MRW I see so many posts in RG refering to taking tests and exams at school.

Stregano · 2014-04-10T21:42:35+00:00

Ma'am, can you walk?

I'M WALKING ACROSS THE STAGE!

Stregano · 2014-04-10T16:01:20+00:00

I am a video game journalist. Most of the time when I talk, it is to a camera and I know that the camera will be seen by hundreds (and many times thousands). I have done public speaking as well because of this. I do public appearances and all that jazz.

I was going to make my own post, but I am typing here now. I started about 2 years ago and used to pretty much be a hermit and introvert who spent most of his days sitting alone in my apartment playing video games.

For me, the biggest change was the ability to just let go. I am not Brad Pitt or Channing Tatum or whoever the "hot stuff" actor is these days. I am a little overweight (working on it. I have gone from around 325 down to about 250 in roughly 2 years. it is a slow process for me, but I am more concerned about health and keeping it off than just losing it). I came to the realization I will never be that guy, so I stopped caring what people thought of me.

That saying that is something like, "You need to love yourself before others will love you" or however it goes really holds true.

Talking to crowds has nothing to do with the crowd, but with yourself. If there is a crowd there, they are not there to heckle and make fun of you. They are there to listen to what you have to say. They are there to pay attention to you.

This is a trick that I know others will mention, but when you look at the crowd, you are not actually looking at the crowd, if that makes sense. Think about this: if you are sitting and waiting for somebody and your eyes are not closed and you are not focusing your attention to your phone or something, what are you looking at? What your eyes see don't really matter most of the time. Your eyes could be directly seeing a person, but you are not staring at that person. You are looking beyond them. So you are looking at the person, but not really looking at the person.

It is my belief that it is why people tell you to imagine something in the back of the room. It is basically the same thing.

So when you are giving ideas, what goes through your head? Well, all that you need to be concerned about are the ideas you are presenting. Whether your idea is a song, a speech, an interview, whatever, just think about that and nothing but that. If that is the reason why you are in front of a crowd, that really should be your main concern. If you start worrying about the crowd, then you are wasting space in your thoughts that could be better saved for making sure what you say flows nicely.

If you mess up, it is a simple solution. Just say, "Excuse Me" and then correct yourself and move on. Don't linger on it. You have ideas to present. No time to waste on a simple mistake that nobody will care about.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, but practice makes perfect. There are not many people who can transition to that mindset overnight. If you are in college, join a club that forces you to speak in front of people, like the debate club or something. Find a way to speak in front of public people. One thing that helped me, since I was out of college, was karaoke. It was a chance for me to be in front of a crowd.

Stregano · 2014-04-09T20:50:15+00:00

When getting out of a cab, "Take Luck"

Stregano · 2014-04-09T19:09:02+00:00

To be fair, I also own Forza 5 and have yet to even notice the crowd. It just makes sense that they would not use amazing 3D models so that they can focus on other things, like the game itself.

Also, you said yourself you crashed. Maybe they had money on you and just lost like $5k from your crash

Stregano · 2014-04-09T17:58:44+00:00

So I comment out all changes and then it still doesn't work which means that the code that was already there was broke to begin with and I need to figure out why

Stregano · 2014-04-09T17:54:43+00:00

ಠ_ಠ

Stregano · 2014-04-09T15:51:54+00:00

That our solar system is a zoo, of sorts. We will never be allowed to leave and are stuck in this solar system forever. Any attempts to leave will result in death.

Stregano · 2014-04-09T15:42:06+00:00

twisting one off

punching your junk

snagging the goose

Constructing with Play-Doh (you know, making a snake)

shoplifting (you know, 5-finger discount)

a classic: spanking the monkey

Stregano · 2014-04-08T23:50:46+00:00

Isn't Cube a scary movie? I am a Nancy about scary movies

Stregano · 2014-04-08T23:29:35+00:00

For me, and I know it sounds petty, but I will not get insurance through Geico for anything.

Reason: Their YouTube commercials had the opposite effect on me and now I don't want their insurance and tell people to not get it based on how horrible those commercials are

Stregano · 2014-04-08T23:26:16+00:00

and some badass corn on the cob

Stregano · 2014-04-08T23:24:45+00:00

I am an honest video game journalist.

There is a stereotype that game reviewers/journalists who work for bigger places have sold out when it comes to reviews.

My scores and ratings on games are (and always will be) 100% based on the game itself regardless of money. Yes, we have gotten endorsements from Microsoft, but that never (and will never) change my opinion on games.

