Dear blog,

I think I’ve become a vlogger.

This doesn’t change how I intend to keep you, try to foster you, keep your software updated, and let you be my unifying voice on the interwebs. I know I took a break from you during the month of August in the interest of what turned out to be a really life-changing crash course in becoming a video content creator, but you should know: You were first, you are important to me, and that the relationships you help to maintain, personal and professional, are vital to my existence.

It’s time I unpacked my bags from the video journey and settle back into home in Blogland.

Hopefully, all of our friends are still hanging out at the same watering holes.

Let’s use September to find out.

It’s on in a fashion similar to that of the video game and its eponymous character lead, Donkey Kong.

Get stoked.

Wait, get coffee first, then get stoked.

We have a lot of innanettin’ ahead of us.

-nicopolitan

I jumped on board the VEDA project, which is being spearheaded by Captain Ashley and Commodore Phampants (those are not official titles. Er, yet.).

As that means I’m attempting to vlog every freaking day in August, that probably means I am going to set down the WordPress if I want to keep my sanity, and especially if I am still trying to meet freelance obligations. And be in a band. What the hell is wrong with me?

I now know that I have to become more strict with my time management. Realizing I have little time to begin with, more vlogging = less blogging.

In the meantime, this post will act as a housing for the videos I’m uploading every day with a YouTube playlist.

I’ll see you all on the other side!

Okay, so Ashley and Phampants are right, making videos is way too much fun to even care about what trolls might think.

As a result, I have an unusually high number of posts this week (which, for me, is… well, two). And I have yet another video to share. Er, yay?

But on top of this, this is something my friends (especially my bloggy friends) rarely, if ever, get to see: what I’m like with an electric guitar. Sadly, this isn’t live audio because our guitar amps clip the microphone, but the music is us, at least.

What are your weekly rituals?

With some coaching and encouragement from @phampants, I’m going to take a stab at vlogging.

We’ll see how well this goes.

[EDIT] Cindy brought up that the car conversation was a little unintelligible, so here’s the transcription:

Andrew: Do you have any music on your phone, Simon?
Simon: Yes!
Andrew: Here, play DJ.
Simon: The pressure is on!
Andrew: Yes, it is. Entertain us, Simon!
Nico: Dance!
Andrew: Dance, monkey!
Simon: I said, dance!
Nico: …dance monkey?
Simon: I find that both…
Andrew: Offensive? Good.
Simon: Offensive, and racist, and… demeaning… and…
Andrew: …are you sure?
Simon: If you can think of any other adjectives, please.
Nico: “Delicious.”

[/EDIT]

While the band from the show, Oh Yeah, The Future will be going on hiatus before their next show, the main songwriter, S.A. Bach‘s got enough music and projects to go around. Check out his YouTube Channel for some tunes, and be sure to sing along with the rest of us otherwise you’ll just look out of place.

Birthday boy, @zaptra, is also a solo act of the electronic variety. If you’ve ever loved Boards of Canada, Björk, Radiohead, or any one of Aphex Twin’s projects, you’ll get along with Zaptra.

With that link orgy behind us, it occurs to me how easily involved I am in the Los Angeles musicians’ social circles. I think musicians make up at least 70% of my friends and acquaintances, and this includes colleagues and people from my alma mater.

I’m curious of my interweb friends: How many of you are musicians? What do you play? Whether you are one or not, how many musicians do you know? Keep in mind that your voice is also a musical instrument!

I am still to this day catching up on freelance stuff. I’m still taking work home with me from my day job. I’m finding that I become reticent to push away my friends because I can only think about the work in front of me. I miss my friends.

I have recently discovered through word of mouth that the only girl with whom I ever fell in love, who subsequently fell in love with a much more befitting guy, is now married; this makes me feel old in a very new and jarring way.

My Xbox360 has the Red Ring of Death again.

In Los Angeles summer heat, the air conditioner I moved into my room is as effective as when it used to be a fan in a window; this is a waste of hundreds of dollars.

