My WordPress blog has not been showing up in the Google Blog Search so I decided to create a REST Client to ping it using their Google Blog Search Pinging Service API. I created that last week and ran it a few times to test it. Tonight I was pleased to find several of my blog posts showing up in the search results. I searched on the uncommon words “YouCloud” and “YouComment” and found my posts listed first.

I created my REST client using ASP.NET because that is my area of expertise. I could not find many examples of REST clients in ASP.NET but it is really just a matter of making a simple web request. Most developers would probably use PHP and CURL (Client URL Library Functions) which is very versatile in its ability to handle cookies, user agent strings, referrers, custom headers, and post fields. Hackers use CURL a lot because it can automate the process of sending web traffic. However ASP.NET is also capable of handling all aspects of making web requests and the Google Blog Search Pinging Service API is pretty simple. Below is my code for pinging the Google Blog Search:

   1: Imports System.Net

   2: Imports System.Xml

   3: Imports System.IO

   4: Imports System.Diagnostics

   5:  

   6: Partial Class GooglePinger

   7:     Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

   8:  

   9:     ‘ create XML document as a global object

  10:     Public objXmlDocument As XmlDocument = New XmlDocument()

  11:  

  12:     Protected Sub btnSubmit_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnSubmit.Click

  13:         ‘ Blog name

  14:         Dim strName = Server.HtmlEncode(“Williamsport Web Developer Weblog”)

  15:         ‘ Blog web address

  16:         Dim strUrl = Server.HtmlEncode(“http://www.williamsportwebdeveloper.com/cgi/wp/index.php”)

  17:         ‘ Blog RSS feed address

  18:         Dim strChangesURL = Server.HtmlEncode(“http://williamsportwebdeveloper.com/cgi/wp/?feed=rss2″)

  19:         ‘ REST Url

  20:         Dim strRESTUrl As String = “http://blogsearch.google.com/ping?name=” & strName & “&url=” & strUrl & “&changesURL=” & strChangesURL

  21:         Debug.WriteLine(strRESTUrl, “strRESTUrl”)

  22:         Dim HttpSite As Uri = New Uri(strRESTUrl)

  23:         ‘ Send web request

  24:         Dim objWebRequest As HttpWebRequest = CType(WebRequest.Create(HttpSite), HttpWebRequest)

  25:         objWebRequest.KeepAlive = False

  26:         objWebRequest.Timeout = 30000

  27:  

  28:         Try

  29:             ‘  Get the response to the web request

  30:             Dim objWebResponse As WebResponse = objWebRequest.GetResponse()

  31:             ‘ Use a stream reader to read the response

  32:             Dim objStreamReader As StreamReader = New StreamReader(objWebResponse.GetResponseStream(), System.Text.Encoding.UTF8)

  33:             lblMessage.Text = objStreamReader.ReadToEnd()

  34:  

  35:         Catch ex As Exception

  36:             lblErrorMessage.Text = ex.ToString()

  37:         End Try

  38:  

  39:     End Sub

  40: End Class

I have added another page to my collection of “value added services” for YouTube users. This one is an improvement over the YouTube comment system. You can find it on my web site at: http://www.williamsportwebdeveloper.com/YouComment.aspx 

The comment system is an important part of YouTube’s social networking features which also include video responses, private messages, bulletins, and channel comments. A video which receives a lot of comments will appear on the most discussed list. However, there have been many complaints about the YouTube comment system. The biggest problem is that comments can disappear because YouTube replicates their database and it does not always remain in sync. They also have not done much with the comment system.

I prefer the LiveVideo comment system because it places a small thumbnail of the user profile image next to each comment. This makes it easier to identify the participants in the conversation. YouTube currently only shows the username of the person making the comment.

Since there are so many trolls and miscreants on YouTube, it is frequently necessary to check out a user’s profile when they leave a nasty comment. This can be pretty time consuming and gives them a channel view count they may not deserve. So I used the alt text and title tag attributes to show some user profile information which appears when you mouse over the user profile image (see screen shot below). Such tool tips are an easy way to supply more information without cluttering up the screen. Unfortunately many web sites don’t take advantage of tool tips and surfers may not know to look for them.

I wanted to make this tool visually appealing so I added a speech balloon around the comments. This is another graphic design element that you can find on many other web sites. This was accomplished using Cascading Style Sheet rules to apply background images to blockquote tags.

The programming for YouComment was quite difficult. First I had to figure out how to nest comments which are replies to previous comments. The logical way to do this was to use nested unordered lists. The YouTube API returns the comment data as XML so the nested unordered lists had to match the structure of nested XML nodes.  However, the YouTube API does not actually nest replies under their associated comments. There is merely an id number pointing to the previous comment. I had to re-organize the XML nodes to give them the structure that I required.

Looking up the user profile information for each comment was proving to be a time consuming operation and it was frequently redundant if the same user left multiple comments on the video. Therefore I created a hash table to store the unique user profile information and only made web requests when the user could not be found in the hash table. This has improved the web page’s performance but it still cannot handle a video with more than a hundred comments. After that you’ll find the browser acting flaky because it is using too much memory. I may need to add pagination to reduce the number of comments appearing at one time.

