I’ll be in Boston on March 7th, 2013 at the International Poster Gallery

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Caleb J. Ross in Events, Manarchy Magazine | 1 Comment

Myself, along with Phil Jourdan, Michael Paul Gonzalez, Ben Loory, Cameron Pierce, and Kirsten Pierce will be reading at the famous International Poster Gallery on March 7th. You should be there. Seriously. I anticipate it will be quite the event. Read all about it at the Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/340073609438138/

Even cooler, you can embed the live stream on your blog or website. In fact, I would love you if you did. Simply paste either of the follow two code options to your website (it’s exactly the same as embedding any other YouTube video). Note that until the event goes live 6:00 EST on March 7th the video will probably give you an error or something. But once I click the broadcast button, the world will rejoice.

iFrame:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/a4F7ngMBDhk?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Old embed code:

<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/a4F7ngMBDhk?hl=en_US&amp;version=3&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/a4F7ngMBDhk?hl=en_US&amp;version=3&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

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Pixar’s 22 Rules for Storytelling #1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes. VIDEO

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Caleb J. Ross in Mind Effed, Video | Leave a comment

Click the image above to watch the video

Yes, I am going to make a video for each of the Pixar’s 22 Rules for Storytelling. Be sure to subscribe to this channel to not miss any of the forthcoming videos. I plan to release one/week.

Rule # 1 is You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

Success is defined as a pass/fail dichotomy. There’s no gray area, meaning there’s no room for humanity. Humanity is a gray area, constantly redefined by context. And narrative relies on a “gray area” approach to be successful.

We, as readers, rarely accept winning v. losing as a satisfying climax to a narrative series of events. Rather, we care more about the characters that shape those series of events.

Sports fans don’t just care who wins or loses; sports fans watch ESPN for hours every day to learn about the statistics and human interest stories behind their favorite teams, and more appropriately, their favorite players.

Watch. Learn.

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The AWP Conference in Boston is almost here. Are you going (to buy me a beer)?

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Caleb J. Ross in Events, Study (the world/the craft), Video | Leave a comment

Click the image above to watch the video

I’ll be in Boston from March 6th – 8th for the annual AWP conference. If you’re there, maybe we can meet up. You can buy me a beer.

AWP stands for Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Writers? Writing? Of? is what one would say, if they were intrigued, so let’s pretend that you are. What is this AWP event? It’s an annual gathering of writer types from all over the world for a 3 day event that’s basically a giant literary circle jerk

I’ve attended 6 or 7 so far, sometimes to sign books or perform at a reading, sometimes as part of a panel, but most often as a regular conference-goer. It’s a lot of fun either way.

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The Origins of Valentine’s Day OR The Origins of your Death of Innocence

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Caleb J. Ross in Mind Effed, Video | Leave a comment

Many of us don’t know the true origins of Valentine’s Day…scrap that, ALL of us don’t know the true origins of Valentine’s Day, but what most people can agree on is that Valentine’s Day originated after the death of St. Valentine. Come with me as I take a humorous, and probably offensive, look into this holiday’s mysterious origins.

Fun fact: this is the second video this month in which I apologize to black people.

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500 SUBSCRIBER GIVEAWAY. NEVER BEFORE DONE ON YOUTUBE.

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Caleb J. Ross in Video | Leave a comment

Click the image above to watch the video.

500 subscribers! This is incredible. Wow. (more gushing on the actual video)

Time for a milestone giveaway. I think this giveaway is unique in the YouTube world. Maybe I’m wrong. Probably not though. I rarely am.

One random winner will receive a package from me in the mail/post. How I go about accumulating the item or items in this package is the magic. The winner and myself will have a short, 20 min or so, Google+ Hangout where I will get to know the winner. I will then use this data to go on a shopping spree to find something special for the winner. NOTE: Shopping “spree” will likely take place at a second-hand shop/thrift shop/charity shop, as my hope is to find something cost-conscious but still interesting.

The shopping excursion will be recorded, edited for maximum hilarity, and uploaded for all of YouTube to enjoy.

But that’s not all. There will be a second-place winner who will also receive a package. However, this package will contain purchases made solely on what I learn by creeping through your publicly available internet profiles. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, I’ll use all of these methods to learn about you enough to hopefully find something special/probably weird.

But the “That’s Not All” doesn’t end there. How do I choose this runner up, you ask? Well, I don’t. I will ask the 1st place winner how he/she found out about my channel. That person will be the runner up.

To break it down for you, the more people you get to subscribe to my channel, the more chances you have of winning something.

If the winner doesn’t remember exactly how they came to my channel, I will let the winner simply choose who they want to be the runner up.

Rules:

Must be a subscriber
Must be over 18 years old
Must favorite this video
Must leave a comment on this video. Bonus points (not really) for suggestions for future videos.
And of course you must be willing to Google Hangout with me, live, for one short session, and you must be okay with me mailing something to you.

Status Starters:

I just had my mind blown by the best video I’ve seen in my entire life (also, I might win something). Watch it: http://youtu.be/7BGQPzeSRMY
@calebjross, yes the YouTube personality with the handome biceps, has 500 subscribers. You should be one: http://youtu.be/7BGQPzeSRMY
@calebjross is going shopping just for you. Simply subscribe to his YouTube channel (and win a random drawing): http://youtu.be/7BGQPzeSRMY
If you subscribe to the @calebjross YouTube channel, we both might win something cool (or lame): http://youtu.be/7BGQPzeSRMY
Watch this @calebjross 500 subscriber video. It might save a kitten: http://youtu.be/7BGQPzeSRMY

Mentioned:

The BookTube Network Google+ LIVE Hangouts are announced here:
Elizzie Books Google+: https://plus.google.com/b/114449107625626410412/114449107625626410412
Elizzie Books YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/elizziebooks
Caleb J. Ross Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/101908296579409026598

Subscribe to my amazing, hilarious YouTube channel. Just click the button below.

Consider sharing this post on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Think of it as a way to tell a friend “I’m thinking of you.”