A colony of ants is staging a coup near the kitchen sink.

My bank account is merely a conduit for the money I make to move towards the institutions that then devour it and demand more.

I am running on little to no sleep.

However, my roommate makes ridiculously delicious pizza.

I feel fine.

Pizza: 1
Monday: 0

Don’t let the post title fool you, VidCon was truly a blast. I did get to go with friends @writetoreach @freeandflawed and @phampants so I wasn’t necessarily lonely, I did get to meet some YouTube and interweb celebrities, and some of the presentations were straight up hilarious.

As one might expect from me by now, I went for the sake of work. While Phampants convinced me to attend because the conference itself would be fun, I came with a notepad and some pens planning to walk out of it with some material for quantitative and qualitative analysis.

The “learnings,” or tidbits of statistical and/or qualitative information that inform and influence decisions when deployed in the realm of strategic consultation and execution as they’re known in corporate jargon, were largely overshadowed by the wholly disparate intention of the conference. That is a long way to say: taking notes might not have been the point. By and large, this conference was supposed to celebrate the YouTube community — a community made up mostly of people under 21, but still, a community.

Community is something to which I’m no stranger. Having a blog has connected me to lots of people, and while I am always saying that I still need to work on reconnecting with everyone even after all this time, the readers and writers who keep up with me no matter how drowned in work I get really remind me that they’re friends who care, not just screen names. It’s a good reminder that there are, after all, real people on the other side of the screen.

Back to the ‘Con: The YouTube community — it’s different than others. Of course, this might be somewhat expected as the medium itself is fundamentally different from that of blogging, but it’s so tightly knit that when I met some people and revealed to them that I came for work purposes and explained what it was exactly I do for a living, I noticed their eyes wander in boredom.  It’s not because they’re assholes, or at least I hope not, but it’s because was very obviously an outsider.

Until this conference, I really didn’t know much about the likes of Is Charlie So Cool Like? and Volgvetica and the shining beacon of the music industry’s future, DFTBA records (and really the list goes on).

Had I been creating content and engaging with the existing YouTube community before VidCon, I might have.

Why hadn’t I participated before? First, a good place to start is the situation with trolls.  Before I shaped a persona on the interweb, I didn’t have very much confidence in myself to withstand being trolled. But now that I’ve been blogging for a while, and getting some ample evidence that the internet is as equally frightening as it is fulfilling, I realize I don’t give a flying fuck about being judged by strangers, so I’m probably in a pretty good place to learn to participate in user generated video.

Maybe it’s time for me to join this community, too. Phampants has been singing the praises for a long time, he’d even help me get started; I am a huge fan of the social part before the media part; and I would love to learn how to do something new.

Of course, engagement (or at least an attempt) is a minimal requirement. While I can’t guarantee much, especially if my blog-to-engagement ratio is any indication, I can at least make a valiant effort.

But at the end of all of this, towards the end of the conference, one moment stands out. I was hanging out by the hotel lobby ashtray with a bunch of smokers who were mid-level content creators with established, albeit small, audiences. They were here at the conference not to learn or to promote, but simply to connect with viewers and other video creators they have known and loved from afar for a while. They aren’t viral video superstars. They just love that being their respective selves on camera has led them to meet really worthwhile people who would eventually become friends.

One of the guys reacted strongly to one of my comments, that I do research and development because I’m interested in how people use social networks, and seeing such a tightly-knit community makes me to want to become part of it but I don’t know how to begin. He put his hand on my shoulder, and while swaying somewhat drunkenly, he impressively articulated: “Bro, if you’re here at VidCon, even as an observer, you already bought a ticket so you helped fund it, and while you were here, you paid attention. You’re already a part of the community.”

I guess this means I should start making videos.

The other night, sometime last week, I headed to my friends’ new apartment to get a briefing on the cat care procedure we’d be executing (see visual aid… which is more for me than it is for you, but I figure this would be boring without some kind of an image so… that’s what I have for you.).

