JEFFREY VEGA DOT COM

Good News Everyone!

July 5, 2010

Good News Everyone! (Hmm, that's getting quite repetitive by now, with the blog title and everything... or is it when it's said 3 times? Anywho...) Seven years ago, my favorite cartoon ever was canceled by Fox, but on June 24th, 2010, it was brought back from the grave and began airing a new season on Comedy Central... FUTURAMA! But anyway, this post isn't about Futurama, I just wanted to tell you guys about this in case you have been living under a rock! And yes, this little personal blurb of info you just read was to justify the animated image, IN CASE you haven't caught on yet! (; ANYWAY, this post is to give you an update from the last entry about the hiatus we've been forced to take. Good News Everyone! (OH, there goes the repetition...) The hiatus is coming to an end, but the exact date is yet to be known because it is basically whenever MY BRAND NEW MACBOOK PRO comes in the mail!!! That's right, you read that correctly, a MacBook Pro!!! My birthday is tomorrow and this is my present... pretty fantastic, don'y you think? (: It has all the bells and whistles, custom configured at the Apple Online Store, including FINAL CUT EXPRESS preinstalled! If you don't know what that is, it's basically a very VERY nice movie studio software exclusively made by Apple, and has quite a price tag. But in these cases, you get what you pay for, so I am quite excited with all the amazing new features I'll be able to take advantage of! The 15" Macbook Pro I am receiving (with a student discount I might add!) is of the newer models, that came out in April earlier this year, and has the new Intel chip and HD graphics, and ahhhh I COULD GO ON, and I WILL. Actually, just kidding. I won't do that, because you want to keep reading this and be done with it, so let me just move on. One quick thing though: MACBOOK PRO! Okay, I got it out of my system!

That whole paragraph being said, there are some sadder news, if you also didn't figure this out.

My old HP Pavilion laptop... Compy, Rest In Peace.

It is back in my arms now, and after a long horrendous month of being laptop-less (see the date on the last blog post), we have figured out that the motherboard is fried, and it's too costly slash not worth it to fix. Apparently it did turn on once in the hands of one of the people with the task of fixing it who were looking at, so I will continue to be optimistic and hopes that maybe I can get it working again...

But for now, I must succumb to buying a USB enclosure, remove the old hard drive and spew out all my goodies from the HP onto my new Apple computer! I am quite excited to get things moving again, as I have SIX, COUNT 'EM, SIX NEW VIDEOS PLANNED, including a special message video (more on that coming soon) as well as a special video about my HP. A video that was completed by the end of May, Trumpet Lessons, will finally see the light of day once I salvage the edited files, render, and complete the publishing process on my new computer! GET EXCITED! See you guys soon!!!

Unplanned Hiatus

June 8, 2010

4 AM. Almost 5. It's pretty late... or early? I'm laying down on my roommate's bed on her computer. I have made contact with you because you must know something that is vital to national security! Er, okay, not really. But what really is going on is actually serious. I'm going to keep this blog post as brief as possible because I hope the situation will pass, hopefully by the time you even read this (but probably not). As of last Thursday, June 3rd, my computer had begun to show no signs of life. ): Basically it's just decided to not turn on anymore. I had spent this past weekend in frustration hoping that I could some how fix my good ol' HP Pavilion laptop. Sunday night came around with no luck, and I faced the reality that I would begin a summer semester week... without a computer. *tear* I tried everything... I've looked up troubleshooting (haha), typed up my problem on Google, performed hard resets, tested my battery and AC power adaptor... NOTHING. Not only am I worried that my computer might be dead, but I have a lot of important files on my hard drive, including all my movies. So in a nutshell, I'm not a happy camper. Thank goodness for my iPhone on the AT&T network because it's pretty hard to be productive without some sort of computer during school. So, how much does this affect the project? Well, 100%. On Thursday, I announced on our facebook pagethat the new video I've been working titled "Trumpet Lessons" would be set for release June 7th. In the tradition of never making my own deadlines, my laptop decided to quit. Hoping I could fix things on my own, I kept quiet until a few days later when I realized I would have to accept defeat and leave my computer at home. I'm just really annoyed that I was very close to finishing the new video and the laptop died, and now I'm stuck because I need to finish it and can't clear and use my camera because I still need to be able to watch the clips. That being said...

