More bitching about YouTube. Today's topic: Copyright. Hooray! PLUS: Christmas. Woohoo! (longest post title ever.)

Ugh, I'm so annoyed. YouTube has been such a douchebag lately with copyright things, one of my favourite videos ever, the "Scarlett Sunday Blog" (at least that's what I called it) by billilovesmargot has been taken down yesterday due to copyright infringement.
A few weeks ago, one of my videos on my beta-channel has been removed due to copyright infringement as well. I can live with that, it wasn't a big deal really since it was only that channel and not a video I liked all that much, but it still sucked.
So today I open my gmail inbox, and find an e-mail there about a video on my beta-channel that I had already audio-swapped like a year ago.On December 19, YouTube posted a blog-entry about how Warner Music Group is no longer a part of their AudioSwap program, and how videos that contain Warner content will have to be swapped with different music in the near future.
Apparently, the song I was using on said video was Warner content, so the video got blocked/rejected now, and according to the e-mail, it should have been fine to just audio-swap it with a different song from their program.But when I went to My Videos and tried to go to AudioSwap, this is what happened:Every single time.

Now I didn't care much about the video I'm talking about here and I didn't wanna bother too much so I just took it down, it was old and quite lame in my opinion but the whole process is just highly annoying. I understand that YouTube has to do something about copyright infringement as soon as third parties are involved that claim copyright and all that stuff, but the fact that things just don't work as they should in such a case is just extremely dumb.

So much for that part.

Also, I realized I haven't blogged much this month, and now you get a super awesome long long long post to make up for it. Probably no one will even have the patience or time to read all this, but that's alright. Online diary ftw!!!1!11

It's Christmas, we Germans celebrate on the 24th, yes yes, and I have such torn feelings about this day.
See, I used to really like Christmas, and I still do partially. I enjoy the cheesiness about it, the sparkling lights everywhere, the decorations, the trees, receiving and especially making presents, or generally people in a giving mood. It's nice! Plus, it's winter, and it's my favourite season, so there you go.
Then again, Christmas eve has been rather depressing ever since my mom passed away in 2002, and now it's just me and my dad, having dinner together, exchanging a few presents, and then we both go our own ways again.
We've been invited by several family members over the past few years to spend Christmas eve with them, but apparently my dad is a huge fan of traditions now and for him that means we stay here at home, and even if that means it's a lame two person event. Oh well. It's just one evening a year, it could be worse.
Also, on the 25th and 26th my sisters come over with their spouses/kids/boyfriends, and a full house with people I actually like is always a good thing. So something to look forward to!

Just saying, I'm torn and I have my reasons.

Plus, as much as I do like the cheesiness about Christmas, there are also a lot of things that just plainly annoy me. All the "Donate here, donate there" crap around Christmas time is just way too much (now I'm not saying donating for a good cause is a bad thing, but if you're able to and feel like giving, then just do it and don't wait for a certain time of the year!), Christmas pop songs suck ass, everything is even more commercialized than usually, people who all of a sudden run to churches because they feel like it's being expected from them to go at least once a year are just dumb in my opinion, and the whole "ohhh let's be quiet and calm and in peace with everything and everyone" seems fake to me and unnecessary. It's not like all the problems in the world can go away for a friggin holiday just like that. I don't wanna play nice with people I just don't like for the sake of a simple day that isn't all that different to any other day of the year.

So as some sort of reaction to all this I tend to spend my Christmas usually listening to Death Metal or so-called Gangsta Rap, watch movies that contain a lot of gore (zombies prefered) and just in case I go out and meet people, I like to wear even more black eyeliner than usual and dress in a more.. well, let's say "unholy" way. If that makes sense.

I have no idea why I'm telling you all this, but I felt like it so why not.

I don't know what your plans are for the holidays, if you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah or something else, or if you don't even celebrate anything at all, but I hope you're doing fabulous, my dearest blog reader, and enjoy the last week of this year.
I am sooo looking forward to 2009 because exciting things will happen, it's gonna be a crazy year and I feel really good about it.

