Last year, We Blog, We Vlog celebrated Penguin Awareness Day by vlogging about a journey we would be undertaking in 2011.  Well, we’re going to do that again.  And we want you to participate!

Here’s How:
1. Dress in black and white (like a penguin) and record a vlog about a difficult journey you will be undertaking this year (like penguin migration).  Aim for less than 3 minutes.
2. Upload your vlog on Penguin Awareness Day (January 20, 2012–FRIDAY).
3. Use the hashtags #PAD12 and #WBWV.
4. Watch and comment on the videos of other participants.
5.  Ask Nico or Ashley if you have questions.

More details at We Blog, We Vlog

We are hosting a little vlog event at We Blog, We Vlog today.  The topic is to make a video for a time capsule that will be opened in 20 years.  What do you want the people who open it to know about life in 2011?  If you don’t want to listen to me talk for four minutes, the title gives away how I feel about my life/the world.

I would really like to see your face, so consider participating.  Details here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7f0OOWGK2Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpzXyiOg-Ho

Encouraging people to vlog is kind of my thing.  So here’s the why and how of continuing to vlog even after 20sb Vlog Day is over.  If you have questions about getting more involved, let me know.

Key
20sb – Twenty Something Bloggers (find me here).
We Blog, We Vlog – A Community of 20sb Vloggers (site under construction).
VEDA – Vlog Every Day in August (you should totes participate this August).
Love Your Faces – phrase of affection used among vloggers, because we see each other’s face.

Find My Videos
YouTube Channel
Collab Channel
Video Where I Actually Introduce Myself

Nico: Nicopolitan/ @nicopolitan/ YouTube
Pham: Phampants/ @phampants/ YouTube

We Blog, We Vlog Members
Amber/ Everything I’m Not/ @amberhaas411/ YouTube
Ashley/ Ashalah/ @ashalahblogs/ YouTube
Ashley/ Ashley As Aurora/ @AshleyD/ YouTube
Bri/ Habbala/ @Habbala/ YouTube
Danielle/ Wonju Wife/ @WonjuWife/ YouTube
Edwin/ YouTube
Heather/ Musings of a Girl/ @Yesthatgirl/ YouTube
Ian/ @dutchface/ YouTube
Jaime/ Jaime 2.0/ @SillyJaime/ YouTube
Karen/ Staying Sunny/YouTube
Linda/ Curious Notions/ @curious_notions / YouTube
Nicole/ Nicole Marie Says/ @NicoleMarieSays/ YouTube
Tabitha/ Probably Tabitha/ @probablytabitha/ YouTube
Treavioli / treavioli.com/ @treavioli/ YouTube

You can view all 2011 VEDA participants here.

You know how a few weeks ago I was talking about how much I love the Five Awesome Gays?  Well, early last week Treavor suggested that maybe we start a You Tube collaboration of our own.  In truth, this is not the first time I’ve considered this, but somehow things just came together and today I am happy to announce that Ashley, Linda, Bri, Nicole, and I are launching our own vlogging collaboration channel.

I realize that you’re not all dedicated YouTubers like I am, so let me tell you what it is we’re doing here.  In the first place, we’re not entirely sure.  It’s a project we hope will evolve over time.  But, we plan to treat it like most collaboration channels where we each will have a regular day of the week to vlog.  Most weeks we will have a theme, but some weeks we’ll just be vlogging about what we’re up to.  The point is to interact with each other and, well, hopefully you too!

