Bill Cammack

Obama Makes History!, originally uploaded by Bill Cammack.

Congratulations to Senator Barack Obama for being elected President of the United States of America! :D

Jay Smooth drops another illdoctrine.com banger! :D Watch the video, then leave Jay some comments on his site! :D

Get out and VOTE!!! Today Is The Day! :D

VOOOOOOOOOTE! :D

[download] | [youtube version]

Election day is tomorrow… November 04, 2008. Make sure you get out and vote for the candidate of your choice. If you don’t choose the next President of the United States of America, somebody else will choose him FOR you.

Make sure you feel good about yourself for the next four years by letting your voice be HEARD tomorrow in the voting booth. Be a DECIDER! VOTE! :D

Whomever you think is the best candidate, it’s in your best interest to VOTE this Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 in the United States Presidential Election.

Bre Pettis, Justin Johnson, Clint Comer and I are all releasing new videos every weekday of November 2008, and re-releasing “old” videos every Saturday and Sunday. Check the far right sidebar for avatars with links to their videoblogs.

My first contribution is this video I made in March, 2008 which shows how to scene-match video footage using filters in Final Cut Pro. I figured I’d bring it back since the election’s so close, and it reminds me of how different things were back in March, before the Democrats or Republicans had selected their representatives and before their representatives had selected their running mates.

It’s been interesting. Let’s see what happens on the 4th! :D
~Bill

People are all CRYING about the $150,000 (read: One Hundred and Fifty THOUSAND Dollars) that was reportedly spent by the Republican National Committee to update Sarah Palin’s wardrobe.

Well, it’s clear to The Kid that McCain knows what’s up and that he MUST be subscribed to DatingGenius! :D Read the rest of this entry »

So I’m browsing the internet, and there’s this big hubbub about McCain calling Obama “That One” in tonight’s Presidential debate, and then there’s another video where he’s supposedly NOT shaking Obama’s hand.

I don’t care about any of that, even though there’s a lot of talk about how McCain won’t look Obama in the eye. What I noticed, from looking at the tape of the supposed McCain snub was McCain’s wife.

Every time you hear about McCain, it’s about how old he is. :) So I never thought about it… I just assumed his wife was old, too. So when I was watching this video, and he points Obama towards his wife, I was like “Wait a minute… She’s not that ancient”.

So I googled her, and according to wikipedia, Cindy Lou Hensley McCain is only 54 years old, born in 1954. The media won’t let us forget that John McCain is currently 72 years old, born in 1936. That makes their age difference 18 years!… Play On, Playah! :D Now THAT’S Pimpin’! :D

So now, hopefully, people can stop CRYING about guys dating younger women… like VASTLY younger women. Maybe McCain could do some PSAs entitled “Younger Women Keep You Alive!” :)

Think about it… at only 54 years old, Mrs. McCain probably still goes to the gym. She would also be ‘hip’ to dinner parties happening around town, which is much better than spending his evenings playing “Bingo!”.

Her clothing selection‘s going to be 20 years more up-to-date, and it’ll be way more likely that the bouncers will let him in the club with her, in case they don’t recognize who he is. (The point being that in some NYC clubs, you need to be with ATTRACTIVE women, or else they’re not letting you in, regardless of how many mediocre chicks you brought out with you that night)

Also, her night vision’s still probably pretty good, in case someone has to drive somewhere after 8pm.

You don’t have to worry about any of your boys rapping to her, because all your friends are from *your* century.

This is great! :D NOW people can stop crying about “What do you have in common with a gal so much younger than you are?” like as if it matters.

Now that I think about it, Sarah Palin was born in ’64, which makes her TWENTY-EIGHT years younger than McCain! Play On, Playah! :D

Younger women are more fun and energetic, because they didn’t have to live through The Depression.

Younger women are sexier, because they grew up dancing to The Beatles instead of Merv Griffin.

Anyway, you see my point. :) Now, maybe people can STFU and mind their own business when a guy’s tryinna kick it to a younger female. You know what they say… “A younger woman a day helps keep the doctor away”. :)

… or was that an apple?

DatingGenius

So I’m chatting with Christine “PurpleCar” Cavalier the other day, and my current status as the #7 Google entry for “Bill” out of 21,500,000 English pages comes up. (I’m actually #5, because both Gates & Clinton have multiple entries ahead of me… but who’s counting? :D)

Bill Cammack & Christine Cavalier

So Christine asks me “How did you do that?”, and the interesting thing was that I didn’t have an answer for her. :)

I never had a goal of having a high Google ranking for the name “Bill”. I started out branding ReelSolid.TV and then switched to branding BillCammack and “Bill Cammack”.

