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Monday, September 28, 2009

(Funny) TV Disaster, YouTube Drama

Erin, Roomie and I are on the phone with a man at Toshiba. "We have a TV here, and it has a DVD stuck inside," Erin says, searching the back for a serial numbers or something. "It won't come out, even when we hit the eject button."

"Oh, I see," says the man. "I'm so sorry about that! Go ahead and unplug the device."

From my bed, I shout, "Guys. You need to tell him that there are two movies in there."

"We live in a dorm?" says Erin, as Roomie and I crack up. "And somebody decided it was a good idea to put in another DVD after the first one got stuck."

"Oh. Right," the poor man says, doing a great job at sounding unaffected by our stupidity. He asks us to read him all the complicated product codes and for Roomie's phone number. After we discover them, the man says, "Can I ask what the two movies are?"

Roomie and I look at each other and stifle laughter. I call out whatever generic porn titles I can think of (MILFs R US! Barely Legal Blondes!") and Roomie blushes. "Um, American Pie," she squeaks. "And Elf."

And that, dear readers, is a glimpse into an average afternoon on my floor. We just ended the call and allowed the Toshiba man to return to dealing with other idiots, but we're still smiling. I can't imagine he really needed to know the names of the DVDs in order to help us get them out of the television. He probably asked to enhance his rehashing of the "Wow, people are so dumb" story of the day at the office. Hey, if I can provide entertainment to bored Indian American men around a water cooler, I consider today a success.

Anyway, I wish I could have blogged last night. I had a ton to tell you about the fun that followed the dorm movie party-- how me, Heather, and these two cool guys, Sean and Ben, hung out literally all night long, etc.-- but I never got the chance. I came back to my dorm from my sister's house later than I should have, considering the paper I had to write for the next morning, and my room was filled to the brink with my roommate's friends. I like them, and I never mind their presence, but I had a ton of work to do, needed a shower desperately, and wasn't at all in the mood to see people in my bed or desk chair. Frazzled, I turned to grab my laptop and find somewhere else to do my homework. Where was my computer?

In one of the boys' laps, that's where. A boy whose name I don't even remember was on my computer, with his own laptop sitting right next to it. I stared at him, trying to conceptualize what would make a stranger think it was okay to use my computer when I wasn't even in the room. "Um..." I said, taking it from him.

"Wait!" he yelled as he grabbed my laptop back from me. "I'm in the middle of a really important conversation on facebook." For reasons unknown, because I am naturally passive and incapable of sticking up for myself, I allowed him about three more minutes with my most expensive and personal belonging in his grubby hands. Meanwhile, he used HIS OWN computer to play loud, headachey music, which of course had to be THE WORST KIND OF MUSIC. I'm talking about freaking covers of Oasis songs. And people yelling into practically peaking microphones. And all the while I'm standing in my own room, stressed about the load of work I've bestowed upon myself, wondering what important websites and/or documents a stranger is accessing.

Wow. I wasn't irritated about that anymore until I brought back those emotions. (Talk about method acting!) What I am irritated about, however, is youtube. I wasted some time this afternoon watching my old favorites from 2007, back before everything was monetized, and when the truth about lonelygirl15 was news, and when Boh3m3 mattered. Sure, there wasn't widescreen or HD, and yeah, thewinekone didn't know how to use lights. But all those old videos seemed so genuine. People could mention a brand name without it being product placement, and the use of copyrighted music wasn't a real threat yet because the audiences were as small and intimate as making a movie for a school project. You could count on your fingers the important "youtube celebrities." If a vlogger made a decent video, he or she would be featured, and the entire community would know them in a month's time. I signed up for this website, and while I'm thrilled it's become what it has, and I adore so many artists I would have never known about had Google not taken over, I really miss the old days.

On top of that, it's sick how much cattiness money has caused. Networking is awesome and all, but now it's become less of a fun game and more of a competition to have higher numbers and more feedback than similar people across the globe. It bothers me the amount of revenue everybody is churning nowadays from something that was once a free environment for artists. Honestly, yeah, I've benefitted financially, and I would never want to trade that ability. But I'm not mad about the incredible possibilities presented to us by the site's owners; I'm mad at the individual content creators knocking down the Garden of Eden and building a smokestack factory. There's nothing wrong with receiving revenue for the hard work you put out, but I'm not sure I support those who market videos and products with the sole intention of raking in profit.

