I Did Something Awesome
September 14th, 2011, 2:14am by JakeShort version: my Flickr friend Pacdog lost parts of 5 fingers in an accident. That bummed him out. I decided to corral a few dozen of his friends to cheer him up.
He hasn’t seen this yet, but will soon Wednesday morning (I hope). The password is signs. Check it out.
Pacdog, start recording from Jake Rome on Vimeo.
September 14th, 2011 at 11:50 am
Correction, the password is signs
September 14th, 2011 at 11:57 am
Epic!
September 14th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
Oh, a bit more context. He’s the guy holding the “completely unsuspecting” and “thanks” signs.
September 14th, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Wow, that’s very heartfelt. Hope itnchearsbhim up!
September 14th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
Trouble finding the space bar K?
September 14th, 2011 at 4:10 pm
yeah, touch typing on an iPad is kinda hit or miss!
September 14th, 2011 at 6:20 pm
From a Flickr friend:
“I was on the Phone w/him when he hit the site. he .. well… ignores a lot of youse 😉 not you personally.. but… that is why it was na answered. I am a friend, so , he answered, I , unfortunately, got to hear his laughs, and his mom and Bro. it was truly wonderful. I just wanted U 2 know that. I told Paccy that he had to make a video. and act the same way that he did w/me. He LOVED it . more than anyone can ever tell.
aw shit, I just wanted U 2 know. JakeR. the man was cryin, and I heard his Mama in the background as he replayed it for the 3rd time… she was crying and laughing. ask Paul 🙂 he is just more private than most know ?? But , he was, crying.”
September 14th, 2011 at 11:02 pm
Awesome, Jake! Sounds like it was a huge success!
September 17th, 2011 at 12:47 am
Paul Collins, AKA Pacdog, has been active on Flickr more than a half decade, and has made hundreds of friends across the site on various groups, and has never made an enemy. When he lost parts of 5 fingers in an accident, he seemed to be down and I resolved to organize his friends to cheer him up.
At first I thought small, just raise some money to buy a gift. But other Flickr members, such as Miss Nikski, suggested the more meaningful idea of creating something for him. Ideas included all signing a print, each sending him a photo, creating a collage and other ideas. Finally, it seemed to coalesce around the concept of each writing a message then creating a collage. At the last minute, Lito AKA Lito (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakerome/6148500838/ for a list of most contributors), came up with the brilliant idea to have all our signs be a single, unified message and turn them into a video.
And so it began. Jeff Wilson, an experienced video editor, quickly volunteered to fill that role. For 2 days, we signed people up simply by asking people the cryptic question, “do you want to do something awesome?” 90 inquired to learn more, and all 90 signed on to the project. I wrote the bit that would form the message. And soon the assignments were set, tracked using a Google Spreadsheet so everyone could track the progress of the project. Files (named with a clever, if obvious, scheme) were uploaded via DropItToMe to DropBox. An an email message was sent to each member with a link & instructions. And somehow it all worked!
In just 2 days, more than 60 members jumped to complete their assignments, and then on a frantic Sunday afternoon a half-dozen die hards raced to finish by enlisting their family, friends, dogs, cats and stuffed animals. And then… we were set. Jeff accessed the files, chose some great CC-BY music on Jamendo, and sent me the file. I uploaded the video to Vimeo, and a day or two later Pacdog watched the video while Jake’s World was on the phone with him– he was laughing, crying & loving every bit of it.
The whole project was intended for an audience of one, and if Paul was the only person that saw it we would all feel extremely proud. But as it turns out, the format was perfect for sharing more widely, and already thousands have seen our message intended to lift one friend’s spirit. I am happy about that.
And about the words themselves… let’s face it, there’s nothing profound in my prose, a few inside jokes & a lot of nonsense in a self referential tone. But the message was more than the message– it was the efforts of dozens of friends from 6 continents all spending time to take a photo and share it with the world, just so we could cheer someone up. That is far more profound.