Most people view the comments on a video to see the replies to their comment. It can be difficult to find your comment in a page with hundreds of comments. Computer savvy users know how to use the  Ctrl + F shortcut to find text on a web page. I wanted a way to highlight your comments so I added the option to store your YouTube username in a cookie. The cookie can then be used to remember your username between visits and highlight your matching comments with a yellow background.

I’m very proud of this programming exercise and I plan to use it myself. I spend a lot of time reading comments that have been left on videos. Since I’ll be using this regularly, you can be sure that I will promptly fix any bugs and make improvements if it proves to be hard to use.

I’ve been busy with the Pageflake developers API and the YouTube API. The Pageflakes documentation is not very good so I had to figure out how to display the loading bar without using their showProgress() method that I can’t get to work. Then I had to find a way to get the refresh button to work with JSON data feeds. I think that only works with RSS feeds by default. I also found a way to give myself some credit in the Settings and how to save a setting. I created a Pownce flake and a Stickam flake which I’m using on my Pageflakes pages.

I’m also doing more work with the YouTube API. I added a page to my web site where you can back up your Subscriptions information to Excel. Now I’m working on a web page that will provide a custom display of a YouTube video’s comments. This should be really useful. I plan to show the user’s profile thumbnail so you can more easily identify the vlogger who left the comment. That is a feature of the commenting system on LiveVideo. I will also highlight your comments and automatically scroll the page to bring it into view. You will be able to view some profile information by mousing over the profile thumbnail and the comments will appear as thought balloons. I plan to put a lot of effort into this comment system design because this is one area where YouTube could really use some improvement. It is one of the social networking features of the site that gets very little attention. This project is proving to be fairly difficult. It took me several hours to figure out how to convert XML child nodes into nested unordered lists so I can display replies properly indented. The YouTube API doesn’t even return comment replies as XML child nodes so I will need to re-organize the XML nodes.

It was pointed out to me that LiveVideo has already added a tab called LiveStart to show how Pageflakes will be integrated into LiveVideo. I don’t know if LiveVideo will open their platform to third-party developers the way Facebook has for applications, but I’ve finally created a custom pageflake. It took me most of the day but I’ve created a countdown timer for the YouTube gathering in Philadlephia.

If you have a Pageflakes account you can add this pageflake to a page by going to the developers page at http://www.pageflakes.com/developers and entering the web address to my page in the Test your flake textbox. The flake URL is http://www.williamsportwebdeveloper.com/YoTube.aspx Please note that this page will error if you try to open it directly in your browser. It will only work when used as a pageflake because it relies on their framework.

Pageflakes has already been mashed up with LiveVideo! You can get a preview of how their technology will be combined at: http://livevideo.pageflakes.com/. There are already some LiveVideo pageflakes available now so you can add LiveVideo Featured Videos to your existing Pageflake pages. I’ve added them to a page I had for other video sharing sites like YouTube and DailyMotion.

LiveVideo will probably become my favorite web site after they add pageflakes because I will be able to customize the site to combine my vlogging, blogging, and RSS feed interests. Currently LiveVideo is just a site that I visit when I’m bored with YouTube and Stickam. I’ll be interested in creating custom widgets for the site and I’ll probably expand my interaction with its vlogger community. I’m not sure if my YouTube friends will be very interested in it because they are really infatuated with YouTube and barely acknowledge the existence of the rest of the Internet.

Tonight I found an Active Server Pages script for generating JSON from databases that ASP can connect to using ADO. This may be useful for understanding how to translate data into JSON. It may also prove handy for creating JSON from a variety of data sources like my SQL Server and MySQL databases.

The real purpose of this blog post is to test trackbacks which is an aspect of the blogosphere that I’m not very clear on. I just need a blog article to trackback to. I’ve also noticed that Google Blog Search does not pick up on my blog postings at all so I’ve added their update service and need to do some posts to see if I can get indexed there.

According to TechCrunch, LiveVideo will be integrating PageFlakes into their social networking platform. This is an interesting development because before LiveVideo came out with their new web site features I did a video on Web Parts. I also posted a bulletin on the site about how Web Parts make it possible to create RSS feed mash ups. I even sent in a suggestion that LiveVideo use Web Parts technology to allow users to add RSS feeds to their profiles. PageFlakes was one of the mash up web sites I researched back when I was really excited about Web Parts.

PageFlakes and LiveVideo both use ASP.NET technology so integrating the sites won’t be too difficult. I imagine LiveVideo will use it to improve their current widget offerings which aren’t terribly interesting. In addition to RSS feeds, PageFlakes allows you to create other types of widgets including some that can display videos. I was thinking of creating a LiveVideo pageflake but I probably won’t have to now.

