I recently linked a 12Seconds.tv account to my twitter account. For those of you who don’t know, with 12Seconds, you create, you guessed it, 12 second videos! They have all sorts of challenges and contests and cool things you can do with your precious 12 seconds. I haven’t used it that much yet (I admit it would be a lot more fun if I had an iPhone instead of my ghetto 5 year old phone), but from what I can tell it has a lot of potential! We’ve even got a 12Seconds account for Live! From the Future, where I’ll be posting the show…in 12 seconds.

Getting back to the upcoming holiday…I got the 12Seconds newsletter today and heard about “The Boob Fund Challenge.” Take a second and let your imagination wander with that one.

OK, the actual fund is a great Mother’s Day project started by Dude to Dad. His wife, Amy, recently gave birth to their first child and will be celebrating her first Mother’s Day as a mother herself. Amy’s mother, Vicki, was diagnosed with breast cancer while pregnant. She refused to give up her child to save herself, and after fighting the disease for a year after Amy was born, Vicki passed away.

Listen to Hugh’s Story:

As a tribute, he’s started the campaign for “The Bood Fund” to raise $30,000 for breast cancer research, $1000 for every year of Amy’s life. He’s using social media to make the cause a reality and wants to get Ellen Degeneres’ attention.

Share your Mom’s story in 12Seconds and tweet it back to @theellenshow! It’s really simple, here’s mine:
@theellenshow Mrs. Dude’s Boob Fundraiser – My Mom’s Story on 12seconds.tv

I’ve been hearing about The Streamy Awards for the past couple of months. For those not immersed in web culture, The Streamys, hosted by Tilzy.TV, Tubefilter, and NewTeeVee, are basically meant to be for web shows, what the Emmys are to TV, the Grammys are to music, the Oscars are to movies…I think you get it, but I like analogies.

In the last few weeks I’d become more familiar with a few nominees and their shows after contacting them about coming on Live! From the Future. Two weeks ago we had Taryn Oneill from After Judgment, last week we had Rachel Risen of The Hayley Project, and tomorrow we’ve got Jeff Macpherson, Dr. Tiki himself, of TikiBarTV!

As I kept checking in with the Streamy’s website, reading blog posts about the upcoming event, and explaining what it all was to my parents a few times, I thought it would be great to go and cover the event, especially with one of TheStream.TV’s show, Monkey News Source nominated for an award. That idea sort of fell through, but on Saturday I got a call that The Bui Brothers could use an extra person to help out with the official photography. I threw on a dress and drove out to the Wadsworth Theater!

I have to say it was a fabulous celebration of web television, and it was great to be a part of it! While I wasn’t able to catch much of the show, I did get to meet all the winners and presenters when Lan took their pictures, post-win excitement! Doogie Howser aka Neil Patrick Harris signed my clip board. tee hee hee

As a new media noob, I felt a little bit as if I was crashing a party I didn’t belong at, or jumping on the bandwagon for a team that just made it to the world series after years of losing seasons. My metaphors probably suck, but I guess my point is, that while it was great to be a part of, it made me wish I was really in the world.

I do have one foot in, and I don’t want this to seem like a downer post. I guess what it really did was enlighten me to the growing and quickly changing world of new media. The great thing about it is that its still open to all. Still trying to see where I would fit into the fray, but thinking about it too much tends to give me a headache.

Got lots of new shows to start watching and now I’m inspired! Must make time to video blog. Must be creative. Do it. That is my inner-monologue chanting.

Some enjoyable and thought provoking reads/watches: Mary Rambin’s event coverage, Tilzy TV’s recap, Kent Nichols’ thoughts and ensuing debate. And check out all the awesome photos by the Bui Brothers!

A few weeks ago, about to give up on my job search, which mainly involved an addiction to twitter, craigslist queries, and linked-in connections, I struck gold! As anyone who has been following my blog for the past few months would know, I’ve been desperately seeking experience in new media — mainly in online video production.

About two days before I stumbled upon a Tubefilter tweet about a New Media Jobs Board they’d launched, I had read a mashable post about using social media to find a job. I was already doing most of the things they suggested so I just keep plugging along.

Used to sending out cover letters an resumes and getting no response, I sent in a quick email to a post seeking new media interns to work for an online TV station. It seemed like exactly what I’d been searching for and I wasn’t disappointed!

After a brief phone call and a visit to the studio for a live taping, Stuart brought me on as his Associate Producer mainly to help out with cutting highlight reels, managing online marketing efforts, and booking guests for LIVE! From the Future… with Stuart Paap which tapes and airs on the TheStream.TV every Tuesday from 8-9PM PST.

