MicahStubz

Feb 25 / 2013
2

On Top of a Mountain

Saturday I completed the first item on my 2013 to do list. I climbed to the top of Squaw Peak in Phoenix. I met up with a new friend, Steven, who suggested the hike a couple weeks ago.

Hiking is an awesome experience. It was physically challenging but not overly demanding. I broke a sweat but was still able to enjoy good conversation and get to know Steven. When we reached the top we had a great view of Phoenix and the surrounding area. I look forward to climbing even more peaks.

Feb 09 / 2013
1

Videos

What Is The Harlem Shake?

… and why is everyone and their dog doing it?

A couple nights ago I was on reddit and on the front page there was a video of room full of teenage boys just hanging out and one of them was wearing a motorcycle helmet dancing to a catchy song. 15 seconds into the video the beat dropped and the video cut to everyone in the room with their shirts off and shaking/seizing in random places around the room. I have to say it was dumb but the kind of dumb that made you laugh. At this point the video had around 50K views.

The comments on the video led me to find two other short clips with similar content. But that was it. This video I saw was the third one made and they were all made within the week. I thought to myself, “I should make one with the kids. That would be fun.” The next day a thousand other people got the same idea. The first video I saw was now over 1 Million views.

The way it played out was a guy named Filthy Frank made a 30 second video dancing to the song with his friends while wearing spandex suits. Then a channel called TheSunnyCoastSkate made the second video where they added the feature where the first 15 seconds only one person is dancing with a helmet on. The video I saw was the third video and has almost 3 times as many views as the first two.

I had witnessed a movement. An internet meme forming right in front of me. By the end of the day yesterday a new subreddit had been made and you could watch families, firefighters, offices, the peanuts characters, carlton (fresh prince of belair), a banana and MY DOG doing the Harlem Shake.

The Harlem Shake is actually an old dance move and you can find instructional videos for it. The song that everyone is making the videos to is called Harlem Shake by Baauer. The song is over 3 minutes but the meme is only the first 30 seconds.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

Dec 29 / 2012
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Skits, Videos, Vlogs

Merry Christmas – The Hiatus Ends!

After Mormon Daddy Style I had a hard time getting myself to make a video. I had so many new viewers that I didn’t want to let them all down with my average vlogs. I wanted to come up with another parody or skit but I also got busy with another side project so I quickly found myself with less time to be creative.

In the end, I just needed to push through and get some videos out before I really got out of the habit. I had been sitting on episode 4 of Minecraft Boy for months. I had plans of rescuing Stubz Jr at the Grand Canyon or even finding him at Disneyland (since we went there in November anyway). I needed to just make something happen so I did. I had already filmed the clips with the villain, our friend from church who is a big Minecraft fan. I just needed to come up with something to film with Stubz Jr. It turned out alright.

I then decided I want to interview the kids about the different fun things they do so we can record their thoughts sort of like a family journal as well as document family trips and holidays.

So there…two videos in one week!

Nov 07 / 2012
10

Videos

Mormon Daddy Style

This is my first parody so go easy on me. I had the idea for a while and finally decided I need to just do it.

Lyrics:

Mormon Daddy Style
Daddy Style

I have enough kids for my own football team.
We cruise in our minivan; we live the mormon dream.
I drink diet coke but it doesn’t have caffeine.
I try to keep my body clean

I’m a family man.
I go home teaching every month and pay my tithing, man
Changing diapers, coaching soccer, I’m at recitals, man
While you think I’m reading scriptures it’s a game, man
Don’t tell my wife

She’s an eight-cow wife
Gosh, I love my life
Cooking’s great
I cleaned my plate

She’s an eight-cow wife
Gosh, I love my life
Cooking’s great
Cleaned my plate

Mormon Daddy Style
Daddy Style
Mo-mo-mo-mo

Mormon Daddy Style
Daddy Style
Mo-mo-mo-mo
Mormon Daddy Style

Hey, another Baby
Mo-mo-mo-mo Mormon Daddy Style

Hey, another Baby
Mo-mo-mo-mo (hey, ey, ey)

Mormon Daddy Style

Oct 25 / 2012
1

Thoughts, Videos

Why I Make YouTube Videos

That video pretty much sums it up. Over the past few months my involvement in the YouTube community has been waning. There are a few reasons for this. One of the main reasons is lack of time and sleep. It is not an easy task to make videos on a regular basis while keeping balance with work, family and church responsibilities. As well as freelance work!

It is one thing to make videos and post them to youtube and it is a completely different beast to be involved in an online community. Over the past 18 months I have made friends with or watched dozens of channels. There are currently 35 unwatched videos in my subscription box that have been uploaded in the past 24 hours. The moral of the story is that over time it has gotten impossible to stay up to date with everyone. I was actually doing a pretty good job of it for a while, but, I was spending way too much time on YouTube and twitter; plus occasional live shows on BlogTV. I made some sacrifices to be at VidCon 2010 and 2011. Being a part of this community has been a big investment of time and even money.

Recently, I had to stop and evaluate whether or not this was a wise investment. What would the end result be if I continued on this path? Would I eventually work towards doing YouTube full time? Is that even a possibility? Is that what I want? If you have watched many of my videos you might notice that my family is important. They come first. No job or hobby is worth it if it prevents me from being the best husband and father I can be.