Until then, glitter, hearts, rainbows and cupcakes,

Kiwi

Unnecessary YouTube changes

Some of you might have heard about YouTube's most recent changes:
Customized thumbnails for partnered channels.
And that only a few days after releasing a blog post about how thumbnails are supposed to be more random now, so they actually represent the content of your video and cheating was supposed to be history.


Yeahhhh right.
I mean sure, it says you're supposed to be following the TOS when uploading a customized thumbnail, but still.. that's pretty much open for interpretation now, isn't it?

Alright so I don't wanna bore you with more rambling on about this, bottom line: It's dumb, and unnecessary and stupid and blah. The end.


(Then again, you can just have a little fun with it.. demonstrated in the pictures below ^_^)

I wish there was punctuation.

(please click on the picture so you can see it in full size and actually read it. Hilarious, and posted by an insane man who should just start admitting that he actually is obsessed with me and loves me oh so much.)

Music! And a to-do-list

Music of the now - Vol. 6!

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

(Not from mixwit.com this time, because website decided to be a huge bitch and didn't let me save it there. Boo!)

Hello dearest reader! It's been a while, and all I can say is:
I missed you.
I'm in such an e-mood lately, and I have two videos planned for next week that will be fun to make and hopefully fun to watch as well.
I'm surprised and happy about how people reacted to my latest Learn German video, and I'm glad I finally made it.


Here's a little to-do-list for myself. Just because.

- make more videos
- watch more videos (I'm so sorry about being all douchey [douchy??] about my subscriptions lately)
- update my blog more often
- check my damn google reader a bit more frequently so I don't miss all the great things going on there
- comment more, on blogs and videos
- have fun!

And that's it from me. I hope all is well in your part of the world, and I shall read/write/watch/etc. you all soon <3

A Christkindlmarkt Photo Story

Oh it's almost December, and how do we crazy Germans celebrate that? Of course, with christmas markets (in Bavaria better known as Christkindlmärkte).
Only purpose of those things: drink and eat as much as you can so you don't feel the cold air around you anymore. (Well ok, to be fair there are also little booths where you're supposed to buy christmas ornaments and stuff like that. But who does that really? I know I don't.)

Here are a few pictures that I took today when me, my friend Nina and my dad (I know you all love him) went to the Christkindlmarkt in the small town that I grew up in.
Cheers!

^_^

Please hold the line

Thanks to Billi for the lovely picture that he took during a little "omg omg omg I need to blow my nose I'll brb" break that happened in my show last night lol

Oh em gee like HAI and stuff ^_^

Hey you, blog reader dearest, how's it going?
Man it's fucking FREEZING in Munich these days, and what have I been up to, you ask? Well, except for trying to not freeze and die, I've been getting back into my YouTube mode. YouTube mood. Something like that.
As you may have noticed, I haven't been all that active there in the past few months, and right now I feel like it's the perfect time to do exactly that. Make more videos, and not for you (sorry) but for myself. Because after all, that's what I've signed up for.

Facing the truth here, I'm a vlogger, and that's what vloggers do. I think. Sharing little pieces of their life with others, and basically, capturing experiences, thoughts, ideas, and whatnot. I used to be really good at that, and I feel like I'm getting there again.
I made three videos on Sunday and Monday (for the PJ club, my main channel, and my German channel) and especially the German one... I don't know why, but it's been a long, long time since I've made a video that I really liked and that I can honestly be proud of, and it felt really good doing that. It's a one take video, kinda-sorta-improv comedy like, or something, I dunno, but even I find it funny, and judging from the comments I've received so far, people really liked it, whether they understand German or not (well, it's a really simple concept, so I guess that's part of why people who don't understand German even get it). Bottom line: it made me happy to shoot and edit the video, or all three videos really, and it feels like I'm back on YouTube with all my heart (awwwwwww.... insert cheesy music here).

