OH MY GOD LONDON

As most of you are aware, I went to London last weekend for a YouTube gathering (which was totally awesome, but can best be summarized by this video:

).  

I just put a video in a parenthetical remark.  How weird is that?

It just so happened that the night I got in, 3/4 of the band formerly known as Sons of Admirals (according to Michael Aranda, it's complicated) did a gig 5 minutes from my hostel.  It was awesome, and I managed to get video footage of it all (if you aren't interested, just scroll down.  There's more blog after the videos, though the concert was quite good and you should be watching all three performers on YouTube - they are really awesome).  The gig in order is as follows:

I managed to talk to Alex Day and Eddplant after the show, and they were really nice, as is typical of big name YouTubers (this is why the YouTube community is awesome, guys).  I was also fortunate enough to meet up with some YouTubers named Ali (RogueBlueJay) and Austin (outofthedark) before the concert, and we hung out with Michael Aranda for a few minutes afterward.  Most of you might not understand why you should care about these random people named Alex Day, Eddplant, and Michael Aranda, but just know that they are really respected and admired within the YouTube community.

So Saturday was the YouTube gathering, as I mentioned before, which was fun, but mostly just involved a bunch of YouTubers hanging out, playing with iPads in a Mac Store, and making lip-sync videos with less than 20 minutes prep time (see above).  

Sunday I went on a walking tour of London in the morning and then I went to the Science Museum in the afternoon with some YouTubers before catching the train home in the evening.  Here's a picture of the museum gang:

Remember that Michael Aranda fellow I mentioned before?  Yeah, he was there, and I was really impressed that over the course of the three hours I spent with the group he didn't demonstrate any signs of an over-inflated ego or act in any way like he was better than us. Austin and Ali were also there, along with several other great people who I was simply too lazy to tag in Paint.  Sorry.  :(

The Science Museum was great.  Michael and Ali and I worked on solving a "build a bridge out of blocks" puzzle for about 20 minutes, with occasional assistance from Austin.  A girl who was maybe 8 years old joined in to help about 10 minutes in.  She then solved it within a minute (maybe two) of the rest of us giving up.  That hurt.  

Well, that's probably enough information for now.  Needless to say, that was one of the best weekends of my life.  VidCon 2010 was better, but I plan on having the very best weekend of my life in 4.5 months at VidCon 2011!  I've booked all the tickets and everything.  And this time I'll actually know people there!  :D

Here is the important conclusion: Between my loving family, my awesome (non-YouTube) friends, my incredible summer job researching HIV in Seattle, my amazing opportunity to study and travel abroad, and the fantastic YouTube community, I have the best life in the world.  Bar none. 

Ali: http://www.youtube.com/user/RogueBlueJay

Austin: http://www.youtube.com/user/outofthedark

Michael Aranda: http://www.youtube.com/user/michaelaranda

The Concert Peformers:

Eddplant: http://www.youtube.com/user/eddplant

Alex Day: http://www.youtube.com/user/nerimon

Tom Milsom: http://www.youtube.com/user/hexachordal