Sadly, I have to put the Nintendo Boy Project on a real hiatus (no pun intended). It seems like we always take breaks since the gap between videos can be longer than desired, but truth be told we are always working on scripts, site ideas, and of course filming and editing. So we're always working on something, even if you don't see it, but now... we have no choice because I can't do anything without my computer. I'll keep you guys updated, hopefully the next blog post will be much more positive, and that my computer was saved. I look forward to putting out this video I was working on; hopefully see you soon, and thanks for your support!

Click here to watch it on YouTube! | Click here to watch the Outtakes exclusively on Facebook!

Awkward Blog Post with Q&A!

May 21, 2010

Phew. It's been a while hasn't it? Well for me at least. I realize that no one really notices whether or not I post a new entry for a video, save for a few people. ;)

Okay, so that's just me wanting attention. But isn't that what the point of having a blog is? Actually I love just having an archive of all my posts to read. I always go back and read old ones, and it's like... wow... why did I say that, or wow I'm cool, haha. BUT anyway, let's get straight down to business. I apologize for the mini-hiatus in bloggery, but the last month and half was home to all of busy events, including me concluding my freshman year of college! I'm actually finishing up the "2 week break" between Spring & Summer semester, so let me take this time to take a large gasp of air (I know that's a weird saying, but I just love this image haha)! Alright... so, let's talk Awkward Moments. We all have 'em. What better way to connect with everyone than a video of awkward moments? My personal favorite was the one where you run into someone, try to get out of their way yet the person tries to get out of their way in the same direction you did, and- ahhh... so AWKWARD. Haha, I love it. I was lucky to be able to pull this off with a great collaboration lined up with the people on my dorm floor, so you may recognize a few from Floor Interviews. It starred myself, Alex Goran, Ashley Corrao, Branden Riggins, Danielle Ballew, Femi Ogun, and Lauren Dickey, and was filmed by me, Danielle, and Femi, with the exception of the awkward elevator scene, which is filmed by Tyler Price (who just randomly showed up to help... thank you so much man!) It was a lot of fun, and took a lot of time to film, as evidenced by our special video of outtakes exclusively on our facebook page. So... yeah. Eh. Wow, it's been a while since Awkward Moments, actually. I really shouldn't wait this long to write up an entry. ... and yes, as you can tell, I am and always completely winging it. :]

Anyway, here's what I'll do, if you have any questions about Awkward Moments, leave them in the comments, and I will answer you! (considering I have a small fan base on the site, I don't really expect much response... but hey, surprise me!) I apologize for the lacking entry, again, but I really am just coming up on empty on this subject... now THIS is awkward!

Productive Spring Break(s)

April 8, 2010

Spring Break can be very productive. But actually, they usually end up not being productive at all. You're at school, the Friday afternoon before Spring Break, thinking... "alright! I have a whole week to do that essay and catch up and everything... everything's gonna be just fine!" Fast forward to Sunday night before returning to school... "crap." Here at Nintendo Boy, we want the exact opposite of that to happen. So instead of having all this free time with everything to do, we were PREPARED (like Daffy Duck and his handkerchief) AND PLANNED SOMETHING! For us, our Spring Breaks were nothing like how I described seconds ago. My Spring Break was about the second week of March, which allowed me to pick up Plastic Beach by Gorillaz at home (yay for an amazing album) as well as get together with the original Nintendo Boy crew (it's been sooo long), as well as meeting up with old high school friends to make The Great Bowl-Off video. It has almost 300+ views and it hasn't even been a month since it's uploaded, so I call that a win (remember the fact that we're not popular at all)! For the high school Spring Break, I was able to meet up with some more fantastic new people I met from Ubersuperbular... they were hilarious and we hope to do another collaboration in the near future! As the high school break nears the end of this week, Andrew Shain makes time out of his busy schedule of getting his driver's license to come visit me at Kennesaw! Okay, well, he didn't have to go that far out of the way... his cousin is the head IT guy at Kennesaw Hall... small world, huh? But seriously, it was so much fun, and I was lucky that 2 out of my 3 classes were canceled for that day so it was more time for our shenanigans!

