LeakyCon: Made of Awesome

Okay. I'm going to do this. A blog about LeakyCon is in every way long overdue, but there's no time like the present, right? In all honesty, I think the time that has elapsed since that special weekend in Boston has not made the memories fade but instead has strengthened my overall impression - the impression that will stay with me into the future. It's this impression that I hope to convey to you.

But where to even START to begin? A definition, I suppose:

LeakyCon: (n) A conference put on by the staff members of the Leaky community (the hundreds of staff members and thousands of members that discuss news and ideas about the Harry Potter books and films on the Leaky Cauldron or the Leaky Lounge). The first of, hopefully, several LeakyCons took place at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel on the weekend of May 21-24, 2009 and was, in every possible way, a made-of-awesome weekend and a wild success. The second LeakyCon is scheduled for July 2011, in Orlando, Florida.

May 21-24, you might say if you know me... wasn't that the date of your high school graduation? Why, yes, I would answer, it was; a realization that came to me with a sudden burst of horror in December of 2008. I checked, re-checked, and probably triple-checked calendars and dates, but there was no way around it: I was faced with a big decision. I won't go through all the details or the whys and hows of what I chose what I did... I'll just make a long story short and tell you that I chose LeakyCon. With a hint of foreshadowing for what I hope to express in this blog post, I don't regret this decision AT ALL.

I very well could spend thousands of words breaking down everything I said, saw, heard, or did during the entire weekend in an attempt to SHOW you what made LeakyCon amazing, but I still doubt that would cover it. Instead, I'm going to break down exactly what made the weekend special into a few manageable pieces.

The conference itself: I haven't been to any other Harry Potter conferences, but I'm pretty darn sure it's safe to say that this one blew the others out of the water. From the people who were there - all the PotterCasters, the Wrockers, the VlogBrothers, Maureen Johnson, Michael Goldenburg - to the programming, to the details like the drool-worthy decorations in the Castle... the LeakyCon staff simply thought of everything. It was so very cool (in a nerdy way) to turn around at any point during the weekend and see Dumbledore buying a drink for John Green, John Noe filming for his documentary (which looks amazing, by the way), or Melissa Anelli and Hank Green dancing like maniacs.

It was incredible to hear the thoughts of a *real* Hollywood screenwriter in an intimate luncheon setting. It was SO much fun to see the vlogbrothers off a computer screen and to see PotterCast to come to life. It was fabulous to be introduced to wizard rock through live performances of the groups themselves. (I'm now an avid Ministry of Magic fan, thanks to their show). It was AMAZING beyond words to hold a real life Lily and Stag Inn discussion of Order of the Phoenix. It was surreal to casually grab lunch with Maureen Johnson, and come home to find that she had twittered a photo of ME. Every moment of the programmed weekend was special in its own way. And it didn't end when the Registration Booth closed... every moment spent with LeakyCon staff, even just hanging out, was a moment I will treasure.

That brings me to the staff: This is probably the coolest group of people on the planet, if you ask me. Leaky staff is one big family, devoted to making the world a bit better through promoting fun, acceptance, love, and diversity. The staff members I met are of all ages, backgrounds, nationalities. These are people who spend their spare time volunteering for a community, pouring hours of effort into projects, interactions, discussions, and ideas just because THEY CAN.

I had a bit of a fear walking into Leaky that I didn't wouldn't know anyone. I mean, wouldn't have anyone who knew me. But I got there and... Man, there were the L&S Staffers that I have worked with, and it was bizarre and wonderful to put faces and personalities to the screen names and typed words on a screen. And then there were all the other staffers that I have bizarre pseudo-relationships with through Twitter. I'll say again that I had a moment's fear of walking into a strange crowd, of people with pre-formed friendhsips, of being out-of-place... but I can't tell you how wrong that was. If acceptance can happen in a millisecond, walking into a group of Leaky staffers erases doubts just like that As screen names, twitter names, pictures, and faces came together, this group of people - this family - came to life before me... And this, I will always remember.

Ideologically: There are a lot of things that the Harry Potter books and - by proxy - this conference stood for that made me proud to be there. Of course, this is simply due to the nature of the books, but also to the wonderful participation of the Harry Potter Alliance, a group that takes the messages in these popular books and uses them to fight for causes in the real world. One of the reasons I find these books so powerful is the promotion of LOVE as the strongest power of all. This idea extends to the need for acceptance... and this positively permeated the entire weekend. Andrew Slack's sweet opening speech invited all LeakyCon participants to open their hearts and minds to each other, to welcome strangers into your life for a weekend, to suspend judgement or fear of being judged.

I cannot tell you how liberating this was. To let the "nerdy" or "geeky" facade fall away... To be able to show passion for something that may earn you weird looks in the "real world"... To discuss fictional characters that mean the world to you with someone else who knows how you feel... To honor the message Harry stands for and the lessons Dumbledore taught... this was quite powerful and inspiring.

Personally: Yes, I'm getting to a personal, going-to-tear-up train of thought now... One of the reasons I chose LeakyCon over graduation was that it was all about looking forward. Graduating is about celebrating past accomplishments, saying goodbyes, preparing to move onto the next chapter of your life... But when it came to Leaky, this is a community that I hope to continue being a part of, friendships I wanted to cultivate even more. It was, all in all, about the future. In a lot of ways, this became a self-fulfilling prophecy. As soon as I had this goal in mind, it was sure to come true. Through LeakyCon, I delved deeper into the fandom. I finally expanded my repertoire to include wrock, I got to know various fan"celebrities" in the HP world, I met people who are also in this community for the long-run, and I became invested in looking forward to the next LeakyCon in 2011.

