My Latest YouTube Video

It has been a little over 2 years since I have started publishing YouTube videos in earnest. During that time I have learned a lot. Sometimes you post a video that you think will be popular only to get a handful of views. Then you publish something and it surprises you with the number of people watching it. I suppose after a bit of experience you can guess at what people want to view and may even be right.

I just published my latest YouTube video and I knew it would be popular, which is why I made it. My most popular video is of the Top 5 Steepest Ski Areas in North America. I actually threw in a ski area that deserved to be on the list but one that I expected to remove when I skied someplace with steeper terrain. Unfortunately I didn't find such a place until this year. I quickly put together a new video and published it on Tuesday. Since then I have watched the video's popularity grow and am pleased with the response. I hope that the new content receives as many views as the original which has been played over 100,000 times.

Now the real question is how to drive more traffic to my channel without constantly putting out new versions of the same video? I can go back through and look at my short films in order of popularity and work on a revision of the second most popular one, which is something I am doing. Ideally I need to come up with new content that is equally as compelling to watch as my most popular video. That is tough to do. If it was easy, we would have a lot more original content out of Hollywood and not nearly as many sequels. Fortunately I have found that controversial topics generate a lot more views than safe ones. Let's see if I can come up with such a topic.

Access to All Knowledge

A couple of nights ago I enjoyed a chat with my oldest daughter. The topic of Ivy-League schools came up and we tried to remember which schools belong to it. Then my daughter mentioned that I told her the name came from the Roman numeral 4 (IV) and represented the original number of schools. I didn't remember saying anything about that, but I could have. Naturally I pulled out my phone and looked up the information. Thanks to Wikipedia we discovered that the Ivy League started with 8 schools, not 4 and that it is an often quoted rumor. In the end we both felt enlightened knowing which schools are part of the Ivy League and that the name really does refer to the plant growing on and around the buildings on campus.

My dad works in advertising and often says not to ruin a good story by sticking too close to the truth. Unfortunately with everyone having access to the world's combined knowledge in a pocket device, it is more important not to stray too far from the truth. For instance, I remember hearing that my last name is the 6th most common in the United States. I made the comment, someone looked it up, and informed me it is the 60th most common last name. Okay, I knew there was a 6 in it but I was off by a factor of 10.

This evening my wife needed to know if her ski pass would work at a neighboring ski area. She looked it up and after a bit of searching confirmed what I told her. It does work and she doesn't need to do anything other than let the RFID scanner in the lift line scan her pass. Now she knows she doesn't have to do anything special to ski there tomorrow when she goes up with a neighbor friend. Why she didn't trust me and felt the need to look up the information, I don't know. I'm hardly ever wrong (see the previous paragraph for an exception).

I Miss My Sunday Paper

I came home this afternoon and saw my wife lying down on the couch reading some mail that we received during the week. It reminded me that I no longer receive a Sunday newspaper. I miss the Sunday paper.

I suppose I could replace a tree-killing paper with a virtual one using my Kindle e-reader. I just looked at the website that replaced my local paper and it has all of the news stories I would usually read when I received a printed newspaper. Truth be told, I actually read the comics first. I lamented this same problem about 3 years ago in a similarly titled entry. Back then, I found a website that lists most of the comic strips available. Unfortunately I have not kept up with my favorite cartoons as that requires more work than opening the door and finding new reading material on the front porch waiting for me to read. Perhaps it is a habit I just need to make.

Another thing I miss is a trusted source of information. Often times people get news from social media sites and the information is not always factual. You'll hear rumors of solving various maladies with snake-oil tactics such as consuming the latest nutraceutical, which has not be tested by the medical field in any way, shape, or form. You may even base your political opinion on events that never happened. At least with a reputable newspaper, facts are checked and editors don't let stories run unless they are confident in the content. That is a far cry from Facebook and other social media sites.

This probably won't be my last post lamenting the loss of printed newspapers. I really just need to make it a habit to read the daily news on my e-reader. I guess it is time to go bookmark that comic-strip page.

If It Is Not Broke

There are several ways to finish the title of today's post that begins with, "If it is not broke . . ." Some will respond with, "Then don't fix it," while others will say, "Then break it." Both are valid continuations of the phrase. Use the first if you are trying to avoid creating more work for yourself and the second if you are looking to improve something. The trick is knowing which philosophy to subscribe to for a given situation.