After binging at the dining hall, and him making a mess in my room and writing all over the walls (you need to pay those fees, you hear me Andrew?!), we finally came up with an idea for a new video where I'm a total jerk to him as he tries to visit me and makes a home movie out of it... ohhh, good times. But really though, Andrew actually is that annoying in real life. *WINK + SMILE + THUMBS UP*

Oh, and by the way... we had so much footage for this video! Probably at least like 18 minutes, ahaha! Sadly, we can not do that (well we could, but who would watch an 18-minute video?), so it is quite possible that a director's cut slash deleted scenes video will be released to our facebook fans! Sigh, if only you knew how much I had to cut. So many one-liners will never be heard.... and by "never be heard," I mean "recycle for use" in the next video, HA! Thanks for reading!! (;

The Great Blog Post

March 18, 2010

After I kept uploading a test version of our new video to YouTube, I literally looked like Spongebob in that episode where he had to work the scary night shift! Why's that you ask? Oh... you didn't ask? Well, this is awkward. Okay well I'll tell you anyway! It's because SO much editing went into this latest project that I was twitching, panting, and pretty much freaking out until I finally got everything perfect! I think I've talked about before how my computer isn't powerful enough to handle playback of the AVCHD files I film with, so that makes it really hard to edit. So basically I have to watch it on the camera, write down the times of where I need to cut, clean up, etc, and then do it on the software, AND THEN upload it to YouTube as a private clip so I can watch it and see if that will work. Pretty time consuming if you ask me... but hey, it's worth it. So this new video is a special one. Because it is the first video of this year (FINALLY!) that brings us the long-awaited return of the Nintendo Boy crew to the theaters!!! Ahh it's been so long. I've had to fill the gaps by coming out with videos that feature special guests, and they've definitely proven to be a successful video series! But ohhh, there is nothing like our original sketchy videos that I started with Josh and Andrew (and Ellie here and there!), and I'm excited to say that I have finally seen their beautiful faces again over spring break! While it was great hanging out again, we were all excited to make the next Nintendo Boy video! Not only is this occassion special because you see some familiar faces, but you see some other famous faces as well! Well, okay, none of us are really all that famous, but I can dream right?! This new video features guest stars from the YouTube channel, Ubersuperbular Productions! I approached Danielle of the video group and had an idea for a collaboration. You see, dear reader, our own Andrew Shain is a part of this production as well. I have no idea how or when that happened, but it was probably when slash because Josh and I are in college, haha. Either way, I had the idea that the Nintendo Boy group and the Ubersuperbular group should go head-to-head somehow and fight for Andrew's love- err, I mean... rights to use him in videos! So, that's what we did! And like any good ol' fashioned arguement about wanting someone in a video, you settle it with a bowl-off!

Woohooooo, exciting stuff! As I mentioned earlier, there is a lot of hard core editing that went on in this video because the footage we had from the bowling alley was so raw... and after many trial-and-errors, I finally was able to pump out a great new video! Again, it features the original Nintendo Boy cast, a really awesome collaboration, and all of us bowling terribly... what else could you ask for?! Nothing. (:

Click here to watch it on Facebook in case you would rather "like" it than comment on it... haha!

Oh, and in case you wondering, this video will not be uploaded on facebook due to personal reasons... also, I've finally pretty much decided that it's not worth having the views of my videos spread out because of Facebook (as opposed to having all views on one video link) when not that many people like/comment on it (so I can see feedback since they don't show you the views)... plus, the HD setting on Facebook isn't up to par with YouTube (aka it's awful). So yeah. I will no longer upload Nintendo Boy videos to Facebook... sorry for the inconvenience (although special clips like bloopers I might still consider uploading...)! I will, in return, provide more exclusive stuff (yet to be announced!) on our fan page, so make sure you are a fan of us!! Thank you for reading this great blog post and PSA... have a wonderful day!

EDIT - April 18th, 2010: So... I'm not gonna go into details just yet why I chose to do this, BUT, this video is now on facebook for your viewing pleasure!

