When I was in the car on the way to my friend’s house the other day, I saw a sign at the side of the road saying “This sign is not in use”. It wasn’t exactly like the sign above. It was yellow for starters, but also, it was one of those temporary signs at the side of a motorway; those weak-looking signs which are held down by sand bags in case they blow away in the wind.

Anyways… the sign made me giggle ^_^

Like, if the sign isn’t in use, then why the eff is it even there?! xD

If anyone can give me a valid reason why you need a sign to say that, then I’ll give you 7.5 million hugs :P

In other news, I have a folder on my desktop entitled “Blog”. In it, I save images which I think might be interesting to embed in this here blog. I was just looking through it and found this fanart picture. I can’t remember who sent it to me, but thank you :)

As I’ve said before, getting sent pictures like this makes me extremely happy :D

(each time I say that, I secretly hope that by saying it, more people might be encouraged to draw something and send it to me… I’m so sneaky like that :P)

Hope you’re all keeping well,

Johnny <3

Oh hai there!

I actually can’t believe it’s been over two weeks since I last updated my blog. *slaps wrist*

I’ve been really busy out there in the “real world” I guess, and just kept forgetting to blog. Well, it’s not that I forgot… I kept thinking of things I wanted to write about, but then I never got time to write them.

So, what have I been up to?

Towards the end of last week I went back home to Durham/Newcastle. I saw lots of my friends and family. It was fun.

A couple of my friends were celebrating their birthdays, so we had a night out in Newcastle together :)

My friend Tom has just moved into a flat on the Quayside in Newcastle, and it’s soooo nice! It’s in an amazing location, just 10 minutes from the centre, and the flat itself is absolutely lush. Hopefully I can find a place like that for myself in the next few months :D

It was such a good night out. I haven’t been out with everyone since 2008, so I was well overdue a big night out with them :D

We all got stupendously drunk. We had everything from beer to WKDs, from white russian cocktails to malibu&milks. It was fun ^_^

NB: Drinking isn’t cool, kids.

Then, this week has been really busy too. On Wednesday I flew out to Helsinki (Finland) for a symposium on Emerging Media Practices and Environments. I’d been invited to attend and give a speech by one of the session hosts, Tommi Laitio. Amongst other things, Tommi organises the StrangerFestival (which you might already be familiar with if you follow mr nerimon on youtube). I was very flattered to be invited to speak at the event, and it was such a great experience.

On the Wednesday night, the program was kicked off with a video exhibition event called Clip Kino, which you can find out more about here. Basically, the concept behind Clip Kino is to showcase videos/short films which have been found online, and to discuss them. Sure, everyone could sit at home and watch these videos by themselves, but I think it’s a really cool concept to get together with other people who are interested in audiovisual media to kind of… explore these videos together :)

On the Thursday there were several seminar type sessions on various topics surrounding the emerging practices in the media environment. I was speaking in the second session. In my talk I discussed how I came across youtube, why I decided to start making videos, why I choose to make the videos I do, how I interact with other video makers, and what opportunities have come my way through video blogging. I think a video of my speech might be uploaded to the event’s website at some point, so I’ll maybe post a link to that if/when it happens. I was really nervous before giving the speech, as I generally suck at any kind of public speaking, but I think it went fairly well once I settled into it :)

On the Thursday evening a handful of us from the conference went out for a meal. (Helsinki isn’t the best place for ordering vegetarian dishes - there was pretty much only one thing I could eat on most menus… but ahh well). After the meal a few of us went on to some bars to sample Helsinki’s nightlife. It was cool, even if we did end up finishing the night off in some gross german bar where people were throwing up on each other and the beers were £8 xD.

On Friday, I was free to do my own thing, so I just spent most of my time walking round the city and seeing the sights. It was an absolutely perfect day to do this. The weather was fantastic. Here’s a few pictures I took.

I also shot a few little video clips, so I might splice those up and put them in a video. I realise I’ve not made a video in ages either. I fail at internet type things at the moment =/

After touring round the city for a while, admiring the bay, the cathedral and various other asthetically pleasing things, I went for some food where I was served by the most beautiful human being in the world. She was so pretty, and had the cutest smile ever. I fell in love with her. Then I ate the mozzarella sandwich I had ordered and went on my merry way.

Next up, I went to the Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum. It wasn’t amazing but I liked looking around it, and I don’t generally visit art galleries all that often, so it was nice :)

After the Kiasma, I embarked on my journey back home.

• Bus from Helsinki city centre to the airport.
• Flight back to Heathrow.
• Underground to Leicester Square.
• Food.
• Underground to Kings Cross.
• Train to Doncaster.
• Bus to Rotherham.
• Taxi back to Sheffield.
• Total journey time = 11 hours.

11 freakin hours! I was so tired by the time I got home. The last part of the journey was so hectic as well.

