Tom Daley coming out as gay is a big deal.

Hi, this might be the first time you've visited my blog, welcome :)

Today Olympic diver Tom Daley came out as gay in a self made Youtube Vlog and in the scheme of things in the greater world we live in, this shouldn't be a seen as a big deal, nor should people be judging him or criticising him, although obviously some out of touch brain dead people will be doing that on twitter as I type this.

But, in the world of sport, it's a massive deal. Tom Daley is among very few now that have let the world know that they're Lesbian, Gay, Bi, or Transgender, it's a problem in sport, at least for those who feel they have to hide who they really are. In what I consider to be 'my' sport, Football, the amount of players that are openly gay is minute. For Tom Daley to make this step and tell the world without a care for what people think is fucking brilliant. I hope it encourages more sports stars to do them same should they wish too. Homophobia is a wide spread problem in the perceived, alpha-male sports, not only from those that jeer from a spectator stand point but by peers that would judge their potential team mates unfairly.

Below wikipedia kindly compiled a list of LGBT sports men and women that have 'come out', one day coming out won't even be a thing will it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LGBT_sportspeople
It's a scary thought that that amount of people on that list amount to a similar number that a professional football club signs to their team from youth level to the first team. That list isn't from the past 10 years, it's in the history of modern day sport, 16 of which English. So that table is telling us that out of the thousands of people playing sport professionally in England, less that 20 feel comfortable in coming out. Attitudes need to change.

It should be noted that Tom Daley didn't have to tell anyone, and many people don't, I myself am not gay but that doesn't mean I don't witness homophobia while watching or playing sport, it's often not even aimed at someone that's gay, it's often used and covered up by a term which I cannot stand, 'Banter'. So for anyone that's reading, being homophobic or a bully or a general prick is not 'Banter', that's you being a complete dick, a stain on the society that we live in, and it 2013, your views aren't welcome. It must make it bloody difficult to come out if you're playing a sport in which half your team are mocking someone that isn't even gay, knowing that you are.

In summary, well done Tom Daley, I've no doubt you'll inspire many with your decision to tell the world that you're not ashamed of who you are :)

Thanks for reading :)

Ben

Weekend Break

Kinda a bit late to say this but I won't be blogging at the weekends unless something good or interesting goes on.

Thanks :)

We don't choose our news.

Hi Gang,

Yes I've called the readers of this blog 'a gang', I doubt that's a very accurate description of my so far 'regular' readers, I do though know that over 100 of you read my last blog, so thanks a bundle!

I thought I'd drive off road for this blog. I'm going to tackle the news and how it's been pretty dire to read recently.
2012 was a very happy year wasn't it? Everyone was excited about Royal business or the Olympics being in London, life was pretty good in England, even the weather was nice!

2013 rolled road though didn't it, typical, I've gotta be honest and say I was expecting it. This years news has been so depressing, I've always felt that the media don't do enough to promote positive news, genuinely, I feel it's because people aren't too quick to push the success' of young people because of a fear that we'll blow up a school or knife a boy of different race the next week. BUT a great deal of cool stuff that goes on in this world is done by a younger generation, which to me is only natural and not at all a slant at the elders among us. It's just we've grown up with the world wide web, a source of information unlike any other, vast, frequent, instant and potentially vile. The media, especially in England tend to put a dampener on success, I don't mean that they shoot down excellence, I mean that they've made the decision for people reading or watching that a negative story is more interesting. Is that true? Is that a fair representation of what goes on?

Why do we allow it? Well simply, we have no choice, we're fed stories of child abuse, rape and murder, not because it's what we want to hear but because corporations have made the 'informed' decisions that it's what 'sells'. It's as if we've been trained to accept these awful things simply because of just how common they are. We aren't sat around shocked and appalled by the incidents that sicken us, we think, 'yeah, why int I surprised'.

I hate it, I hate that we're now numb to terrible things happening, it's NOT because it's happening all day every day (at least I'd fucking hope not) - it's that the mainstream media feed us these stories day in day out. I understand that some people are interested and potentially it raises awareness to prevent it in the future but I'd much rather find out that someone who's 15 has found a cure for a terrible illness, it does happen! If you've ever seen any video conferences via TED.com you'll know that people are coming up with ideas and theories to problems everyday. People are made to feel scared not inspired and I sit here thinking more could be done. I wish the news were forced to headline a positive idea everyday, it'd be great.