Collaboration channels are a lot of fun.  Subscribe to one channel and get five vloggers!  You can find me on the Totes Awesome Channel on Mondays.  In fact, here is my first vlog!  I could write a novel about how awesome each one of the other girls participating is, but I’m going to leave you to find out on your own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdIBfQkjQT4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdSWkMreGYY

I mean, obviously I’m not that ashamed.  Love your faces.  Have a great weekend!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayxz-VPfb2c

The original list of 100 is on my About Page.  Today I completed my arbitrary goal (that only I knew about) to blog Monday through Friday for a month.  Uh, victory?  I guess I wanted to know I could still do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7YIUY_GUH8

April is almost over, so this is the last of the VEWA videos.  I’m tempted to keep vlogging once a week, because vlogging is insanely fun and all, and I have always meant to do it regularly.  I’m not sure if I’ll do that or not, but I will definitely be participating in Vlog Every Day in August (VEDA) again.  Can’t wait!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6P3qVSXAlk

A limited look at my week. Here’s my previous Week in the Life from October 2009.  Love your faces!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrEwqsrwTkc

It’s week two of Vlog Every Week in April (#VEWA) and I’m talking about my secret dreams.  The blog post I mention is this one.  The New Yorker article I mention is available here (if you become a fan of them on facebook). Favorite podcasts by comedians: WTF with Marc Maron and The Nerdist Podcast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3UQU-AILhc

We made it happen in August, but April is actually the original VEDA month.  I’ll have to hold off until August to vlog every day, but for April, I will be vlogging every week (VEWA).  There are no set topics, but if you need some ideas, I would check out Linda’s videos (also, she’s awesome).  Today I’m talking about the things that bring me comfort.  So, I don’t know, maybe you should do the same.

VEDA became We Blog, We Vlog.  Then we kind of disappeared for a while, but we still love to vlog, so we’re back.  And we’re all about the penguins.  January 20th is Penguin Awareness Day.

Nico had the idea to celebrate this day by vlogging about a difficult journey we’re each undertaking this year.  I’m not comparing my goal of flossing more to penguin migration, but . . . okay, wait, I might be doing that.¹  Watch and you’ll see.

If you want to participate or learn about future vlog events, join the We Blog, We Vlog site.  I promise we’re very nice.  Those people I spent NYE in SF with were all VEDA participants.

Look, I even dressed in black and white like a penguin for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lclwSUOQSQg

1. Yes, I did just use ellipses.

This is your friendly reminder that I will be vlogging every day in August.  Except, I won’t be doing it alone.  Somehow I picked up another 19 people.  You can find them all here.  We’d appreciate your support this month.

Here’s what I left out of my first VEDA vlog: just about everything.  That’s the awesome and terrible thing about vlogging.  I talked for four and a half minutes, which was a minute longer than I intended to talk, and yet I didn’t say half of what I planned.  I think it’s about time I teach myself the fine art of the jump cut.

In every video, I intend to talk a bit about what’s going on with me and then move on to a topic.  I didn’t get a chance to say that I’m sorry I wasn’t around for #winetoreach, but I had a great time last night with friend to me for the last 11 years and friend to the blog since I told her about it in late 2008, Lisa, who is leaving today first for DC and then to Paris.  Even though I’ve known about this trip forever, I was somehow surprised when she said she was leaving today.  I don’t know who I’m going to talk nonsense with via facebook message all day.

Now to the vlog, which is brought to you by 2.5 hours of restless sleep.  I won’t be posting most of the vlogs here, but this is the first and also seems significant to my life, which is what this blog is about if it’s about anything.  If you want to watch future VEDA vlogs, subscribe to my YouTube Channel or just watch for the links on twitter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shIn0NQtF50

Things I mention in this video: Ze’s “Busting the Cycle” and my old post “Breaking the Cycle.”

Let me just start with the number one reason you should vlog: it’s really fun.  That’s something I learned the very first time I gave it a try.  My exact words: “I think I’m going to be doing this vlogging thing, because–er, at least once in while–because I just tried it and oh my gosh, it’s a blast.”

Talking to a camera is incredibly awkward, but it is also such a rush.  I write quickly, but I still edit heavily as I go.  I try words out, rearrange sentences, delete, cut, copy, and paste.  Vlogging is much more spontaneous.  For an always deliberate person like me, it’s exciting to see what I will come up with on the spot.