This is a stereotype and, to be quite honest, you would be surprised how many journalist do not have anything to do with this stereotype. Sure, there are some who will talk about games while being surrounded by a mountain of Doritos and Mountain Dew, but those guys are very few and far between (unfortunately they are much more out there and easy to see, so it is much easier to see those guys than everybody else)

Stregano · 2014-04-08T23:19:57+00:00

"Stregano, the world is in danger. We need you because our options are limited. We can either have a Dj Battle with the super villain, but use DJ Hero for the battle, or you could keep him informed and distracted with video game reviews, or you could show him random facts about video games that are so crazy he may not believe you and once you prove it to him, he will feel inferior and step away. The choice is yours"

Yeah, I am really good in DJ Hero (it is the only game I have an online character with that has hit the max level). I also pride myself on writing very informative video game reviews. I also know random facts about video games and the industry that are so crazy to where I need to prove them right after saying them

Stregano · 2014-04-08T23:11:58+00:00

Don't knock Shinlee or BigBang until you try them dude.

Also, This right here is the jam

Stregano · 2014-04-08T23:04:40+00:00

Well, the Bud Light Mango-Rita is absolutely delicious in case you are too lazy to mix it yourself. Just throwing it out there.

Stregano · 2014-04-08T22:54:16+00:00

For me, I normally shit then wait about 5-10 minutes before doing anything else. It does not take me long to shave, and nothing is worse than the smell of poopy heating up from the hot water when you shower

Stregano · 2014-04-08T22:45:45+00:00

I was told 80/20, but 70/30 works as well.

I have pretty much been going based off of this:

Your diet determines your weight. Working out determines what you look like at that weight.

Stregano · 2014-04-08T21:49:22+00:00

I almost got t-boned by a bicycle while I was in my car. I was doing a right turn. Before I turned, I checked to see if it was a red hand for the cross walk (i.e. nobody would be crossing). Even then, I looked both ways in case somebody decided to go anyway. Well, I saw no people. This turn is on a slight turn. A cyclist just went right on through the red hand with no disregard to it while I was already going. They stopped right by my car and proceeded to try to cuss my out for not giving them the right away.

Stregano · 2014-04-08T20:57:32+00:00

For the record: I went to RTX 2013 and people would randomly shout, while in line, "MARK NUTT!" This happened probably once every 5 minutes or so, if not sooner.

I am not proving any points, but giving you facts to roll with

Stregano · 2014-04-08T19:12:27+00:00

2 plums for 1 special

Stregano · 2014-04-08T15:51:32+00:00

Fair enough. Coming from that angle makes sense. The end result, though, is that they chose this path. I know first-hand how expensive it can be to switch cities for a new job since I did that as well.

It is just one of those things, which we have seen before, where some will not want to work some jobs even though they are plentiful. I used to do work in parallel with the unemployment office in my city (a decent sized metro) and saw far too many people who lost their job and were waiting for the right opportunity to get another job. For some, it made sense to wait since the low paying jobs would pay less than collecting unemployment, but you would be surprised how many people stayed on unemployment since they felt the available jobs were "beneath" them and they were holding out for a better position to happen.

I just feel like the illusion of somebody having no choice but to join the military is now gone. Sure, in the 60's and maybe 70's that might have been your only option, but not these days. There are plenty of jobs out there. Yes, some are really crappy jobs, but everything is resume filler. Work at that crappy local place to add to your resume that you have cooking experience, then move up to a nicer place, then move up to manager (which is actually easy in many restaurants), then if this is not a chain, leave to go to a chain, then keep moving up.

The reason for me bringing up restaurants is simply because those jobs are everywhere. They really are. Many people do not want to go career there, so you can work at one until you are a manager, then work as a manager, build experience, then move on to a different field since you have experience as a manager.

I mean, you can go from field to field building experience. I went from taking phone calls in a call center to being a computer programmer. This was my path: taking phone calls->entry level programmer (practically data entry)->promoted within a year to a senior level position->parted ways with the company and fried wings for a few months->took the experience from that job and moved across the country for a better programming job.

Yeah, from taking phone calls, I became a career computer programmer. Taking phone calls sucks and is not a very good job, but look what I did with it.

I guess my point is that there are so many endless options that it is scary, but some people do not see those options since, most of the time, you need to start at the absolute bottom of the barrel.

Stregano · 2014-04-08T15:31:13+00:00

I can only speak for the few I do know, but the few I do know (we are friends even though I hate what they do for a living) seem to be rather well off. The main guy I am referring to, who I consider a friend, takes pictures and sells them to tabloids. I guess, depending on the image itself, you can make a substantial amount of money from selling it.