Something different, feel free to leave a comment in the section below, I'd love see what other people think about this :)

Thanks 'gang'

Ben

Who Is Ben Carr?

Hi there,

If you've never been here before this is my blog! I used it a few years ago quite frequently but back then it was down to having a moan about anything and everything and needing a place to put those feelings.

I've been pondering over the last couple of days to whether I can be interesting enough so that people keep wanting to come back to read what I've got to say. I feel like the best thing to do is tell you about me, because although you know a version of me, in this blog I'm sure you'll find out more about me than you even desired.

I guess I'll start with the basics. I'm Ben, born Benjamin but I've never been called that, I do though get called Benjy by the people on the internet (my own fault), although nobody in real life calls me that, not a soul, you might wonder then while I tagged myself as Benjy then. Well at long last the secret is revealed! My Dad (Alan Carr, no, really) used to call me Benjy-Boo-Baa when I was little, and well Ben is quite common so most internet based sign ins are taken, Benjy though, always available. Not an exciting story is it.

I'm currently 23 but I suspect that'll change in the future, which is fucking scary because I don't feel nearly as responsible as I thought I would be when 23. I've been in a FIVE year relationship with a lovely lady called Elly, some of you may know her. We met at college and it's been on going since then, it's pretty great.
For work I dabble in stuff that doesn't ever feel consistent or secure but gives me flexibility to kinda do as I please, I write for various football writing sites mainly about my team, Liverpool, as well as that I've recently started taking a lot of interest in the statistical side of football and provide data for those that collect it. Quite pain staking at times but it's pretty fun looking at a different side of the game I love.

Where you might know me from?
Some of course will be from Youtube, that will probably be the majority. I've made videos on the site on and more recently off for the past 6 years. Mental.

You may well know me from my writing or Liverpool podcasts I've done in the past and you've hung around, or more recently I've been doing a football/football manager podcast that's been doing really well with my friend Jack/WorkTheSpace.

Another place you might know me from is real life, and this is the most interesting to me, because I've been surrounded by the internet on the regular since I left school really it's still weird for me to see people from school use for example twitter, I remember when everyone got it and I was pretty smug with a 'I was here first' face. I do like still having that connection with people I know in reality though, it makes the internet seem more real, and that's a good thing.

On this point, I've created a little poll which I'd love for you to go and do, it's basically telling me how you know me, don't worry it's just a couple of clicks, it also lets me know how many people are reading :)

THE POLL (Click it)

I think I'll leave it there, I'll be doing these daily on a variety of topics so if you've enjoyed this one please come back!

Thanks, 
Ben/Benjy/But not Benjamin.

My first blog of 2013.

Better late than never.

More to follow daily.

Euro 2012 Fantasy Draft

Euro 2012 Fantasy Draft.

The way it works is that a group of say 6 (Could easily be more if people are interested) bid on players from this years European Championships. There's no prize as of yet but maybe a small stake is a possibility? Who knows.

THE RULES
1. Each player is given 300 points and uses these points to bid on players.
2. Each team will be a 4-3-3 formation and positions don't have to be filled exactly but you do need to have 4(Defenders) 3(Midfielders) 3(Attackers)
3. If a player is hard to place it will be decided by FIFA12.
4. With your 300 points you MUST end up with 11 players.

HOW THE BIDDING WORKS
I'm assuming everyone who's doing this will be on Xbox live firstly.
1. A random order will be determined on which players are put up for bidding
Eg. Player one would suggest *Player A* he would then be bid on by the group. (Whether you actually want the player or not.
2. Any player you put forward will automatically have put a 1 point bid on by the chooser.
3. You must NOT go over your 300 points budget.
4. If a player is knocked out in a early round, unlucky.


PLAYERS ARE SCORED ON (points in brackets)
Goalkeeper - Clean sheet(5), Saves made(1), Penalty save in normal time(5) - Goal conceded (-2)

Defenders - Clean sheet(5), Goals conceded (-2)

ALL PLAYERS -
Win (3)
Loss (-3)
Draw (1)
Goal (5)
Assist (3)
Yellow Card (-2)
Red Card (-5)
TV Man of the Match (5)


WINNER (5)
RUNNER UP (3)

Update | KONY

UPDATE
So it turns out the last time I blogged I told you all that I was going on an SIA stewarding course.. well yeah I did that about a month ago and a week after was told I passed with the top score in the whole class! Get me.

