Don't Unplug Me, and the P4A

I was inspired by the lyrics to ALL CAPS's song entitled "don't unplug me" in acoustic version on Grooveshark.com. If you have no clue what that is, you should open a new tab in Explorer or Safari or whatever and type in GROOVESHARK.COM. You can stream music from its website for free, and save it into a playlist. And yes, ALL CAPS is a DFTBA (#Nerdfighters)-written artist.

I haven't posted on this blog in about two weeks. Since then I have been busy on-stage as well as lighting stages. On stage, I have been performing with CHS's Guys Ensemble group. This is perhaps my favorite group to sing with. Honestly, we are there just to have fun.

So our director shows us the drifters version of "White Christmas" in Sheet music form. We all kind of look at her like she is absolutely crazy. She calls for some sort of weird falsetto thing (check out audio from the original here: http://dft.ba/-1gL6) and then two weeks before the concert she utters the words that bring bad mojo to any guy attempting to perform on stage: YOU WILL DANCE. I am going to eventually post a video, but it didn't end great.

Project For Awesome Press Kit Logo

This past Saturday was December 17th. It was the annual PROJECT 4 AWESOME on YouTube. For those who aren't aware, the Project for Awesome is a Youtube initiative where creators of content post (instead of their regular content) videos about Charities that they either support or have taken part in.

To those who say that Youtube doesn't care, boy it does. As of 12/22/2011 at 9:36PM EST, they had raised $71,348.30 USD. This doesn't put into account the fact that DFTBA artist Alex Day is releasing his single with the proceeds going to a P4A charity, and that John Green's new Zombie Novella is going to be released for the money going to the P4A Projects.

Another post coming soon... and sorry if this one didn't make too much sense. In other news, I got a twitter. Feel free to follow me @AlexPopichak. Thanks!

Off The Internet Stuffs

Okay, so lately I have been working on a lot off the internets, and I am considering starting vlogging (yay, I've tried that all last year!) and I have also been working on the Channel. When I talk about the Channel, I mean two things. The first being WCHS AM (Morning Announcements) and Verizon Channel Local 28. I have tried my hand at designing stuff for both of these. See examples to the sides of these words.

Also, I have attempted to do some philosophical thinking. In other words, thinking great thoughts. Where has that gotten me? Well, literally nowhere. But it does occupy my time.

In completely irrelevant news, I have been watching this vlogger WheezyWaiter. He is one of the John Green clan, and has this (almost)thing called EXPLOSION WEDNESDAY! He's a fun guy, if you want to check him out.

I promise to post about the MVB Contest via a blog or vlog on September 10th (the contest ends the 9th) until then, check out something I have done recently, SUPERMAN III Lapsed!

#TheBabyIsMakingOctopusSounds and A Little Bit Of OCD

Okay, first off, I would like to say this is post 94. For post 100 (If I can last that long) I will probably make a vlog. It will be unsuccessful, but it will be here nevertheless. It is kind of a long-running thing with me. First the journalism, then websites, then videos, and now into this mode of not really caring where things go anymore.

So, I attended my first "End Of The Year" Party. It basically was this: going to a friends house, swimming, listening to music, beating each other with plastic things, and then watching a terrible old movie. Honestly, what better do we have to do on a Thursday in June? This party was attended by all of my creative friends (DavidWov, Mistaecco, Clay!), (Minus Youtube's MrXigbar22) and we talked about a little bit of everything. That is where the "#TheBabyIsMakingOctopusSounds" tag came from. It was really a combination of two ideas: hashtagging, and naming folders.

On an almost unrelated note, I have been scrolling the YouTubes Lately with the obsessive VlogBrothering thing and I have also discovered "Elmify". She is a person from a place that is mildly entertaining. She rants about stuff in a way that is slightly boring yet entertaining at the same time. Well, I will be back eventually.
Yours,
Alex.
PS: I shouldn't sign blog posts.

Pont Champlain, Light Boxes, and My New Life.

In my own new fashion, I will start with a quote from Adrianna Flack:

Life= live it fricking epicly

It is an interesting way of putting it, but it is true. I am now addicted to music. I have recently been listening to this song Your Ex-Lover Is Dead by Stars. Now, my ex-lover (do I even have one?) isn't dead, but its a great song. It mentions capturing a taxi and driving across Pont Champlain. I decided to look into this Pont Champlain, and was disappointed to realize that my limited French couldn't tell me that "Pont" really means "bridge". So, Pont Champlain is just the Champlain Bridge in Montreal Canada (yeah!)

