad as it is on Black Friday.

And as far as my Christmas plans go, I do have some good news. In addition to not working on Christmas Eve because that is usually when Wal-Mart closes, I am also not working on Christmas being that it falls on a Friday, one of my normal days off from work. It is the first time since I started working at Wal-Mart in which I didn’t have to go into work and I am really excited about that. We were invited to go down to my brother’s house in Staatsburg for Christmas this year. Usually we have it at my house but this year is going to be different. Plus I haven’t been back to the ol’ Hudson Valley in over six years so it should be pretty good to see how things have changed since I moved off to Central New York.

Since Christmas and New Year’s usually fall on the same day of the week a week apart, there is also a good chance I will also be off on New Year’s Day (also a Friday this year.) However, I am trying to get a personal day off from work on New Year’s Eve primarily because I do not want to celebrate the start of 2010 at work. I do hope that I get it. Celebrating at work is clearly not the way to kick off the New Year, especially since I have such high hopes for this New Year.

Alternatives

I figured it’s time for yet another blog especially after all the craziness that was last week with the official start of the holiday shopping season and all.

To start off with, you remember last week when I said that I had to work 12 days last week? Well it turned out that I only ended up working 11 days partly because of the fact that I found out that I wasn’t actually scheduled to work last Saturday! Primarily it’s the way they do the scheduling at work, which is actually stupid. However when I went in that night and swiped my badge, the clock automatically accepted me whereas normally on days when you’re not scheduled, the time clock would tell you when you’re not scheduled. So as a result, I was rescheduled to have Thursday off instead so I ended up with yet another three-day weekend off from work. So starting this week, I should be back to my regular schedule.

I have also been doing a lot of thinking lately (I seem to do a lot of that) about my future on the web and I came up with a good idea about possibly doing a video web series based on this blog. The only thing is that it probably won’t be shown on YouTube because of the whole “I can’t upload anything over 10 minutes” thing. Instead, I might upload the new series on a website called blip.tv. That site is also where I released all of the “Black Cat Weekly” videos I did. One good thing about that site is that you can make money off ad revenue for your videos without being a partner like it is with YouTube. Trust me, I have applied for partnership with YouTube three times and didn’t get it due to the fact that I didn’t really have too much of an audience.

In addition to that site, I also signed up for Dailymotion this past summer. Dailymotion is the second-largest video sharing site on the Internet (behind YouTube). So far I sent 10 of my videos over there (including the first six videos from “The Black Cat Weekly” and the Librarian video.) I also have what is known as a MotionMaker account which certifies that I make original content and another advantage of that is your videos can be viewed in high definition.

Now don’t take this the wrong way. I am neither leaving YouTube nor deleting my account. I am just exploring alternatives that either could or could not benefit me. Still it’s better than doing nothing at all. Who knows? I might have better luck over there.

Blackcat Friday

Well, I just made it through my eighth Black Friday without incident. No one was seriously hurt or killed (as far as I know anyway) as opposed to last year’s infamous tragedy at that Long Island Wal-Mart where an employee who was built like a pro wrestler was trampled to death by rabid customers who cared about nothing except where to get the best deals. This year, things were much more organized this year than the previous Black Fridays that I’ve worked.

But before we get to that, I just want to catch up on some things. To start off, remember when I said that I was working six days this week? Well when I came back to work this past week, I found out that the six days I had to work turned out to be 12 days straight. So that means I don’t have a day off until next Friday. A lot of that might have to do with the fact that the holiday shopping season has officially started.

And of course, Thanksgiving was yesterday. My folks came up and we had dinner at my house as opposed to the last two years where we had to go to their house. It was pretty good, despite the fact that I only got a few hours sleep yesterday. In a way, Thanksgiving here is actually easier for me because I can just leave for work at the usual time. On a normal night I usually leave for work around 9:30 pm unless I have the money to stop off at McDonald’s.

Well, as soon as I went through the hole in the fence between Wal-Mart and the high school football field, I noticed the yellow barriers in front of the store entrance. It was part of their precautions to avoid another Long Island tragedy. However, I couldn’t resist a photo op so I managed to take a picture of the barrier as you can see on the blog. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any video footage to put on YouTube, but I should be lucky that I at least got that pic out in front of the store. And so I have to make a mental note: Next year (providing I am still there), I got to figure out a way to get video footage. 

Despite the organization, Black Friday was still Black Friday, meaning loads and loads of chaos. And as usual, I planned to go home for lunch to do my Internet thing, but even if I could get out, it would have taken more time for me to get back in with the growing crowds. So I ended up eating my second Thanksgiving dinner of the night. Pizza came a little later. Pizza had always been a Black Friday tradition for as long as I can remember. Even though I haven’t worked the Friday night after Black Friday in four years, it is nice to know that some things never change.

Now that I got Thanksgiving and Black Friday out of the way, now all I need to do is get through the next seven days being that I am scheduled to work all weekend. However, by next Friday, my schedule will be back to normal. Hopefully this will be all be worth it in the end. After all, ’tis the season.