I don’t know that I’ve actually come to a decision. I think I am in the denial phase of overcoming an addiction. I really do enjoy making videos. I also enjoy watching other people’s videos and even analyzing what makes a video popular. I enjoy learning new things and improving my videos. I do wish I had more time to dedicate to this hobby. I will continue to make videos because I enjoy it. I also enjoy watching some of my older videos. Every once in a while I will sit down with the kids and we’ll watch several older videos and I love watching their reactions. They love it! I hope these videos will be something they will enjoy the rest of their lives.

I see YouTube as a platform to share our life to hopefully inspire others. I want to be a positive influence on the world. I want to show that it is okay for grown men to play and have fun with their kids. I know I am inspired by other YouTube dads and I want to do the same for the people who see my videos.

Do you find that YouTube consumes your life more than it should? What other sites or hobbies have this effect on you? How do you find balance? I find it helpful to take personal inventory on a regular basis to determine where I need to improve.

Oct 08 / 2012
2

Skits, Videos

Unorthodox Parenting (Father’s Interview)

I was given advice that I should interview my children on a regular basis. You know, to have open communication one-on-one. When I have really tough questions I need all the help I can get. That is when I invite our friend Don Francisco over to do the interviewing for me.

Sep 28 / 2012
2

Vlogs

Disneyland Without Kids

Mommy Stubz and I got away from the kids for a short trip to Disneyland. My sister over at cleverhousewife.com had two extra tickets so we got some babysitters and went on our own. We’ve been twice with little kids which is a ton of fun but you don’t get to go on a lot of the rides or you have to take turns. So it was fun to be carefree and not worry about keeping a baby and toddler happy.

We’ll go again with all the kids in the near future so look forward to that vlog. In the meantime I made an interactive video where you can experience 5 of the rides with us. Have you been to Disneyland when was the last time you went? What is your favorite ride and best memory of Disneyland?

Since I always like to put multiple videos in my posts…here is a video from the last time we went to disneyland when Sarah was about 8 months pregnant with Stubbette.

Sep 27 / 2012
4

Skits

A Man’s Guide To Pinterest

I was an early adopter to Pinterest. I didn’t realize it was only going to catch on with my women friends. I saw it for what it could be. It is a great tool for finding and saving content. Women have fully caught onto the idea of pinning content. Men, however, have not. The founder of the site is a man from Iowa! Pinterest is NOT a women’s site. Men our more visual creatures, right? You would think a bookmark sharing site based on quality images would be perfect for men.

I think it will take a few brave men to lead the way. Share this video with any man who is afraid to use Pinterest. Don’t forget to

Aug 27 / 2012
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Thoughts, Vlogs

An Odd Way To Get Views

My most viewed video is titled “Extreme Child Abuse”. All the traffic comes from related videos. Some of which are videos of real child abuse by parents or usually footage from nanny cams. I don’t recommend watching any of them. Child abuse is a horrible thing!

If you know me, you know that I would never abuse my children. I do, however, enjoy roughhousing with my kids. Wrestling with your kids is actually very beneficial to their development. They enjoy it and it makes them more resilient.

You might ask why I titled the video as abuse (my wife certainly has). I like to test out different titles and thumbnails to my videos to see what gets views. I had followed Shaycarl for a while and noticed that he used outrageous titles and thumbnails especially at the peak of his popularity. Shay also likes to horseplay with his kids and in one of his very early videos he used the term “Child Abuse” in the title of his video. I thought I would give it a try.

A month or two after I posted the video I started to notice the views go higher and higher. YouTube had picked the video up as a suggested video for several other high traffic videos. The views just keep going up! As of the writing of this article the video has been viewed 134,000 times!

Minnie Stubz asked me yesterday if we could make another video where we swing them around and I thought it could be a sequel to the above video which was made nearly two years ago. I labeled the video “Extreme Child Abuse (Part 2)” and sure enough it is already getting over double the views my typical new videos get in the first day.

Why do you think people want to see child abuse? Is it wrong for me to mislead people like that? I feel like I’m doing people a service. They are likely watching a lot of depressing videos before they get to mine and my hope is that it acts as a ray of hope and an example of how to play with kids and enjoy rough play. I don’t necessarily want to be associated with abuse but one of the reasons I choose to post videos to youtube is to be a positive influence on the internet to do what the Vlog Brothers refer to as decreasing world suck! If you think this will help, go “like” and “favorite” the above videos and help decrease world suck.

Leave a comment and tell me what you think. Why do we, as humans, sometimes seek negativity?

~DFTBA!

Aug 13 / 2012
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Videos, Vlogs

First Time Golfing

This weekend I took Sarah golfing for the first time. It had been a couple years since the last time I golfed. It was about 110 degrees out but that did not stop us. It took her a while but she finally got the hang of it. The best part was she says she would go again! Why haven’t we done this before?

After the driving range we headed over to some batting cages and hit a few rounds of softball and baseball. Again, we are both pretty rusty. It felt good to get out and do something physical.

Let’s see, what else is new? I have a skit in mind for August but I need to sit down and write it out and take more time then just one or two takes so I can be sure the quality is good enough for people to share. I think it will be a very shareable video. If you want to help out with it just leave me a comment. The premise of the video is Men and Pinterest. I’ll let you guess where that is going.

In case you haven’t see the last few vlogs, here you go!