I had no interest in branding “Bill” because it’s so generic. Not only is it a name, but people have to PAY THEIR BILLS, there’s the BILL OF RIGHTS, ducks have bills, etc… Buffalo Bills, not to mention, a ton of famous Bills… Cosby, Maher, Nye The Science Guy… I’m not even the first Bill on the videoblogging scene. Bill Streeter was there way before I was.

So I decided to think about it… Not that *I* did anything, but how did I end up with such a high ranking? Technically, I can’t say, because as Liz Burr points out, Google’s all about math. However, I do have two tips for people that aspire to some sort of distinction either on the internet or IRL….

1) Be Original

One of the reasons my posts get a lot of play is that they’re original. I made them up. I’m “kicking them off the top”. It’s FRESH information. I don’t write anything ahead of time. I’m thinking about something, I ‘feel’ it, then I go for it.

I’m not reading other people’s ideas, then regurgitating them. I’m not making people aware of what SOMEBODY ELSE said or thought. I might use other people’s material as a foundation for what MY point is, like in Women’s Guide to NYC Dating, but I make a CLEAR distinction between what someone else posted and what’s coming directly from me. If all you’re doing is regurgitating ideas you heard or read on the net, you’re a librarian…. a curator. Why would anyone go to your site for FRESH information when you offer ZERO added value? That’s what http://del.icio.us/ and StumbleUpon are for. The only reason they would visit your site is for YOUR SPECIFIC FLAVOR about things. If you’re not adding any, you don’t get play past people’s first encounter with you.

Another benefit of originality is that people pass your information around, because they’ve never seen it before, ANYWHERE! How many places can you go to see celebrity gossip? A million, plus. So if you want to separate yourself from the pack, make a site like Stephanie Frasco’s whatcelebswear.com or Marissa Nystrom’s celebzaredum.tumblr.com. You don’t go there because there are celebrity shots there… You go there because you want to know what Steph or Marissa HAVE TO SAY about celebs, what they do and what they wear = Added Value, due to their originality.

The other benefit to being original is that when conversations come up IRL about stuff you posted to the net, you actually have valid defensible positions. :) When you’re talking about other people’s stuff, your knowledge on the topic only goes so far as what you’ve READ… Not what you learned or experienced yourself. This is what causes you to LOSE PROPS instead of gaining them, because when people find out that you’re just a librarian/curator for other people’s thoughts and concepts, your conversational value plummets.

2) Be Useful

It’s great to have your own style, and people will definitely check out your blog (show, whatever) just because you’re a stylish person… especially if your style is original for some reason… but you also want to present something USEFUL to your audience. That might be technical information, entertainment or your own style of humor, even if it’s mostly funny TO YOU and makes other people cringe because of the light it sheds on their own lives and relationships. :)

When you post useful information, the effect is that people are always interested in it. It’s not the same people… It’s just that as life occurs, the same exact thing happens to different people at different times. In turn, they search google for insight on what just happened to them and end up at your site, absorbing the useful information you posted a year and a half ago. :)

Nothing educational to say?… Make up and play an interesting character or talk about what your job is or the town you live in. Give people tips on how to do photography or run an internet music show or work behind the scenes in the film industry. Show people how television shows are made:

OTOH, you don’t want to be useful ‘for no reason’. Make sure the topics are things that you normally kick it about anyway and enjoy discussing or writing about. The people that are interested in the same things will seek your posts out on the internet, and without actually becoming “internet famous”, people will start to “tune in next week” to see what you’re doing or saying now.

~Bill Cammack

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Learn how to scene-match video footage using filters in Final Cut Pro.

As you know if you’ve been following this column over the last 6 months, DatingGenius doesn’t “date”.

The term “dating” implies progression. It’s like something Richie Cunningham or Potsie Weber might do. You see a chick and you want her, but you’re not willing to let her know what time it is, so you beat around the bush taking her places in hopes that she’ll see you as the kind of guy she wants to give it up to. *yawn*

In fact, there *IS* no progression. A chick knows if she wants to mess with you off the bat. Depending on what you tell her after that, she either thinks more about giving you some or LESS about giving you some, hahaha :D … That’s all there is. You want to hook up with her, or else you wouldn’t be on a so-called “date” with her. Everybody knows it, so stop acting like you’re all sneaky and undercover and then try to surprise the chick with a “good-night kiss” when you drop her home, hoping that it works like in the movies, and all of a sudden, she’ll invite you in for…. a nightcap. :/

So, no. DatingGenius doesn’t “date”. He hangs out with chicks. Period. If they’re into DatingGenius like that, then CHA-CHINGGGG!!! :D If not, we have a good time anyway, then we go about our respective businesses.

