I had the chance to attend the MLS soccer game between the KC Wizards and the LA Galaxy here in KC and I video blogged my experience. Disclaimer: I want to make it a point to tell you the Wizards offered me free press access to the event. I decided to put together a vblog on my own and was not paid to do this.

So you know- I really never “stage” or script any of my video blogs. For event blogging, my goal is to just encapsulate a real perspective from my vantage point. That said, I had a great time taking in the whole experience. And this wasn’t just any normal game- this was the game of the year. David Beckham played in the game.

There were so many mixed reactions to Beckham’s appearance- which I found surprising. Everyone I talked to was on 1 of 2 sides. You either really really hated Beckham or you absolutely loved him. Not many people were in the middle of the road. Regardless, there certainly was no shortage of anyone giving their opinion on how they felt.

During the game, there was an incident between Beckham and a fan that I managed to capture completely on film. You’ll have to watch the video blog to hear the entire story from the hecklers themselves- I managed to grab an interview after the bitter exchange happened.

One thing I will note, that is interesting- CNN and a other news sources are reporting this today with the facts not quite right. My video blog illustrates that the person who insulted Beckham’s wife was NOT the person who shook his hand. I mention this because typically bloggers get criticized for not fact checking or telling the complete truth- and this is an small example of the blogger getting it right and NOT the major network (interesting to point out, not that it changes the world).

Check out my video blog on YouTube and also the photos I took with my camera.

UPDATE: this video blog is being linked all over the internez! Over 10k views in under 24 hours! So cool, a first for me as a indie video blogger. And now it’s over 100k total views!
» Washington Post
» Yahoo Sports
» Deadspin

As always, drop me an email or make a comment with your thoughts, good or bad- your feedback helps me get better! If you’re searching for more, check out a friend of mine’s video blog as well (Whitney), she captured some footage and her experience.
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My independent video blogging is now getting me access pri-mo events!?! Whaaaat? This weekend I was offered the opportunity to have press access to attend the KC Wizards MLS soccer game here in Kansas City. And this wasn’t just any normal game- this was the game of the year. David Beckham played in the game.

[record scratch sound] One quick throw-back to my younger life; growing up soccer was my favorite sport. It was the sport I played all the way through high school. I also played competitive club ball. In fact, I had aspirations of playing in college [cue pity story]. My senior year, I tore my ACL in my knee- which prevented me from playing in college. Long story long, you can see why I’m a huge fan of the sport. So, getting an invite to this was awesome!

Fast-forward to the game this weekend, my press access let me walk-in with my camera to snap some pictures. You can imagine, the ‘real press’ there had cameras worth more than my life. I sorta felt like the little kid who showed up to a pickup baseball game who’s glove was from the toy store (enough about my camera envy) Take a look at the pics I snapped while I was there. While they might not be as good as ESPN’s, they should give you the idea of what it was like to be there.

You can view the flickr slideshow of photos here.

Each day I find myself with at least one message in my inbox asking “What tool do you use?” or “What website do you use for X”. So I think this blog post will give you an idea of what I use / equipment I’m digging right now. My plan is that this will be a “living” blog post that I’ll update as things shift (which likely will be quite often). It’ll also make it easy to point people to when they ask questions

Tools and Websites I Like:

YouTube – main channel in which I post all my video blogs
Vimeo – secondary place in which I redundantly post some of my video blogs, HD quality here is much better than it is on YouTube
WordPress.org – blog software I use
Gmail – my primary personal email
TweetDeck – the app I use at home for Twitter, I use the crap out of the filters functions
HootSuite – the app I use at home for Twitter, I love the filters + future tweet functions
Tweetie – the app I use on my iPhone for Twitter
HootSuite – the app I use on my iPhone for Twitter
Flickr – I upload and post all my photos here
Netvibes – this is my preferred RSS reader when I’m at a computer
Google Reader (mobile) – this is what I use on iPhone to read RSS
Delicious – I bookmark everything I find interesting here
VerticalResponse – my email marketing software
Adobe Elements – my photo imaging editor
Adobe Premier – my preferred video editing software (this may change very soon)
Final Cut Express – my video editing software I use for my video blogs
GelaSkins – I’ve got one of these on all my stuff. I’m really into the art community @website
Grooveshark – the ‘google’ of music searching. I use this to quickly preview songs.
FlipMinoHD – this is the camera I use to shoot my video blogs
Canon HF21 – this is the camera I use to shoot my video blogs
Canon 40D – this is the DSLR camera I use to take my photos
Canon SD750 – this is the point and shoot I use
Mac Pro (desktop tower) – this is my computer I use at home

What’s on my screen during any given work day:

I open and close many websites and a few applications in the given day. Here are typically what you would find open if you were to walk up to my computer during the day. You might be surprised to find that I don’t keep either a Twitter, Facebook, or Gmail open at all times it’s true, I prefer to “dive-in and out” during the day when appropriate.

Outlook – work email
iTunes – music player
Textpad – I work in this religiously, it’s like my workspace to stub out anything (e.g. short-term lists, copy-paste storage, virtual post-it)
Firefox – my preferred web browser software

Some of you will find this blog post interesting- some of you will not. I’m hoping for some it will turn your head to maybe something you’re not familiar with to check out. If you’re looking for more- check out the inkkc.com “My Essentials” feature I was featured in 2008 this year.
(photo credit = beautyinmetal)
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This past weekend I made the annual trip down to my friend Matt’s family Lake of the Ozarks house for the 4th of July. The weather wasn’t so great, but it still was a fun and relaxing trip. I snapped a few photos I wanted to share and posted them to flickr (view the entire slideshow here).