JayBanzia and I drove out to Pasadena to 1. see our friends one last time before we wished them well on their extended trip to the beautiful islands of Hawai’i, 2. re-acquaint with cat, Pippin (cat lovers should click this), who has interestingly chilled out a lot now that he’s older, and 3. to get a cat care tutorial (wet food? dry food? rotation of key usage? preferred cat toy in certain times of day? etc.).

What we ended up with was something wholly different when we stepped out of my car and into the driveway of a complete stranger.

Maybe I’ve gotten too used to reading web fonts… but upon trying to find their unit which I had not yet seen until that night, I stumbled upon what I thought was the address, only what I’d thought was a “1″ was actually a “7″.

Pasadena, your addressing could use some goddam serifs already.

After making a phone call to say “we’re here” to Pippin’s parents, we stood idly in the stranger’s driveway. We saw a door open. A young man in a towel and flip flops shuffled his way towards us, and greeted us with: “I don’t know who you guys are, but I freaking love you!”

Interested in getting to the point, I responded, “Hi, is Evan or Mahea around?”

He was confused. “Erm,” he says with a cigarette in his mouth, “I don’t know who that is.”

Nico: “Oh, we’re just looking for our friends. #1## Unit A?”
Towel Guy: “OH! This is #7##! Yeah, this one’s a house.”
Nico: “Oh! Shit man, sorry to like, get you out of the shower or something for a wrong address!”
Towel Guy: “Oh, no I just had sex!”
Nico: “Oh… congratulations?”
Towel Guy: “Hey, do you have a light? This one’s not working.”
Nico: “Yeah, sure.” [lights his cigarette]
Towel Guy: “Thanks! Yeah, so…” [shuffles more towards the street, hand gestures] “…the apartment complexes are more that way.”
Nico: “Ah! Cool, thanks. We just totally misread the address so… well, here we are.”
Towel Guy: “No worries. No worries. At. All. Hey, you’re not from around here, are you?”
Nico: “Actually, I’m from Pasadena. I was born in…” [points across the street] “That hospital.”
Towel Guy: “HOLY SHIT I WAS BORN THERE, TOO!” [he high fives Nico and then laughs hysterically into the night air]
Nico: “Small fuckin’ world!”
Towel Guy: “TOTALLY! Oh hey, you wouldn’t happen to have any more smokes would you? This is my last one.”
Nico: “Yep, I got that, too.” [hands him a couple of cigarettes] “And one for the road.”
Towel Guy: “AWESOME! You guys are so awesome! Dude I know we just met, but I hope I run into you again.”
Nico: “You too, dude, take care.”

Perhaps it’s exciting to meet someone in your hometown who is actually from your hometown when you know that so many of the residents are transplants, but this kid’s sheer elation was infectious and exciting.

Also, I am pretty sure he was coked up.

My evidence: The fact that he is a suburban white kid with bedhead and from my hometown probably makes him a musician (access to drugs), really energetic after sex (Normal people cuddle… or raid the fridge. Depends on the kind of sex.), willing to meet and greet strangers in his driveway while dressed in a towel… I mean, it all just adds up. I’m just sayin’.

In any case, I have been posting a lot lately about things I’ve learned from what I’ve experienced.

From this experience, I have learned that kids from my hometown get raised pretty similarly. And that’s about it.

Wait, this is not to say that I do coke before having sex which precedes talking to strangers. I was more talking about the musicianship and access to drugs and…

You know what, let’s just say I didn’t learn anything from this.

(song excerpt to go along with reading – because then you’ll get the post title.)

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Money doesn’t buy happiness.

We know this. In fact, I’m going to go as far as claiming that everyone in my generation (Hi, Gen Y) has been beaten over the head with this lesson since the days of Reaganomics.

But oh, how debt can make someone unhappy.

