All Windows laptops suck

   Though I have never owned a MacBook I have played with them in the Apple store for much time and the experience you get from the buttery smooth track pad responsiveness to the integration of MacOS on the hardware is unmatched. You pay a hefty premium obviously for this experience though which some might argue keep it that way. Though I am more of a desktop/monitor and mouse kind of guy I have tried using a Windows (Dell) laptops and they have always seemed "clunky." They are bigger, or thicker, louder and tend to run warmer even when just playing Youtube videos. Conclusion of this opinion rambling is I'll stick to my Dell desktop and monitor on a desk until I can splurge on a sweet MacBook.
    Related post: http://vlogsbysimon.blogspot.com/2017/06/laptop-or-desktop-computer.html

#simoneliaspartyisover ...lol

   I asked for votes for a video submission contest I put up on my second channel. On my main channel I asked my audience for help by just voting on the contest website. I got lot's of nice comments and support but also 13 unsubscribes, but whatever.
   Youtube tip: Don't ask your audience to help you. Granted I received way more genuine support from my fans and for that I am humbled and so thankful. But others don't give two shits and want no part in another person possibly winning an online contest. I deleted the video asking for help on my main channel (I was going to anyway) but fun story the video got 15 likes and zero dislikes and lot's of nice supportive comments. Yay me!

David Dobrik in the Title

 Six days ago after watching all the Snapchat stories of David Dobrik's friends in Las Vegas to celebrate his 21st birthday I thought to record all of them and neatly compile them to a Youtube video. I uploaded it to my second channel and now it has over 13,000 views and insanely high watch time. I did monetize it not to make a quick buck but to see what kind of revenue it could do. Within two days it got claimed by Collab and was ranked #1 in search for "David Dobrik birthday" ahead of even David's vlog about this. I have put cards and end cards in the video to related videos and it is driving some traffic to those videos which actually gets me more excited than the insane views than this one video does.
 I often wondered before why compilation videos of popular people were always still up and not taken down, I realize now that networks like Collab would rather they be up and claim them to get as many monetized views as possible for themselves as supposed their property.
 In the case of my Snapchat compilation video I can tell people really enjoyed watching it by the large number of likes it has received and people thanking me in the comments for creating it because they missed these stories, after all it is Snapchat.

I wish I had an online following

   See that, that's just a random reply tweet to Niantic Pokemon Go Twitter, it was of my usual witty replies but this one took off as "popular" or "relatable". It got 56 likes and 3 retweets with over 18,000 impressions. Compare these numbers to someone with an online presence and they'll seem like nothing by comparison but still.
   I try to tweet most every day and come up with interesting things to tweet about and even tweet on trending hashtags. I even promote it on my popular videos on both channels but to no positive result. I've been on 70-75 followers for over a year and cannot gain an audience, what exactly does it take for an online following? I get it, I'm not good-looking but I can be very funny if I do say so myself.  But for just one reply tweet at a time I can get just a glimpse of some online popularity.

Laptop or desktop computer?

Here's another comment I left on a Youtube video about "Top laptops 2017" (My story)

I haven't owned a laptop before. A few years ago when looking to buy a new computer (the one I use now) I was on a bit of a budget (about $750ish) I sort of wanted a laptop so I got a nice Dell 17" core i7 about $800 on Amazon and was so excited to use it and after a week I realized either A. I wasn't a laptop guy or B. this wasn't the laptop for me. Thank goodness for Amazon easy returns, so I got a nice Dell desktop i7 productivity unit for about $650ish and couldn't be happier, I got a nice 19" widescreen Dell monitor the next black Friday at Best Buy for $99. Looking back now I'm a little from column A and a little from column B. The Dell laptop I got (and returned) from 2014, that's only 3 years ago, seemed dated compared to a MacBook at the time even. If I were to splurge (which is tough for me) and get a MacBook I am positive I could become a laptop guy. So what am I now, column A or B...

A Rant About Android

I posted this as a comment on a Pocket Now video about the new OnePlus 5 phone.

