streamcon nyc + november 2015 announcements

I have two things to talk about in this blog post: my experiences at StreamCon NYC and November announcements for this channel.

I'll talk about StreamCon first. I initially planned on going on both Saturday and Sunday into NYC for the convention but my dad and I were so physically exhausted from Saturday's event that we didn't go Sunday. Keep in mind I had to wake up at 5:30 AM on Halloween and I haven't woken up that early since my college days. Then my dad and I left the house around 7:15 AM, drove 60 minutes west to my Grandpa's house in Queens, and took two subways to the Javits Center in Manhattan. Then we had to repeat that commute to go home We didn't get home until 5:30 PM that day.

I didn't go Friday either because I had a backlog of videos to upload. Even if I was caught up with my videos I still wouldn't have been be able to go that day as my grandma that lives downstairs needs my dad to give her medicine every night. My dad doesn't feel comfortable allowing me in NYC at night even though plenty of women get around NYC at night safely. This isn't Saudi Arabia, people(i.e. where women need to be chaperoned by men at ALL times)!

My pass at StreamCon allowed me to go to Creator Camp, which was basically a bunch of panel discussions by industry professionals about various topics regarding all digital video(it wasn't just a YouTube convention- there were Periscopers and Vine creators there too!). My favorite panel discussion was called "Get Legal!". It was hosted by this law firm that specializes in working with video creators, talking about patents and waivers. Did you know that if you wanted to make a movie about someone, you need the written permission forms from every sponsor whose product appears in the video, in addition to the people themselves?

Let's just say I'm more careful about showing logos about products I use in my recipes now. That is, I measure out the ingredients before recording, except for the spices. For that, I think I will cover the logos of the jars with duct tape or something.

I had a cheeseburger and fries for lunch. It was really delicious! But I have to say I'm surprised not as many people were in attendance as I initially expected.

Then there was the Meet and Greets where you can meet famous digital video stars. You needed a paid VIP pass to see some stars like Rosanna Pansino from Nerdy Nummies. There was a 30-person deep line for paid VIP passes so I forgoed seeing her.

My pass allowed me to see 3 VIP stars for free. I only knew 1 of those stars- Elise Strachan from My Cupcake Addiction. She has over 2 million subscribers. There were only two pairs to see her(my dad and I, and this mom and her 8-year old daughter).

Now for this guy named Connor Franta on the other hand...

There were literally 100 people on a line to see him! Anybody that wanted to take a selfie with him was disappointed as I heard one of the volunteers say "no selfies" due to the huge amount of people wanting to see Connor.

This long line reminded me of the time my mom and my sister spent hours on a line in front of a now defunct electronics store(it was called The Wiz, which is a dumb name for a store, considering today the word "wiz" is a verb meaning "to urinate"!) waiting on line for tickets to an N*SYNC concert when my sister was 12(I was 8 at the time, so it was in 1999). Spoiler alert: tickets were sold out by the time they got to the front of the line.

But I saw the wonderful Elise in person! I told her about my channel and she was really fascinated by it. She follows me on Instagram now! Of course, we took lots of selfies(because it's 2015 and selfies with celebrities garners you lots of likes on social media), but I also got her autograph too. This was the best part of the day! So thank you, Elise!

Now, for the announcements:

My birthday is this month(my dad told me not to reveal the date although it's pretty apparent online if you look hard enough)! I'm making a (tofu) meatloaf birthday cake that will be filled with seasoned vegetables and the "frosting" will be mashed sweet potatoes. I will try to write on my cake using ketchup. This is a cake I'm serving on Thanksgiving when I see my extended family.

Not only that, I'm making a traditional(read: dessert) birthday cake too. Hint: it's based on a certain cake style from the '80s and '90s that isn't hip today for some reason.

As for the other videos, they mostly will be based on foods I remember eating back in the '90s. These foods were either sold at fast food joints or supermarkets and they haven't been revived(yet) for mass consumption, unlike crunchy M&Ms and French Toast Crunch. OK there is one recipe that's just a recipe but I remember refusing to eat it when I was 5.

I have said enough already. I'm excited and I hope you are too!