Sigh. And to top that off, I'm angry with a handful of specific "youtube people" for various reasons. Some relate to money, as you can probably assume from that rant, but other grudges I'm carrying are for personal reasons. I hate that people I love have to endure criticism from complete strangers regarding their personal lives. I hate the actions of certain people that create a vehicle for this criticism. I hate that I can't just stomp on that person's face, or say hateful things about them, because 1) I'm a more advanced human being than that, and 2) I'm not physically close enough to cause them harm, even though 3) I could probably beat their scrawny ass in a fight.

I'm done now. Sorry to subject you innocent readers to my venting. Besides constantly worrying about Jess (the dog she's had and adored her whole life is sick and running out of time), I've been doing really well, actually. Contrary to how I may sound from all that above bitching, I'm not in an overall bad mood at all. I fell in love with xkcd today, and, of course, I witnessed that funny conversation with the man at Toshiba. Also, I just received a text from Michal stating that she suspects her mother reads my blog? If this is true, I apologize, ma'am, for sounding like such a stereotypical teenager. Your daughter is lovely, though!

Sexy: Old Goodies, like this video.
Unsexy: The fact that record companies are among the all-time most subscribed lists, and the fact that the old favorites like Brookers and TheHill88 are nowhere to be seen on the front pages.

Chipotle burritos this year: 31
Bagel Street visits this school year: 4
Subscribers: 20,757

Bye, guys! Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow. <3

42 comments:

-___- said...

I feel bad for those workers over the phone. I tend to give them hell. My dad pretended to be electrocuted by my laptop to see if the guy would hurry up; he didn't.

Eddy said...

Rule #1 when I lived in a dorm was you and your friends do not touch roomies stuff. I can't imagine using someone's computer without permission. "Let's go to some website, catch a virus, and wipe out all their homework and class notes." Not a good idea.

I agree with you about YouTube. I unsubbed to some people who just make 30 second videos telling you something is coming up. Did you see that ijustine?? Yeah, I'm talking to you. Do you really need the money that bad?

Sorry about the rant on your blog comment section. Some days I feel like we share the same brain!

Holly said...

I entirely agree with what you said regarding Youtube. I live in New Zealand, and a few years back, when I joined the NZ Youtube community, it was full of acceptance, friend-making, and trivial fun. I can't remember the last time I saw a good old fashioned vlog from NZYT. It's all about "arty", narcissistic videos of themselves in moody lighting or abstract filming. Thank God for the refuge of 5AG, Nerdfighteria, HayleyGHoover!! and a few others. I only hope that things in Amercia don't turn out similar to this.

Y'know how you mentioned that water cooler? I'm dying for some water right now!! I hope your paper went well!

Scott said...

I can't even handle it when my close friends use my laptop. I can't imagine what I would do if I saw a stranger using my mac... I would probably command Q their lives.

And I miss old youtube, too. :( In fact, I kind if wish that we all would pack up and leave to another video steaming site, where it was all about the artistry again. Ho hum.

Ravenclaw2313 said...

No touching of the laptop! That is rule one in my dorm. Never really crossed my mind until middle of freshman year when I came home to a stranger using my laptop. Let's just say you handled it much better than I, or at the very least with less screaming and physical abuse.

I love youtube because it gives me a chance to "see" people that I live far from. The one sided conversations are a little awkward. I know so much about many youtubers who have no idea I exist. However, I'm happy to be anonymous because it means that I don't get stupid mean comments, instead I get to give them thumbs down, which is way more fun.

KaraDawlish said...

It sucks when you work real hard on a video to show your friends just for enjoyment but you can't put it on youtube because of copyright music. I am not a partner. Im gaining nothing except some laughs from my friends so it sucks i cant do that =/

I despise when peoples entire videos consist of comment rate favorite subscribe... Yea don't forget to tell your friends about me! Or they interupt to say that at conpmetely unnecesary moments. Why cant u jist make a video and let it be it's more likely to be a good video and its not like people will forget to subscribe if they liked it... No need to shove it in our faces. I've always admired you for your videos they are so conpletely unique and you. You're so great at youtube xD
Im glad you are having such an awesome time minis weird lap top creeper :D

KaraDawlish said...

I once again fail at spelling but i would like to add that guy is lucky he took your lap top and didn't stumble across mine i would have been nowhere near as calm! I would probably break his little fingers off one by one except something less violent lol and i don't have a laptop... But whatever my imac is amazing<3

Kristen said...