Can I just say one thing? I fucking LOVE online videos, and I highly respect each and everyone who makes them. I had this thought while driving to my dad the other day, and seriously, making videos and meeting (e-meeting and irl meeting) the people who share this interest or hobby or whatever you wanna call it, makes me happy and basically just feels like a really good thing. I'm not sure where I'm going with this now, but maybe you get what I mean.

Yes, the e-life makes me act like a huge hippie sometimes haha

Well in other news, I've recently started to work as a nanny. Twice a week, and I'm taking care of my nephew, which is probably the best thing ever since I'm getting paid for something I'd like to do anyway. But since my sister told me they were thinking about getting a "regular" nanny, I don't feel to bad about getting paid for doing this. I work for them twice a week, and next week little Titus (I'll try to show him to you guys sometime soon because omfg what a cute thing!!) is gonna start a Taekwondo (spelling?!?!?!) class and I'll be watching and awwww this should be a lot of fun.
He's five years old btw, a huge Star Wars fan and is currently trying to work on his Jedi-powers. The telekinesis part isn't working all that well yet, but wow he's awesome with light sabers!!

This was a HUGE update, dearest blog reader, and if you made it this far, I'm proud of you. I really am.
By the by, I'm having fun with my blogTV shows, it's probably the weirdest thing I've done on the web so far, but it's also a lot of fun and hanging out with you guys, even if it's just in a chat room, is a great experience.

I also have some thoughts on YouTube Live, but who really wants to read about that anymore now? Yeah, thought so, I don't either.
(I'm totally hoping YouTube will start having a live-broadcasting option soon though!! That'd be kinda awesome, I think.)

Ok. Long story short, hi! How are YOU these days?

Glitter bombs in all of your faces,

Kiwi

Sleep deprivation.

[Before reading, please press play and listen to my favourite song of today. And yesterday. And probably tomorrow.]

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

I've had a total of 10 hours of sleep since Friday. Why? Not sure. Thinking about stuff, yes, but I'm not actually that stressed out about it. At least I don't think. Doesn't really matter, point being:
I effing can't sleep anymore.
I've had 2 hours Friday-Saturday, 5 hours Saturday-Sunday, and 3 hours Sunday-today. And what amazes me is that I don't even look as zombie-like as one might think (incuding myself).
I'm currently at my dad's, going back to Munich tomorrow, so there won't be much time to sleep during the day (as I expect to not get all that much sleep tonight either. I'm not even tired or exhausted or anything really), then I'm gonna have a show at 3am my time, so you can imagine how sleeping will go then. Should be interesting! If all else fails, I'm just gonna do a show Magibon-style and sit there and stare into the camera. Or something.
Which reminds me, why is she not doing blogTV shows? Seriously, I'd watch. Just to see why and how and all that. Can you imagine that? A live show, let's say 60 minutes, of apathetically looking into the camera. Occasional smiling. Not too much though. Because we need to keep it classy. Right? Right.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this though, so let's just end this train of thought right here.

Other things:
As you can tell from the photo, I've painted my nails silver metallic. Which is fun and also really strange because they're so shiny and I notice them a lot more in my peripheral vision than I'd notice them with any other nail polish colour. Because, well, they're shiny and stuff!!!
So yeah. I manage to distract myself with my own freaking nails. Haha what an exciting life!!

And I shall end this post on that note. I guess.
I hope you're all doing extremely fabulously well and stuff, and may it rain kittens, covered in glitter, all over you!!

Kiwi

It's November already! (A post with lots of brackets. For fun.)

Can you believe it's November already? Yeah, me either. Wow!! The year is almost over, there have been a lot of things happening lately (and for once I'm not talking about me me me me me, but about world-things, dearest reader. And I'm sure you all know what I mean by that. Just for the sake of not over-mentioning it after the past 24 hours I shall not speak of the soon-to-be new US president and.. oh. Guess I just did. Nevermind then. [For the record: I'm happy about how things turned out there.] Closing those brackets now.) and I'm sure there will be more before the year is over, but let's just focus on the important stuff here for a bit, k?
And yes, by important stuff I mean mainly myself. Ha. Ha. Didn't see that one coming, hm? Yeah, I thought so.