LiveVideo has already added text blogging to their vlogging platform making it the only video sharing site to combine blogging with vlogging. I use my LiveVideo blog to write about vlogging. I like how text blogs can be featured and rated just like videos. LiveVideo also added live streaming video to compete with sites like Stickam. This was immediately popular with vloggers because many of them already used Stickam and appreciated not having to go to a different web site. In fact, the live shows became so popular that posting videos has died off and created some concern that this aspect of the site has been harmed. I have noticed that posting bulletins as a form of communication has all but disappeared except for one user.

LiveVideo clearly aims to be the best social networking platform on the Internet. However, in spite of their superior technology they have been unable to attract YouTube vloggers and their audience in large numbers. They cannot compete with the existing community over there. LiveVideo appears to have employed many actresses to pose as real vloggers in order to attract an audience. I think that is extremely sleazy and I don’t appreciate using fake vloggers as bait. But I still use the site although in comes in third to YouTube and Stickam in my affections. Once the Pageflakes technology is integrated into the site it may dominate my interest because it will be fun to play around with a wealth of content mash up possibilities. Hopefully I’ll even be able to create my own custom widgets like countdown timers to vlogger gatherings.

Tonight I uploaded a new web page to my web site that allows you to back up your YouTube Favorites to Excel:
http://www.williamsportwebdeveloper.com/FavBackUp.aspx

You should back up your YouTube account information because you never know when they will delete your account without warning or explanation. If your account is suspended or deleted you will lose everything including your favorites and you may not be able to find your favorited videos again.

You will probably find that you have backed up fewer videos than are reported on YouTube. I think this is because many videos may have been removed and this is not reflected in their favorites count.

All my web application does is use the YouTube developer’s API to get the feed data. You could do the same yourself but it would be in a complicated XML format and not very readable. I think most people would rather have it in an Excel spreadsheet. If you do not have Microsoft Office then you can download Open Office for free.

This is just another idea for a “value added service” that I thought I’d implement. I’ll probably add pages to back up other things in your YouTube account and then think about other types of services.

I’ve begun to put my web application skills to work on some personal projects instead of client projects. Since I’m heavily into online video and the vlogging community I want to do something in that online space. I have a few ideas for some “value added” services that I could provide. My first online service is based on Tweet Clouds, a web site that generates tag clouds based on Twitter posts. Actually, I’ve had this idea for quite some time but was not motivated to implement it until I saw some online buzz for Twitter tag clouds.

I did some online research and could not find anyone offering to create tag clouds based on the tags that vloggers use for their videos. So I’ve created an ASP.NET 2.0 web application named YouCloud. YouCloud is a simple form that only requires you to enter a YouTube username. It will gather the video tags for every video by that user and generate a tag cloud. If you mouse over a word in the tag cloud you will see a tooltip showing how many videos were tagged with that word. If you click on the word you will be taken to YouTube and shown the search results for that keyword.

I don’t expect to win any awards with this simple web application but it should not tax my web hosting company’s web server. I don’t see why anyone would be terribly interested in this service unless they are curious about what tags a popular vlogger uses to promote his videos. Some vloggers try to cheat the system by using inaccurate tags.

I’ve placed a Google AdSense video unit and an Amazon Honor System donation button on YouCloud to see if I can generate any revenue. I suspect I can make more money doing billable client work than this entrepreneurial crap.

I can apply the same concept to generate tag clouds for other Web 2.0 sites like Flickr or LiveVideo. I do have another idea for a YouTube service. The next thing I will be working on is a back up utility which will generate an Excel spreadsheet of your Favorite Videos. This will be useful if YouTube deletes your account and you lose all your favorites.
Today I learned that Live Universe, the company that owns LiveVideo, has purchased Pageflakes, the mashup web site based on ASP.NET 2.0 technology. This is an interesting development because it could mean that LiveVideo may get some more mashup features to create the ultimate social networking web site.

I’ve bought two books to prepare for the YouTube Philadelphia gathering on July 12th, 2008 (aka YoTube). I don’t think this event needs a lot of preparation but I may want to visit Philadelphia more often so it seems worthwhile to do some research. I do plan to shoot a lot of video while in Philadelphia so it would be useful to know where the tourist sights are. Philadelphia is one of the cities that has been extensively photographed for the Google Streets View so I’ll be able to virtually walk the streets to familiarize myself with several downtown neighborhoods.

The first book I’m reading is “On The Make: The Hustle Of Urban Nightlife” by David Grazian. This is an ethnographic study of the Philadelphia nightlife establishments; i.e. restaurants, nightclubs, cocktail lounges, and bars. It mentions many amusingly named hotspots like Swanky Bubbles (my favorite name), Tangerine, Bleu Martini, Buddakan, etc. This is the perfect book if you want the inside dope on the Philadelphia nightlife. It also serves to make Philadelphia seem like an exciting destination and provides some context for the modern scene. I’m not sure if it covers the theaters, cabarets, and performance spaces that I’m interested in.

For the historical context I bought the book “Walking Tours Of Historic Philadelphia” by Edward Colimore of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Since the gathering will be held in Independence Park, this book will probably be more useful to me because it describes all the tourist attractions you can walk to in that area.

