I think this tweet says it all:
Sorry about the language. It just seems like this year won’t stop.
Alan Rickman, David Bowie, Prince, Gordie Howe, Muhammad Ali, Arnold Palmer, and John Glenn just to name a few. And now Carrie Fisher.
And that’s not all. The refugee crisis, Brexit, Trump add on to the things that have so many people upset.
But really, Carrie Fisher?
Can we just have 2017 already?
You may not have heard about what’s going on with YouTube recently. Many prominent YouTubers have been complaining over the past couple days about receiving notifications from YouTube about videos being demonetized.
The reasons, according to YouTube, are because advertisers don’t want certain types of videos to feature their ads. So, if you use titles, tags, or descriptions that use certain keywords that are basically blacklisted, then your video will lose its monetized status. This can include topics like suicide, rape, murder, death, drugs, war, and so on. Even legitimate news videos that talk about the war with ISIS are being demonetized.
But guess what? This has been going on for quite some time. It’s only that YouTube has made their notification system better, so now people actually know about their videos being demonetized, and they’re able to request that YouTube review the video and restore the monetized status. But what has people really upset is that many videos have been demonetized for months without notification, and that translates as lost revenue for the creators.
Again, this is not something new. This has been going on for a long time from what I’ve heard. It’s just that creators now know about it. The appeal process takes a couple days, but a lot of YouTubers have been getting their videos monetized again.
People are claiming censorship. No, it isn’t. The videos are still there. It’s just that advertisers don’t want certain kinds of videos to have their ads. YouTube just did this in a very poor way, and only recently started letting people know that it has been happening for a long time. Nothing has changed other than the notification system actually working and the ability to appeal being put in place.
This doesn’t affect me, and shouldn’t affect me. I don’t talk about anything controversial and I don’t put any kind of titles, descriptions, or tags that are offensive. However, with some book titles, I may have to watch how they’re handled in the future. None of my videos have been demonetized. The only ones I didn’t monetize are those that have public performances, music, and sumo, but that’s for copyright reasons.
I’m not panicking. I’m not getting upset. I can understand why this has happened, though I don’t know why YouTube hadn’t been more forthcoming with what they were doing with the videos in the past. Now that they are notifying content creators, appeals can be done in a timely manner.
What do you think about this? Let me know in the comments below.
In the Booktube community on YouTube, there was a question asked by a Booktuber, LuLo Fangirl, about why Booktubers don’t talk about #BlackLivesMatter. Why is everyone silent about it? They talk about drama that goes on in the community, but don’t talk about this big issue. I decided to respond, though I don’t think I could eloquently explain what I really wanted to say. But this is what I said.
I linked the situation with books. I think that books bring up issues like this, and it’s worth reading them. What I wanted to say but didn’t want to take up so much time is that I thought education, or rather a lack of good education, was a root cause of this problem. There are so many areas in the US where black people are marginalised, and some education could help. I mean educating everyone.
What do you think about this topic? Let me know in the comments below.
I don’t think I can let this weekend pass without mentioning the UK’s vote to leave the European Union. I know a lot of my readers are from the UK, so you may find this interesting, or you might not. I’ll be brief, anyway.
From what I’ve gathered about what I’ve heard in media, there are some people who voted Leave, but then regretted that decision because they thought their votes wouldn’t matter. They voted Leave for the hell of it. And now three million people have petitioned to have a do-over.
Scotland, which voted to Stay, now wants to leave the UK. The Scottish are furious. Same with Northern Ireland, though I hear it’s a more complicated situation.
And now prices are going up, since the British pound had an incredibly large drop. Things are going to be expensive for people in the UK for a while.
And then there are the lawmakers who campaigned for the UK’s exit from the EU. They have no plan. They have no idea what they’re going to do. Smart. Really smart.
Over here in Canada, we’re watching both the US with the supreme idiot Trump and the UK. Two of our biggest allies and friends are going insane. At least that’s what many people are thinking.
So, British readers, what the hell is going on over there? Let me know in the comments so I can understand the view from someone who’s living through this.
An unfortunate accident in his own driveway caused the death of Anton Yelchin. He was hit by his own Jeep, which was in neutral, and it pinned and crushed him when it rolled back toward him. I hate hearing news like this. Far too young.