So!!! I'm sure you're all dying to know what I've been up to lately. Yes, that's what makes the world go 'round. Or something like that. (Sometimes I try to use little lines that seem to be fitting English expressions, and as soon as I've written them down I re-read them and think "what an idiot!!!!!!!!!!". I refuse to delete that though. It's more fun like that, I suppose. People that I chat with know what I'm talking about here.)
So!!! (Again.)
I've been trying to catch up on online things, have watched a shitload of videos (I totally reached the 17,000 this week, woop!! [I'm a loser. Obviously!!!]), have been reading up on all the things going on in my reader (and I want to apologize for being so comment-lazy on blogs lately, it's just all so much!! And I get all impatient and just browse around and then end up somewhere else and... yeah. You know what I'm trying to say here, yes?) and on top of that also started a scheduled show on blogTV. Yes. I know. It's weird to me as well, but I've been thinking about this for a while, and even though the thought of having an actual schedule for this freaks me out a tiny little bit, it just makes more sense to me like this. For everything else, there is still Stickam, and I like when people do shows on a schedule, so why should I be too chicken to have one myself? (I am extremely exaggerating here, but it's my blog, so why not.)
Point being, I thought if I actually did this blogTV thing, then I'd need something to keep me there. I've worded that weirdly, but what I mean is: if I don't have something that kind of forces me to do things, I might just forget about it in two days and do something else. Hence: schedule. (For your interest, said schedule would include shows Tuesday and Thursday, 9pm EST each. Aaaaand maybe randomly as well, you can subscribe there via e-mail and get notifications though, and follow me on Twitter and blah blah whoring myself blah blah, you know how this goes.)
So far, I've done two shows, one last Saturday to test things out (meaning my camera and microphone. And my ability to actually do a show to be honest.), and that was to my own surprise a lot of fun! For some reason I've had a whole bunch of people in my room even though I didn't promote it really, got raided by lovely 4chan-folks, and all together it was just strange and odd and fun all at once.
The other show was yesterday, election night, and just as I expected, it was a much smaller group of people, but just like Saturday a strangely fun experience as well!
So the next show will be tomorrow at 9pm EST, and I swear I'll stop talking about this, like NOW, but it'd be cool if you'd maybe stop by, say hi, or something. Now you should know I'm not much of an entertainer. I don't see these live broadcasts as real shows, and more of an opportunity to talk to people, communicate basically. This is the e-world, right? And since the e-world is an incredibly large place, it's nice to have some corners where we can actually hang out together. And that's how I see these shows as well. So if you're up for a little chat... I know I am!

But enough of that now.

I'm still struggling with my internet connection (I've told you, things aren't over yet. I wonder how long it will take until I'll have the connection I'm actually paying for!!) but besides that, things are good!! I'm embracing autumn, sometimes it already smells like winter outside, and I can't wait to see the first snowflakes!!

And to end this on a rather mushy note:
I can honestly say that I'm really happy right now. I can't even put into words how thankful I am for some of the people that are a part of my life, and no matter how far away they might be, in a way they're very close to me (a physical distance has nothing to do with feelings if you ask me), and I wouldn't wanna miss knowing them for anything in the world <3

I shall update you more frequently in the near future, dearest blog, but for now I want to leave you, dearest reader, with rainbows, kittens, glitter, occasional confetti-showers and cupcakes all over the place.

Kiwi

Woop!

I finally have a decent internet connection again and am enjoying the e-life a lot!!
To celebrate this with you, here's a little mix I made with songs that absolutely don't match each other, and their only purpose is to make me dance (and you maybe as well).
Turn the volume up, dance and enjoy and I'll see you soon!

Autumnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

[I refuse to call it fall. Because autumn sounds so much better.]
I went to my dad's today and to my surprise unlike in Munich, here it's the most beautiful autumn-like sunny weather everrrr.
And what do I do when I want to show you stuff? Rrrrrright, have a photoshoot.
(yeah and also I just wanted to show off how incredibly groovy my new hair looks like in the daylight and with the nature background and in combination with my scarf and all that. yay!!)

The first "scene" if you will is some sort of "tada!!! It's autumn!" setting. The happy look on my face goes extremely well with the elegant gesture. What I especially enjoy about this picture is that my hair looks like it's incredibly long, and my boobs seem to be nonexistent.

The second picture shows me and our dog Laika. How she loves photos!! Believe it or not, this was the best out of more than ten pictures that I tried to take with her. The sad look on her face is her trademark and especially efficient during dinner. OUR dinner, not hers.

Behind our house I found the setting for shot #3. This tree had just the most perfect yellow leaves of all time and seemed to be a great eye catcher for a photo. Unfortunately, next to that little tree is our trash, so the picture you can see here is the first AND last one out of that certain setting. Geez there were flies everywhere, it was disgusting.

I accidentally took this picture when I opened PhotoBooth again after I went to my room to write this here, and even though it's an accident, I really, really love this picture. The colours are fabulous, and it's not even edited!!! (None of the pictures in this post are, btw.)

So that's it for today!!! My internet still sucks. I still can't watch or upload videos or in fact do anything fun online, except of course more or less accidental cybering with my lovelies which is the only thing that really counts, but yes.. I'm still on a semi-break that will hopefully be over the upcoming weekend. We'll see!!!

Rainbows, glitter and tons of candy for all of you,
Kiwi

Happy Thoughts.

I like to doodle things while I'm on the phone.
And earlier, when I called the "service" line from my ISP (or my wannabe-Service provider. Ha. Ha. What a JOKE) I drew these little things:
Yes, I know. Happy, isn't it? Being on hold for what felt like an hour or so was just so much fun.
A rant is in order, my friends. Once all of this is set up and settled and I can officially say I have a real internet connection again, I'll dedicate a video full of "love" to the company that will provide me with the bandwidth to upload said video. Isn't it ironic, don't you think?

Pictures and things and stuff

Hi! How are you? I'm good, thanks!
I finally made a new video on my main channel. That was long overdue and I missed editing and filming and all that!
Also, I got featured on the German frontpage with the latest video I made on my kiwipedia channel (which is insane enough, but even more insane is the fact that I have three videos on that channel, and two of them have been featured on the German frontpage now. In. Sane.) and as much as I appreciate all this, it's a pretty weird thing. To me it still seems like people from Germany don't know much about YouTube, and about vlogging or just in general "normal" people who enjoy making videos and uploading them. To them it's clips from TV shows, or music videos. And as soon as someone has the guts to put themselves out there, it's a "fat emo bitch who has no life" [insert bad grammar and spelling here]. Or something like that, depending on whether you're a guy or a girl of course.
But yes. It's surreal, and fun at the same time. It also gives me the opportunity to screenshot something like this haha:

Sooooo I would officially announce that after a few weeks of not being into YouTube too much, I am officially back and stuff!! In general, I embrace the e-life with all its weird twists and turns and strange, strange people, and I shall twitter/vlog/blog/etc more often in the near future!! Currently, I'm in Maddox's blogTV show and I just won a Spice Girls picture challenge (the prize was chosing the next 90's pop song. I love it so! And yes, I was Baby Spice. Who else!!!)

Then Kristalyn Sporty Spiced it up, Jasmine did Baby Spice too, and JC went full out crazy and played Scary Spice for us. AND THAT'S WHY I LOVE BEING ONLINE. The end.

PS: Thanks blogger once again for not letting me use the layout I want. Thanks a lot. Really. Asshole.