Video on the 3rd Floor

March 3, 2010

Just like Robert Downey Jr., I was giddy with joy when I was able to round up a few people on my dorm floor that wanted to be in my next video!! As I continue along the path of a collaboration/guest star route, the videos are gaining a fresh vibe to them so you don't know what to expect and from who! While I am a fan of character development (mainly for the "Sketch Comedy" series), it's fun to just let loose and explore more plot-based style videos. It gives me a chance to do more jokes with as little stretch as possible, haha! With that being said, let's talk about the newest video to call home here on the site! I've been living in the University Village Suites since August of 2009. 3rd Floor, to be exact. That's an inside joke (well not really). Also, that's a spiffy name for a blog post, which is mainly why I just wrote that, teehee. Since my roommate, Victor, lives with me, he obviously knows a little bit about what I do here, and ever since college started he's shown interest of making a video with me! It's a shame that it has taken this long to finally make a video, but it's finally happened! I contacted some people on my floor via facebook and gave them the opportunity to collaborate on a video for the site. You know, I guess I could have just walked to their door and asked them personally... HAHA! Well actually, it was quite difficult to get a hold of these people, ironically enough! Nevertheless once I recieved an overwhelmingly positive response, I went ahead and wrote out the lines for everyone in the video... yes... that's right. I WROTE A SCRIPT. JEFFREY VEGA HAD A SCRIPT PREPARED. SOUND THE ALARMS!

The video is about me going around, asking people what they think of this website... and well, let's just say things don't go so well for me. HOWEVER, in reality, things went VERY well, filming wise. We're all so busy during the day, all the filming took place literally at 1 in the morning... not exactly the most practical time to film, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?! I was so excited once everything was finished with all the guest stars, thanks to one of my closest friends Onelia for helping to film and putting up with my pickiness! (: The one thing that brought me down during editing was... well, the whole process. I planned to film 2 scenes for every person I worked with, and I would seperate the clips throughout the video with the other people so it had the effect of like going back to that person as if we never stopped talking. I was bummed to find out, however, when putting all the footage together that the video would be close to 15 minutes. OUCH. You could probably guess how hard it was to cut some things out... so many funny things will never see the light of day, and even after the difficult editing decisions, the video is still a lengthy one at right under 6 minutes, but at least I was able to get everyone who was filmed into the video! I've watched some people watch the video and they say the time passes by so quickly because the video is actually entertaining and doesn't drag on... yay! So, why don't you tell me what YOU think, hmm? (;

Click here to watch it on Facebook in case you would rather "like" it than comment on it... haha!

Blog, Pogs, and Nintendo Boy!

February 23, 2010

Written by: Andrew Shain

Do you ever read blogs and think to yourself "Who the heck reads this?". I can also safely say that Nintendo Boy will read this and say "Hey, that's not true! I 100% of the people who visit the site will read this!" And you, Nintendo boy, would be correct! You are the only one who will read this, and you will also have been the only one who will have realized this has been posted. The Ironic truth is that the more popular the site is doing, the less it gets read. This may seem like a problem to you Nintendo Boy, but I have two easy methods to improve your situation! They are:

1) The drastic method would be to make it so no one ever reads anything ever anymore. The solution would be to make video blogs from now on. But to be realistic about it, nothing over 5 minutes gets watched, we all know that; using the same point, if it takes more than 5 minutes to read, no one will read it. That brings us to point 2.

2) No one ever reads blog posts from head to toe ever, not the long ones anyway. Instead, just give a spark notes version that people will want to read. Face it, us Americans are big and lazy slobs. We also like shiny things like watches... But thats beside the point. So instead of having a post like the one I just wrote, spark note it and highlight/underline/make in a different color the most important things. For example... this post could be reedited as follows:

"Do you ever read blogs and think to yourself "Who the heck reads this?". I can also safely say that Nintendo Boy will read this and say "Hey, that's not true! I 100% of the people who visit the site will read this!" And you, Nintendo boy, would be correct! You are the only one who will read this, and you will also have been the only one who will have realized this has been posted. The Ironic truth is that the more popular the site is doing, the less it gets read. This may seem like a problem to you Nintendo Boy, but I have two easy methods to improve your situation! They are:
1) The drastic method would be to make it so no one ever reads anything ever anymore. The solution would be to make video blogs from now on. But to be realistic about it, nothing over 5 minutes gets watched, we all know that; using the same point, if it takes more than 5 minutes to read, no one will read it. That brings us to point 2.
2) No one ever reads blog posts from head to toe ever, not the long ones anyway. Instead, just give a spark notes version that people will want to read. Face it, us Americans are big and lazy slobs. We also like shiny things like watches... But thats beside the point. So instead of having a post like the one I just wrote, spark note it and highlight/underline/make in a different color the most important things. For example... this post could be reedited as follows:"

See, now this site will become slightly more popular because I didn't make people read a LONG boring post. This is Andrew once again saying Stay Classy internet!

