Happy New Year 2012! (12.31.11 - Day 1)
I can’t stand the thumbnails YouTube created (partnership in due time, my friends), but starting today, January 1, 2012, I will be doing daily vlogs! I toyed with the idea for a little while but always wondered if I’d have enough to talk about and do everyday of my life to make an interesting video. The answer to this question is probably not, however, that is not going to stop me! These vlogs will be on my Vlog Channel, ItsDavie3, and I will do them as long as I can.
My desire in general with YouTube is not to build a bunch of fans/followers who will worship the very ground I vlog on. It is quite the opposite actually. I want to build new friendships online! I want to engage those who decide to watch my videos by talking with them and sharing different events and things that go on in my life. I am very introverted by nature and have found YouTube to be an amazing outlet for me to express myself in so many ways.
Now, while this is a good way to motivate me to vlog and make videos more, I don’t want this to turn into something very stressful for myself. If I can’t upload a vlog in time, then I’ll just play catch up some other day and upload them as soon as possible. Or (but I’m going to do my best not do this) if for some reason I can’t vlog a certain day, then so be it. I could just make a quick iPhone video honestly and call that the day’s vlog!
So, I hope anyone reading this will take a look at my vlogs and join me on this new journey! This is something very important to me and I am very excited to be doing it and can’t wait to make new friends!
Main Channel: http://www.youtube.com/Davie3TV
Tech Channel: http://www.youtube.com/Davie3Tech
Vlog Channel: http://www.youtube.com/ItsDavie3
This vlog was actually filmed a few days after Thanksgiving, but I wasn’t able to edit it because of being so busy with school. The end of the semester this year was rough!
Anyway, last year I also filmed us getting our Christmas tree so I decided to do it again this year! Not only that, though, I created a time-lapse of us decorating it too!
Christmas Tree Hunt 2011!
The music during the time-lapse is “Bliss” by Silhouette. They are good friends of mine! You should go check out their music!
But it certainly helps…
I recently bought a new camera that I am going to be using for my Vlogging Channel on YouTube. I really LOVE this camera and I intend to use it a lot now that I have it. I’ll be making a review of the camera for my Tech Channel and Tech Blog very soon (hopefully this weekish).
Here’s my first vlog with the new camera:
First video with my new camera.
I also have another vlog up showing my recent addiction to Starburst Jellybeans:
I even have another vlog from about a week ago that I need to get up. It’ll be rather long, though, and I have a lot of footage so I’m skillfully procrastinating on editing it.
Now, about 2 weeks ago, after I got my new camera and after I put up my first video with it, I got an email from YouTube about my Vlogging Channel. The email was entitled, “Invitation to earn revenue from your YouTube videos”. I was immediately excited, but not for the reasons you may think. From what I gathered and thought to be true was that only people Partnered with YouTube were able to earn revenue on videos. I am of course working towards Partnership on all my YouTube channels and this is certainly a step in the right direction. Like the title suggests, I am certainly NOT doing this for the money, but getting this “invitation” to earn money on my vlogs right after I decided to buy a new camera and vlog a whole lot more is VERY reassuring.
So, thank you YouTube for being so awesome and supporting the many people creating content on YouTube. And also, thank you to everyone supporting me now. I may not get tons of views on my videos presently, but my goal isn’t to be the next YouTube sensation. It’s to try to reach out to people in a unique and fun way. How will I do this? You’ll just have to watch and see!
I had never been so afraid while I was driving then I was the other day driving through the rain storm that briefly hit where I live in New York. Not even during the Winter have I ever been so afraid while driving. I generally try to stay calm in tough situations like this, but it was very difficult through this rain storm.
It all started when I was leaving my student aide job at my college campus for the day. It was around 5:30pm and usually the person whose shift is after mine arrives about 10 minutes or so before I get off. I had just saw her about a half an hour before hand so I figured she couldn’t be very far. I locked up, left my post, and started heading to my car. I knew it had rained quite a bit not to long ago so I figured it would be wet and still possibly be raining. Sure enough it was raining and I only had a sweatshirt to protect myself with. I had to walk to the furthest parking lot too (which is about 5-10 minutes away) in the rain, but it wasn’t coming down very hard so I didn’t really mind walking through it.
When I finally made it to my car the rain seemed to have slowed down. I got in and I started driving out of the parking lot. When I made it to the road the rain suddenly turned into a heavy down poor. I panicked a little because the water began to cover my windshield to the point where I couldn’t see through it. The wind picked up too and I noticed leaves were flying from the Fall turned trees and created what looked like a tornado of leaves. It did look really pretty, but in a sort of, “Oh my gosh, I could get killed if those leaves flew in front of my car and covered my windshield,” kind of way.
I began to debate whether or not I should pull over and wait out the storm or just drive home. I decided quickly that I wanted to just go home, but then I had to decide if I would take the back roads I would normally take or to stay on the main road as a precaution. “I’m sure the back roads will be fine,” I said to myself. I took the next right that led out to the back roads and not even 2 seconds after I reached this road did the wind pick up with the heavy down poor of rain. More leaves began to fly off the trees and the wind drove them and the rain directly at my car. I looked out in slight horror as I observed what looked like a monsoon forming before my eyes. I tried to remain calm while I eased up a bit on my speed till I could see clearer. “Maybe back roads aren’t the best idea…,” I said again to myself and no they weren’t because if the wind picked up down one of the back roads that are filled with trees then I’d be in an even worse situation.