I believe that life is kind of like an interstate (Oh, here he goes again), and our adventures are like bridges. I decided to take the one that goes to Canada, and meet some awesome people (See The List) and did some interesting things. In the past month I have:

  - Operated Sound for a talent show
  - Ran for SPL in a boy scouting troop
  - Went to a dance
  - Slow Danced with Two Girls
  - Listened to music
  - Got a combined total of about 20 service hours
  - Decided who I am
  - created The Carlynton Project (In Crystal Clear 1080p High Def!)
  - Ticked some people off (ha)
  - operated lights for a choral concert
  - went at least 10 miles on a track and on a bike
  - Rode a trolley
  - got commended by my superintendent
  - and turned 14.

Now, what have you done? Heck, I have done about 90 times that, but that is what I put in.

Someone once told me to join the band. I did. A year later I quit. That was probably what got me where I am. I love music, I just can't play an instrument worth my life. I got into journalism, web design, video production, people, and high school.

And this is just the beginning. Well, Good luck. I am crossing my bridge, find yours.

Why a Vlog Fails and the Carlynton Project.

I begin with a quote from myself....

It seems that the story of Carlynton's creation hasn't been told. With the proposed consolidation of the two elementary schools, may be a generation that does not see a Crafton Elementary and a Carnegie Elementary.

That is why I did the Carlynton Project, to look at the one unified district that the three towns had in mind. A simple 5-minute video project detailing the general history that everyone knows. Easy project right?

I should know by now that nothing is easy. Relationships, Politics, Baseball, and Carlynton Project all have at least one thing in common: It's Complicated. In order to pull off something as simple as a video project I fought off speed limit signs, woods, black-draped posters, and the web that is the streets of Crafton and Rosslyn Farms. It took months of research, planning, and scripting and at least three hours of editing to get to where it ended up. In the end, I have a 7-minute DVD in HD (So I can't watch it myself) and apparently a GATE project.

So, I submit three copies: One to my adviser, one to my supervisor, and the third to my uncle. My supervisor watched it a week after I submitted it with her daughter (who is a film major) and "loved it".  My adviser, well it took him about three weeks to figure out what it was.

Then, in front of the 7th grade teaching staff, he decides then to premier it. It received the best reviews for a video that I have ever made. He decided the next day to deliver it to the PR director for the district... who is also the secretary for the school district.

She decides to premier the project in front of the whole school board the next day. I have no knowledge there was even a board meeting. The following day, today, the superintendent walks over to me at lunch and asks for a copy for the district. He apparently liked it... a lot.

So this is how a project snowballs. Not through YouTube, but through word-of-mouth. Not through 99 cents per click, but through giving a DVD to your world cultures teacher (yes, the marine) and seeing what happens. Vlogging fails because the story gets told but never gets seen. This is the story, the story to be continued.

Back to Journalism

Quite frankly, I haven't written anything regarding journalism for about two years. That was the Web Gazette, and that was probably the defining moment of where I am now. I reversed roles, from being the editor to the writer. I decided, since it won't be reproduced, to present to you my whack at it:

PITTSBURGH, PA ,--- On December 9, selected CHS 7^th and 8^th graders enjoyed the opportunity to go to the Consol Energy Center to watch the Penguins Open Practice. The event featured appearances by star Pens including Sydney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury. Eighth-grader Samantha Y said that she “enjoyed seeing the Penguins players… I thought [the Consol Center] was nice. Not elegant, but nice.”

The Consol Energy Center is the Penguins new state-of-the-art arena which easily held the more than 10,000 students from the area in attendance. Eighth-grader Samantha Youngblood spoke to the Cougar Chronicle about the event.

"I enjoyed seeing the Pittsburgh Penguins Players" Samantha said, "We were three rows from the ice!"

Eight grader Olivia K commented on the seats of the new arena, "They had soft and fuzzy seats," Olivia said, clearly pleased with the trip.

The students were picked based on behavior, grades, and overall positivity both in the classroom and out. Two hundred students from CHS attended the event, and got front-row seats to the Penguins drills, exercises, and of course, the running of the Zambonis.

-Alexander Popichak, Staff Writer, The Cougar Chronicle

So there, I am a journalist again. Now for the kicker... while all had two weeks to put their relatively 'fluff' articles together, I threw that not-so-hard-hitting story together in one night.

Might I also mention, yet again, that I haven't written anything like that for TWO YEARS. Thank you Carnegie Web Gazette.