Thursday, March 31, 2011

Oh hai

Way back in 2003, a friend of mine gave me a code to join LiveJournal, back when it was an invite only site. That site opened up so many doors for me and was a release. I ranted, I praised, I wrote about completely random and silly things.. it was my outlet and one that I used practically religiously up until about December 2009 when I just stopped. I don't know what caused me to stop writing, it was like the urge to just write just left me... and it's an urge that I would like to have back.

I'm going to say this now, I'm not going to censor myself. I believe that was one of the fears I had when I started this blog and why I haven't posted very much, but ya know what.. oh well. I'm just going to let it out, like I used to and take it as is.

So this past weekend, was Playlist Live as I said in my last post. It was an incredibly fun weekend, with a few hiccups along the way which I could of done with out. I like having fun, and I like not worrying about how other people are. Call it selfish, but I'm not a fan of feeling like I have this cloud over my head of worrying about how someone is when I'm trying to have fun. In the end though, it basically worked itself out, but there's still that slight bitter taste that was left over.

Moving on, I met a lot of awesome people while there, one being Corey Vidal who was the one person I really wanted to meet. The kid rocks and his videos are epic. Yes, I have to admit, I may have inwardly fan girled a bit, but I believe I did a decent job in keeping my cool.

Mr. Vidal and I

After running around a little bit, a bunch of us went and watched Mike Lombardo play. It was the first time I ever saw him live in concert, and damn does that kid have talent and when he played "You Should Know." Yeah... I teared up.

Go go, Mike

Then there was the random show that Alex, Jason and Jimmy threw on outside in the courtyard which was extremely fun. It was pretty cool to just sit down outside and enjoy the music. Very relaxing. I believe after that we went to the pool which was pretty fun (and slightly awkward...some eyes know what I'm talking about). The pool was flat out beautiful and sadly I don't really have a pic right now since I didn't want to bring my camera down for fear of it getting stolen or what not. Either way, the pool had a slide and yes, my friend Jill and I acted like little kids and went on the slide. So much fun! I ended up accidentally kneeing a kid in the back when I entered the pool, but it was partially his fault since he wasn't moving away from the drop zone fast enough... silly kid.

Then I met up with Craig for a bit, who remembered me from Alan's house, plus other random people while a few of my friends went to the partner meeting. :-d

Craig and I

Oh hai, Dave Days

Can I just say that meeting Joe (MysteryGuitarMan) rocked?

Insert random things happening here before heading off to watch Driftless Pony Club. Holy crap. They rocked. Seriously. The sound was amazing, they were amazing, I have never heard such a perfect concert in my life. It was just... wow. It blew me away. As well as my ear drums since I was next to the speaker... *rubs ear*

Borrowing Travis' camera since mine was dead :(

After DPC, we ran and grabbed some food at the food court and got myself a hot dog and paid nearly 7 bucks for it. 7 bucks! But I have to say, that hot dog was the size of a Star Destroyer, no joke. I was practically full with one bite. Wish I had picture of that, but there's video, so just wait till I actually get that taken care of..

Saturday night was a mixture of fun and well, ugh. As already discussed in a previous post, there was a VIP party that nearly lasted all night. I was pretty miffed and felt extremely left out, which doesn't help since I have a hard enough time fitting into certain social settings as is. Oh well. 

Back tracking just a bit though, Lizzie and I finally had a chance to jam together outside in the small courtyard where the "surprise" show occurred. It was pretty fun, but at the same time, I wasn't my best and a part of me was a little miffed that people were talking when I was playing, yet when Lizzie played, everybody paid attention. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother playing guitar and sing in the first place since my talent is so so. Aw well. Either way, it was fun. Craig came over with some shirts, which he handed out to us which was pretty awesome and Dennis, a fan of mine, came out to watch. He was shy and didn't introduce himself till Sunday, which I thought was sweet.

Afterward we went up to Raquel and Lizzie's room and hung out and was later joined by Alex, Jason and Jimmy and then followed by Corey. 

A very blurry pic of Alex and I

Needless to say, I didn't go to bed till about 5am and ended up waking up at 7. Playlist started late, and I have a feeling it was because of all the partying from the night before, which I don't blame them for. The day was pretty low key and not as fast paced as it was on Saturday. I spent the day mostly running around and saying hi and introducing myself to random people, plus I got recognized a few times, which was pretty humbling and fun. Dennis, a gentleman who follows me on twitter and youtube, whom I mentioned earlier, came over and introduced himself to me. It was so sweet and I was incredibly flattered at how shy he was to say Hi to me. I told him that I'd like to think I'm a very approachable person, and next time not to be scared to say Hi. So he took a picture with me and we went on our way.

All Caps finished off the weekend with their show and around 7:30 or so, we made our way back to the house where Travis slept for nearly 13 hours and I didn't go to bed till about midnight.

Monday was the day everybody went home. Travis and I went and picked up Karen from the hotel and drove her to the airport and came home, and a few hours later and after some confusion about his flight, I drove Travis to the airport. 

It was sad to see everybody go home, but at the same time, it was a small weight off my shoulders. I love being around people and I love hosting guests, but at the same time, after a while I get a little over whelmed and having some me time again was nice. 

Tomorrow is the start of April and I'm thinking about doing BEDA. I'll be with out a camera for a few weeks since there's a defect that needs to be sent back for, so VEDA is out of the question, though I am tempted to do August Eeks again.. but we'll see since that was incredibly stressful.

Yep.. 

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Playlist Live

The days are blurred, I'm running on about 3 hours of sleep, and the epic times have yet to finish. Playlist Live so far has turned into one of the greatest weekends of my life, and I've only experienced the first day of the two day convention.

It all started out with waking up at 6am so everybody who was staying at my house could be ready on time and at 7:30, made our way over to the hotel which is only about 10 minutes +/- away from me. We checked into our amazing room and then checked into the convention. I have to say, a lot of is was incredibly surreal and when 10am hit, it was gogogo non-stop awesome. I had a chance to meet up with some incredible youtubers, and even make some friends along the way, which is exciting. 

My only issue with Playlist so far is the VIP party that they held. I have a VIP pass and a skip the line bracelet, yet in order to get into the party, you had to be invited and have a wrist band, when there was a sign that said "VIP Party". Very misleading. I wasn't very impressed with that, since the dance party they had for everybody else only lasted about an hour, if that and the VIP party lasted into god knows what time. I was disappointed, because here I thought Playlist was going to level the playing field and make everybody feel equal and welcome, and then they go and hold a party with extra quirks that the little guy can't attend and is made to feel left out.

Wow, after re-reading that, it sounds like I'm being a jealous child who can't go to little Johnny's party down the street, yet at the same time, I paid extra to have a VIP pass, yet the only thing it does is jump lines..I was kind of expecting a little more out of that. I'm sorry, but I'm friends with nearly half of the youtubers here, so going to the meetups and either waiting in line or using my pass to jump it is pretty worthless. 

At some point there will be video of this entire weekend... so far I believe I've taken over 10gigs worth of video/pictures.. yeah.. That new camera is getting a work out.

Alright, thoughts are getting scattered and Day 2 is upon us. Oi...