I got back onto the main road as quickly as possible and continued my quest to make it home safely. Even on the main road, though, the rain would occasionally pick up and cover my windshield almost completely. The rain did eventually subside, however, but once I started driving down the Main Street of the city I noticed the cars in front of me began to slow down. I was a little confused as to why they slowed down because there wasn’t a traffic light ahead of them. My confusion quickly disappeared when I saw them drive through many inches of water. Shocked, I immediately slowed down as well and began to wade my tires through the slightly flooded streets.
At this point a few thoughts entered my mind, “What if my co-worker wasn’t 10 minutes early because she got caught in this storm? What if she possibly had an accident?” Worry for her began to set in before I realized I couldn’t let her concern me at this moment. As cold as it sounds, I needed to be more concerned with getting home safely and I needed to stay fully aware of the current road conditions.
Once I was out of the city and reached the main country roads it was mostly smooth sailing (no pun intended) the rest of the way home. The roads at this point were 55 mph speed zones, though, but I was sure to stay in the right lane where myself and others hovered around 40-50 mph. I did notice a lot of cars going about 60 mph in the other lane. I shook my head as I watched all the water fly up from behind them as they passed. They were practically a hazard waiting to happen and, even though I was anxious to get home at this point, I was perfectly content with my slower and safer speed.
Eventually I made it to my neighborhood and finally to my house. I pulled into my driveway and breathed a sigh of relief. All was not well yet, though. I was still worried about my co-worker and if she made it to the campus safely. I quickly gathered my things and ran inside my house. I was greeted by my mom who was quick to inform me that our Direct TV was out. I stared at her blankly for a few moments before I responded to her, “Well I just drove through some flooded streets and had to endure a pretty bad rain storm, but I’m sorry the Direct TV went out.” She laughed and apologized and told me that it didn’t rain that hard down here where we live, but it was still bad enough to knock out our TV signal.
Not very concerned with the TV, however, I took out my phone and called the number of where I work on campus. To my final relief, my co-worker cheerfully answered the call. I explained to her what I just had to drive through and that I was worried if she made it to the campus safely. She thanked me for the concern and told me that she had actually beat the storm on her way in and was only late because of a lot of red lights that stopped her.
After I was off the phone, I brought my things up stairs to my room, plopped down in my desk chair, breathed another sigh of relief, and started to reflect on what just had happened. I had made it out safely through one of the worst driving experiences I have ever endured in the last few years I’d been driving. I was very grateful and thankful that I was kept safe all throughout it too. Filled with joy and a sense of victory, I started to smile and then proceeded to unwind after such a long day.
I recently stumbled upon a blog post by Carl King called “10 Myths About Introverts” and I immediately was intrigued. I discovered the blog post originally through Adam Young (aka Owl City) who posted it on his blog. It stuck out to me so much because lately I have been classifying myself as an introvert, but made the mistake of not knowing exactly what an introvert was. Carl King’s blog post goes on to explain 10 different common misconceptions people have about introverts. One of the big ones people (and myself included for awhile) confuse is an introvert and a shy person. Introverts are NOT shy! Shyness is fear of social situations and fear is not how an introvert works.
Introversion is not the same as being shy or being a social outcast. Introverts prefer solitary activities over social ones, whereas shy people (who may be extraverts at heart) avoid social encounters out of fear, and the social outcast has little choice in the matter of his or her solitude.
...social networking sites have been a thriving home for introverts in the 21st century, where introverts are free from the formalities of social conduct and may become more comfortable blogging about personal feelings they would not otherwise disclose.
Source: "Extraversion and introversion." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
OH MY GOSH, WIKIPEDIA CAN READ MY MIND. I’m not lying when I say that this is EXACTLY why I wanted to blog and even video blog on YouTube. I did not even read this article on Wikipedia before I made the decisions to start this blog or my channels on YouTube!
I encourage you to read all of Carl King’s blog post, but I am going to go through each of the 10 myths Carl King discusses and explain my reactions and thoughts toward them because it wasn’t till after I read this blog post did I realize how introverted I actually was. All of the following quotes are from the blog post:
Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk.
This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.
I am always the quiet one in a group especially around people I don’t know very well. It’s very true what he says about not shutting up if I get going on a subject, though. I will actually tell people to tell me to shut up if I am talking so much because I know I will not stop talking on my own.
Myth #2 – Introverts are shy.
Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don’t interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don’t worry about being polite.
I always thought I was shy, but as I explained above shyness is fear and I am not necessarily fearful of social situations. I’ll start talking to someone who initiates a conversation but it’s very unlikely that I will initiate the conversation with someone I don’t know very well or even at all.
Myth #3 – Introverts are rude.
Introverts often don’t see a reason for beating around the bush with social pleasantries. They want everyone to just be real and honest. Unfortunately, this is not acceptable in most settings, so Introverts can feel a lot of pressure to fit in, which they find exhausting.