Not Yet Bored of Board Games

February 22, 2010

At last, it has finally arrived. That's right, the blog entry detailing the events of Board Games is finally being typed up! Well, I guess since you're reading this and it's already published and such, that doesn't matter or anything and well I say that because I'M typing this up NOW and uh- ANYWAY! Today, we will briefly discuss Board Games (mainly because it's been so long and I don't really remember...teehee) as well as some interesting background factoids that went into to publishing this video. As I transition to the body paragraph of this essay, I will go ahead and try to connect the animated .gif by saying that the "interesting factoid" was a decision that I made so I wouldn't have to keep trying to figure out why I have no views on YouTube (even Lenny doesn't know... ha!)

So. Board Games. Where do I even begin? Oh boy, this is going to be one awkward blog entry. Alright, remember that one random scene in "Takeover" where I called a meeting but only three people showed up to an event where I tried to get Josh to admit he likes Nintendo? Yeah I know, so random, haha. Those three people were in my Communications Learning Community last semester, and I became pretty close with them (and I will add them on the collaboration page soon... I know it's long overdue but eh, you probably didn't notice)! They knew I did videos (because I never shut up about it!) and were quite interested when I asked them if they were willing to help collaborate on a video! You know I think I actually already talked about this in a post about Takeover last year... ah well. Anyway, as we all returned from winter break I contacted them all about a video idea I had. After I received an overwhelming positive response, I went immediately went forward with my idea and came up with a rough outline (in my head of course... *nervous laugh*) and was super excited to get it done! We all moved back into our dorms the weekend before the first week of spring semester and reunited and had fun as we improv'd the entire video! So, there really isn't much to say. I mean, we literally improv'd it. I wish I was a little less annoying (I'm not like that in real life... *cough*), I wish Lauren (the girl on the far left) wasn't so mean to me, I wish Aubrey (the girl in the middle) wasn't so annoyed by me, and I wish Jason (the guy on the far right) had more lines, because he was hilarious! But yes, it was a very nice collaboration that I'm very proud of, but I don't think there will be any more videos with them since they got mad when I spit chocolate milk on them and everywhere (without telling them what I was going to do, I might add)... HAHAHA, just kidding. Or am I? No no, I am. They were terrific guests and look forward to working with them again. We will see... (:

Alrighty, and now for interesting factoid time! Not a huge deal, but definitely worth mentioning. This video was given a different kind of treatment for publishing: YouTube EXCLUSIVE. That's right, for one week, I decided to only upload the video to YouTube (and not on facebook just yet) to force everyone to go through the popular video site to watch my latest episode! Why did I do this you ask? Well right off the bat, YouTube HD is FANTASTIC! Facebook's... or really anywhere else... is not so much. I wanted everyone to see my new video in a beautiful resolution... that's a harmless wish, right?! (: With this, I also conducted an experiment: How many people *actually* watch my videos? I know, crazy right... who would EVER want to know that? The reason why I may not have the best estimate is that my views are skewed because of facebook. Grrr, I'll get you popular social networking site! *shakes fist* The only reason I post my videos to our facebook fan page is because people have a better, easier option to comment... and you guys know how much I love feedback! I repeat: this is the only reason... so if I don't get any likes/comments than I assume no one's really watching it.. or people are just lazy. Eh. But anyway, my experiment actually resulted in me now knowing that people really do watch my videos because, in the week that Board Games was only on YouTube, it garnered unusally high views compared to the others. In fact, as of writing, the video has more views than most of my videos that have been out for more than a 2 months! Now there's the kind of thing I like to see! Now what will I do with this new found information? Not sure yet... I may continue to make the videos exclusive for a week for the sake of YouTube views, but at the same time the facebook video suffers because no one watches/comments because they'll be like.. "oh that's not new, I've already seen that!" My case is proven with Board Games on facebook, which has only a comment by one of our actors... :/ SO. It's a hard choice. Perhaps I'll just continue to upload them to YouTube & Facebook at the same time so neither suffer but at the same time the views will be more spread out... BUT, as long as I receive feedback, I can live with that! *looks at you* (;

Click here to watch it on Facebook in case you would rather "like" it than comment... haha!