Wow. People are becoming really rude. I mean, I know the internet is just chockfull of idiotic leeches but then you have to deal with one in your actual dorm room? Hands off the laptop buddy, enough said. I seriously would have hit him over the head with one of those overpriced textbooks but even that's not worth it. I mean, have people grown up not knowing that you just don't touch something that isn't yours without that person's permission. Where is Miss Manners when you need her?

Long comment over;)

Catherine said...

xkcd is pretty amazing. I fell in love with it the other day after I saw it on Twitter. (I think Maureen Johnson linked it.) I really liked today's though. It kind of made me think of Kristina riding all those trains over in England. Can't you just imagine some cute British boy sitting next to her when she was blogging on the trains?

Cat said...

Yeah, that's so true about youtube. I know I'll probably get hated for saying this, but I don't even watch most of the vlogbrothers' videos any more, especially Hank's. I just think that all their videos are is them constantly trying to sell things all the time. I miss the days when they were just nerdy guys making funny videos, instead of leaders of an empire that they use to make money off of. Same goes for nerimon/fallofautumndistro. I mean, I'm all for supporting youtubers in their endevours when I like what they're doing, but I'm starting to feel exploited and manipulated by some of them.

Leah said...

How the hell did you not read xkcd before now?

Indigo said...

I totally agree about youtube. Al the usually awesome people just use it to promote their album or they're just making the video to get views. It's sad.

Sarah Mowrey said...

Woman, you don't sound like a stereotypical teenager. You don't substitute words for their parts. IE: "U" "Y" etc.

You are awesome. You are one of the only genuine youtubers out there. A lot of the time all of this monetizing makes me a little stir crazy. Thus, I don't make videos.Which isn't good, I love making videos. Blah blah blah.

Tom said...

Fell in love with xkcd about 3 weeks ago. Got the book last week. There's no new content, I just love having the physical book, it brings me back to the Calvin & Hobbes days. So now I've recently fallen back in love with Calvin & Hobbes haha.

If you didn't realize, there's scroll over text on every comic that provides either like a double punch line or an explanation.

One of my favorites ever : http://xkcd.com/285/

xxTIFFANYxx said...

Man. I'm impressed with your self control Hayley. My rule is; you touchie my laptop, you die. No joke.

said...

I miss the HP YouTubers and how they use to have this huge bond. They were one of the only strong, nerdy sections of YouTube. The Twilight took over and it just grew and grew. Now HP tubers are a thing of the past and if you wanna make a video solely about Potter, you will probably get criticism and such. Sigh.
I miss 2007 in so many ways.

And I hate the person I assume you are talking about. I feel disgusting even thing about him.

I LOVE YOU.

traderbob11 said...

The unknown stranger with access to your laptop...um Hayley it was your virus that loaded my first account with porn vids. That is the reason I have the 11 stuck on the end of my name now. I had to delete my first account and I could not get back my original name.

So before we go through this again PUT A PASSWORD ON YOU COMPUTER
AND THROW THE GUY THROUGH THE WINDOW
THANK YOU!!

Having higher numbers always gives me a laugh. The most I have gotten in one day is 4 Yeehaw For some odd reason it does not list the 80 times I watched my own video in a day.

besides with my kind of numbers..I never get hate stuff..I have a charmed life (hahahaha)

See ya Hayley

eibbore said...

Try and be friends with the people in the call center and make them laugh. It will help. That job sucks all kind of ass.

XKCD is the shiz.

Crystal said...

Gah one time freshman year, I came back from class to find my roommate's friend in my bed, canoodling my poor lion stuffed animal, La La. I had no idea what to say. I'm pretty sure I just stared for a good two minutes, then went to my desk and started doing homework or something. I'm not good with confrontation.

Sean said...

hahaha. i was there! i made it into your blog! yay!!

Kathryn said...

I sooo agree with everything you said about youtube.

How dare someone use your computer? You should have walked off with his.

VicMorrowsGhost said...

Seriously if that had been my computer, harsh language would have ensued. HARSH language.

Louise Morgan said...

I agree with Cat. I don't normally watch videos on YouTube anymore, just because I sort of lost the sense of community I'd originally gotten from many peoples videos.
Most of the time, I only watch videos if someone else recommends them. Oh, and by the way, I would have murdered that guy!!

Elrich89 said...

