April 21st

Once again it's technically a day late, but I'm going to make sure blogger lies to you again. I worked until 1am and now it's a little after 2. I would love to say that since I didn't work until 4pm I did all sorts of things that I can write about, but the simple truth is I had to leave for work at 2 because of how far away we had to park and I slept until a little after noon. This doesn't make for very interesting writing, but it did make for much needed relaxation. I regret nothing.

I suppose I can just write about a few things that have been on my mind. One of the things I've been thinking about lately is YouTube popularity. I watch more than a few YouTube channels, and many of the channels I watch are just bloggers. I often wonder how they manage to get the audiences they have. I have put quite a lot of work into my videos, and some of them are quite good, yet they have 30 views while poorly or unedited vlogs that ramble and have no purpose have hundreds. I'm not complaining, if I didn't love what I was doing I wouldn't do it, but I do find it interesting. Looking at how things get noticed on YouTube is sort of a petri dish of how you would get jobs and things in real life.

What I mean is that it isn't always about the talent of the YouTuber or their content (the skills) it's often much more about who you know. Often all it takes is a larger YouTuber mentioning your channel for subscriber count to sky rocket. From there as long as you provide decent content (or, it seems, give people something pretty to look at) you continue to gain viewers. On the other hand you can have amazing content and be incredibly talented, but if you don't know the right people you might sit unnoticed forever. This is EXACTLY the same as the current job market. You can have skills, talent, and intelligence coming out of your ears, but if you don't have the experience or know the right people you get nowhere. It's a fascinating phenomenon.

The nice thing about the microcosm of YouTube is that you can still do it for fun. Unlike the job market, where if you don't succeed you might be without a food or a home, on YouTube you can continue to have fun without much worry. Of course if you do succeed on YouTube you can turn that into a career, and then you win on all accounts. But even if you don't succeed, it's a platform for expression and excitement. As long as you're having fun there's no reason not to continue making videos regardless of your lack of success (or at least what society views as success).

Anothing (which apparently is my newly invented word meaning "another thing" since I've tried to type that 3 times and anothing has come out each time) that has been on my mind a lot is housing. My current lease runs out at the beginning of July and I'm tentatively looking for a new place to live. I say tentatively because I might just end up staying where I am for another year, but it's still up in the air. I'm considering adding another roomie and would then need a three bedroom place. Also, I dislike moving and would like to move somewhere that I might stay awhile. That means I'm going to be looking at condos and townhouses (and maybe even actual houses) as well. I'll be shopping around to find my best options, and to make sure that I'm getting something that I both like and can afford. The big thing for me though is finding a place that I can really settle into. I want to stay in Florida awhile, and I'd rather not keep moving every year (or every couple of years). I'm hoping that if I do move in July that if I move again it will be at least 5 years in the future.

That's basically all that's been on my mind, except that I need sleep. That's been on my mind for days. For now I'll sleep, and maybe tomorrow I'll actually have something to write about. Of course that's not a promise, so don't hold me to it. We both know that in all likelihood I'll be back here with no ideas.