Zachary Quinto had this to say on Instagram:
Condolences to his family and friends. The Daily Mail has a fairly detailed story with pictures.
It happened. It finally happened. Someone with a south Asian accent, named John called me from “Microsoft Headquarters” and told me that my computer had some problems on it. I was actually excited at this point. I asked him to specify which computer it was. He asked if they were on a network, and I said one was at the moment. He had me go to it and asked me if it was running slow or freezing. I told him it was fine. And then he asked me to locate the Windows key and click it and R together. This is where it gets fun.
He said, “R as in Romeo.” That’s my sister’s dog’s name. I told him, “Oh, Romeo?” He answered, “Yes, Romeo. Do you see the Run window?” I answered, “No, I see Juliet.” He then repeats, “No, is there a Run window?” I just played dumb, saying, “Rambo?” He said, “No, Run!” But I responded, “I see Sylvester Stallone.” At this point, I was just giving random answers.
The last answer I gave to him was, “I see a monkey.” And his response? “You are the monkey.” I was ready to laugh at him. I then said, “Okay, I know this is a scam. But thanks for calling. It was fun.” He hung up after that.
After a quick search, I read that if I let this go on longer, he’d have me download a file, which would probably install malware or spyware or something. But one guy said that he told the scammer that his anti-virus kept deleting the files. The scammer asked him to go to Wal-Mart and send a Moneygram to someone in Bangladesh to buy software that would fix the “problem.” You can read the entire story here, as well as some other experiences.
I should mention that they called twice today, two hours apart. The first time, the guy hung up when I said, “Excuse me?”
For anyone who gets a call from Microsoft, it’s not Microsoft. They won’t call customers about viruses or problems.
If they call again, I’ll have to consider some other things to say:
Which do you think is best? And have you experienced this call before? Let me know in the comments below.
Have you seen this meme going around on Facebook?
It is a lie. It’s propaganda designed to make you hate Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government of Canada. I’m not going to go through why this is a lie. Please read this wonderful explanation about exactly what’s happening with the situation and why the Canadian government will be spending a lot more on Fort McMurray than Syrian refugees.
Before you start sharing political memes on the internet, do a little research. Most likely, it’s not true. I’m finding several people I know are falling for these memes and sharing them, thinking they’re true. Well, they’re not true. I am honestly getting tired of all of the people who share things like this without thinking rationally about it. It’s all emotional. Please stop it.
The evacuation of Fort McMurray continues, but it’s not easy. There are a lot of people who can’t make it because of a lack of gas and the traffic is moving very slowly. Here’s a video with Courtney Theriault of City TV (he’s actually a former co-worker of mine) reporting before heading up to Fort McMurray himself.
People are coming forward to invite evacuees into their homes. Unfortunately, space is limited with such short notice.
Also unfortunately, I’m seeing some politically motivated comments about this. This is not political, so please leave it out. People are losing their homes.
The municipality of Fort McMurray in northeastern Alberta is now under mandatory evacuation. With a population of 60,000 people, this is the largest evacuation due to a forest fire in Alberta’s history. This is the evacuation notice:
The entire city is at risk. Several neighbourhoods are already being affected. There are several news stories about this, such as this one, which is from Calgary’s Metro. Or this one from CBC.
I can’t imagine what it’s like to have your home threatened like this. But an entire city is threatened. And Tracey, I’m glad you’re not there at the moment.
If any of you are in the area, stay safe. But you probably aren’t reading this, you’re probably evacuating.
It was an interesting night. Tonight was the night that we went to the parent orientation night at my daughter’s school. That was fine, and I learned a lot about what’s going to happen. However, there was something that happened that left a far bigger impression on my mind.
As we were walking to the school, we saw a police car going past with its lights on. No siren, though. We were wondering what happened. After the orientation, we were walking home when we saw the police were up the street. It was more than an hour after we saw the police, so something must have happened. We walked in that direction, and saw that the street had been blocked off. Six police cars. We continued walking, going to the supermarket. We also saw a motorcycle, a couple of cars, and something that looked like a bag.
On our way back home, we walked past the police again. There was a fire truck. But we didn’t know what had happened yet. So, I did a search online. What I found was a police report about the incident.
There was an accident. A dirt bike crashed into a fence, and the rider, a forty-year-old man died. Well then, that was unexpected. I wonder why he crashed into the fence.
I Read Encyclopedias for Fun 