I guess what I'm starting to say is that LeakyCon changed me... It helped me accept this part of who I am, to not want to hide it in college as something people will judge me for. It gave me a community to nestle into when the new world of college is scary. It gave me something to do - I hope to participate in the planning of the next conference - that feels bigger than myself.

So, on a deeply personal note, this weekend moved me. I can't even begin to explain my shock and gratitude for the beautiful surprise graduation party that my lovely L&S friends threw me. I want to thank anyone who welcomed me as someone they already knew, who congratulated me on graduating, who shared a laugh or a story or a moment of fun. I want to thank LeakyCon staff for even thinking of this conference, let alone making it happen.

Above all, I just want to thank the universe for somehow allowing me to go be a part of this weekend... because in so many ways, this was an experience I will never forget.

DFTBA. <3

DFTBA!!

Okay, I just have to take a moment to write about the Vlogbrothers aka Nerdfighters aka John and Hank Green (even though I really should keep working right now. Heck, it's still winter break until Wednesday. A little procrastination won't kill me.)

Basically, in 2007, two brothers, John and Hank Green, decided to start a project called Brotherhood 2.0. They decided that they would partake in no form a textual communication for a year, but instead would release a video blog every week day (switching off days) for a year. They had rules, did challenges for fun, and even got into funny punishments (if they failed to put up a video). Punishments include waxing a leg, dying hair green, and eating a blenderized happy meal. (Just watched that one... disgusting but hilarious).

But the project evolved. One day, when John was in an airport (he's an author, so he travels a lot), and he found a video game called Nerdfighters, and he and Hank got to talking about nerdfighters - people who are made of awesome and fight with their intelligence to decrease World Suck (their brilliant words, not mine). So, then B2.0 ended at the end of 2007, but they kept online communities going, and kept putting up videos.

Even though this was a few years ago now (that still sounds weird), I recently got into watching their new videos, but couldn't get enough, so I've been watching all the old videos also. I'm currently up to August 2007, and I'm having so much fun. I'm sure my parents are getting tired of hearing about them, so I'll probably be talking about them on here whenever I have something to share.

Basically, I really admire their outlook on life. They're both what you would call "nerds" - one's a writer, and the other is a blogger for a website about green technology. They both have glasses, spend lots of time reading and on the internet, and have gloriously nerdy photos from high school that they've shown on their videos. And, did I mention they started a project where they decided to vlog every day for a year? Yeah. But the way they put it, being nerdy is not a bad thing. Nerdfighters (the group of people who has risen around them) are "made of awesome," and when you spend time with them (okay, it's on the interenet and it's kind of one way through a video), you don't feel bad if you're a little nerdy (which I am). Heck, having more and more people form a group around being awesome is not a bad thing, and being nerdy certainly isn't!

Plus, to me, they represent everything that I love about the internet. They rallied a group of people from all across the globe around them. They're raised money for numerous charities just by suggesting it in their videos. They've built a global community, and made the big wide world a little less scary.

And finally, they're just plain hilarious. Really. Just take Hank's Christmas Song, all about how Jesus never gets anything for Christmas. (Check it out here). They have this joke that they always bring up about "In My Pants." For example, there's the In My Pants rule: that adding "in my pants" to any book title inevitably makes it better. (Just think about it: The Stranger... In My Pants. Yeah. Funny.) They're both very intelligent, talented, and funny, so it's a real delight to watch them.

Now, as I mentioned, Brotherhood 2.0 was in 2007. During 2008, as I understand it, they were basically uploading videos when they had time. But just recently, they announced Brotherhood 2.0.0.9, which is their project for this year. Basically, they have certain days where they will put up certain types of videos. News videos, question and answer videos, songs from Hank, etc.

Yesterday was the first video, and since it was a Sunday, it was John's day to talk about some sort of news. Now, he chose to talk about the situation in Israel/Palestine right now, which is pretty heavy, but he did so while showing pictures of his absolutely adorable puppy. I don't know about you, but it's pretty impressive! John doesn't just blather on about it either - he knows quite a bit about it! I'll share it with you, for reference:


(By the way, isn't Willy (the dog) adorable? I love how he keeps turning his head back and forth! Oh, and John's mismatched socks are hilarious!)

So that's what's occupying my time in cyberspace right now. I'm guessing that the nerdfighters are going to stay quite popular, and I know that they're certainly a part of my life now.

As they say, then, DFTBA! (Don't forget to be awesome!) <--Best sign out ever.

P.S. I mentioned that John is an author, and he's quite a good one. I've recently finished his second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, and I'm now reading his first, Looking for Alaska. I next want to read his most recent, Paper Towns, and then I'll probably blog on them all together. Long story short, they're very good.

Writing with a Fuzzy Head

Woot! I'm on break. And I'm sick. Of course. Yeah, I've accepted it's part and parcel of being a student. I held out most of the semester, but now my immune system seems to be angry. Great.

Anyway, I've been thinking now that my head isn't full of Statistics problems and Physics formulas... and I've been poking around the internet.

So, let me just throw this out there. The internet's cool. Really cool. Totally awesome. Everyone's blogging and vlogging, soul searching, and being seen by 1000s of people. They're raising awareness for charities (Woot to Project for Awesome) and soul searching right in front of the camera (or via the keyboard). It's neat. And I want to be a part of it.

I might be late to the bandwagon... Most Leaky people already have blogs and vlogs. And, hell, John and Hank Green have been doing it every day for a year. But better late than never, right?

So, that's my main New Year's Resolution. It might be a little early for this (it's only December 19th) but there you have it. Sure, I also want to exercise more, relax more, be happier... but this is something more concrete.

I'd like to blog OR vlog 4 days a week. Of course, that will require learning how to vlog, but I can do that. There you have it, it's written down.

And, of course, I have a few weeks to get ready. To do a practice vlog (once I get all this fuzziness out of my head)... and all that.

Well, there you have it. Cheers