While all I have are student loans (that I will apparently be paying back over the course of the rest of my life), car loans, bills and utilities, freelance business expenses, and the cost of living in Los Angeles — I wouldn’t necessarily consider myself unhappy.

Okay, I’ve got the gripes that any late-20′s office worker might have, but money really isn’t one of them. Having a steady job might have something to do with it… but getting a freaking 89 on a financial fitness quiz is certainly no accident.

Yes, I am in debt. Yes, there are periods of me having less money than I would like to have. But no, I am not worried.

I think I had the unfair advantage of having been raised around good money habits.

I think this is where I thank my Mom.  I can and should thank my Mom for a lot of things, of course, but I didn’t realize it until recently that because she manages financial accounts for a living, that what I’d originally just assigned to her as a stern Filippino concern for my well-being was in fact some of the most sound advice I could get. It still rings in my ears (with a slight Filippina accent):

Start saving money. Do it now.

Don’t waste money on things you don’t need (be a minimalist).

Find a good way to have a bird’s eye view of your budget. Make a projection sheet. Look at it often.

Set aside some money for emergencies.

Make sure you know everything about having insurance.

Keep your receipts.

Don’t spoil yourself, but don’t starve yourself. Getting just some of the things you want will make you think about priorities.

When you are collecting from invoices, the better the relationship, the less pressure you put on clients. A trusting business relationship creates more revenue in the long run, and retaining a client lets you do more actual work and less business development.

Donate to charity if and when you can. The good feeling is instant gratification, and good karma comes around during tax season.

Don’t work for free. (okay, sorry Mom, I do this a lot… but my project portfolio looks healthy!)

The advice got more in-depth as I got older and deeper into the professional world.  When I started collecting freelance checks, I’d found myself talking to my Mom a lot more.  Little did I know that the more I became a professional, the more involved the conversations became. My Mom went from lecturing me to mentoring me in account management. Some conversations with her are now the same tone I have with friends. And now I find myself saying to friends, “No, I’d rather not go out drinking for the sake of drinking because I’d like to get ahead in work,” so that when I do finally go out with them I relish it a lot more, especially when I am able to buy rounds for friends because of that work I had put in weeks beforehand.

Salamat po, mama.

Money won’t buy you happiness.

Sure. Being part of the 45% of Americans who are in debt can help you figure out pretty easily that happiness doesn’t need to be bought.

But you know what?

It turns out, a little happiness can come from taking good care of your money.

This post was part of the 20SB blog carnival, Friends and Money.

The saints are easy to identify. I’m not talking about Christian Saints, although that may be dubious. More specifically, I’m talking about Saint Jimi, Saint Janice, Saint John of Liverpool, The Lizard King, Saint Kurt of Seattle, Saint Freddie Mercury, Santo Ricardo Esteban Valenzuela Reyes, Saint Ian Curtis of Stretford — you know most if not all of these when they’re identified.

And yes, they’re saints. Why? Because they are martyred for something you likely hold dear: music.

While persecution isn’t quite the same as it was for early Christians, I think that the pitfalls of fame can do a believer in just as much as a traditional stoning-to-death. After all, there are a lot of obstacles to upholding the creed of Rock and Roll. There is public scrutiny, bouts of depression, transportation disasters, and don’t even get me started on drugs.

However, to be a true believer in Rock’n'Roll doesn’t necessarily require fame. You can sing along and dance to the rhythm and I think that makes you a believer whether you do so consciously or not.

But in between simply believing and venerable sainthood are a vast many who pick up the weapons of the cause, plugging into amplifiers and shielding vinyl from the elements. They make sojourns across continents to bring everyone together so that everyone may get down. These are today’s messengers.

But oh, how many have become The Fallen. They lift their needles off their records, and they put their amps on standby, and they save and close the latest mix-down. They start missing rehearsals because of work, because of strained relationships, because of life itself. And then, the message carried by these messengers sits idle. And some never move again. Martyrs of Rock’n'Roll.

