Wednesday, July 14, 2010

VidCon Day One, Part One:


I'm not going to record every awesome moment here - that would just be mean.  Instead, I'm going to try to make this concise (the first paragraph after this fails - sorry) and keep the rest of this in a journal somewhere. You don't need all the gory details.  

So after staying up way too late watching Twilight: Eclipse, I woke up around 7:30 to shower, wash my hair, and pack my bag.  For the record, I got about 4.5 hours of sleep that night.  This will become more important as these posts go on, trust me.  Around 9:40 I picked up my carpool buddy and off we went to VidCon.  The drive was about an hour long, so we got to talk a little bit.  Apparently she's kind of a big deal with the higher-ups at http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/ and had friends who went to Disneyland with Charlie McDonnell the day before.  Yeah, she's kind of connected.  It was really cool listening to her talk about her experiences with the online community - she really inspired me to follow in her footsteps.

We arrived.  She had places to go - she got recruited to help out by her friends - so after registering, getting my badge, and picking up my VidCon bag with my shirt and various goodies, I was alone at VidCon.  At first, I was a little overwhelmed.  This wasn't helped by the fact that within about two minutes of arriving I saw this guy:


and this guy:


just standing out in the lobby area in real life and 3D.

Now I'll admit, I've never actually watched Chocolate Rain all the way through, but that was one of the early defining videos of YouTube.  That guy is legend.  The second video, though, that's one of my all-time favorites.  I used to have it memorized (probably still do).  I knew that video well enough that I remembered that the guy who made it is named Corey Vidal even though I hadn't seen it in months.  In fact, when my friend heard the video playing out of another friend's room back in winter, she knew instantly that I was responsible.  That's how much I love this video.  So when I saw a familiar-looking tall guy hanging out in the lobby area of the conference and then suddenly realized who he was, I may have goggled slightly.  When he looked over and caught me staring, I got supremely embarrassed and couldn't work up the courage to talk to him for the rest of the day.  

I did, however, see someone who I had not heard was going to be there.  One of the very first people I was ever exposed to on YouTube.  One of my original YouTube idols, you might say.  If you know me, you probably know him from this video:


Hell yeah.  Joe Bereta (the one with the beard in the video.  Sadly, I never found Luke, but apparently he was totally there.  Argh).  I walked up to him and told him how much I loved his videos and how big "Bible in a Minute" was at my high school.  He seemed genuinely happy to talk to me.  I even got his autograph.  And that, my friends, was when VidCon's awesome began to fully manifest.

I'm going to cut the story off here for now because it's already way too long.  To be continued tomorrow.

***

Now onto non-VidCon related items.

Finally, I would like to point out that I can't hold any of you responsible for not subscribing to my YouTube channel, as it was apparently on private.  However, I can hold you accountable for not figuring this out and telling me.  Now a stranger in the Nerdfighters chat room gets the privilege of being my first subscriber.  

My new camera arrived today and I know exactly what I want my first few videos to be.  Well, almost exactly.  It's going to require a bit of scripting, but I think I've laid the groundwork for a YouTube series, at least in the notes I've taken in the spare seconds I find during work.  I love the title I came up with, too.  I just hope it comes out as I envision it and that other people find it worth watching.  I really think it has potential, after I spend a few episodes ironing the wrinkles out.  I'll get to do two things I love - be informative and entertain people.  The only reasons I'm not filming right now is that my cold in combination with my slowly receding acne attack make me look like Rudolph after acupunture gone horribly wrong.  

Also, I haven't ordered the ukulele yet, but it still seems like a likely thing to happen.  Can't remember if I've already written this, but I figure the worst thing that happens is I can't songwrite/sing to save my life and I end up still knowing how to play ukulele.  

SHAMELESS PLUG http://www.youtube.com/tropegirl SHAMELESS PLUG

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