I was at Kings Cross at about 9pm and the only direct train back to Sheffield was at 10.30pm. The trainline information guy told me it would be quicker to get the 9.30pm train as far as Doncaster, and then change trains to get to Sheffield. So that’s what I did. It was only when I was on this 9.30pm train that I found out it would arrive into Doncaster 10 minutes after the last train to Sheffield, meaning I’d be stranded in Doncaster station over night. I didn’t fancy paying for a hotel, so tweeted saying I was going to sleep on a bench somewhere. I was so overwhelmed by the response from people on twitter. Special shout outs go to Conor, Jazza, Phil, and my sister for phoning/texting to help me try to organise alternative travel/sleeping arrangements. You guys are all amazing. I love you.

In the end though, I managed to work out a fairly cheap way to get from Doncaster train station back to Sheffield, so all was okay.

Crikey, I don’t update this thing for a couple of weeks, and then I come back and write a marathon of a blog post. If you’ve actually read through this whole thing then I commend you. Have an imaginary cookie for your troubles <3

*passes you imaginary cookie* :P

I’m going to try and go back to posting on here every couple of days again I think, but for now, I think this post has gotten long enough :)

Much love,

Johnny <3

I came across another picture today which made me think far more than it probably should have.

Look at this poor, fat, sweaty rhino as he tries to obtain this unobtainable, idealised image he has of what he wants to be like. Look at the desperation in his eyes. It’s heartbreaking.

Perfectionism can sometimes be a good thing.

It makes you strive to always do the very best that you can do;
Not to settle for second best;
To take pride in what you do;
To ensure you achieve to your potential.

Sometimes though, it just makes you feel horribly inadequate in everything you do, because you’re never happy with what you’ve achieved. You could always do that little bit better.

At times I really hate being such a perfectionist. Occasionally it’s nice to just sit back and be happy with what you’ve got.

Johnny <3

I was checking my @replies on twitter today and I saw this one by a lovely girl who goes by the name of zoemoi.

She was refering to the ‘Who’s the World’s Sexiest Vegetarian 2009?’ poll on peta2.com.

I then noticed that the peta2 representative who runs their twitter page replied back to her with this tweet :)

I know that I’m not even close to being the world’s sexiest ANYTHING (that would require me to actually be sexy) … but the very fact that Betina thought I should have been in this year’s list, and the fact that Ashleigh (from peta2) replied to say I *should* be in the running for it next year, made me super happy! :D

In other news, I’ve had a couple of exciting emails in the past few days. One from the producer of apartmentRED and another from someone who’s organising a conference in Helsinki about video type things, and who wants me to be a part of it… I’ll write more about the Helsinki conference in a future blog post :)

Also! Today, lots of the raincloud/muffin top & ROBOT LOVE t-shirts have been arriving with the people who ordered them. (I think it’s mostly just the UK people, as international shipping takes longer, so if you ordered one and live outside of the UK, your merch should arrive soon!)

I’ve seen a couple of pictures from people with their t-shirts, but if anyone else has uploaded a video of them opening their package, or wearing their tee… or if anyone has uploaded a dailybooth photo, or even just taken a picture and put it on photobucket or something… then leave a link in the comments section of this blog post so I can check them out! :D

One of my favourite things in the world is seeing people with their Johnny Durham tees! It’s unbelievably cool to see people with t-shirts which you’ve designed and sent out personally. It’s just so exciting! ^_^

Johnny <3

Yesterday was fun :)

In the morning I got up earlier than usual to record some videos for ApartmentRED. They’ll probably be going up some time next week, although I’m not certain. I’ve not heard back from the producer since sending the videos, so he may hate them, and decide not to post them xD

In the afternoon I met up with Conor and Calum. Happy funtimes ensued. I can’t even really remember what we did. We pretty much just hung out here in my flat… ate pot noodles… played GTA… et cetera.

Here is a picture we took for Conor’s dailybooth :D

It was sad that Becky wasn’t with us again though :(

Today, I was meant to be going to see the Tom Milsom. I really, really wanted to go, because I haven’t seen Tom in so long, and I miss him. It would also have been lovely to meet his friend Andrew. The coach ride was going to take 7 hours to get there though, and then I’d be coming back on the coach the next day… so that would have meant sitting trapped on a bus for 14 hours over the space of two days, and I really didn’t fancy the thought of that. The alternative was to get the train there, but the tickets were SO expensive, and I just couldn’t bring myself to spend that much money - especially at the moment, when I only have £79 left to my name. On top of that, I have more t-shirt packages to send out to people, which I couldn’t do today because the stupid post office is closed on Sundays… so if I’d gone to see Tom, I wouldn’t have been able to get them in the post until Tuesday =/

So in the end I had to tell Tom that I couldn’t make it. I felt really bad… I HATE letting people down. Especially when it’s someone like Tom, who I care a lot about :(

Bleh, sucky situations FTL.

…

Johnny <3

Eeeeeeep!

The badges finally arrived today!

