BasementTV

Humans

2011-02-14T15:25:00.000-08:00

We are human. We think and we write/talk what we're thinking. We concentrate on what words to use, whether to make a sentence longer or shorter. Whether or not something will be conveyed properly when read by another audience. We do our best to accomplish this, as to not give any incorrect impressions to others.

However, writing down something extremely happy or sad is incredibly easy. We let it flow out of us, just being careful enough that it is legible and has proper spelling. The hard part comes when we have to write something diplomatic.

I'm not talking about diplomacy like politics. That exceeds the scope of this entry. I'm talking about every day diplomacy, the kind that you share with a friend or an enemy. The kind of diplomacy where you're treading a fine line, where one word or action could ruin everything. The kind of diplomacy that risks escalating a conflict.

The hardest part of this is that your emotional side wants to bring out the big guns and pummel your point of view into the other person. Although in the short term that may work out, in the long term that never seems to work. Just google words like "abuse", "dictator", "brainwashing", or "propaganda". All of these terms carry a negative history and there's a reason for that, they don't work. People somewhere along the line get fed up.

So what do we do? Imagine a diplomatic problem as an approaching wave. It's coming, it's inevitable and you're going to have to do something about it. Bringing out your emotions will never solve anything in the long term. It would be like dropping a bomb on a wave. Yes, it will blow the wave apart, but it will just get back together in a while and come back again.

The only solution is to build a brick wall. You must be unyielding to anything that the wave brings. You must not be affected by the waves force and at the same time you must give no force in return. You must remain calm and composed. When the wave has subsided then the window of opportunity has opened in order for you to negotiate with the water (in this case the person you're trying to be diplomatic with).

This style of diplomacy has saved me on many occasions from conflict escalation an controls damage.

-=^.^=

What people expect

2011-02-06T22:46:00.000-08:00

There's a saying out there that you can't please everybody. Sure, that may apply to some extent, but overall you have to accept that you're doing something wrong.

Sure, you may be using the same tools and approaches that have been known to succeed for others. The key word there is "others". Even though humans are almost all the same in terms of their basic features, we have to realize that humans are much more than just bones and skin.

The human brain is a complex cognitive and sentient entity, to disregard it as simply a part of the body or an organ would be irrational and false.

When it comes to the field of entertainment, we have to realize that there are other brains out there reading and digesting the material that we write. Those brains have opinions, perspectives, and ideas. If we choose to ignore those brains, we are making a fundamental error. We are choosing to forcefully input information rather than understanding what the brains want.

Sure, some could throw off this small paragraph by saying that entertainment is literally a joke and should not be taken seriously. To those people I say: "I understand where you're coming from, but have you considered this:..."

If you want to get anywhere in any field, whether you're an engineer, doctor, or DJ; you're going to have to be entertaining, you're going to have to cater to the brains out there that will be reading and digesting the content that you produce. If you fail to appreciate that, the countless number of hours that you put into your work will be put in a filing cabinet or hard drive for eternity. Your work will become another artifact of your field only to be uncovered by some university student trying to do some research on a paper.

So that leads me back to where I started. Perfect your craft until people rank you by preference and not by caliber. Get to the level that people can appreciate what you've done as well as understand why people like what you do.

2011-01-23T19:54:00.000-08:00

Whew, another good week just ending. Got a lot done this week. It doesn't really show it when you look at my video count in the last week, but I got a lot done. I just signed up with vostromedia on youtube. They'll get my videos up to machinima and expand my viewer pool. Sc2builds.com also talked to me about producing weekly build tutorials for their website. Looks like I have some actual structure to my week. I'm expected to make 3 videos a week. 2 replays for vostro and 1 tutorial for sc2builds.com.

I also designed some swanky business cards for my cousin.

Plan for next week (apart from videos): Make banners for iCCupTV as well as a main site banner for starcraftarena.net (yes that's HD and Husky's website)

Yay!

- =^.^=

2011-01-18T13:06:00.000-08:00

Hmm working with expanding an empire through social media is all hard work. I'm rendering my next video right now for my YouTube channel. I also have to get a cooler for my computer, a HDD for my sister, and food for my cat. Multitasking FTW!

First Post Ever

2011-01-15T22:40:00.000-08:00

Finally got around to making a blog... something that I can spill words into without having to clean up the mess.

Just finished revamping my entire collection of websites:

Blip: http://BasementTV.blip.tv
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/BasementTV/156574001056457
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BasementTV
UStream: http://www.ustream.tv/BasementTV
Own3d: http://www.own3d.tv/live/15440

Designed a common theme of backgrounds and images as well as a theme song. It's catchy and I'm sure it will get into a lot of people's heads.

ah well... time to go to sleep!