I believe it’s important for all of us to remind each other that music — or art in general, is a cause worth fighting for. In some rare instances, it is a cause worth dying for.

We know some faith-based greetings. As-Salāmu `Alaykum. Peace be with you. Shalom aleichem. Namaste.

It’s time we start using our own for those of us that believe in music.

I’m a fan of All you need is love, to which the proper response, of course, is love is all you need.

I’m open to suggestions, but I think this works because, simply, in order to carry the message of music, this is true. Love is all you need.

I want to start using a greeting because there’s a person I know who keeps forgetting about the love that comes from being one of Rock’n'Roll’s messengers.

He’s very close to becoming one of The Fallen. I’d much prefer if this didn’t happen.

You probably know him, too.

He’s busy working.

I’m still reeling from some of the most work I’ve ever done in my life in one week (64 freaking hours!), but there are some things that I considered while attending Internet Week in New York that I think are important to note. Well, at least they’re important for me; and in some way, hopefully they are for you.

Getting one thing out of the way: though I do work in social media, I hate calling myself a “social media expert” because I feel that anyone is really qualified to become an expert in this space. While I won’t get into specifics, I will say that all you need to do is be well-versed at using the internet to get what you need. That that level of comfortability is entirely attainable for a good 97% of humans.*

But that’s all theory. In practice, there is no social media formula for success.** This isn’t just because any given message should be considered on a case by case basis since different things matter to different people.

In practice, I’m noticing there’s still a secret sauce nobody has yet figured out. I started asking myself something while I was in NYC: What makes me so invested in the internet enough to be here at #iwny? And moreover, what makes me different from the “experts” preaching “Top 10 ways to [social] your [media]“?

Well, it’s you guys. You there, on the other side of the screen. Y’see, I’m a blogger (o rly?), and I made friends on the internet because I engaged with them; and yes, I’d consider them friends. I’ve met some of them in real life and they exceed all expectations. I would like to, eventually, see every one of them in person again at the earliest opportunity. Oh, and those just-as-important-if-not-more friends that I have made offline? I know what they [Like / are saying / Digg / note / have on their Wishlist / listen to / are playing on Xbox LIVE / think about local restaurants] thanks to social media. Those friends that have moved to other cities are still within reach thanks to social media.

Clearly, I am a person who values the social more than the media.

Disclaimer: Okay, so I haven’t been a great interweb friend lately because I’ve been inundated with work and have seriously slacked on keeping up, but I’ll get to rectifying that soon, and participating again in comment threads from [some place close] to [some place far-the-fuck-away]. It’s like my Google Reader account is constipated with knowledge bombs. But oh, how glorious it will be to open them all up in new browser tabs. Like Christmas Day! Please note that my reference to constipation and a Christian holiday are two separate analogies.

My point to all of this is that I think I may be spoiled with how much good I’ve been able to get from social media. Don’t get me wrong, meeting and greeting people from all over the world who widen the web, and serving and returning the “where are you from?” and the “what do you do?”, and cracking jokes about whatever keynote presentation had the thing with the freakout was good fun and something very useful to me as a professional… but I missed the real bonding that goes on in social media. Awww. He’s a dork.

But seriously, very few times do I feel that ‘networking’ is also being ‘engaged.’

I am a person (okay fine, a robot) who uses social media and in turn gets to be part of a community. When I think about this as a professional, I have to question what it is that nico-the-person did to obtain so many connections to such high quality people.

Further, as someone who helps to build things on the web, I have to keep asking myself what can I do to help create things that bring people together so that they can connect to others of this same high quality I’ve been able to find?

What is the ‘secret sauce’? Why is it useful? Who can build this? How long and how many will it take? Who will use it? How will we measure it?

…and what will happen since this is probably already possible?

I have a lot of questions.

I should get to working on the answers.

Wait. First I should sleep.

_________
*but 100% of robots.
**There is a social media formula for fail.