A second reason to vlog is that it’s a different medium.  People have told me that I speak the way I write, but I think seeing me speak is different from reading my words.  I say different things, I make strange faces, I emphasize words I’d never put in italics, and I laugh at myself.  There’s this whole element of performance.  You could say the same thing about writing (it too is a performance), but the two are so different.  If you’re looking for a new outlet, vlogging is worth a try.

A third reason to vlog is that it gives people a better sense of who you are.  I know we’re all here to communicate ourselves and connect to other people, and vlogging is quite possibly an even better tool for that than blogging.  When people see you, they get a better sense of who you are.  They feel like they know you.  Blogs are no doubt better for delving deep, but there’s something that cannot be beat about seeing a person–like you would if they were standing in front of you.  If you read my blog and watch my vlogs, I’m going to have a hard time surprising you when we meet in person.  Unless you think I’m short.

I love to vlog for all the reasons above, but I’ve always felt quite aimless at it.  I don’t know what to vlog about or how to integrate it into what I’m doing here.  I tell myself just to focus on writing, but I like the rush of vlogging.  About a week ago I decided it would be cool to vlog every day for a month.  If I don’t do it in August, I won’t have time again until next June (that’s depressing).  I thought, yes! And then, no! And then in a waffling moment, I tweeted about it.  @phampants said he’d been considering doing something like VEDA (which originally meant Vlog Every Day in April, but works for August too) and we decided to go for it.

Here’s the deal: I want to see you vlog, if you don’t already.  Obviously you don’t have to vlog every day in August (though we’d be overjoyed if you joined us), but if you just did it once, that would be awesome.  If you’re not sure what to vlog about, maybe reply to one of my videos or adopt a topic that Pham and I talk about.  If you don’t know how to record or upload a video, it’s really easy and I can help.  Consider your first vlog a favor to me.  I’ll owe you a drink.

If vlogging is not your thing and this post did nothing to convince you otherwise, it would still be really awesome if you could support me through the month of August.  I won’t be posting all the videos here, so the best thing to do is subscribe to my YouTube channel.  I’ll tweet out the links as well.  I plan to keep the videos short, talk for a bit about what’s going on with me, and then talk about some kind of subject. If you want to interact or suggest a topic, that would be double extra awesome.

This is probably not the last time I will try to convince you to vlog, so keep resisting if you must, but I’ll get to you eventually.  I do have a history of winning people over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPCwxvqgngg

I don’t advocate driving while vlogging.  It was a lot more difficult than my favorite vloggers make it look!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50EK0bnRQto

A little experiment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx3CV7gNnmU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxKwxU0TiEA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrd6fw-GQ_M

This is me talking for 7+ minutes about books and reading and stuff.  Here are the Cliff Notes if you don’t have the time or interest to watch the whole thing.

• I didn’t get into reading when I was really young, but when I got the bug in middle school, it hit hard.  I devoured anything I could find.  I later majored in literature in college, thinking I would like to teach English.
• I don’t have the appropriate appreciation for classic literature.  I am a shame to my fellow lit majors.   Reading, to me, is about enjoyment, and I haven’t always enjoyed classic literature.
• The more you read, the less you’ve read.
• They say that writers should read a lot.  They are right.  When you stop reading, the instinct you have for writing, for how dialogue sounds, and how words flow starts to fade.
• As I’ve admitted before, I don’t read nearly as much as I used to.  I barely read fiction at all.
• Nothing has affected the way I read fiction more than writing my own.  It’s made me much more critical of other writers and much more forgiving as well.
• I say that Catch 22 is funny, I talk up Stephenie Meyer, and I hate on My Sister’s Keeper.
• Add in some goofy faces and a few too many “um”s, and you get the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqAVMSE0QiA

I recorded this vlog before heading out for a night of drinking with some friends who are leaving town.  So, I missed Justin on SNL, because I was out being way less cool than him.  But, no worries, because on my way home, a song of his came on the radio.  Of course.  Damn you, Justin Timberlake!  I mean, the guy was in a freaking boy band.  How is he cool?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8GDAgyuyUM

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