A Brief History of Nerdist

If you have been online in the last few years, you have heard of Chris Hardwick, and Nerdist Industries. That's why I decided to tackle this behemoth in todays Vlog. What I share is stuff I have known from listening to the nerdist podcast, but it was pretty cool digging through old archived versions of the site, and seeing that this website started out as a personal blog about starting a new job, and making some music with some friends. It's really inspiring. Well, I hope you enjoy the video!

The Death of I Am Vlog

Hey everyone, so this is just a typical run of the mill Vlog. And I have realized something. This vlog really has no place on this website. I am going to continue to make these videos, however, when they are Vlogs like this, and not "A Brief History" video, or something along those lines, I do not think that I will be doing write ups on the site. It's just to keep the site from becoming a place where non informative and non helpful information is accumulated. I'm really trying to make this site something helpful to people, and these actual Vlog videos do not fit in the mix. So, if you want to make sure you get the Vlogs and not just the History of videos, make sure to subscribe to the Geeks Rising Youtube Channel

A Brief History of Taco Bell

It is rare that you get to take the fact that you ate 3 meals at Taco Bell in a 2 day period and turn that into a creative project. Well, now is one of those moments. I did a bit of research and teach you about the history of Taco Bell. The founder. The Baja Blast. The Space Station Target. As much as I can cram into just over four minutes. Let me know what your favorite taco bell item is in the comments down below. See y'all on Thursday and don't forget to Think Outside the Bun!

A Brief History of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is an important time of year for a lot of people. Mainly because it's a time to give thanks and hang out with family. I personally don't think thanksgiving is that worth celebrating. 1st, I don't think that we should need a day designated to remind us to be thankful. I think that the majority of us are pretty damn fortunate and should be thankful every single day. 2nd, there's a lot of really crappy events associated with thanksgiving that I think suck and I don't want to celebrate. My 3rd reason is a personal reason, this was my grandmother's holiday. She loved cooking and having 20 people over. Without seeing the joy it brought to her face, I don't care for the holiday because of those previous 2 reasons. 

Well, I hope you enjoy the video and the history I provide, and I hope you learned something you didn't know. Thanks for watching, happy thanksgiving (if you celebrate it), I'm thankful for you folks watching and reading this (you're awesome) and High Five MORE PEOPLE!

A Brief History of SyFy

In the late 80's and early 90's a couple of awesome people decided to found a television network based solely on science fiction! It took a few years to get the channel launched, but I think we can all say thank you to them now. Sure there have been quite a few stinkers of shows/movies, but they have also provided some of the most interesting shows, i.e. Battlestar Galactica! That's really the only example I need to provide to justify the creation of this network. 

I hope you enjoy the brief history of this tv station and the song I wrote about it! 

A Brief History of Youtube

If you are anything like me, you rely heavily, and I mean heavily, on YouTube. This is the site you go to for your entertainment and enjoyment. It's has successfully replaced the need for cable because not only is there more content, but it's exactly what you want!

The thing I love about youtube most is the fact that you can find whatever it is you want on there. Whether it be a Let's Play video or a Mic Review or a Critical Analysis of Moby Dick! It's all there, and it's all pretty dang cool. Thought I would pay homage to the site by compiling a brief history of their site and sharing it with everyone. 

PS: I missed my 10 year YouTube anniversary, and I'm bummed about it!

Real Life Soylent Green

That's it. I am too busy. I am sick and tired of spending time and energy trying to find food to eat. Lucky for me, someone else already had this thought. That person was Rob Rhinehart and he developed Soylent. A complete meal replacement.

I just received my first shipment of Soylent 2.0, and I just ordered some Soylent 1.5. Once I receive my second order, I will go ahead and drink nothing but Soylent for a week and see how it affects me. I have a strong feeling that it will provide a significant improvement to my life because my current diet is shit.

Stay tuned for a video documenting my Soylent Plunge.

A Brief History of Root Beer

On this episode of I Am Vlog, I very shortly go over the history of Root Beer.

If I am being honest, I didn't know what to cover and I needed something to talk about so I went with what I was currently drinking. One of the few things that I find joy out of. Delicious. Ice Cold. Root Beer. I didn't realize that it was an elixir to start off, or that there is alcoholic root beers. 

Well I hope you enjoy this edition of I Am Vlog. I need to make a trip somewhere for Monday's Vlog! See ya then!

A Brief History of Battlestar Galactica

If you are anything like me, Battlestar Galactica was an important and integral part of your life. The 2003 reimagining is to this day one of my favorite pieces of television to ever be created. 

This series is one of those rare occurrences where every single person involved is firing on all cylinders. Writers, great. Directors, great. Actors, great. Crew, Great. Music, PERFECT! Everything was just so great. I figured that I may as well do some research into the history of BSG and share it with all of you.