Here are some pictures of them :)

Anyone who placed an order this week, your package will be sent out today :D

For anyone else still wanting to buy a t-shirt or some of these lovely badges/buttons, you can still do so here: johnnydurhamclothing.com

[/shameless self promotion] ;)

Lots of packaging to do today then ^_^

Much love,

Johnny <3

I came across found this picture, and it made me smile, because for the past week or so I’ve been describing delicious tasting things in the same way xD

Becky, Calum, Conor, and Jazza can testify to that :P

Umm, yeah. That’s all there is for this post.

;)

Johnny <3

Sometimes I like to do things in parts… it makes me feel cool, like I’m one of the vlogbrothers :P

Therefore, I’m going to write this blog post in three parts.

PART ONE

The checkout issue for the online store has now been resolved, and the problem has been completely fixed, meaning there should be no trouble at all for people ordering items now :)

Yay!

PART TWO

There are so many things I’d like to buy at the moment. Here’s a little ‘wish list’ of some of the things I want :)

A Marvin Minsky grey robot from this cute little webstore I found on etsy.

A fisheye camera from Lomography. I’ve always thought fisheye lens’ give such a great effect on pictures, so I’d really love a camera like this :)

Math the Band is releasing a new album later this month which I’d love to buy. Their last album ‘Math the band banned the math’ is one of my favourite feel-good albums to dance around to :) Based on what I’ve heard from the forthcoming album, it’s going to have just the same happy funtimes feel to it… it’ll be perfect for the summertime! ^_^

There are lots of other things I’d like, but those are probably the top 3 on my list at the moment.

PART THREE

SHARING THE LOVE!

Alex went on a little internet purge last month (which I wrote about in this blog at the time) and as a consequence a lot of people ended up losing subscribers on youtube. The day Alex posted a video about cutting back on his subscriptions, I personally lost around 100 subscribers, which is more than I’ve lost in any single day during the 2 and a half years I’ve been on youtube.

If Alex can set a trend of people unsubscribing, I’d like to try and set a new trend of people subscribing to new channels :)

I thought it’d be cool to challenge people to recommend one new channel that they think is worth subscribing to. Especially a channel which doesn’t really have a lot of exposure already. Write a blog post about this channel, or simply twitter a link saying “Check out this channel”…

The channel I’d like to give a shout out to, is starryeyed24. I’m currently autoplaying her most recent video on my channel. It’s only her second video, but it’s absolutely amazing. It’s cute, creative, and simply adorable. Erin’s channel only has about 10 subscribers at the moment, and she deserves to have a whole lot more than that, so maybe go and check her channel out? I honestly think she’ll have thousands of subscribers some day soon, so go subscribe now, and then when she’s super famous you can be all like “Yeah, I subscribed to her back when she only had 32 subscribers” ;)

You should click here to leave Erin nice comments on this video if you liked it ^_^

Much love,

Johnny <3

I’ve had a handful of messages from people saying they get error messages from PayPal when trying to checkout whilst buying the t-shirts/badges.

The error message reads “Sorry, an error occurred after you clicked the last link”.

I think I’ve worked out what the problem is. For the time being, there are a couple of ‘quick-fixes’ which will allow you to checkout without any problems.

- If you’re using Internet Explorer, try using a different browser if you have one (e.g. Mozilla Firefox).

Or…

- Empty your cart, and type this link ( http://johnnydurham.bigcartel.com/ ) into your browser rather than using ( www.johnnydurhamclothing.com ). Then select your items as before, and the checkout process should work fine.

The problem seems to be when people are checking out using Internet Explorer, and they’re coming from johnnydurhamclothing.com rather than the bigcartel address. I’m not exactly sure why this is happening, but I’m going to work on getting it fixed. If you use one of the methods above for now though, you should have no problem making your purchase, and the transaction will still be just as safe and secure as always.

It’s frustrating that this problem has occured. Like I said, a handful of people messaged me to tell me the problem, but I’m sure several others might have tried to buy something, got the error message a couple of times, and then just decided it wasn’t worth the effort… meaning I’m missing out on people buying the tees :(

Hopefully I’ll get it all straightened out soon :)

Johnny <3

*EDIT: The problem seems to be because I had set up my custom URL to load the page in a frame. Bigcartel apparently doesn’t like this xD. I’ve changed it now, but it takes 2-3 hours to update. Hopefully in a couple of hours everything will be running smoothly. Sorry for any problems caused to anyone <333

The two new designs are now officially on sale! :D

Woooop! I’m really excited ^_^

The 4 pack of buttons/badges are also on sale. They haven’t arrived yet, so I can’t upload any pictures of what they look like, but the mock-up images give a good idea of how they’ll look :) It should only be a couple of days until they arrive, so I’ll upload some pictures of them as soon as they do.

I’m going to wait a couple of days before making a video promoting the new tees, so hopefully they won’t sell out as fast as last time, and anyone who wants one will get one :D

Go check it! xD

www.JohnnyDurhamClothing.com

Much love,

Johnny <3