Now I’m not usually rude about it and I handle the situation calmly, but I HATE when people “beat around the bush” and don’t get to their point. I am generally a patient person, but when it comes to this I have very little patience. It aggravates me to no end when I am talking with someone and they won’t get to their point. Now, it’s not like someone needs to just come up to me and say what they need to say and leave; I just get very frustrated when people take way to long to get to their point especially when I’ve already figured out their point from their babbling!
Myth #4 – Introverts don’t like people.
On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.
*Looks at fingers* 1…2…3… Oh, yep that’s true. 3 friends come to mind when I think of my closest friends which are ones who I have had for either a long time and/or have been the most loyal, trustworthy, and supportive in everything I’ve done (like blogging!).
Myth #5 – Introverts don’t like to go out in public.
Nonsense. Introverts just don’t like to go out in public FOR AS LONG. They also like to avoid the complications that are involved in public activities. They take in data and experiences very quickly, and as a result, don’t need to be there for long to “get it.” They’re ready to go home, recharge, and process it all. In fact, recharging is absolutely crucial for Introverts.
When I’m out in public I generally don’t always involve myself in whatever activity is taking place. I’ll be perfectly content just sitting and watching. Most people will feel bad and of course try to involve me. I never really understood why I would act like this until now. I won’t always sit out, though, but like the post said I can take in a situation quickly and I value the time I take “to go home, recharge, and process it all.”
Myth #6 – Introverts always want to be alone.
Introverts are perfectly comfortable with their own thoughts. They think a lot. They daydream. They like to have problems to work on, puzzles to solve. But they can also get incredibly lonely if they don’t have anyone to share their discoveries with. They crave an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time.
I couldn’t emphasize the point about “an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time” enough. Even in a group (whether big or small) of people I can generally only connect with 1 person at a time. I can open up more to a person I’m talking to one-on-one. Now, this all depends on the group of people, though. If I’m amongst a lot of friends or people I know very well it’s easier to open up to everyone at once.
Myth #7 – Introverts are weird.
Introverts are often individualists. They don’t follow the crowd. They’d prefer to be valued for their novel ways of living. They think for themselves and because of that, they often challenge the norm. They don’t make most decisions based on what is popular or trendy.
Having a mind of your own is a very important quality of every human being, but some don’t always remember they have this quality about themselves. At a very young age I decided and learned to not allow myself to be influenced by others just to be able to fit into a crowd. I figured if I had to change something about myself to be able to fit in then whoever I was trying to change for wouldn’t be a true friend anyway.
Myth #8 – Introverts are aloof nerds.
Introverts are people who primarily look inward, paying close attention to their thoughts and emotions. It’s not that they are incapable of paying attention to what is going on around them, it’s just that their inner world is much more stimulating and rewarding to them.
I could entertain myself with my own thoughts for hours. It’s as if I have my own little world to escape to whenever I want. You’d be surprised of the vast amounts of things I can think of during a day. Usually I’ll be thinking about ideas I have for various things, but I will even create possible outcomes to social scenarios in my head. The latter I do quite often actually. Sometimes I do it so much that I make it hard for myself to remember what actually was reality and what was only apart of my imagination.
Myth #9 – Introverts don’t know how to relax and have fun.
Introverts typically relax at home or in nature, not in busy public places. Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. If there is too much talking and noise going on, they shut down. Their brains are too sensitive to the neurotransmitter called Dopamine. Introverts and Extroverts have different dominant neuro-pathways. Just look it up.
I love to take walks on my own especially along some wonderful scenery like a lake. It relaxes me and I can process some thoughts that are lingering in my head. My room at home is also a place I can relax in. Sometimes I’ll just close my door and lay on my bed with my laptop or even with a book and begin to relax that way. The only way I could get myself to relax in a busy public place is if I allowed myself to get lost in my imagination and forget what was going on around me.
Myth #10 – Introverts can fix themselves and become Extroverts.
A world without Introverts would be a world with few scientists, musicians, artists, poets, filmmakers, doctors, mathematicians, writers, and philosophers. That being said, there are still plenty of techniques an Extrovert can learn in order to interact with Introverts. (Yes, I reversed these two terms on purpose to show you how biased our society is.) Introverts cannot “fix themselves” and deserve respect for their natural temperament and contributions to the human race. In fact, one study (Silverman, 1986) showed that the percentage of Introverts increases with IQ.
I would never trade what I have as an introvert to be an extrovert. There is nothing wrong with being an extrovert, but it’s just not for me. My only point here is to clear up the common misconceptions people have about introverted people and not to claim one is better than the other. People are generally a mix of both an introvert and an extrovert but some can be extreme to just one.
Carl King’s blog post (along with the help of Wikipedia) helped me understand what an extreme introvert I really am and helped me to realize that so many things that I thought were weaknesses of mine were actually my strengths as an introvert. I can not begin to describe how amazing it feels to finally realize this!
Too Long; Didn’t read: Hi, my name is David and I’m an introvert.
Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Are you a mix of both? If so, do you tend more to one over the other? Feel free to share in the comments below!