StickAid and Rambly-ness.

So in case you missed my entire interneting yesterday, StickAid (massive 24-hour livestream to raise money for UNICEF) happened! I stayed up for 37 hours straight, which is my new record, and then slept for about 13 hours, which was nice. I'm still tired, so perhaps I have not completely destroyed any hope of sleeping normally when school starts again. :D

I didn't mean to stay up for so long - I was just up late, and then the StickAID thing started and I decided I'd see if it was interesting, and it was, and then all of a sudden it was the afternoon and you can't go to bed at 2pm. So I stayed up and watched almost all of the broadcast. I went to bed about four hours before they stopped. I almost wish I'd stayed up for the rest of it, but I was so tired I just couldn't. But it was a good broadcast, very funny and entertaining, and all the musical performances were great.

We ended up raising over 20,000 pounds, DOUBLE the original goal. 20,000 pounds equals $30,896, so we raised probably 31.5 or 32,000 dollars. That is just mind-blowing, and so amazing to think about all that money going to help kids in the poorest parts of the world. It's awesome. Great job, Myles and Charlie, and all the people running the show and contributing, and AWESOME job, everyone who donated! And if you donated because of my promoting it, please let me know. I'd be so happy to know that all I did yesterday actually helped. :D

This was my first experience with the amazingness that the internet, especially the YouTube community, can do. I've seen videos about all the stuff the YouTubers personally are doing, and I've seen all the vlogbrothers' Project For Awesome videos, but I haven't been a part of it yet. This is the first time I've been a part of something so huge and with such an awesome goal. It's a pretty amazing thing. Seeing how many people there are out there who are willing to help the world makes me feel better about it, because we rarely see the fruits of their efforts in our lives, so we all kind of assume we're alone in wanting to make things better and therefore nothing we do will matter because we're all just one person each. But when you see all of the people, who are all just one person each, coming together to do something so fantastic to help other people they don't even know... it's just indescribable. I only donated $12 of my own meager amount of money, but if that $12 saves some kid from starving to death, or gets a community vaccinated, or helps build someone a house, that's awesome. I feel like I did a lot more than that, because I was so invested in it and the feeling of community was so strong, and that's another awesome thing about both charity and the internet - you're all complete strangers, but you've got something strong connecting you, so you feel like you're best friends with everyone around you. Or at least I do. XD

Anyway, I guess the whole point is that StickAid was a ridiculous success, and I am amazingly happy to have been part of it, sleep-deprivation and all. :D And I'm very excited for this year's Project For Awesome, because even if I don't make a video, I'll be able to be in the comments and promoting and stuff, feeling like I'm making a difference. Which I guess is less important than actually making a difference, but still pretty important. When I have money to spare, I will definitely be donating to charities, but I feel like getting invested in the causes and actually going out and doing things is just as important.

As a side note, I want a job that centers around the internet. XD I'm really good at it, and at knowing things that are going on, and networking, which means getting information from all kinds of places... I'd be awesome at promoting stuff online. I should find some company that needs an internet person. =/ Or maybe figure out what the actual job title would be first. XD