Last week I wasted a lot of time on Silverlight. I used the word “wasted” because after putting a lot of time in a project I discovered that it is impossible to create a simple hyperlink! I could scarcely believe it but the hot new Microsoft technology that is supposed to revolutionize the Internet with rich client web applications can’t even create a simple hyperlink! You are supposed to follow the convoluted instructions on “Simulating a Hyperlink using the TextDecorations Property” from the SDK. WTF!! This makes Silverlight pretty useless for web development because you can hardly create a web application without using hyperlinks. I did update my Silverlight 1.0 SDK from the Release Candidate version to the Release To Web version and carefully researched some other Silverlight aggravations. I’ll have to move on to Silverlight 2.0 but you need Visual Studio 2008 to create a project for Silverlight 2.0.

I’ve started to read a book on accounting, Alpha Teach Yourself Personal Finance in 24 Hours by Janet Bigham Bernstel and Lea Saslav. I don’t intend to get too deep into accounting but I want to know the basics so I can understand a system that I’ll be working on. The hotshot software engineers (I’m thinking Jeff Atwood) write a lot about learning source control, unit testing, and other high end computer science topics but they probably would not urge their readers to study accounting to become a better programmer. However, accounting is definitely an important real world skill for the business programmer.

Yesterday I added another minor Storefront 6.0 customization to my knowledge base. I needed to add a class to some tables so I could reference them in CSS for the print media style. This requires a minor change in the compiled code because the HTML is dynamically generated in the XEUITools project. If you did not have access to the source code for Storefront I suppose you could accomplish this using jQuery to add a class to the table but this would be a fragile solution because you would need to base it on the table count. That needs some further explanation. There is a collection of table elements in the web page’s document object model (DOM) so you can reference a particular table by its index number. However, if you later add another table its index number will change so that is not a reliable method.

I recently bought the “Best Of Nalts DVD“. This DVD is a collection of short videos produced by one of the biggest comedic stars of YouTube, Kevin Nalty. Nalts is a marketing professional which should make him very unpopular on YouTube but his goofy videos and sense of humor manage to disarm any critics. He is also very active in the YouTube community and associates with many of the vloggers in my circle of e-friends.

One of the videos features Pipistrello. I met him on the YouCruise so it was neat to see him in a video I could watch on TV.

I’ve found it very useful to read Kevin Nalt’s WordPress blog at http://willvideoforfood.com because he is very knowledgeable about online video. Whenever I register at a new video sharing site I always find that Nalts already has an account there. Recently I picked up some good tips from Nalts on how to improve the quality of my videos. I assumed that he used the best equipment so when he sold his camcorder on eBay I placed a bid on it. I did not win that auction but I found the exact same model, a Panasonic PV-GS120, and I’ve been pleased by how well it handles various lighting conditions. 

I really want to return to creative pursuits but I’ve been spending most of my free time keeping up with changes in technology. I have a long list of research that I plan to do. Over the past week I did complete the following tasks:

1. Integrated a JavaScript Lightbox into Storefront’s search results. Lightbox is a fancy way of showing a bigger version of an image. It darkens the web page and shows the image in a pop-up window. I had added a demo of Lightbox to my notes as part of my collection of useless information. I’m pleased that I’ve now taken the trouble to find a use for it. Storefront can show product thumbnails in its search results. I’ve added the ability to click on the thumbnail to see the larger version of the image in the “lightbox”.

2. Created a Yahoo! Pipe for the USPS shipping rate web service. The USPS web service only returns XML but I prefer to work with the JSON data format so I created a Yahoo! Pipe to get shipping rates in that format. This works a lot better in my compiled help files. I do plan to build this into the documentation for one of my Storefront clients. They use USPS shipping and have some trouble getting the correct shipping rates.

3. Google now provides a web service for translating text into various languages. I added a web page to my notes so I’ll have a handy form for using this translation service.

4. C# for loop step value. Recently I had to increment a for loop by 7 to set weekly dates. It was surprisingly difficult to find out how to use a step value in the C# for loop. I added that to my notes. The obscure syntax is: for (int i = 0; i < tsWeek.Days + 1; i+=7)

5. Web Resources. I researched how to use embedded resources in an ASP.NET web application. The tricky part is that this cannot be done if you open a web site in Visual Studio 2005. You must create a web application project. I tried to convert a JavaScript file into an embedded resource and it seemed to work but I was unable to call the functions it should have provided. I did not waste time trying to troubleshoot that problem because it was impossible to view the embedded JavaScript.

I’ve been reading the book “Amazon.com Mashups” by Francis Shanahan. This book covers more than the Amazon API so it has proven to be very useful in introducing me to many other Web 2.0 APIs. Its example for using the Yahoo! Maps API allowed me to map some addresses for an application I’m working on.

I’ve started to use Twitter a lot more after discovering that many of my YouTube vlogger friends are using it. There are also many prominent ASP.NET developers using Twitter so I’m following them as well. Today I created my first bona fide mashup using the Yahoo! Maps API and the Twitter API to map my friends’ location. Although I’ve been playing around with many Web 2.0 APIs, this is the first time I’ve combined any of them in true mashup fashion.

Unfortunately, not everyone I’m following has entered their location in a sensible format so I needed to create a regular expression to filter out anyone who did not use their city and state. I was only able to map four friends. I used their actual profile images as the marker images and their name as the marker tooltip that appears when you mouse over the marker.

You can find the live version here: http://www.williamsportwebdeveloper.com/yahoo-map-twitter.html.

Showing customers, friends, and business locations on maps is a very popular style of mashup. I may add this feature to other web applications that I’m working on. However it does not strike me as being useful information.

I’m slowly getting back into the groove of things. The Spring Forward daylight savings time change occurred while I was on vacation and it really threw off my sleep cycle. I’ve also remained really buzzed about my dream vacation. However tonight I managed to get back to work. I made some progress on a project.

I really needed a vacation because I had been working non stop for over a year, including evenings and weekends. I was getting pretty bored and unenthusiastic.

My Silverlight demo application, a Spirograph design drawing application is now working on this web site. This will encourage me to do more experimentation with Silverlight. I was frustrated by my inability to deploy anything on my public web site.

The last full day of the cruise was another "Fun Day" at sea because we needed to sail back to Jacksonville Florida. I saw VioletKitty after breakfast walking through the Lido deck pool area. Then I attended a Debarkation Talk in the Astoria Lounge where the customs rules and regulations were explained to us and luggage handling was described. Our cruise director Paul Santley kept it amusing.  The other YouTubers were sitting on a balcony but I did not join them because I had a better seat. After that we had a group photo taken. We really did not take much video or photos of each other. Everyone kind of did their own thing. This did not make it much of a gathering but a cruise vacation offers a lot of other activities so I did not miss my friends much. On the other hand, it would have been slightly sad to have gone all alone. I was just as thrilled to meet my favorite vloggers as I was with the cruise sights. I ate lunch alone and then wandered around until I found the group in the Wheelhouse Bar & Grill. Then I went to my cabin and watched a bit of the movie The Matrix on TV.

I’ve been without TV for over a year so I did watch a little TV on the cruise. They had channels that featured the filmed activities onboard the ship but none of us appeared in those videos so I was not interested in buying the DVD. I started to think about going home and realized that I needed to print out my boarding passes. This was a problem because the only Internet access was expensive and excruciatingly slow. Internet access at sea is slower than dial up modem. This was a big complaint among us YouTubers because we need our Internet. Of course, when they do have good Internet access during a gathering they tend to get on Stickam in their individual hotel rooms rather than meet face to face. This has become a popular joke but it helps the people who aren’t there to participate. Anyway, I was able to check in on the US Airways web site but could not print my boarding passes at that time.

At dinner I had escargot and the seafood platter but later I regretted it because the greasy breading gave me terrible acid indigestion later that night. After dinner I went back to the Internet cafe where I finally got my boarding passes printed out.

The stage show that night was X-Treme Country. I hate country music and cannot imagine it ever getting extreme unless you mean extremely bad. Fortunately VioletKitty wanted to do some karaoke that night so I waited in the Endless Summer Lounge for her. She can sing pretty well and I thought she was the best performer onboard. Carnival should consider hiring her as a cruise director. The lounge was virtually empty except for us so I thought it was a little awkward. VK sang the theme to the Love Boat and I found that very funny.

That was pretty much the end of the cruise. The only hitch on my trip home was a one hour delay for my final flight to Williamsport from the Philadelphia airport. I had to move to a different boarding gate. Fortunately I took the opportunity to buy a book at a newstand. I bought Michael Crichton’s book "Next" which is very cynical about genetic testing. I found it disturbing that some mean medical professionals would order genetic testing and then tell their patients about the terrible genetic diseases they will suffer from later in life. It is very cruel to inform a patient of that and ruin the rest of their life long before the disease manifests itself.

My vacation was perfect in every way and I am very grateful to the YouTube community for enticing me to do something a little unusual. I have to admit that participation with the YouTube community can really change your life. You can meet and get to know people from England, Australia, and Canada. You can do more traveling to meet interesting characters. And you can make many friends.  

On Tuesday we proceeded to our next port of call, Nassau Bahamas were many James Bond film scenes were shot. I had breakfast alone again in the Wheelhouse Bar. Everyone else must have slept late. Then I sat in a deck chair on the Lido deck to watch Nassau come into view. We did not arrive there until 11:00 AM in the morning. I got my camcorder and filmed the ship docking at Nassau. There were two other cruise ships already in port; the other Carnival ship Sensation and the Royal Caribbean International Majesty Of The Seas. I saw Max Smith on the aft Lido deck taking photos of Nassau. I also ran into Onemon22 and his wife and had a picture taken with them. The Majesty Of The Seas cruise ship had a rock climbing thing high up on its deck for the truly adventurous. It was absolutely frightful to imagine climbing up there and then falling down into the sea from such a height. You would not get me to try that, not even on a dare!

I went to the Wheelhouse Bar for lunch where I ran into our Maitre D’ Joseph, who was a colorful character. He should do YouTube. He kept saying "It’s showtime!" in a funny accent during dinner shows. But I think he was Canadian so his accent must have been fake. He also reminded me of the main vampire in the 30 Days Of Night movie. I think I was the only person at our table to hand him a gratuity in the envelope provided. It was kind of rude of the others to neglect to do that. I thought I was being cheap to only slip him $5.00!

After that I disembarked to go on my excursion, the Discover Atlantis on Paradise Island tour which included the aquarium. I shot some video of the cruise ships from the dock where they really towered above us. I ran into VioletKitty with LittlePandaExpress but they were going on a different excursion. I took a glass bottomed boat to Paradise Island after a long walk around the pier. The boat was more like a ferry and the glass bottom was just deep wells that were not visible from my seat. Once on Paradise Island I followed the tour guide though a lovely alley of attractive shopping cottages. I did not stop at any of them on the way back because they all looked expensive. We passed some large yachts that looked like something out of a James Bond movie. One was gold and black like some kind of high tech toy.

At the hotel we walked through the casino and saw massive sculptures that the guide claimed were valued at a million dollars each. I should have some video of that. Then we walked though an underground aquarium where I saw sharks, Monterrey eels, giant sting rays and huge fish that looked really prehistoric.  It was pretty amazing! The Atlantis Hotel is where the rich and famous stay so it was like getting a tour through the world of the super wealthy. I’m glad I was with a group or I would have felt out of place. This tour required a lot of walking. Atlantis is a mythical island in the ancient world so the exhibits of Atlantis technology were all fantasy. After the tour was over I had to find my way back to the ferry, Captain Hardings. I was over dressed in a long sleeve shirt and dress slacks but at least this kept me from getting sunburned. My face did get very sunburned on this excursion.

When I got back to Nassau I found a Starbucks and bought a Frappuccino.  I needed something to cool me off. Then I went shopping. I bought a pirate teddy bear at the Hard Rock Cafe. I also bought a large t-shirt but did not notice that it was a woman’s t-shirt so it did not fit me. I ran into Onemon22 and his wife there. Then I bought a leather belt because my airport security belt had no holes and was difficult to cinch up tight. I paid a lot of money for that belt and it made me very uncomfortable. Then I found a bookstore and bought "A History Of The Bahamas" by Michael Craton and a hardcover book "The Paradise Island Story" by Paul Albury. This book was very expensive at $35.95 for 136 pages. It does have some nice photos of the Atlantis Resort including all the sculptures I saw. Prior to this trip I don’t recall ever hearing about this resort’s existence. It simply never made it on my radar. When I returned to the ship I had dinner with just the Canadians because everyone else remained ashore. I was tempted to go back to Nassau but Onemon22 told me everything was shut down anyway so I did not bother. That night I saw the guest talent show in the Astoria Lounge. I recognized one guest by the name of Blanche because she is a spry elderly lady who plays the harmonica and dances a jig. She was very entertaining at karaoke.

Nassau is a foreign country so this represents my first trip outside the United States! It reminded me of James Bond movies because some of those films have scenes shot there. Too bad I did not have enough time to do some espionage!

On Monday we made our first port of call at Key West around 7:00 AM. I had breakfast at the Wheelhouse Bar on the Lido deck as usual. By the time I got there we were already docked at Key West so I could look out over the buildings. I saw Pipistrello and his friends at another table but I figured they wanted to be alone. You definitely don’t want to invade Pipistrello’s space! Anyway, I wanted to shoot some video of Key West and the tropical islands. I filmed some close ups of the cruise ship docked behind our ship which had a helicopter pad. I also got some close ups of an island resort off the port side and the numerous ships in the aqua blue Caribbean sea.

About an hour or so before my Old Town Trolley Tour, I disembarked from the ship. I had to swipe my sail and sign card and stop to have a photo taken at the gangplank. The crew were always taking photos of the passengers with someone dressed as a pirate or island girl in order to sell you those photos in the onboard photo gallery. I’m not that attractive so I was uninterested in these photo opportunities. I shot some video of the cruise ship once I was on the Mallory Square. I’m surprised the other YouTube vloggers did not shoot more video. You would think they would want to vlog at exotic locations to gain subscribers. You would think they would want to get a lot of video so they’d have something to edit. It was a valuable opportunity to get stock footage and really fantastic video but everyone seemed to be entirely in vacation mode. I just appreciated the immense beauty of the tropical islands and I wanted to capture it on video. I have a calendar with gorgeous photos of tropical islands that you can dream about so I was not about to waste this opportunity to capture the experience of actually being there.

The trolley tour was a great way to absorb the essence of Old Town Key West. I got to see a lot of the buildings and sites this way. I recorded the entire tour! Key West is slightly surreal because it is like a quaint, tropical suburbia. It has many little cottages and it seems very intimate and unassuming except for the lush vegetation and occasional signs of great wealth. You would almost think you were in a small town with a flare for the tropical. I wish I could live there but even the most ramshackle shack would cost a small fortune. The town is rich in literary history. I saw Ernest’s Hemingway’s house and a hotel where Tennessee Williams wrote "A Streetcar Named Desire".  Apparently even Robert Frost lived in Key West.

This was very special for me because I am a bookworm and I’ve read a lot of literature. I’m not that into Ernest Hemingway who has become an icon of how a writer should live and write. However, I do admire Tennessee Williams. I’ve read a lot of drama (not YouTube drama, real drama) and plays are my favorite form of literature. I’ve even seen "A Streetcar Named Desire" performed live at our local community theater. After the cruise, I learned that there is a Tennessee Williams Theater and Performing Arts Center in Key West. Unfortunately I did not know that such a place existed and I don’t think I have any video of it. My favorite Tennessee Williams play is "Glass Menagerie" and I have the film version that we were shown in high school on DVD. I can relate to the painfully shy girl who lived in her own fantasy world. That is a great play, really very moving. The cruise ship should have performed that play on their stage to give the passengers an appreciation of Key West’s cultural significance.

After the trolley tour I had to be back aboard by 2:30 PM or be left behind so I only stopped to buy a large counch shell and a Key West t-shirt. I had to go through security to get back aboard. My shopping bags had to be x-rayed and I used my passport as photo id.

It was at this point that a very amusing incident occurred. I met this very drunk female passenger outside the elevators and she aggressively hit on me! She kept asking me if I could see her Key West t-shirt and then she asked me if I was alone, if I was single, and she asked for my room number. She was really wasted! I was smiling broadly out of nervousness and because drunks are funny to me. Women never come onto me like that! I thought I had entered the twilight zone. Anyway, she asked me to take her dancing at 11:00 but she did not know where the only dance club was located and I guess she sobered up before then. It would have a major score if I was the only person to get lucky on the cruise.

I shot some video of the ship leaving Key West although I was a little distracted by the prior incident. At dinner that night there was a conga line which VioletKitty enthusiastically joined. She can really get into the spirit of things. However she got very sunburnt on Key West. I had a lot of seafood. After dinner we went to Pipistrello’s stateroom and talked a while. It was very messy but there were three of them jammed into a little cabin. Pipistrello treated us to some of his rum cake which was very good. Not enough to get anyone drunk. Later we met Onemon22 and Max Smith at the comedy show which featured Dean Gains and Tia Thompson at the Astoria Lounge. After that I went to bed. I did not have any trouble sleeping because the gentle rocking of the ship tended to make me drowsy.

On the second day of the YouCruise, the ship spent the day at sea heading towards Key West. I had breakfast at the Wheelhouse Bar on the Lido deck, aft. I met Max Smith there and we talked awhile until Onemon22 and his wife showed up. She remarked how you could tell the ship was rolling by the horizon of the sea which was moving above and below the guardrail. Since we did not set sail on time in order to wait for late passengers, I think we were going fast to make up for lost time. Later VioletKitty and LittlePandaExpress joined us for breakfast and Pipistrello and his friends stopped by.

After breakfast I attended a Ship & Port Information Talk in the Astoria Lounge about the excursions we could book at each port. When that was over I made my way to the Information desk and purchased tickets for excursions on Key West and Nassau. I had to provide my credit card information for my sail and sign card which I thought I did online.

There wasn’t much to do on this day at sea. I filmed the ship’s wake because nothing else was visible. I ate lunch alone in the Wheelhouse Bar on the Lido deck, aft. Then I listened to a few tunes and watched a few videos on my Pocket PC while sitting outside the Galax Z Dance Club on Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street was a deck that was supposed to look like Mardi Gras on the sea. It had a trolley car with fake rails, a photo gallery, the Rainbow Club Casino, The Bistro, the Endless Summer Lounge for the karaoke kraziness, the Galax Z Dance Club with some arcade games in the back, and the Islands In The Sky bar.

Dinner was supposed to be formal so I wore a jacket, tie, and dress shoes which I brought. Onemon22 had to rent a tuxedo and the others just tried to look well dressed. The dining room staff sang a song. I think it was an Italian song which did not impress Pipistrello. I sat next to VioletKitty and had two servings of lobster tail. After dinner we saw the Standing Room Only show which was a Broadway review of show tunes. This did not impress me because that is standard theater fare that I could find at home. After that I went on deck and filmed some footage at night. I think I filmed the wake of the ship and maybe the smoke stack. There wasn’t anything else to film or do. This was the most boring day. I saw a country and western band perform in the Islands In The Sky bar and then I attended the Late Night Comedy show of Tony Esposito at 12:00 AM in the Astoria  Lounge. After the show I bought one of his CDs and he autographed it for me.  There were three comedians and they all sold their comedy CDs after their show. I don’t know if this is something struggling comedians do. It seemed kind of cheesy to me. Like they don’t get paid enough for a gig and have to hawk their wares on cruise ships. They should promote themselves on YouTube.

I have returned from my fabulous vacation aboard the Carnival cruise ship, Celebration. This trip was suggested by a YouTube vlogger, Pipistrello, as a fun way to have a gathering. The voyage was absolutely perfect. I did not have any problems or disappointments.

Since a blog can serve as a journal, I want to extensively document my vacation with detailed blog posts. If I don’t write everything down the trip will become a blur later on and I don’t want to forget anything.

I feel this was the most awe inspiring experience of my life. Some people may be less impressed by a cruise to the Caribbean, but I tend to be very sensitive to my surroundings and virtually absorb the essence of a place. I think I have a profound soul so things effect me more deeply than the average person. Also, awe inspiring sights tend to resonate in my mind in a curious way which can heighten the aesthetic depth of the experience with associated imagery. During the cruise I daydreamed that someone ought to peer into my soul to value this experience as I do. It is a shame that cannot be done. Mere words will never capture the depth of my vision. If I’m getting too literary it is because we visited Key West where Hemingway had a house and Tennessee Williams wrote "A Streetcar Named Desire".  LOL

I arrived at the IPT Williamsport Regional Airport at 5:00 AM to catch a commuter flight to Philadelphia. I think all flights from Williamsport have to be US Airways Express flights to Philadelphia. I was surprised to see someone I know on the flight. It was a manager for McDonalds were I used to work during a dark period of my life. This guy was a major asshole so I did not talk to him and he did not seem to notice me. Security was very courteous because this is a very small city with a small airport. There was some turbulence during the flight. After a short 30 minute flight I arrived at the Philadelphia airport where I took a shuttle from terminal F to terminal C (a minor detail I want to remember for future travel). I got aboard a US Airways Boeing jet and had a 2 hour flight to Jacksonville airport. Another travel detail I need to note is that there was no baggage check for this connecting flight. I was a bit worried that I should have claimed my checked bag but this was loaded aboard the plane for me. I did not need to claim my checked bag until I reached Jacksonville. I have not flown anywhere in years or since 9-11 so I’m really new to air travel.

I bought a pair of sunglasses at the Jacksonville airport because it was very bright outside and I didn’t think to bring sunglasses. I had bought a transfer ticket for transportation from the Jacksonville airport to the JAXPORT Cruise Terminal where the cruise ship was docked. This shuttle left immediately and I got to see lots of Florida palm trees on the way to JAXPORT. At the JAXPORT Cruise Terminal I gave my checked bag to a baggage handler and took my carry on bag through security. I was given my sail and sign card which is like a credit card that you use onboard instead of cash.

After boarding the ship I spotted LittlePandaExpress, one of the vloggers I chat with in NutCheese’s Stickam room, in the lobby waiting for other YouTubers. I did not introduce myself immediately and instead waited until Onemon22 arrived with his wife. We went up to the Wheelhouse Bar & Grill where Onemon22 bought us drinks and we had lunch. Later on Pipistrello arrived and stopped at our table. I was thrilled to meet Pipi because he is a great rant comic on YouTube and I often watch his Wings Span Radio show on Stickam. After that VioletKitty411 arrived and sat at our table. VK is definitely my favorite vlogger of all because she is very vivacious and has a lot of personality. She is extremely popular on YouTube and one of the few people who tries to be a nice person. Believe me, some people aren’t trying at all! VK mentioned having breakfast with Gothreaper which surprised us because Gothreaper was causing a lot of drama. But as I said, VK goes out of her way to be nice to people.

After talking for awhile we split up to tour the ship and I took some video. Being on the YouCruise made me feel obligated to film as much video as possible but I did not see the others shoot much video. Maybe they just wanted to be on vacation. I went to my cabin, R68, where I found my checked bag outside my door. Now for some more travel minutiae that needs to be noted. The cabin only had one electrical outlet and I had several rechargeable devices (electric razor, Pocket PC, hairdryer, and Panasonic PV-GS120 camcorder) so I had to continually plug something else in. My cabin had a perforated plastic keycard that I had to keep on me at all times. I always made sure I had my keycard and sail and sign card. I had a cabin all to myself which cost me extra but gave me plenty of room.

At 3:30 PM there was a lifeboat drill. I reported to muster station C with my life jacket where we were shown how to put them on after a long wait. However we were not shown the life boats. After that I think I wandered around until dinner was served at the Vista Dining Room at 6:15 pm. There were 9 people on the YouCruise and we all sat at table 110. There was Pipistrello with two friends, Onemon22 and his wife, VioletKitty and LittlePandaExpress, Max Smith (the mystery vlogger nobody knew until dinner), and me. Due to my inability to make myself clear to the waiters I was not served a main course and only got an appetizer. The ship finally left port during dinner after waiting for several hours for late passengers. I watched a few passengers make their way along the winding gangway during dinner.

After dinner we went to the Endless Summer Lounge for Karaoke. VioletKitty, Onemon22, and Max Smith sang some songs which I have on video. The Endless Summer Lounge was decorated with the hulls of kayaks or canoes. Then we went to the Astoria Lounge which was a large theater with a small stage and saw the Welcome Aboard Show.  The show was hosted by Cruise Director Paul Santley,  a comedian with an Irish accent. We also saw the comedy act of  Tony Esposito. I think everyone went to bed after the show.