In a nutshell, the show is a live, streaming, interactive, future-leaning, comedy talk-show featuring unique guests and segments. The coolest part is because it’s live, viewers can become a part of the show via instant message and chat rooms. Having recently celebrated the 100th Episode, Stuart decided it was time to enlist some help. A collaborative effort always makes things better.

After working on the show for 3 weeks, I’ve now been promoted to Producer! Talk about making progress! Overall its a really exciting opportunity and I’m relishing in the chance to gain so much relevant experience in what I think is the future of TV and the Internet.

Make sure to tune in Tuesdays at 8PM to check out funny bits, cool guests, and a creatively produced show! If you’re on IM, add ‘thestreamdottv’ to your buddy list and chime in with a question/comment! Stay tuned for the coming youtube channel, facebook group, and show website which I’ll be working on.

The Cast– Host: Stuart Paap, Music: John Fulton, IM Girl: Jessie Schneiderman

The new spacious studio! It’s legit!

Photo Credit to Hogan Carter

I boarded my Southwest flight home from Portland last night, number 56 of the A boarding group. I grabbed the first window seat I could find and got settled in for the non-direct flight through Oakland that would eventually take me back to Orange County. Hey, you can’t complain about layovers when it’s a free flight.

One of the interesting things about air travel is you never know who you might wind up sitting next to. You always hope it will be some really cute, interesting, and funny person with whom you will instantly strike up a conversation. You will have great chemistry, fall in love, and have a great story of how you met. I myself have never had this experience despite having been on 20 flights in the past year. Oh well, we all have our dreams.

I’m getting off topic, back to this specific flight. I did not meet my future husband, but rather a man and his young son were my row-mates for this first leg of my journey south. The little blond haired boy looked to be about 4, but I can’t be sure as he got really shy every time I tried to talk to him.

As they took the center and aisle seat, the flight attendant, fun and friendly as Southwest employees are, commented on the cool police car he was holding onto. Without saying a word, he pulled down the sleeve of his jacket to reveal the police patch on the shoulder of his navy button-up shirt. This little boy was mini-cop. He had a full on police uniform shirt, complete with patches, badges, and the obligatory “POLICE” stenciled across his back. The get-up looked like it was a Halloween costume he’d refused to take off. Not only did he have the attire and the police car, his suitcase was also a giant police car. I took note of the fake badge stickers stuck all over it. Probably collected from police station open houses.

The flight attendant said something along the lines of, “I can bet I know what he is going to be when he grows up.” I smiled to myself and then went back to what I was doing. I sat on the hour flight writing in my journal about my own confusion of growing up, transitioning into the adult would, and trying to decide what it is that I really want to do. I began to question what is it about being a child that makes the question of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” seem like a question with such a simple answer. Everything about this little boy screamed, “The only thing I want to do in life is be a policeman!”

At what point does it get so much more complicated? Or is it really not all that complicated? I seek the sense of excitement that this little boy had in my own career. Maybe that is silly and idealistic, but is that really too much to ask for? Perhaps it is, especially right now, when we are thankful just to have a job. But in the long run of my life, I pray that my path leads to something exciting, fulfilling, and interesting.

As for the boy, I hope he becomes a cop. He’ll probably turn out to be a lawyer or something though.

A few months back I wrote a blog post on Nov 4th, the day Barack Obama was elected to become our 44th president.  Today I write again on inauguration day.  I write to reflect on this moment for myself, to preserve my thoughts to look back on years from now and remember how I felt.  I write to share the emotions I felt today, listening intently as Obama addressed millions.  And I write to respond to this momentous occasion, thrilled to have the opportunity to do so.

It is difficult to put the significance of this day into words, but as President Obama opened his address, humbled, grateful, & mindful, I couldn’t have been more proud.  Those are the virtues of a great leader.

While I enjoyed his speech in its entirety, there were a few moments that really hit me.  I was particularly happy to hear him renew the sense of American values on which this country was founded, equality, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness.  As he proclaimed, “The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness,” I wanted to jump up and cheer.

His speech wasn’t all grand rhetoric and generalities, which is what made it real and timely.  He never tried to downplay the tasks that lie ahead for fixing what is broken in America.  He did do what he is so good at though, and that is being hopeful.  Making it all seem possible.  And not because of some miracle that he was going to bring, but because we as individuals, as American citizens, have the power to come together like so many have before us.  In his words,

Our challenges may be new, the instruments with which we meet them may be new, but those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old.

What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.

Listening to those words I don’t know how you couldn’t feel hopeful and proud to be an American.  I love quotes, especially inspirational ones, and as I took in the inaugural address there were many phrases that touched me, but the one that stood out most was this:

America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more.

A country that leads through peace and dignity is one I am happy to be a citizen of.