Inside the World of Smudge Man

The Political Madness

2008-02-20T15:55:00.000-08:00

As we all SHOULD very well know, we are in the middle of the presidential primary season. This is a very exciting time for America because it is our chance to vote for the person we want to lead our great country. It is a chance for us to exersize our first ammendment rights and to allow us to speak our minds about politics.

Now, if you are like me, Politics isn't the first thing that you think about it the morning, and maybe even the whole day. I think its safe to say that most Americans have other things they like to worry about. But the one thing I don't understand is the media. Most of the media is generally one sided. Whether a paticular televison station is liberal or conservative is for you to decide. But even the most far left and far right media have one thing in common. They like to report about things such as Hollywood, or whether or not Brittany Spears has had another mental break down.

Now we have television stations for news like this (The E Network for example). I went into deep thought the other day about why American television is littered with this type of media. Finally I came to my conclusion. I concluded that a large percentage of Americans care about whether or not Brittany Spear's sister is going to keep her baby, then the presidential primaries. It is a proven fact that there is a large percentage of Americans who didn't vote. If you don't believe me click HERE. I was watching FOX News the other day and I noticed durring the whole Brittany-Spears-Mental-Breakdown-Epidemic, that one of the TOP stories was Brittany Spears. This is the network I generally go for political information because we are right in the middle of the primary season. Sure enough there was Brittany's face on my television rather then Barack Obama's or John McCain's.

This angered me a bit because I found it amazing how American's can care more about Brittany then about the good of our country. What people need to realize is that we are about to elect the President of the United States. In other words, the President of the most powerful nation in the world. We should feel honored that we have a chance to participate in the selection of this new leader. We should be looking at the views of the fellow candidates so that we can make a good descision. We SHOULDN'T have to play Eeny-Meeny-Miney-Mow at the polls to see who we are going to vote for. We should be proud of our right to vote and exersise that right as much as we can.

What Can We Expect of YouTube?

2007-07-29T18:20:00.001-07:00

We all know about YouTube's battles with the corporations and such. We have also seen the video blogging world grow immensely in the past couple years as a result of YouTube. YouTube has become one of the most well known websites in the past couple years and is now owned by one of the biggest corporations, Google.
Everyone talks about how YouTube used to be community based and how YouTube should go back to the community basis. Yes, YouTube still does have a community of video bloggers, directors, and musicians. My Question to you is, what do you expect of YouTube? What do you want YouTube to eventually become? What features would you like to see?
Personally, I want YouTube to grow on what it already is. By this I mean the community. YouTube has already been powerful enough to bring people across the Globe together. We are now able to see the people to whom we speak to. We are able to discuss topics about our community, our countries, and our world. This is the beauty of YouTube that I believe can grow to much more then it already is. We already can see our small community of people growing, and hopefully we can continue this and stretch it out to more people across the globe.
When I was in elementary school they had a program called "Pen-Pals". You had somebody across the world that you could write to and talk about things using the postal system. YouTube has taken that concept to a whole new level. We can actually see each other and hear each other's voices saying the words. This is what I would like YouTube to keep building upon, what do you think they should build upon?

Welcome to the World of Smudge Man

2007-07-26T00:03:00.000-07:00

Hello and Welcome to the World of Smudge Man.

My real name is Greg, but my internet alias is Smudge Man. I am a fellow YouTuber and LiveVideo(er) as well where I post my Vlogs. In today's busy society, I find it quite amazing that so many people can express themselves in the forms of Vlogs (Video Blogs) and Blogs. I personally use vlogging and blogging as a source to get my opinions out and to be able to talk about subjects with other people.

What to Expect in My Blogs

Since this is my first blog I will tell you what to expect in my Blogs. The one thing that I refuse to discuss is politics. Now don't get the wrong impression, I am very politically informed and I do have my certain places in which I discuss them, but I also believe that politics can effect our judgment on people. People prejudge people based on ones politics all the time. Politics is one of those subjects that I believe can really effect people's relationships with each other. Now I am not saying, don't be politically active in your blogs or vlogs, I'm just saying you won't see me discussing such touchy subjects.
I do like to talk about current events that have no political interest to them. I am also very fond on talking about the YouTube (and most likely Blog now) communities. YouTube has a small, yet working community of Vloggers that really is quite amazing. I will pretty much be talking about anything that comes into my random head.

Some of My Background

My original Internet alias (Smudge Man) was originally given to me by a 7th Grade history teacher. I used to dose off during his classes and take Expo markers (the ones that you would use on a dry erase board) and color random stuff then smudge it up to entertain myself. He began to call me smudge man and the name stuck. Here I am today and the name is still plays a vital role in my life. I originally began using the name back when I use to play the video game Halo 2. Halo 2 is an online, futuristic combat game in which you play against other people (up to 16) in multiple different arenas (or maps). I became quite good at the game and I made little movies through the game. Is you look under Google and type in "Halo 2 smudgeman" you can see that most of the stuff is me. The game basically took over my life and I became addicted, almost exactly one year ago I voluntarily quit the game due to the fact that my REAL life was being effected so immensely. One by one I was loosing friends because I was accused of being mean.
I was using the Alias, Smudge Man, and the internet as a shield so I could say what every I wanted to people without any risk of consequence, or so I thought. I was starting to use the habits that I used on the internet and switching it over to my real life. I was being mean to friends and cutting them out of my life. The choice to quit the game was one of the best I have ever made.
I still used my internet alias in other things such as Forum boards like DrPoodle.Com. About 8 months ago I decided to join the YouTube community and become a Vlogger. This has been one of the best experiences of my life. It really is a great way to express yourself freely and to make friends. Ever since I quit Halo and started YouTube instead, my friends and family have noticed a big personality change (for the better). Many people said "The old Greg is back," which was entirely true.
3 months and 6 days ago I terrible tragedy occurred that will effect my life forever. On April 20, 2007 my best friend Damian, died while having a seizure in his sleep. His unexpected death had a huge impact on my friends, family, and me as a person. I have found that you can never really understand how much you love someone until they are gone.
I have learned to move on with my life and to always pray and keep him in my memories. Now that my group of friends has gotten over the huge blow that hit us, we can move on and enjoy those that we have still around us.

And Now That I Have Told You Everything You Need To Know...

You should expect blogs to be posted at LEAST once a week. So GET EXCITED!!!!!!!

-Smudge Man