   I really like this phone for specs and hardware and pricing but come on guys 5.5 inch is the norm now!? How about a nice 5" device to fit nicely in my hand and pocket. They wonder why iPhone is popular even with a 4.7" screen, it's because it can be used with one hand without thinking about your phone. Yet EVERY Android phone today has to be a two-hander or a one-hander piece-of-junk small budget device. I've been with Android for too long and keep telling myself to go to iPhone but I don't and every year I'm using a sub-flagship still, great but not GREAT-great. I'm aware the S8 is about the size of an iPhone but it's also pricier as well which begs the question why not just get an iPhone and have many, many more years of updates, and timelier as well. We'll see what happens this year... Story of my life. 

Instagram Stories better than Snapchat?

   Are Instagram Stories more relatable and thereby better than Snapchat for telling good well, Stories. In my opinion the interface is more well suited to be easier but more accessible than Snapchat's "I'm only good on iPhone designed for millennials" app design.  Is Instagram Stories a blatant copy of Snapchat? Yes but it's competition and competition leads to better stuff in the future or at least it should anyway.
    With this said follow me on Instagram for some kickass lit Stories! >> https://www.instagram.com/ilikepstrophiestoo/

Seeing the Zane Hijazi billboard in person

It's like literally up the road from my area. I just had to record my reaction seeing Zane's 100th vlog surprise in person.
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Me reacting to something

So EA just released the first teaser trailer for Star Wars Battlefront 2, I thought I would react to watching it live for the first time on camera. Enjoy!

The internet reacting to Roman Reigns

The internet is a place you can say or do almost anything, have any opinion you want, and others will undoubtedly agree and disagree. Roman Reigns is not very popular among fans who also like to vent their opinion of WWE on the internet. At Wrestlemania 33 he became just the 2nd person to pin The Undertaker at the yearly event, the first being Brock Lesnar, who also broke the streak, but got nowhere near the amount of heat Reigns got at Wrestlemania 33. 

Here's a video compiling the internet reacting to Roman Reigns pinning The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 33:

March 22 it was...

So now that I've tried Super Mario Run for myself it is genuinely a fun mobile game. It has nice graphics, responsive controls (tapping mechanics) and the typical Mario story line. The trial period the game gives for free is well done, giving worlds 1 to 3 then asking $9.99 for the rest of the game. It's definitely worth it in my opinion to get your Mario fix on mobile. However I just decided to plunge into the 3DS world (via ebay). I got some great deals and I'll share those in a future post, so come on back.

Super Mario Run on Android?

Nintendo mentioned it's coming in March, fairly sure that meant March 31st. I'm really looking forward to trying this game out already!

About liking limited edition Oreo cookies

Whenever I see that display with special limited time seasonally flavored Oreos I am always drawn to them to try. Case in point the new Peeps flavored Oreos for the Easter/Spring time of the year. Most are great and taste exactly what I'm more or less expecting when I eat them. The only time I was disappointed was with the Swedish Fish flavored Oreos, but that could be for another story. I have even grown some fans that enjoy when I post a video sharing my thoughts trying them for the first. Here's the latest video:

2016 And Beyond!

    On December 26, 2014 I wrote on what goals I have for the next year for my Youtube channel and social media experiences. Although I have been very absent from writing on this blog throughout 2015 I have accomplished and crushed all goals set forth.
    I set a goal for 2015 of 300 subscriber to my Youtube channel, keep in mind at the time I had 130 subscribers and thought 300 was mega-huge. Well, as of this writing my Youtube channel has just over 3,100 subscribers and surpassed 1.1 million total views, 1 million of them coming 2015 alone. My goal for 2016 is going to be much larger than last year's, I feel 6,000 subscribers seems possible yet slightly out of reach, it makes for a good goal.
   On to social media goals and experiences, back last January I wanted to tweet more and build an audience on the platform. Over the course of 2015 I have been tweeting a lot to people with the occasional actual tweet going out to my followers, all 30 of them as of today. I have tweeted close to 700 times, most of which are @ replies, for 2016 I would like to tweet an actual tweet at least once a day or at minimum 5 times a week, In total I would like to see the tweet total doubled to 1,500 quality tweet replies and tweets. I am starting to post on screen at the end of videos lately my twitter handle in the hopes to build a quality audience on Twitter.
    Videos editing has improved and become easier since buying Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum. I am still surprised how this Sony Vegas program is only $40 when it seems identical to the big Sony Vegas editor costing hundred of dollars. It is a major step up from using Movavi editor, which was OK but lacked some more advanced techniques. So, goal accomplished but I would like to do some more fancy editing over the course of the year, so here's to that.
    The toughest goal for myself in 2016 is to make one or some videos of myself in front of the camera talking to my viewers, be it a Q&A style video like other Youtubers do, to a vlog where I talk of a subject at hand. This will be tough goal building the courage. But easier could be some voice-over work over a muted game play video playing.
    I also wrote that I wanted to blog more in 2015 to which I did none. In 2016, I am setting a goal for myself to blog here once a month about myself to encourage me and perhaps someone else they can whatever they dream.
    2016 and beyond....