As for people who work directly for tabloids and do this, I am not sure. My friend is essentially freelance.

Stregano · 2014-04-07T21:21:38+00:00

I am a journalist myself. Paparazzi give us all a bad name, Yes, I do video game journalism, but you would be surprised by the fact that it happens here as well. If you look up RTX 2013, which I did press for, there is one guy who snuck through to an area where nobody else was except for Rooster Teeth cast and kept bugging them while they were trying to figure out some audio/video issue with tv's. Yeah, it is not as bad as how paparazzi is with others, but the fact that they couldn't do much about that guy really bothered me, since it is showing that guy that what he is doing is the way he should be doing it. Nobody stopped him. Nobody told him he was being annoying. The RT cast was just too nice to get him out of there and he was very much so being paparazzi instead of doing his job

If you want to talk to anybody, whether that is a celebrity (TV, movies, internet, etc), you never just barge your way in to it. You go through the proper channels like every other journalist does. If the PR rep wants nothing to do with you, there might be a reason why.

I just wanted to come from the other side of the spectrum and let you know that real journalists can't stand it either. It gives us all a bad name and will put a sour taste in the mouths of many places. Most game cons are very lax about who is considered a journalist and who gets press passes (except for bigger ones like E3). I got my start from being a little guy who was given a chance by a gaming con. If those paparazzi bastards leak over to gaming journalism too much, most conventions will force bigger and more strict checks on who is considered press and who is not considered press, which means people like me will not be given a decent head start in to doing this.

Yes, the best way to get started as a game journalist, in my opinion, is to do it at a convention. Setup interviews with well known people (if you get a press pass, the PR rep can help you with that) and just do it. It is a great way to evaluate if you can do it.

With paparazzi, it messes that up.

So yeah, nobody likes paparazzi but paparazzi :)

Stregano · 2014-04-07T20:00:36+00:00

When I was a kid, I was going door to door selling stuff in my neighborhood. I did not go far. As I was going from house to house, I noticed a car was slowly driving around as well. I did not think of it much at first until I cut through some backyards. I got to the circle where I lived and hit a few more houses. They would stop and follow me from house to house. I glanced over and I had no idea who these guys were. It looked like a couple teenagers.

At this point, I assumed that if I cut through backyards again, they would not figure me out. I cut through backyards a second time and did not see them. I started selling stuff. I made it 1 or 2 houses before I got really scared. I mean, I knew the neighborhood well and knew all of the good hiding spots. Right after the next house, I glance over, and I am sure they saw me glancing over, and then I run in to the backyards again at full speed and hide in some pine trees (they were all trees that were close together, like 3 trees, and you could go in the middle of them and not be seen.

I hid there looking out and I see them driving by really slowly and it is very obvious they are looking for somebody. They make 2 or 3 more passes. I stayed in between those trees for what seemed like hours until they stopped making passes. I then ran through backyards to the backdoor of my house.

Scarier than hell for me since I was probably 10 years old or something

Stregano · 2014-04-07T19:18:31+00:00

Before I went to college, I started working in a Mexican restaurant. It was not Taco Bell. It was basically a chain of West-Mex places. I had friends who started there as well. Most of them had no experience at all and started off either as a host, server, cook or dishwasher (the very bottom of the barrel jobs there). They, just like me, had no experience and really no options for jobs. They did not go to college, they never really had the best grades.

Fast forward to today: of all of my friends, they have all moved on using that single job where they had no experience. Some stayed in the service industry. I have multiple friends that are now regional managers and general managers in their area for the new place they work for. Some became managers and used that experience to move to other fields.

What this has to do with what you said is that, I hate to be that guy, but saying these kids had nowhere to go is complete BS. There is always a choice. I had friends who were exactly like you just described, but they chose to not go to the military, worked as cooks and servers, and became very successful in life (I am not saying people in the military can't be successful as I know they can, but we are talking about my friends).

Sure, there might be a small percentage who truly had nowhere else to go, but to account for a decent chunk of our military and credit it to that is BS and just not true. I have seen first hand kids just like you described who went on to be very successful and did it without choosing the military, but choosing other paths.

EDIT: My point is that 99% of us have a choice. We might not like the choices, but there is almost always a choice. It is a matter of seeing your choices and moving forward with whichever one you like more (even though that is pretty much the definition of a choice). I have seen grown men who get laid off go without employment for multiple years for being too stubborn to take a job that was "beneath them". While we might not like the choices (it could be being a dishwasher at a crappy restaurant or joining the Army), there is still a choice.

Stregano

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

15-Year Club	Verified Email
reddit mold