Sunday Night Irreverence

Gotta love it...

Great way to enter the work week!

On Chatroulette

Thank God for the internet allowing us to live in such a glorious age. Right? It depends upon who you are. But, nevertheless, the internet has become the hugest depository of mindless entertainment and humor ever assembled. If one has time that needs killing, the internet is the pale, bald headed hitman that double taps time in its sleep. For free.

Case in point – Chatroulette. This site is the epitome of the irreverent nature of the internet. For those of you that haven’t been there yet, the main gist of the site is cam-to-cam chatting with complete strangers that could be doing literally anything. All you do is flick your webcam on and away you go. (Caution: the male anatomy is very present on this site…which makes me worried for the world.) The fact that this site exists shows that the vast majority of the world has nothing else better to do on a Sunday night. But, its existence also proves to me that the internet is our only direct pipeline to clinically insane people. Which is the beauty of it all, really.

The first cam that popped up on my screen was a group of 6 guys, dancing to some techno song. While fairly hilarious, I knew that there had to be something crazier out there. Then, the cycle started. Member after member, laying in their bed on their sides, staring into the camera. 100% middle aged men.

What in the high holy hell are these guys looking for on this site? It was created by a teenager. And is really dominated by teenagers. What could they possibly gain from this? I’m not going to delve into this theory too much – too disturbing.

The site is not for everybody – but for those of you that can stomach the more repulsive side of the site, it can provide some unpredictable and rather unforgettable hilarity. I would definitely say it’s worth a look-see just for the sheer morbid curiosity of it all.

Here is an amazing video on Chatroulette:

chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

On Why I Love (And Will Subsequently Miss) North Idaho

If there’s anything I’ve been trying to preach on here recently, it’s having the ability to roll with the punches. You have to do what you have to do. The good thing, at least, is that Raquel and I both have a ton of friends in the Phoenix area, so it will allow us to have a broader support system than we had when we moved to Liberty Lake three years ago. If we can make it through that, we can make it through anything.

What puts me in a melancholy mood, however, is how attached I’ve become to the Idaho panhandle. Idaho is one of those irrelevant states (i.e. those of you who read this and say “Idaho panhandle? What the hell?” You know who you are.) One of my favorite ways to pass time is to watch Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel because of all the serene, peaceful, and down right amazing things that exist in the world. I think that the point of our lives here on this planet is to get out and see as many of God’s creations as possible. This weekend – I was able to do so.

A couple weeks ago, II spent the weekend at a friend’s house up in Sandpoint, ID on Lake Pend Oreille and, frankly, it was hard to come back to Coeur d’Alene. Actually, it was hard to come back to the real world. Not necessarily Coeur d’Alene. I love this little town. But everything on that lake is just brilliant. When we woke up, we drank a cup of coffee in a sun room that looked out over the northern arm of the lake and the surrounding mountains.

That picture was taken with a cell phone, but you get the point. How great of a life would it be if you woke up every morning, sauntered sleepily out onto the deck, and, once you rubbed the sleep out of your eyes, you were greeted with this scene? 

On Google AdSense

So, recently I was reading some articles in regards to Google AdSense and figured...what the hell? I might as well give it a try. But, as you get deeper and deeper into the AdSense world and start learning about writing for SEO, it seems (as cliche as it is) that you can quickly move away from whatever the main topic of your blog may be and create a shell of a website designed to maximize the amount of clicks on a certain advertisement.

This morning, I was doing some research on how to optimize the money you might receive on Google AdSense and, to me, it did not necessarily seem worth it. The advice basically said to create a blog/site geared towards people who are not "internet savvy". Through this, you can make your articles sound like you know what you are talking about so that the naive (and, I'm assuming, elderly) people surfing the web can stumble across your website on a Google Search. Once your "Google Page Rank" is high enough, your website will actually show up on Google searches of a certain topic, thus increasing your revenue.

(By the way, this is insanely off topic, but why were there three Jurassic Park movies made? I'm watching third one now...awful.)

I feel like there has to be an acceptable medium between the two extremes -- namely, creating a site that is designed only to maximize clicks on ads or creating a site that expresses the ideas and emotions that you want. The latter obviously is not in the top of 5 of maximizing revenue, but I feel like you can do both by creating a site that people want to read. Yes, you have to leave your link all over the place on other blogs and be an active member in the online society to grow your readership, but the success that I have (or don't have, realisitically) with Google AdSense will strictly be derived from whether or not I create a product that someone wants to read.

My readership is small or non-existent at the moment, which is something I'm working on. However, I would love some comments from people who have used Google AdSense in the past with a similar tactic as the one I lined out above. Have you had success with it? What did you find helped you the most? Overall, was the "product" you were creating (blog, site, etc.) something that you were ultimately proud of as an author/creator?

Have a good day!

On Stress

My last post was January 25th – I’m already neglecting my duties as a responsible blogger. But I have an excuse! Really!

Ok, I really don’t have a good one – saying that one is too “under stress” to do anything is probably the worse cop out in the history of cop outs. Shouldn’t stress be something that we can easily deflect? I mean, think about it. We have so much stuff surrounding us in our daily life that we should be able to take our minds off what is bothering us (for instance, substance abuse).

Yet, every night when I get off of work, I find myself too mentally fried to do anything at all. I basically become a permanent fixture on my couch and flip on my beautiful television. I’ve gained weight. I’ve lost a ton of sleep. I’ve drank a little more than I probably should be. But I sure have watched a shit load of college basketball. I already have my bracket filled out and, dammit, I’m going to win.

Here’s hoping that, for better or worse, the cause of my stress will come to an end next week so that I can start worrying about something else. Is it all really just an endless cycle of worries? Maybe I should start working out. Endorphins, and the like.

When worried, I can never make a solid decision on anything.