Showing Love for Facebook & iTunes

January 26, 2010

It's time for a long-awaited update, don't you think? It's not that I'm avoiding you guys, it's just that there isn't much to say sometimes, despite me loving to write in the blog... know what I mean? Well I have some good stuff for you today, and I'd like to talk to you about them! Since the beginning of the year, we've had one blog post (although it was a flashback post), and a new video, and some subtle changes, as well as some not-so-subtle changes. Let me walk you through them so you don't get confused (much like the people watching that automatic toilet)! ;) If this post becomes too long, I will spill it over into another one, because I don't want you to leave because it's too many words... yikes! First off, let me just thank you all for your continued support. If you're on the site right now reading this, that means you. I can't thank you enough. While unfortunately our site community here has remained stagnant, we continue to grow on a website that people actually go to, facebook! As of writing, we have 169 fans on our fan page. Although sometimes the number goes up & down (who removes themselves as a fan, I mean really?), we have a strong fan base. I'll admit that probably 90% are people I know, but hey, you got to start somewhere right? It's nice to know that 169 people like what you do. It's what lets me sleep soundly at night, haha! In the quest of trying to get our own community sparked with life again, I have re-vamped the forums, renamed it "Discussions," and cleaned up the place in general with some re-organizing! I'm also looking to add more categories to appeal to a wider audience, so if you have any ideas, please let me know! The Discussions area is just one of several planned updates to grow our community again. So def keep on the lookout for new stuff... because if you think about it, this site is actually very awesome. Not being self-centered or anything, but I honestly think we have quite a snazzy online home right here. So why let it be covered it cobwebs? I can't think of a reason.

Next item of business, is iTunes. Wait, what's that? You didn't know we were on iTunes? Well we are! I don't advertise as much as I should, and really, I don't know how many people actually download the episodes because Apple won't let you see stats and insights for your podcast. So this could be a great success or a huge disaster. I mean, no, it doesn't cost money to actually do, but in order to make it happen, I do spend money on space to host the videos on my server so I can provide it to you, and the whole process takes time, and we all know time is money. Obviously what I'm hoping to get at is that people have another outlet to see the project and may check out our stuff if they like what they see. Almost everyone has an iPod of some sort, and if not, at least iTunes, and so there is no way you can't see our stuff, whether it's on YouTube, Facebook, or even on your iPod! SO. OKAY. That was too long of intro, so let me cut to the chase. Up until about a week ago, the episodes on our podcast were at low "converted for podcast .mov" files, and yet they were still a little chunky in size. I'm pleased to say that I have found a better solution, in which I render the movie project in .mov instead of converting it, then adding it to iTunes and then from there "create iPod / iPhone Version," which results in a beautiful, much clearer HD video (in a .m4v format... iTunes-specific!) to have on the go! And what's the best part? The size is actually down a few MBs! So it's a win-win, and after playing around with all this stuff and making sure it works, I updated & re-uploaded all of the HD videos on the podcast (except for The End) so now you should do the same! I'm telling you, there is a huge difference to what it was before, so if you are currently subscribed to the podcast and you click update, all your files will probably have an error sign next to it (since they have been all replaced). I know it's a bit of work, but I recommend clearing and deleting the podcast entirely (or at least just from Hiatus and above... ie all the HD videos) and re-subscribing so you can get all the new files. And if you're new to the program, just go ahead and subscribe for free and you will have the new high definition videos! YOU'RE WELCOME. Haha just kidding, but really, though... I'm happy to do this and glad improvements are always being made, no?

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT. So I realize this blog post is getting rather lengthy, so let me just wrap it really quick. There are some other things that need to be said, but I will continue it in a later blog post as mentioned at the beginning of this entry. I wanted to officially announce the newest video, Board Games. I never had a chance to make a post about it, but here's a quick nod. Yes, it is a bit late and you have probably seen it already, but if not, you definitely need to! There is MUCH to say about this video, and I will save it for the next blog post, so stay tuned... thanks for reading this far and listening to me ramble! (: