Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Feb 2, 2012, 6:46 pm
As much as I like TED talks, I'm mostly one of those people who absorbs the ideas worth spreading rather than spreads the ideas themselves. This particular talk, however, hit home.   I've long been an opponent of cynicism in most respects. I think this talk exposes a lot more than it lets on. So...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Jan 3, 2012, 1:14 pm
Watch this video on YouTube. Nico's Narrator: Gasp for breath. Not drowned. Lungs still filled with the muddied 2011 water. Cough it up. Shake it off. Last year, you didn't prove your worth. Your friends did that. Your friends, who threw you lifelines reaching out to you in YouTube comments, tw...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Dec 9, 2011, 7:24 pm
"It can get worse," I say, and then it does, and I get wearier and wearier. Smiling in the face of adversity is starting to feel like a lie. Going to withdraw for a while.
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Nov 26, 2011, 11:41 am
Even though it seems to be a seasonal phenomenon among North American bloggers, I feel like all of the thankfulness that abounds over the web for the past two months1 is just the verbalization of a zeitgeist. This may be entirely subjective, but from where I sit, there is a surprisingly sophisticat...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Nov 11, 2011, 2:11 pm
You know, I'm going to be honest: I've been thinking a lot about money lately and how I have tended to not have much of it. Wait come back! I'm not bitching and moaning, this is the precursor to a year-long project I've got in mind that I am starting as of today. It's neat! I promise! In the first ...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Nov 2, 2011, 3:53 pm
I forgot to post this yesterday, but it's part of a project we held (are holding?) on We Blog, We Vlog to create time capsules for November, 20 years from now.
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Oct 18, 2011, 11:56 am
The following is a list of the questions most frequently asked Nico by his mother1, with his candid answers (what he means) paired with his actual answers (what he tends to say). When will you get a real job? Candid: When the economy isn’t broken to all hell. But you know, it’s starting to loo...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Oct 13, 2011, 10:36 pm
I’ve written this post three times already and I’m not sure I remember how to do this anymore. This is supposed blogging, the place where one spills thoughts on a blank white page and thereby gets some kind of fulfillment, right? I think this happens whenever I go through some kind of life cha...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Sep 26, 2011, 10:07 pm
“First, we run around until we get to the biggest mountain we can find.” “Okay, and then what?” “We climb it, and build our home on top of it.” In between a round of emails, coding, babysitting progress bars as they sync up files, and waiting for the next round of emails, I’ve been ...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Sep 19, 2011, 4:17 pm
It’s strange when you put something out there on the internet and realize that sometimes, people happen to be paying attention. Because it’s most important to do anything you do on the internet first for your own personal edification or entertainment, sometimes it’s a bit of a surprise to reme...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Sep 7, 2011, 11:47 pm
From Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest Caveat: Coarse language ahead. Back in 1650, Thomas Fuller once mused that “It is always darkest just before the Day dawneth.” The meaning is simply to suggest that after circumstances are at their worst, circumstances tend to get better. Of course, this sim...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Sep 1, 2011, 10:26 pm
Posts I want to write: -Reflections on the 20SB Summit -Reflections on Vlog Every Day in August 2011 -Getting back into blogging after the month hiatus Things preventing me from writing these posts: -The freelancer scramble -Intermittent instances of mild depression -Self awareness vs. existe...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Aug 3, 2011, 11:24 pm
In Nerdfighteria, there's an annual day celebrating a fellow nerdfighter named Esther, who passed away due to cancer. Her wish was that on her birthday, people would tell those that they love that they love them. While I would like to honor this because I support the nerdfighter community, my famil...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Aug 2, 2011, 4:11 am
Not like I've been really religious lately with blogging, but I'm doing the deep-dive again and making videos for the month of August over on my YouTube Channel. It would mean a lot to me if you followed along on this batshit crazy journey! I say "batshit crazy" because there are 80+ registered part...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Jul 18, 2011, 12:14 pm
They say to "march to the beat of your own drum" to celebrate individualism. While I have no qualms about this suggesting uniqueness in personality, when it comes to career as a freelancer, I'm finding that this proverbial inner-drummer is often fatigued and out of step. Yes, I knew freelancing ...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Jul 1, 2011, 12:00 pm
Shadow Nico: Something wrong? Nico: Just feeling kind of down. Shadow Nico: Ah, geez. This again? Nico: What do you mean by "This again?" Shadow Nico: Don't be coy. You know exactly what I'm talking about, you self-absorbed sad sack. Nico: Dude, harsh. Shadow Nico: Well, who else is going to be this...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Jun 30, 2011, 12:09 pm
It’s the end of June and Summer is about to hit its stride. The June Gloom I had in the previous post is starting to burn off. To be honest, life is still a mess of looming clouds, but it’s starting to show signs of light. One can’t be an Eeyore before too long. Today is Social Media day1, a...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Jun 19, 2011, 10:15 pm
I haven’t been really social on the internet lately. I will be the first to admit that. This is actually a really common saying in blogland, but declaring, “I’ll get around to reading and commenting on everyone’s blogs” is still obligatory even after bloggers in a community know that tha...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Jun 8, 2011, 3:32 am
Feeling down lately. Will return to blogging shortly. Or eventually.
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - May 24, 2011, 12:04 am
It’s kind of a blur, but a warm, fuzzy, blur.
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - May 19, 2011, 3:04 am
It’s that time of the year again, and I’m currently packing for a trip to Vegas for the Bloggers in Sin City event! I went last year and it was nothing short of awesome.
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - May 11, 2011, 7:53 pm
I used to blog more frequently, I recently got used to vlogging, but maybe it’s time I did both.
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Apr 18, 2011, 5:18 pm
So close to a stable living situation. So close. I seem to have screwed up my knee lifting a bunch of heavy things, but at least all of those are out of the way. Oh, what’s that? What does the new apartment look like? Here:
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Apr 4, 2011, 5:34 pm
Yep, doing Vlog Every Day in April. I tried this last August and it nearly changed my life, so why not do it again? Besides, I can kill two birds with one stone by simply posting my videos here. Right? Maybe?
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Mar 25, 2011, 3:51 am
tumult |ˈt(y)oōˌməlt| noun a loud, confused noise, esp. one caused by a large mass of people In the past handful of weeks, I find myself being a lot more outgoing than I had been for the year thus far. Nico of 2010 would have turned down many of these opportunities with a simple “I’m stayi...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Mar 14, 2011, 6:59 am
Setting: Downtown Independent, roof, after a Zaptra show. Nico: “I have to move to the west side.” Jyrki: “What? Nooo! Why?” Nico: “I’m commuting there right now.” Jyrki: “You commute to the west side?” Nico: “Yeah.” Jyrki: “Dude, you have to move!” Nico: “That’s...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Mar 12, 2011, 7:51 pm
Excerpt from Section MR11-12: Reconnect with old colleagues you miss, find a time to meet againGet out and support local musicGet your ass in gear and start writing your own music by finding guidanceChoose a part of town to move to the West Side of LAEstablish habit of visiting 20SB at least once a ...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Mar 3, 2011, 3:53 am
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” -Seneca the Younger I’ve always been careful to not mention too much about work when I blog (that would1 be unprofessional). Mostly, I just say “I’m working.” These days, I’m working on things that are very different than th...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Feb 18, 2011, 7:12 pm
I actually probably shouldn’t talk too much about professional happenings in this post, but fortunately I’ve already set up a water metaphor over the course of the past two posts, and holy Jesus H. Batman, has life thrown me into a flood. Ordinarily, this is a situation of panic for a lot of pe...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Feb 11, 2011, 4:58 am
Floods of Light by Great Skies1 Floods are often an unkind occurrence. Recent events around the world are enough to remind us of this. A flood, even in a proverbial sense, carries negative connotation – by definition, it describes there being too much of something. Something cannot be contained. ...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Jan 31, 2011, 6:24 pm
My coworker asked me a hypothetical question today: Would you rather shit solid gold for an entire year or have $1 million USD given to you in a single moment? Because I work in a Research & Development department, we took this question as more of a challenge than an evaluation of personality. Wha...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Jan 25, 2011, 9:58 am
I know I might say it a lot, and here I am saying again that I am about to have a lot to do. This isn’t complaining, it’s documenting this event for me to be able to read and remember later.1 For foreshadowing, this entry is being posted after a night of skipped sleep and right around 2 liters o...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Jan 14, 2011, 5:00 am
Initially, connecting my recent bout with a downer of a mucous-ridden sickness didn’t fit in with this blog’s running joke 1 of me being a robot. However, it is convenient that there are bugs2, and there are bugs3. So there you go. This robot got a bug. More to the point, something occurred to ...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Jan 2, 2011, 4:10 pm
I didn’t ever think I’d be a person who blogs in an airport, but here I am at SFO doing exactly that. I feel like I should write something profound to justify me expending battery life here in public, but I really don’t. I have learned that while I do like to think deeply, that putting on ai...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Dec 13, 2010, 7:26 pm
Quick post today, and it’s as follows: While I’ve been enjoying everyone’s #Reverb10 posts and thoughts, I couldn’t help but think about the musician’s definition of reverb, which is specifically “the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed.” Tha...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Dec 2, 2010, 7:20 am
If you haven’t heard from me in a while, it’s not because I’ve been preparing for an undead apocalypse as well as a good reason to use the word “cockamamie” in a post title. With how many zombie-based video games and a (really fucking good) TV miniseries based on its eponymous comic book,...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Nov 15, 2010, 2:54 pm
[photo credit: Evan D. Stiles] I’ve conversed at length with my friends here in LA and many of my interweb pals about my outright dismissal of romance in my own life. It turns out I have a serious case of walls. Wait, let’s take a step back. I need to frame this post. I’m seeing a lot of ba...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Nov 10, 2010, 4:58 pm
Yep, local bands. You might know someone in one. It’s likely that if you live in an area where things like guitars and drum kits and pianos are somewhat accessible, you at least know a local musician. You might be one. Chances are, if you’re reading this, you know me or at least you get the gen...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Nov 9, 2010, 7:33 pm
…yep, still alive. Barely, but alive. More cryptic stuff (à la ‘fork’ from previous posts):
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Oct 27, 2010, 9:00 pm
I’m okay, but things are going to be quiet here for a bit. Lots of energy spent on many projects. Want to return to internetting. Will probably shoot more video so that I remember living in a whirlwind. Also, easily distrac
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Oct 21, 2010, 8:48 pm
Around this time last year, I was visited by my Muse. The year before that, I attended a video game / music magazine networking event. This year is different. Upon her return to Los Angeles this last weekend, one of my DJ friends identified that one of the reasons she was going crazy in her previo...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Oct 18, 2010, 6:56 pm
Dear Mom, As I am now an adult, I finally realize what you were scheming with how you raised me. You were strict so that I’d learn discipline, diligence, the importance of character quality, and the reward of hard work. You let me be a nerd who stayed up late at night on a computer because thos...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Oct 13, 2010, 8:45 pm
Around this time last year, I questioned perspective and karma. The year before that, I was almost sent to another city for a week and had to abort mission before I got to the airport. This year is different. Sadly, I can’t really reveal anything about where I am currently. Some bloggers know w...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Oct 8, 2010, 3:19 am
While the quote from the post title should refer specifically to The Six Million Dollar Man, I’m rather referring to this blog. Not that I think it’s worth any more money than as much as I spend to host it, which is certainly not six million dollars, but I wanted to quote the catch-phrase verbat...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Oct 1, 2010, 5:35 am
Fuck. Well, like I might have mentioned this before I broke my blog beyond repair, this blog / site has always had the primary function of being a test area for experimentation in web development. If you want to make an omelette, you gotta break a few eggs. Of course, there is some remorse in me ...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Sep 29, 2010, 10:30 am
I’m not sure if anyone noticed, but I broke my blog yesterday. Obviously, now it’s functioning again, but I’m going to have to start making gradual improvements from a more “from scratch” state than I had intended when I stated picking apart the code yesterday. This i...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Sep 27, 2010, 3:31 pm
Communicate You’ll be surprised how much better you can feel to hear someone simply say, “That sucks.” No, really. -n
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Sep 23, 2010, 4:34 pm
It only occurs to me recently that when I was asked over drinks, “So, where do you blog?” that I was being asked what my URL is. When I responded sincerely, albeit somewhat confused, “I blog on… the internet,” I learned to be thankful that I have friends like Andrea, wh...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Sep 21, 2010, 8:07 pm
I’ve been trying to think of a way to make my way back into the blog world while painting myself in a light that speaks to how much inspiration, diligence, and outright manic depression that has draped over my September, but as I’ve been out of commission for a bit, this obviously didn&#...
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Nico del Castillo posted an article on Nicopolitan - Sep 1, 2010, 7:16 pm
Dear blog, I think I’ve become a vlogger. This doesn’t change how I intend to keep you, try to foster you, keep your software updated, and let you be my unifying voice on the interwebs. I know I took a break from you during the month of August in the interest of what turned out to be ...
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