Yes I know that BSG is based in Mormon mythology, as Glen A. Larson, was a mormon. I mean...12 colonies of Kobol..There's something in the mormon mythology known as Kolob. I know that much. But I don't care about any of that. All that can be said is that BSG is a great story and I loved almost every second of it with a few exceptions of subpar episodes. I hope you enjoy the Vlog. SO SAY WE ALL!

A Planet of Robots: A Brief History of Mars Exploration

Greetings Martians! On this edition of I Am Vlog, I briefly tell you about mars and then tell you a bit about the history of mars exploration. I mainly focus on the Phoenix Mission because I was at the landing party for that because I went to University of Arizona, and the University of Arizona is awesome like that! Go Wildcats! Anyways. I hope you learn something, or I pique your interest and push you to do a little bit of reading/research on mars yourself! Cheers folks. See ya on Mars!

The History of Happy Birthday

Welcome and hello. It's time for Vlog Time, or I Am Vlog, or whatever this endeavor is called. I think it's called "I Am Vlog". Anyways. If you haven't heard, the copyright for the happy birthday song is no longer binding! That means that you can sing it in movies and films for free without paying Warner Chappel music another dime. The painful thing about this ruling. You never should have paid them. Hope you're not one of those suckers who thought "i really need to sing this song in my film" while writing a check for thousands of dollars. I guess one thing we do have this copyright to thank for is all the awesome new happy birthday songs like this or like this.

A Brief History of Esperanto (A Universal Language)

Greetings Earthlings. On this episode, I talk about Esperanto. A language that was developed in the 1800's by Dr. L.L. Zamenhof to hopefully become a universal language. The story is incredibly interesting and at certain points a bummer. Hope you enjoy it, and I hope you learn something. Go check out some Esperanto, and check out the 1965 film Incubus staring William Shatner. A film in Esperanto.

The Horror Paradox: Why Do We Love Scary Movies?

It is Thursday. That means Geeks Rising. On today's vlog, I decided to explore the reasons that we enjoy submitting ourselves to scary movies. It does not make sense why we voluntarily enter a situation that we are almost guaranteed a stressful time. Therefore, I try to get to the bottom of it.

You may notice that this is a shorter supplemental article than usual. I am attempting to remove fluff from my writing. It also does not make sense for me to provide all the information that can be acquired from the video above. ENJOY!

A Brief History of Coffee & Starbucks

It's Thursday and that means Vlog Time. What it really means is spending 3 hours poorly researching a single topic and jamming the only information I could retain into 3.5 minutes. I know what you're thinking; "Bandrew. That seems like such a great way to spend your time", and to be honest I think you're right! 

This week I decided to add on to the mythos of coffee that I began to develop last Thursday. I provide a very brief history on how coffee got to the states and cool stuff like that. I also give you a very very brief history of starbucks. I hope y'all enjoy! Don't forget to subscribe to the youtube channel to get my videos 4 hours before they are posted here!

 

What Does Coffee Actually Do To Your Body?

Hey everyone. Vlog Time! This time I figured I would look into the chemical effects of caffeine on the body. I wanted to do this because I love coffee. It tastes great, makes you feel awesome, but if you stop drinking it, you brain decides it wants to jump out of your body.

With the minimal reading I did, I was unable to draw any concrete conclusions about the cause of Caffeine headaches, but I have a theory. Coffee has a very similar effect on our brain chemistry as Heroin, just a much milder version. When people are quitting heroin, I hear they get headaches along with a lot of other horrible physical manifestations. I think that caffeine withdrawal headaches have to do with this chemistry part of our brain. 

Well, enjoy the Vlog and let me know what your thoughts and theories are on caffeine. (Below are the citations of the readings I used for this information).

www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-drinks/other-healthy-beverage-options/
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090501162805.htm
www.science.howstuffworks.com/caffeine3.htm

Why Do People Like UFC? (and a Brief Gladiator History)

Hey Friends. It's Monday and that means it's VLOG time. I had some friends come to town and we went and watched a UFC fight which made me think about the motivation behind watching people punch each other in the face? I understand the work that goes into the sport, but I still don't understand the appeal. So...I explore that in the video and try to draw a conclusion from gladiator history. 

By the way, this is the first video where I did a bit of research on history and tried to tie to something that I had a question about. I don't think I successfully got an answer, but I think that the format is something I'd like to explore more in the future. What do y'all think of this? Me trying to learn from history, in video format? Let me know in the comments. See you guys on Thursday!

July 30th, 2015: Where Can I Find the One (Youtube Song)

Alright guys. It's another Geeks Rising Vlog day. I had absolutely nothing to talk about so I decided to write a song about youtube. I better do something exciting over the next couple days so I have something rad for next week. Time to start planning and doing and doing and planning on doing. See y'all on Monday! Enjoy the song.