When it comes to computers, you may often feel you don't need to create more work for yourself. You know how to use your specific program and how to get it to do what you want. Then the only time you need to fix something is when it actually breaks. The only downside is that there may be a better way and you just don't know it.

As you spend time on your phone, tablet, video game console, or computer, think about how long it takes you to do a specific task. Things like responding to an e-mail or looking something up on the Internet should not take more than a single step. If you go to look something up on the Internet and first go to Google, you are adding an extra step. Simply start typing keywords into the URL bar and your browser will perform the search for you. If you are working in a specific program and find yourself spending a large amount of time on a single task, do an Internet search and see if it can be streamlined.

Unfortunately there are a number of cases where the designers of software want you to jump through hoops and there is no way to speed up the process. Recently my wife was working through a State of Utah application to get help for her aging mother. First she had to fill out a 25-page application online. Then she had to print out said application and initial or sign each page. Then she had to scan each page and attach it to the original application. Talk about a hassle. How many 82 year-old women do you know that have the technical skill to do that? Fortunately my wife filled out the application and submitted it successfully. Now I just wish the State of Utah would figure out they have a problem and fix it. Right now, it is definitely broke.

Happy Leap Day!

Today is unique in that February 29th only comes around once every 4 years. While you don't really get an extra day to get stuff done, it is a fairly unique day and so you want to do something special to mark it. Writing in my blog is always nice but something I have done before. As I mentioned yesterday, I am working on my taxes and think it would be great to have a filing date of February 29th and so that is my goal this evening. I am almost done and so it is a real possibility.

So what unique thing are you going to do with this extra day in the calendar? Hopefully something worthwhile and memorable.

Taxes Made Easier

It is tax time again and I have started working on mine. One benefit of using software like TurboTax to help as you file your taxes every year is the ability to import data. Starting your taxes is a matter of loading information from the previous year and then you don't have to re-enter data that doesn't change very often like your address and dependents. You only need to review it.

This year I have made an effort to do as much auto importing of data as possible. W2 information is readily available and I have used that in the past. This year I have gone one step further and auto imported my stock brokerage data. Once I figured out the secret of having the tax program log into my account, it greatly simplified that section of my taxes. The secret is knowing your account number and reading the directions provided by the tax program to have it log in correctly. Don't worry, you don't have to provide your password.

One area where this failed is when I tried to auto import one of my interest statements sent from a bank. The amount is less than $25 as banks don't really pay much interest any more. I tried several times to find a 24-digit number listed at the bottom of the 1099-INT form only to get an error when I entered it. In the end I gave up and entered the bank name and amount. I should have done that first as the bank name and amount came to less than 24 characters.

I still have a few more nights of working on my taxes as I go through my spending to try and find all of my charitable contributions and possible deductions. As of now that may be a waste of time as the standard deduction is more than my itemized ones. Unfortunately I won't know until I enter all of the numbers. Last year it paid to itemize. If it doesn't this year, I may skip that step next year.

The major lesson I am learning this year is to take advantage of importing as much information as possible. That reduces the probability of typing mistakes and ensures I am not going to be audited, something I have yet to experience and never want to. Hopefully this post encourages you to try something new that helps streamline this painful and annual process.

Map Directions on My Phone

Last week I spent 3 days in San Diego for work. I am fairly familiar with the area but still needed directions to find the quickest way from the airport to my company's office. I loaded the directions onto my phone before leaving the rental car lot. I drove straight to the office and arrived 30 minutes before my first scheduled meeting. The system worked well.

There is one unfortunate drawback to using your phone to help navigate. We become lazy and overly reliant on our mobile phones to help us get around. Once I made it to my office, I tried not to use any smartphone directions for the remainder of the trip. That required that I try to remember other locations in the area. I had a rough idea of where my hotel should be. Instead of looking up turn-by-turn directions, I drove to where I thought it would be and found it without any difficulty. When it came time to go to restaurants in the area, I found excellent places close to the office or near my hotel. One night a group of us walked from our different hotels and met without the need to drive around.

When I first started renting cars long before smartphones existed, I would get a paper map from the rental car company and use that to get around. Now we have a much better solution but I wonder how many people rely on smartphone navigation when they should be able to trust their own sense of direction. If you are brave and feel you have good navigational skills, trust your instincts and see if you can't enjoy the scenery more.