Most useful Twitter "hack"

http://www.webme.co.uk/blog/2012/06/removing-a-follower-in-twitter-without-blocking/

2014: Look back

    Looking back to a blog post I wrote in the beginning of January I set myself some goals for the new year. I have never really written goals for myself before so I don't know what I was thinking then. Here's the post if you want to read it for yourself: Happy 2014!!   

1. My review of the Playstation 4.   There's a lot of good to be said but there is also some points that Sony has missed wildly with the PS4's user interface.  
2. I keep wanting to make a longer hot wheels stop-motion with an actual goal inside the video.  
3. More compelling published Youtube videos.  I want to reach 100 subscribers by the end of 2014. I suppose the only way to get to this is the create compelling videos somewhat consistently.  
4. Tweet more! I do like Twitter, but rarely tweet. It just requires letting go more.  
5. More Battlefield 4 and some PS4 share clips of excitement in this blog. Look for it!

          The big one first, number 3 above I think I accomplished AND SOME. Over 130 subscribers and lot's of very loyal and liking fans of my style of gaming videos. I'm going to set a goal for 2015 for my Youtube channel for reaching 300 subscribers. Looking at it now it doesn't seem possible but neither did 100 subscribers a year ago.
          Next up on topic is number 4, have I been tweeting more in 2014, yes and no. No I don't initiate tweeting much however yes I have been replying to tweets by others and engaging in conversation. I'll try again in 2015 to this time initiate more tweets and perhaps grow Youtube fans through Twitter but true fans are tough capture from Twitter. I foresee 50% likelihood on this one.
          Number 5 above has me playing more Battlefield 4 but over the course of the past year I've grown apart from BF4. I absolutely adore PvZ Garden Warfare a lot more than BF4 really, its casual nature is much more entertaining overall and its polish in the gameplay is more fulfilling to play. Over 2014 I have made six videos of varying subject here. For 2015 I would like to expand my Youtube channel to more Garden Wafare videos, I'd like to do at least 20 videos, particularly on continuous live entertaining talking gameplay and more shorter "that was awesome" moments shared on Reddit, too.
          On to the Hot Wheels stop-motion topic I could easily just pass on this but I think I might have one more in me but for me to post it it would have to be really (really) great. I know I can do it but I also know if I don't I wouldn't be bummed out about it.
          My video editing skills have improved substantially over the year, I know I can improve especially if I can use a more advanced editor than Movavi 9 which is great though, but I would like to try something greater. My goal for 2015 is to get a more advanced video editor and become proficient with it but also keep it under $50 but research a lot on a greater one.
          One more goal for 2015 is more blog posts with a hefty content fill.
Looking forward to 2015, internet!

More Remote Play: Garden Warfare

  Remote Play game play of Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare.

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My Singing Monsters

My Singing Monsters on PS Vita

   My new series of fun -- http://goo.gl/xbkVsv -- I know you'll like it!

Treasures of Montezuma Arena

  Really addictive and fun game.

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Mutant Mudds Deluxe Playthrough

Join me every day for a another level of this classic-style super-fun game. Mutant Mudds is a side-scrolling colorful addictive entertaining game out of the Super Mario Bros. era made for today.

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