Having said that, if you still insist on “dating”, like actually courting one person in a serial fashion with the intent of them eventually handing you a title that’s supposed to mean something, like “significant other”, then make sure you date someone BETTER. THAN. YOU! :D

Now, that might not seem to make sense, coming from the diabolical, empty-life-having (bookstore chick’s friend informed me of this a couple of weeks ago), sinister, evil, manipulating DatingGenius! :D You would think that he would advocate kicking it to the dumbest, low-brow character you can find in order to maximize your control over the situation. Dummies and lowlives are great if you’re just trying to get on ASAP and don’t intend to see them ever again in life. If you’re actually going to REPRESENT with this person, like as in let ANYONE ELSE know that you’re messing with them… That person needs to be a FANTASTIC individual. This is actually MORE IMPORTANT for the ladies than it is for the fellaz, so pay attention. :D

[Part 1: Dummies]

Let’s say the person you’re dating is a dummy. Like they’re just not intelligent. Maybe you’re on iChat with them and it takes them mad, crazy, stupid long to type a response to you, and then after all that waiting, it’s like a line and a half because they were only using their two pointer fingers to peck at the keyboard. Or maybe they can’t spell for JACK, and you’re wondering if they dropped out of school in the 5th grade to pack bags for change at the supermarket, then got hooked on drugs before making it back into the school system.

If you actually date this idiot, regardless of how good he or she looks or how good the sex is, don’t give yourself credit like you’ve pulled off some fantastic feat. In fact, anyone smarter than them will be able to manipulate them if they choose to, and you’ve “built your house on sand”… if not quicksand.

On top of that, you can’t TAKE this person ANYWHERE! :D Unless they happen to LOOK intelligent and you can convince them to not say ANYTHING around your peers, this person is an accident waiting to happen… Actually, an accident TRYING to happen, because it’s been my experience that the dumber someone is, the more they try to impress other people. Did you notice that? :D It’s like the smartest people, most of the time in a conversation, they’re listening and PROCESSING what people are saying. When they finally say something, it’s worth hearing and it’s the product of what they’ve absorbed from what’s been going on. Meanwhile, you see the dummies sitting there staring at the mouth of the person who’s talking… They seem to be trying to synchronize, like double dutch, getting ready to jump into the conversation when they perceive that the current speaker is about to finish his or her point.

The problem with this is that if you’re synchronizing, you’re not LISTENING, which becomes apparent when the dummy jumps in with something relevant to 10 minutes ago when they finally had ONE good idea, and they’ve been waiting until now to get a word in edgewise. That’s when the entire conversation stops and everyone tries to be polite. There’s this silent exchange that goes on between everyone. They’re not so much being polite to the dummy as they’re being polite TO *YOU* because it’s YOUR FAULT that this person’s in here $&%*ing up the program! :D Basically, people are embarrassed *for* you, and everyone’s trying not to mention that the emperor has no clothes on.

This is easily avoided, if you insist on dating dummies and bringing them out in public, by not giving them a title when you introduce them. We all have those friends… Every so often, they come around with a new…. person… and they introduce this person by name, but no title. Like, it’s clear that they’re out on a date, but by not declaring this person, you get to play it off down the line. Oh… That was a business partner from the Kentucky branch, my job asked me to show him around. Oh… That was my CEO’s daughter, visiting from San Diego. Who? When?… OH!… I was interviewing her for that intern position (at 11:30 pm). This only works, however, if you know you’re going to get rid of them eventually. If you end up eventually declaring them, you look like a chump for trying to play it off.

You also can’t leave people like this alone with your friends. Do NOT go to the bathroom. Do NOT go to the bar to order drinks. Do NOT pass “go” and Do NOT collect $200. Stick to this person LIKE GLUE. If you leave, and your friends ask your date “What do you think about Obama” and they reply “I think he’s still hiding in those mountains”, you’re *dead*. Laughing stock. You will NEVER live it down.

DatingGenius

In reference to Barack Obama’s win in Iowa, Ill Doctrine‘s Jay Smooth Drops SCIENCE about “Tolerance Fatigue”! :D

Permalink: http://illdoctrine.com

Barack Obama speaks after winning the Iowa Caucuses Thursday night, January 3rd, 2008.