Ahhh, I remember the good old days of 'Tube '06 and '07. Boh3m3 was actually my favourite vlogger, it was he who inspired me to start making (vastly inferior) videos.
Anyway, your blog is distracting me from typing up my uni notes. Stoppit.

Elrich89 said...

Oh, and boh3m3 to me perfectly embodies the woeful tale of fame and its fickle tendencies. Poor chap.

Nicholas said...

You're so right about YouTube. I miss the old days too :-/

Today, it's all about having 100000+ subscribers and they are battling over who is most subscribed. People can only get subs by shoutouts since the feature doesn't exist anymore, you have to be afraid to use snippets of copyrighted material...

2-3 years ago, things were more familiar.

madhu~ said...

"freaking covers of Oasis songs"

i just lost some respect for you.
OASIS IS NOT THE WORST TYPE OF MUSIC?
I'm sorry, but how can you not like oasis?
Voice isnt fabulous but the lyrics, instrumentals and everything else totally outweigh!

i like showtunes. i like jason mraz. i like gilmore girls.


but dont diss oasis/the strokes just cause the singers arent perfect!

Nokorola said...

Hello Hayley, I hope you're doing well.

First of all while it's an interesting and entertaining story, I want to find it hard to believe that Hayley Hoover doesn't have a password on her laptop.

Lastly, I miss old 2006 YouTube as well, but they say that all good things must end some day, autumn leaves must fall.

Jackieh :] said...

I miss old youtube too. Now it's about crude humour, dissing celebrities, and the like. I seriously despise when people are like COMMENT, RATE, SUBSCRIBE, FAVORITE. It's like basically screaming, "LOVEE MEEEEEEEEEEE". It's kind of pathetic. I miss the days before "FIRST!", and don't even get me started on copyrighted music. It sucks that most of my videos basically have copyrighted music, so therefore in youtube's eyes, I'm evil. =(

kaitlin said...

lol you should have typed that guy up an impromtu blog rant on his computer. i would have flipped a shit.

Shmandarin said...

i think you should have a talk with ur roomie because above all else she is responsible for her friends touching your stuff. my frosh year of college i sat with my roomie and we just talked about what's acceptable to each other and made it like a game. i would be like if i'm not here no one can sit on my bed or touch my stuff but if i am all you have to do is ask. then she would say okay well if its time for me to go to sleep then we'll have a word like "poka-dots" or something and i'll know its time to kick the friends out ( without them knowing were talking about them) conversations like this just make both of ur lives easier!!

p.s. u would beat alex day in a fight, no contest :)

Anonymous said...

Woah, hands OFF the MacBook!!! I won't even let friends on my computer, it's too private...I feel it's as if my cover would be blown, so to speak, if they were to sniff around at everything I do. That guy is lucky you didn't clothesline him or something. Speaking of kicking teeth in, you could totally take out Alex Day in a fight...I'd bet money on it. I'm glad he seems to be getting FiveAwesomeShunned.

J. said...

LOL. Poor guy, but I'm sure it added some excitement to his day. :)

Have you ever seen this video? It's kind of old, but I still think it's awesome. Lisa wrote a song about Snape's feelings toward Lily. It's not completely in English, but I still think it's pretty well done. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-HqrFBK0u4

ginger jones said...

I can't believe the nerve of that guy! It pisses me off when people have no respect for other peoples belongings especially when they don't even know you. I'm moving in with strangers tomorrow and I'm terrified that my mass DVD collection will get scratched. People think it's OCD of me to want to keep my stuff in pristine condition. Next time it happens unleash your inner Jacob Black (ha ha) and steal it back.

Amy said...

Oh, xkcd is life. I stumbled onto it around this time last year. Procrastinating from homework, of course. And craving a nerdy joke. Absolutely amazing. One of my friends had the audacity of asking me who showed it to me. I just introduced it to one of my friends on Monday, actually. I love how it bonds people in the IB program at my school. All you have to mention is four letters. :)

Anonymous said...

I'd put a password on my laptop if I were you. Or use the fingerprint scanner thing. That way they have to ask.

GeeEmOh said...

I was just watching old brookers and spricket24 videos before i read this...haha
i miss it too :(

Alex Dahlberry said...

Yeah, I totally get what you mean about youtube. And that Toshiba man must be so sick of people like you calling him. :P
Also, college life sounds epic, and I'm jealous.

-alex

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