Yearbookpicturetimetravel.

My loveliest blog reader! I discovered the most brilliant website of all times. Since we crazy Germans don't really have Yearbooks I (un)fortunately never had the pleasure of seeing myself in a horrible photo on a page in one of those, and then I came across this: Yearbook Yourself - and oh the fun I had while making the following pictures!

1960
Here you can see I am rocking the cat eye glasses. I'm a huge fan of these and I also especially enjoy my fringe. Very classy.


1968
The hair is still pretty dark, and still pretty wavy. At least the ends. The turtle neck is something I'd call naughty. Just saying.


1984
So as time goes by, hair colours change, and if I may add, going blonde was a good idea. I just can pull that off so well haha


1994
If you've ever talked to me in person, you know that this is one of my favourite poses of all time. The permy (!!!) is a must and oh so fashionable!


2000
This looks like a cheesy porn version of my actual haircut. Please notice the dreamy waves in my hair and the fancy pearl necklace.

[I'm not sure what happened to me in the 70's. Let's just say I was stoned and didn't show up for the picture taking day.]
And now I challenge you all to go to that website and try it out yourself! (Dumb facial expressions are mandatory.) And let me know if you post the pictures. I am a curious little Kiwi.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!
Kittens, bunnies and puppies,
Kiwi

Hello world!!! ^_^

I haven't updated you, my little blog, in a while. And since today was fun and stuff, I thought this was about a good time to do that.
I'm currently at my dad's for a few days, things have happened, that's why I came here, but also it's my usual every-other-weekend-visit and this time it doesn't mean offline land for me!!! But that's another story and I shall share it with you soon (as well as all the other crap that I had to go through while changing my ISP. Not that that's over yet. Oh my. You have no idea.).

For now, let me tell you about my lovely day.

I met up with my friend Nina, we went shopping (at one of those really cheap ass stores and I bought two fabulous sweater thingies!)
Here are some pictures. Yay!

This makes me feel like I'm wearing an old school video game.

Random flower-leaf action in light and dark grey. Hooray!

I also finally bought hair dye (so on my weekend to-do-list), a silver nailpolish (yaha, those things exist. How trashy. I love it.) and a really tacky eyeshadow in "Petrol" (some turquoisy blue-ish colour).
Then we took a little roadtrip for about 40 minutes and accidentally even went to Austria. That was not planned, I took a wrong turn and woops, there we were. Oh the fun of living close to a border. We ended up at a McCafé (I don't know if you have those. It's like the McDonald's version of a Starbucks. But not really. But yes.), had huge coffees and a small cake, then went back to the hometown, had a little music exchange party, spent some quality time with Nina's dad which is always fun (one of my goals in life is to dance in a polonaise with him. Just because.) and then we bought burgers and went home. Separately.
Now I'm doing my laundry (yes, you needed to know) and she is out at a concert I think, and I blog about today and wish I had taken some photos of the whole thing. But I didn't. Oh well.

This blog post is so not coherent. And just because I feel like it, I want to leave you with a mixtape. Turn up your volume and dance!!!

Bunnies and confetti,
Kiwi

Crashing.

I arrived at my uncle's/cousin's today. My home for... we'll see how long! Now to celebrate this happy Friday with a happy picture of three happy faces. Yes, I know. I suck at writing today. But that's ok. I've been on a frikken train for like 4 hours today, that's enough to make one's brain not work all that well anymore.
Hooray!!!!

Hugs, kisses, rainbows, kittens and all that other stuff,

Kiwi

Stealing.

Short short short update: I am currently at my friend Nina's place, stealing her aunt's connection for a bit. Hi online land!! I missed you!
I'm gonna crash at my cousin's from tomorrow on, maybe for a week, we'll see how that goes. Hopefully his wifi and my Mac get along, so I can share all my extremely interesting life experiences with you more.

So long,
hugs, kisses, rainbows, kittens, puppies, cupcakes, glitter and stars,

Kiwi