Since that I've been to London to see Liverpool in the Carling Cup final and win the most dramatic game I've ever witnessed face to pitch, and yesterday was Elly's birthday! So things have been happening, as well as that actually Elly has started driving lessons and nobodies died! Good news I'm sure you'll agree.

KONY
I guess I should have a little talk about KONY 2012 as so many people have and are now aware of it.. if you're not aware of it just type 'Kony' into Youtube and you'll be sucked into something awful with deeper lying issues.
For everyone that's watched the video I imagine some have then followed a similar route to myself.
- Watch video
- Be appalled by Joseph Kony
- Think Invisible Children are great for doing this
- Find myself wanting to help while feeling helpless
- Start thinking about it more
- Research Invisible Children
- Find it's not all it's cracked up to be

Perhaps that's not the exact route for you but it was for me. Let me start by saying what everybody who's written anything or made a video on this has said. Joseph Kony is an awful man who should be found and tried and of course I agree it needs to be done properly.

Invisible Children are a very odd 'charity', I don't know how many charities want people to donate to aid a corrupt army to stop a man via arrest or indeed death, and that's just the start. I tweeted earlier:
I keep hearing that last year Invisible Children spent 33% on Direct Services.. true, but it was only 18% in 2006! 433k on Production cost!
and
In 5 years the Invisible Children charity expenses have gone up $6.2 million, a lot of which is spent on travel #StopKony #ResearchIC

Both facts are true, you can find out for yourselves by going on their website and looking under 'finances' - why I think that it's nice that they've highlighted a man of evil, but they want to make him famous? It's a strange turn of phrase if you ask me.
Famous - Well or widely known.
These days in the world that we live in the word famous is something for sadly in most cases young children to aspire too, they don't want to be a nurse or fight fires they want to be famous, and it's not just kids is it? People that go onto Britain's Got Talent and the X Factor, these people want to be famous too. It's seen as a positive thing really, surely they should have gone about it saying, 'we want this guy known', not to be as 'famous' as George fucking Clooney.

Why involve a child in the video, why involve your son!
For me it says 2 things. One, that if a child can understand it's terrible and bad, so must everyone else! Two, it's the cute factor.
When rewatching the video I don't feel like I could help at all, living in Great Yarmouth on the East Coast of England. I feel like I'm being pressured and told, 'if you're not with us, you MUST be against us and FOR Joseph Kony and his regime. A 'charity' shouldn't make you feel that way.

I've two more points to make, the first being that how many charities do you know that have 'CRITQUES' page on their website?
This page is basically saying, don't believe the bullshit about how bad we are, believe what we say and support our cause. Which on one hand you'd expect them to do, but if they're so squeaky clean why even bother to acknowledge the doubters?

Finally, if this whole thing was so legit, why haven't you seen major news corporations back this video? Why aren't Youtube themselves supporting it? Why have they gone after celebrities and not major outlets of news around the world.

Anyway I promise the next vlog won't talk about this because people far more intelligent know more and you should probably listen to them instead. But I'm entitled to my opinion :D

Thanks for reading.

Ben

Excuse me Sir.

Evening all,

So tomorrow I embark on a course to become a SIA (Security Industry Authority) steward, it'll be something totally different for me but something I'm looking forward too. It's effectively the first step to other things for me it can lead to plenty of different avenues and will open doors I'd previous never even gone towards.

It lasts 4 days 9-5, I've not really had a solid routine for ages so I'll enjoy getting up at 7 every day for the week. I'm actually going it with my Dad and a couple of his work colleagues, every summer Great Yarmouth puts on a weekly fireworks display for free for locals and tourists, I've stewarded it for the last 5/6 years but never had any official training as it's not required. My Dad thought it'd be a good idea if a few of his team did the course to be better prepared and roped me in to take part too! 

I'm quite nervous, it's run by three former army officers and I can't be doing with doing press ups every 5 minutes because I've chatted back sarcastically/comedically, but hey I guess I'd deserve that sort of treatment if I were to give them a dose of Ricky Gervais. 

Anyway I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow night :)

Ben

Don't force it | Finally got it! (Youtube)

Although I said I'd post on this blog a lot more, and well if you look at it statistically, I have, I've come to the conclusion not to force these. It'll become boring and tiresome to do, and I want to enjoy blogging not find it a pain at the end of each day. Credit to Elly, she's done really well, everyday since the beginning of the year!

I'm currently watching 127 hours, basically it's about a man who has to cut off his own arm to escape from it being trapped in a rock. It's not the greatest prep for a blood test tomorrow but it makes my blood being taken look like being cover in feathers.

I've been writing videos this week, I've got a couple that I think I'll post soon. I think I've finally come up with something to base my channel around, it's only taken 3/4 years of any old shit to get to this point but I may have a little bit of a niche.
I'm literally going to ONLY do collabs on my channel. Not those collaborations that consist of me saying, 'What is your happiest childhood memory?' for 25 people to give thought through answers, no no no. I'm going to write little 1/2 minute sketches and be like the answer to all of your problems (COMEDICALLY) . I think the art of collaborations has kind of evaporated in recent memory. I want people new and old of youtube to be part of the videos, whether I know you or not, the main point though will be quality. IT HAS TO BE A GOOD VIDEO. I won't be afraid to tell people, 'your end isn't good enough'. Quality control is one the most important aspects of Youtube.

So there's the plan, collaborations. I'm going to write every single one or at least write with the person involved. I think it'll be good, I've got a few people in mind that I'd like to be involved :)

Soon

Ben

Saturdays 3 o'clock | Football a taboo?

My favourite time of the week, (along with Elly coming round on Friday evenings)

I just get a buzz from it, the lead up on a Saturday, I wake up thinking oooo what games am I watching today, much to Elly's disgust but it's just something I live for. My love for the time is strange really, I don't think there are many people in this world who love a time so much, I imagine football fans around the country do have similar feelings but not many of those people read my blog. (At least I think that's the case)

Today I'll be watching a cross between Liverpool and Norwich, both clubs very close to my heart and both in the same division for only the 3rd time in my footballing lifetime. It's exciting, both teams with different goals, one wants to be at the top of the division although that's a long way away from happening right now. The other, Norwich, they want to remain in the division and push on for the future because of it's financial benefits.

I've always avoided blogging about football on my internet personality profiling sites. - Is that even a sentence that makes any sense?

The reason is purely because I don't want to talk about things that interest a minority, football is almost a taboo on Youtube. People go on about Doctor Who and Harry Potter till it's coming out of their arse and I get it rammed down my throat on twitter/youtube everyday, it's practically unavoidable. Thats something that bugs me about Nerdfighters and I'll blog about them tomorrow actually, or at least the 'cult' of people it engulfs, so I'll expect some backlash tomorrow. Although I don't intend on offending anyone, just making an opinion more official. I've thought this about them for a while, I've just never written it down.

This has been quite a mixed blog but it's done now, time to role on the football!

Ben

Youtube Subscription Numbers

Evening blog fans!

So if you believe what Youtube say.. they're going to remove all the dead accounts from Youtube.
- Read more about it here-

Meaning, if you've had an account for a number of years and not signed in without uploading videos it will disappear forever, until someone takes the name. This in turn means for people that have been on the site for a long time, a dip in numbers in inevitable. I imagine I'll be losing close to 1000 subscribers, maybe more maybe less. Quite frankly, I'm cool with it.

I don't like mis-selling myself, I'd rather be seen to have 400 subs and every one of those 400 watching more times than not, than kid myself with 3000 who don't. I might actually feel more encouraged to make videos knowing my 'real' audience figures. It'll be really interesting to see the big dogs of 2006/7 and how they cope. Some Youtubers like 'Smosh' have been around since the start so will surely be expecting a HUGE drop in numbers, into the 10's of thousands I'm sure.

A lot of people are really worried I think.. but I don't really know why. It's like you're lying to yourself if you believe you have 50,000 people watching, when in reality you only have 10,000.

Over my time on Youtube I've been one to 'quit' and RETURN more times than that horrible bitch Joan Rivers has had plastic surgery. The majority of the time it was because I just felt disillusioned with the site, I felt like my figures didn't speak for how good my videos were. Arrogantly so? Absolutely.

Now times are very different and most people will tell you people don't have time for Youtubers like me, I just talk to the camera to make people laugh, nothing more, nothing less. I don't do sketches or parodies or music, I just talk. If people like me then they're subscribing for me, not because someone's told them too. I've never had a hand out really, once or twice I've had bumps but not to the levels of most. This is why I'm welcoming the subscription drop, because I know I've earn't what I've got. I doubt many people on Youtube can say that.

Anyway I'll be uploading soon all being well, I've got a few ideas and me and Elly might be doing another series :)

Give me your thoughts on the subscription downer, I want to know what you think!

Much Love
Ben

Youtube Death

Hey gang,

I thought I'd delight your eyes with some more words on screens. Today something horrible happened a Youtube death took place. OK OK nobody actually died but a little piece of old school Youtube did. I think I've often been accused of trying to cling onto 'Old School Youtube' far too often, and those people are probably correct but I don't mind. I just miss how new it was, I miss my own personal drive for the site, I'd make videos about basically nothing for the thrill of the upload and nothing more. Now it's more of a viral campaign every time you upload, tweeting the video and begging for a retweet to increase traffic, facebooking it  so even my 'real life' friends see it and even Google+ get's my attention post upload now.

Anyway I spoke of death moments ago and I refer to something Barry Aldridge facebooked.

'Not going to use Real Name No Gimmicks in my videos anymore, it's time to move on.'

It's not a big thing to most I'm sure (ALTHOUGH IT SHOULD BE) but to me and many others from the original Youtube days Barry had captured and held onto a phrase which made him recognisable, quotable. It brought a smile to my face to see him say it as an introduction to each video and it'll be a shame to see it go. It's  a shame that even Barry feels like it's stagnant now, I disagree but who am I to comment. To me it's up their with Bruce Forsyth's 'Nice to see you, too see you nice!' or that spotty kid on the tv adverts for B&Q 'You can do it when you B&Q it!' - Doesn't quite work when trying to run a marathon, it'd slow you down if anything.

I hope Barry comes up with something equally iconic to introduce himself.

Cheers

Ben
Real name, No gimmicks.

Routine

The hardest thing about blogging is surely the routine of doing so... I'm currently railing a friend of mine playing some on-line poker for some big bucks, and his routine of playing is barely a routine, it's a freelance job.

I find the biggest challenge is engaging people with this blog, they'll be days when I write 1000's of words over things that aren't that important. They'll be others that are short to the point and more likely just act as guides to what I've done that day for me to mull over in 5 years time.

What I will have a rant about is the come down of Christmas. I'm never ready for the decorations to go back into the loft for another year. Although the Christmas spirit struggles to keep a firm grip on me these days I still have an air of sadness in my voice when I say, 'Are you putting the tree away?!'

I guess it's the harsh reality of life snapping at you, saying, 'Do something which is worthwhile again.'

This Christmas was the first I'd spent at home, is was just simple, the most simple Christmas I've ever had in fact. It was the first December 25th I'd ever spent in my own bed. I'd usually be going away to further a field family houses or shoved downstairs to make way for older family member. This so I could 'enjoy' the adventure of Downstairs. It was nice to wake up and see my own walls and posters surrounding me. It made me think about the future and how I'd ideally like to spend Christmas and it's 100% going to be around family once I've one of my own. I'm sure some of you might be reading this fearing for Elly, but it's not something that particularly scares us or is avoided in conversation it's just something that is romantically and spontaneously inevitable if that's possible. I'm pretty sure in the future the future for me will be a interesting discussion on this blog.

Anyway cya

Ben

It's never too late!

Ok so I nearly missed the deadline!

Today was my Mum's birthday, we went out for a nice meal that played a few games at home, 'who am I' was a classic, where you stick a post-it note on your head after someone else has written a name on it. You then take it in turns to see if you can work out who you are.

Being the evil son and boyfriend I am.... I had to pick someone for Elly first so I went for the rather obvious choice.. Elmo.

Anyway she actually got it! So when it came to picking someone for Mum I upped the ante!

The Banker from Deal or No Deal! It only took her about 45 minutes to work it out but lolz (can't stand that word) were had.

Take care.

Ben

Elly Friday!

So today is Elly Friday! It's not quite the public holiday but it's still good. You might want to know the deep origin behind 'Elly Friday' and how it all came about over times of recession, drug abuse and riots but the truth of the matter it... she just always comes round on Fridays. 

So there she is lying next to me reading Lee Evans' book.

I'll look over now and see what reaction I get...

She said 'What?' that was somewhat expected.

Actually something interesting has just come from Lee Evans' book a quote I'll retort in text now.

"Now I know that you have to reject the sort of closed thinking crap they want to force feed you in school, the narrow idea that you should keep your head down. never speak up and get a proper job"

In reference to him going to art college, now art college is never something I seriously contemplated during my education years, you'd find it hard to believe that I was quite shy at school really, I didn't want to make a big show of myself, I wasn't someone who relished the opportunity to delight my fellow school pals with a discussion about how Bill Shakespeare captures the emotion of Macbeth with some good nouns. I'd rather sit back and just let everyone else go first before building up a bit of courage to make a fool of myself with some comedy. Hardcore comedy. 

Anyway I'll leave you with some feelings of some insecurity from my past and bid you farewell.

Ben

 

Get it in early

Morning, well it's quite literally afternoon but I had the desire to write this an hour ago which meant I had the 'morning' thought.

Can you get a more pointless sentence than the one you've just read?

So I thought I'd blog early making sure I keep up with this, I've stuck it on my 'chrome taskbar' so I'm bound to do it more often if only because of procrastination. I had a quick look at my previous blogs and well I did it at college generally and quite a lot! College is now a distant memory for me and one I look back on with love and loathing.

The love part comes nice and simply from meeting Elly and never looking back. (Neck issues)

The loathing is down to the fact I hated every minute I was there, not because I didn't get on with people it's just a lot of my friends had moved on to University or work and I was sat there thinking I can more than likely achieve my goals in life without an A Level in PE. I guess I just didn't have the bollocks for a long time to admit that I could leave whenever I wanted too. I guess I thought education was something that HAD TO BE DONE, as when you're at school you're told that without an education you'll achieve nothing in life. Well I find this hard to believe because those success stories you hear of on the news and reality television, they don't come about from getting a masters in psychology, sure it might be a fantastic aid and a stepping stone but people get to where they want to be through hard work and sacrifice. I hope I can look back on this next year and think..'I've achieved something I didn't think I would'.

Anyway time to get proactive, I'm going to sit in my pants and play Call of Duty for an hour.

Much Love

Ben

Blogging

A few years ago everyone on Youtube had a blog, now it's all websites and tumblr and well I'm going to revert back to my blog! It's pretty standard really run of the mill you might say, but I'm going to try do it most days.

I've said this before and failed but I guess it's still good I try and make goals. Elly (my wonderful girlfriend) has just started doing it again and it's inspired me to give it a go.

So welcome back or welcome for the first time! Leave a little comment to let me know you'll be reading!

Ben

If you just so happen...

..to come across this blog then well it upsets me to say I don't really use it any more.

You though stalk me in other places!

Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/DoctorBenjy

Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/DoctorBenjy

Football website - http://www.BenCarrFootball.com

Personally contact me.

Skype - BenjyCarr

Thanks :)

Good Afternoon,

I have one of those Thursdays lunchtimes where I literally have NOTHING to do. It does give me a perfect opportunity to blog to my hearts content, I tend to write this really quickly though as it gets my full attention.

VIDEOS
I might do a video called 'Shaving' tomorrow, I started to claim that I didn't shave in November because of  Movember (rasing awareness for a cancer charity) The truth is I'm to lazy to shave and it just grows.

I might make video of my shaving while telling little tales of whats been going on and reveal at long last that I'm going to actually make a thing of my channel. I'm going to do a cross between Harry Hill's TV Burp and Russell Howards Good News. One because I think it'll be nice to have a purpose to the channel and secondly I think my comedy works best when I can bounce of current affairs. Who knows maybe one day it'll actually be watchable. I won't have a format as such, well actually I might I'm undecided.
But I might do one on Monday one on Friday and my LoveHate videos, tricky tricky tricky.



MY THURSDAYS
.. are such odd days. I get a little bit of a lay in untill about 9.20 then I get up, play badminton for an hour, then have a 15 minute break of nothing, Film Studies which varies from watching a film or recapping the film we just watched, it's a pretty fun but frightening experience to say the least. Then I have 1 hour 40 minutes to do what I'm doing now and get all my email up to date. Then a lesson of theory P.E. People often look at PE as a doss subject I'll tell you know its twice as hard as my other A Levels, you've never seen so much theory in your life I tell you! Then I have 3 hours to have dinner record and upload my lovehate video, then I have to be ready for football for 7.30, get home for half 9 and the day is done. Its a mix of busy and bored.

YOUTUBE GATHERING
Coming up is the Festive Gathering a gathering that I did enjoy last year I had a blast with Tom Bacon, Ellie Calder, James Seago, Jack and Dean. As well as seeing lots of friendly faces throughout the day.
I've not been to a gathering since, I came back from holiday the day of Summer in the City and it was just after my time in hospital so avoided that one and didn't go to any before that because of time and money I imagine. I'm seriously contemplating going to this one though, I have said that if I go to another gathering it'll hopefully be one run by TheLoveHateSociety because we did one nearly 2 years ago and I loved it! I feel a little out of the gathering loop so going to one in 10 days I think I'll feel like a bit of a stranger, those who've taken Youtube breaks will know that when you come back its really hard to get back into the swing of it all. I don't want to go and be by myself all day, it'd be a waste in many sense of the word.


College
College is still a bit of a struggle to be motivated for, I've not really got much to do, I take 2 subjects that I'm getting on alright with but I still feel I'm there because I have to be not because I want to be. May can't come soon enough, then it'll be another chapter of my life done. I'm sure I've mentioned the difficulty of being older than the vast majority of everyone else, it's still the case but it's getting easier I suppose.

Other stuff
I've recently embarked on a website design course, I say design it basically classes to teach you HTML and beyond, it really depends on your progress. I'm glad I'm doing it though it just another string to the bow, and having lessons at night at a different college sitting next to my Dad is quite an odd situation. I'm hoping to develop something egotistical like DoctorBenjy.com but also set up GetFeatured.co.uk or something like that to aid that project. GetFeaturedGlobal is being announced one Monday (and now on my blog it seems) but I suppose when you're in charge you can do what you like! Gary and Jack have officially left the project, it's been an honour to spend so much time on it with them over the last few months, and I was very sad to see the both depart, but times change and you need to evolve to make things work for the better. I now have 2 teams of 3 on GetFeaturedUK and Global, it's nice to have it all sorted and both teams are gelling really well, obviously some people are baffled by the new system, a system that was explained in a video, but I'm going to make a video on Monday address these 'issues' and announcing GetFeaturedGlobal on GetFeaturedUK. Lets hope people recognise me!

Whey I've killed an hour of time and got lots of things out in the open, thanks for reading all 888 words ok its 892 now, this could go on to be honest.

Ben
x

Video October

So Video October, whats it's all about I imagine I hear you cry..OK maybe a squeal?

It's very obvious to what it is really, its like the October version of VEDA but I'm not going to be a cliche and call it VEDO. I'm making a video everyday of October

The reaction most people have given it is... well that's exciting BUT some have said and this shows the faith my girlfriend has in me.. 'you won't do it.'

I seem to have created this Internet reputation of someone that doesn't follow things through, which to me is quite odd though I do play on the gimmick a lot of don't involve me I might quit half way through. In reality and can't let things go and I work fucking hard a lot of the time to follow something up or make it work, the problem I have is that I'm quite impatient, I like things to be done instantly and if that can't be the case then I at least want to know whats going on.. I like a plan and I like things organised. Jack and Gary have learnt from GetFeaturedUK that I'm like that Elly has had 2 years to get used to it and I don't think my Mum and Dad really 'get it'. I want to work hard at 'Video October' I'm also going to blog about each video as well.. so as the video processes and uploads I'll write a blog to link people to.

For most people making a video is quite straight forward, sadly its not that easy for me and it's quite time consuming.
Eg.
I record the footage on my nice camera,
then I have to transfer the tape to a machine that records the footage into Windows Movie Maker, I then either edit it and save it  or just save it. Then I have to transfer the raw footage to my laptop so, by either sending it over MSN or Sendspace so I can edit it on Sony Vegas so I can make it look good in wide screen (so not to be a Youtube outcast) and render it and then finally upload it to Youtube, the whole process can take an hour at the least but generally takes 2 hours or more to get a video to you people.
So the plan is to film the video after college everyday, whether that be a rant or a vlog or a little sketch the video will HAVE to be of good quality. The only thing that actually concerns me, isn't time or will power to make the videos but IDEAS. Anyone that makes videos knows that the idea is the hardest thing to come by, so these videos are likely to be very spontaneously recorded. Should be fun.

I'll post the video on here as well so you can just come here to watch it or just be subscribed to my Youtube account, if you found this blog and just follow me on Twitter then I make videos here <-- click it and it will take you directly to my Youtube channel.

Yes so starting on Friday a video a day from me, I hope you enjoy it!

Also I've just thought this will be a good resource to do video responses etc I've a few planned actually.

Thanks for reading

Ben.

Sidenote. On a low point this has only taken me 10 minutes to write and I've 40 minutes to now kill at college. BOO.