People Who Inspire Me: Jonathan Paula

This post is a part of a series of posts I will be making every Thursday for the month of February as my contribution to the No Self Promo Challenge. Despite the title, we can decide our level of involvement. As part of my contribution, I decided to write a series of posts about people who inspire me or have otherwise have a positive impact on me and I feel more people should be made aware of.

Jonathan Paula is the owner of a film making company called Jogwheel Productions ( formerly known as IDEO Productions. ) Well, its not really a film making company in the traditional sense, this company generally does its core work on the video website Youtube, from which it is also best known for.

Shows produced for Youtube include ‘ Roller-coaster Commutation, ‘ ‘ Movie Night ‘ ‘ 3 Steps to Success ‘ as well as what drew me to them in the first place ‘ Is It a Good Idea To Microwave This? ‘ Which is exactly what it says on the tin and has had over 300 episodes over the course of 10+ ‘ Seasons ‘ on Youtube.

What makes Jon unique from many other top Youtubers is the fact that he is actually a professional video editor. He actually went to college to do this kind of thing and worked hard to get to where he is today, unlike many others who kind of fell into the whole Youtube thing. Production values have generally remained consistent within content Jon has produced over the years ( main difference is the videos are now in HD. ) Many other Youtubers have suffered because their content has become too artificial and over-produced.

He is also willing to share stories with people by vlogging about them. Many times, it can be Jon talking about a simple news story, other times. It is Jon, his friends, his wife and / or others going on trips and other various adventures.

Jon seems like a down to earth guy, who is professional and does not tolerate bullshit, constantly having to lecture and complain about Youtube’s lack of efficiency at times. Not that he can be blamed, it is after all, a major source of income for him. I’d be giving out too if my main income stream was screwing things up for me.

Jon is also willing to share behind the scenes look at how he works, often posting streams of him editing a show together, asking fans on Facebook and Twitter for feedback on how to present something.

This is Jonathan Paula and he inspires me because he’s shows that it is possible to succeed with hard work and dedication.

The Nostalgia Disease

There is a horrific disease. A contagious disease

It seems to have affected all us all, its clogged up the media and is preventing people from moving forward. I’ve seen in many mainstream video games, films and TV shows.

It is not fatal. However, it stalls progress and traps people in seemingly endless loop.

What is it? You may ask? Its called Nostalgia.

Think about, I get the feeling that everything you see these days is about looking back to the past in some shape or form. The endless remakes of films, trying to recapture something from the past that can never be truly recreated ( and needless to say, pissing all over the original source material more often than not! ) Countless cover versions of songs, usually song by talentless hacks so that a cheap skate record company to make some fast $$$. Video games that are trying way too hard to be like classics from the 80s or 90s.

The whole point, it seems like we are living the past. I feel this is stalling our growth as it is beginning to reach ridiculous levels. Don’t get more wrong, I like nostalgia, I like looking back and seeing what things were like…. but only in small doses. If nostalgia were cocaine, we’d all be dead from a massive overdose!

What can we do to overcome this horrible disease? You may ask? Its fairly simple, live in the present and plan for the future. That is all that you need to do. Instead of living the past, with all the regrets associated with it, live in the now. Plan your future ( but except that things don’t always go to plan. )

Together, we can beat this horrible disease and finally be able to look forward and in the now.

Laughing At Your Own Stupidity

Hey lovely people! Before I go any further, I’d like to let people that I intend on doing a post every Tuesday from here on in. If I don’t have a post up by late Tuesday, please call me out on it! Anyway, with that out of the way, back to our regular programming….

I don’t hide the fact that I’m not as socailly clued into things as some other people. In fact, I was the kid who preferred to play SNES more than anything else back in the day ( ha! I feel old for saying that! ) As a result, when I did try and get myself out there, I had a lot to learn about the socail dyanmics of the world. Simply put, I had to learn things the hard way.

As a result, I found myself doing an awful lot of stupid things to get there. Maybe it was for the attention, maybe because I wanted to feel a part of something. I was never one for fitting into one paradigm. I wasn’t scummy enough to be a scumbag, wasn’t scholarly adept enough to be a swot and wasn’t nerdy enough to be a nerd. That is what me unique and stand out the among the crowd but at the same time, it also led to me doing some rather embarrassing things.

The embarrassing things include breaking into a dance to trance music in the school assembly area in front of everyone during lunch break, getting so drunk I end up crying and having to be brought by to the hostel by someone I know and more recklessly, jumping into the deep end of swimming pool and not knowing how to swim!

That all said, one thing I DO have in droves is a sense of humor, a really silly one at that. So looking back at these cringe worthy times, I can find a way to turn it into a funny story and as such, laugh at my own stupdity.

I think this an almost essential skill to have. I’m not saying you need to be at Billy Connoly levels to be able to laugh at your stupidity but if your able to laugh at your own stupidity, then you have an excellent tool in your toolbox for coping with things.

Don’t get me wrong, there is an extent to where this can be used ( I don’t recommend funny stories being told too much at funerals ) but in most situations, its possible to brush off the suck and find a way to laugh at it.

It helps you smile which in turn will brighten your day and who knows, maybe other people will be entertained by the stories you will have from your misadventures as you journey through life.