shypixiegirl:

I just realized how manly the men with fangirls must feel.

They are basically support for hundreds of girls

They’re like men of steel that all women can depend on

Did you just call me a bra?

I am writing this from the couch in my parents’ living room, listening to the sounds of things moving around upstairs.

My parents used to live in what could be called ‘the middle of nowhere’, then they moved a little further. Still not satisfied, they moved here, to a one-street village with a population of around 12. At the end of the street you turn onto a main road that links the local villages together, with no more homes save for a small caravan park. Cars come by once every five minutes. Twice at lunch time.

It’s a welcome change from London. My house is crowded, and even at night the streets are peppered with asshole drivers. I don’t have a garden, so if I need to ‘escape’, my options are to stay in my room or walk to the nearest park. I’m going to work on plans for upcoming videos- one for tve to launch their 2013 competition, one pretentious montage, one cute music video and one fun experiment with PJ.

IMPORTANT NEWS

You know those ducky sweaters I sell? We recently made them available again and were completely overwhelmed by the number of orders. It’s taken us almost a month to finally ship them all, but we did it (THANKS MANDY). They are now available again, only shipping to the UK for now. Click here to get one.

If you’re not following my side-project TALK, now’s the best time to start. We’re doing a two-week special about the pros and cons of university, with lots of new contributors including Matt Hogan, Lamarr Wilson, Matt Amys, Mandy and Morgan Paige…

Thank you to everyone on my Patreon secret moon base. You’re helping make the next few videos extra fun for me.

Diglett is my favourite.

I am writing this from my couch on a grey Tuesday, listening to Justin Timberlake’s Blue Ocean Floor. It’s cold in my house because the boiler is leaking and water is getting into the electric parts.

I’ve just read a comment from a viewer on my latest video asking how he can get views. He says he struggles to get more than 3-400 no matter what he does. These comments are a dime a dozen, but I clicked through to see what it is he does do.

Turns out this channel belongs to a boy who can’t be older than 13 or 14. He video blogs and does fun cutaways. He has a scarily good eye for lighting compared to what I was capable of at that age. He has a channel intro video, and all his thumbnails are eye-catching with big, bold text.

However indirectly, people like me and other ‘popular/famous’ YouTubers (professional or semi-professional film makers and actors in disguise), set a bad example. YouTube’s ‘community’-driven ideals are so easily mutated into ‘you can make money and be famous too!’, which is almost a lie. What’s more important is that we have young audiences, and can become imitable role models.

So wherever possible, I tell people who ask questions like that not to care or worry. They should be making things to enjoy the process, or learn new skills. ‘Professional YouTuber’ is a fallacy. We’re professional cameramen, editors, personalities etc. using the platform to grow and get better.

Or maybe that’s absolute bullshit. Maybe I should be encouraging the entrepreneurial drive of this young dude. Maybe we only discover new talent by finding the crazy kids who are willing to trawl comments asking for attention. Maybe he’s the next David Mitchell or Noel Fielding or Charlie Brooker. I just find it weird seeing children trying to ‘market’ themselves.

We live in confusing times.

I am writing this from a desk on the third floor of Google’s London HQ, listening to Steven Price and Basement Jaxx’s original music for Attack the Block. Here’s a little Friday update for you.

This last couple of weeks I’ve been tossing and turning at night about what to do, when to do what. Is what I’m making good enough? Am I pushing myself or just getting into a routine?

I use a site called 750words occasionally to dump my thoughts in the morning, like a diary. Here are some recent excerpts:

… is the Patreon model actually appealing to me in a more creative way? I’d like to think that it is. But at the same time I have to admit that a small part of it is ego. I make things that thousands of people really enjoy watching, but that I can’t seem to make any real money from. As a film maker I feel like I’m stagnating because without capital, it seems like I can’t move forward with my career*.

*I know that’s silly, but it does feel like that a lot of the time. If I can’t afford to travel somewhere, or can’t afford to buy a prop or hire a person, then my video suffers. I suffer also, because instead of concerning myself with purely creative decisions, I am worried about the dollar dollar.

See also:

I feel like I’m wallowing in a middle-ground.

How do I fix this?

Ideas. I need to think outside the box? I need to think without limitations.

But this is all just talk. I do have ideas. I’m working on a video called ‘Vlogger’, which will let me experiment with light and storytelling in a way I haven’t done since Routine. I have other ideas in the pipeline, too. And plenty of opportunities!

If you followed PBFB, you know this ‘lack of direction’ issue is a recurring theme. Don’t worry too much about it…

IN OTHER NEWS

Recently Liam and I decided to quit our channel, NewMusic. We love music and sharing our recommendations, but the audience wasn’t there. We’re both busy people nowadays, and we realised we couldn’t spare the time NewMusic needed to grow. Thank you to everyone who did watch the channel! Keep reading…

Sadly, what made the format unique (the podcast-style playlist) also made it a hard sell, and no-one was really interested. In just a couple of months, TALK reached over 10,000 subscribers. In almost 2 years, NewMusic reached only 7,000, with guest curation and endorsement not helping to retain viewers.

However, I am determined to share curated mini-playlists with you on a regular basis! Enter the NewMusic Blog, where you can browse our weekly recommendations in your own time. As the site grows, each page will deliver you three songs and the links to listen and/or buy them.

I know it doesn’t have our lovely faces, but you can still see and hear us on bingradio or worldoftheorange…

If you’re as passionate about music as I am, make sure you bookmark that site, or subscribe to the RSS feed (if you kids even do that anymore), and check back every week!