Join LaRonda Zupp as she thanks readers and voters for nominating her blog, The Ear of My Heart, as the Best Overall Blog of the Year in 2007 on DeafRead. In the videoclip below, LaRonda shares some of the highlights and enthusiasm at the DeafRead Awards banquet. It was a night to remember!
Transcript:
LaRonda Zupp: Good Morning!
Now the DeafRead Conference is complete and finished. Hooray! I’m back in my hotel room, breathing in the lovely breeze from the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s a beautiful day today, and it’s sad to leave. It’ hard to say good-bye to new friends and old friends. Tender feelings.
I also want to say THANK YOU to those of you who voted for me for The Best Blog of the Year. Honestly, I was completely shocked! When I walked up onto the stage, I found myself without words. I was speechless and had no idea what to say. The cat had my tongue and all I managed to say was a few shy, quick “Thank yous.”
Afterward, I quickly felt embarrassed and sort of silly. I wished I had thought of something more powerful and more memorable to share with you, but I was truly dumbstruck. I had no idea that I would get that award at all.
Thank you to my readers, and to you who voted, and most especially, to those of you who nominated my blog. How profoundly touching that was! To those of you who were in the same category as I, you were all as equally deserving. No question!
And so, I thank you all — a lot!! 
Anyway, now I would like to show you a few things I captured on my camera last night, which I hope you’ll enjoy. We missed you and wished you were with us then. Until next year… bye for now. (ILY wave)
JJ Puorro: Stop. (hand up to stop me, then hand down with a smile)
Tyler Berdy: Hello! Hello! Ready? Come on in! It’s tonight! (To JJ) Are you blocking us? We can’t go in yet?
JJ: Right. (smiling)
Tyler: Ok, well I’m ready to go in. I’m excited now! Yes! (Hands up waving) Thank you.
Amy Cohen-Efron: I’m so ready. I think every one of you are winners. It doesn’t matter if people nominated or voted for you. Those who have made a vlog or a blog, you are already a winner. Period.
Tyler: (Hands up waving) Right! I agree with Amy 100%!
LaRonda Zupp: We are now approaching the time of the banquet and awards. I can’t wait! Whoo! It has been such a positive conference so far! People are so inspiring and communal — it’s been wonderful! And now, it’s getting more exciting! I’m nervous!
Joey Baer: (In ASL - testing, testing..) I feel silly talking to myself… (In ASL - testing…)
Joey (w/David Martin signing a spoof behind him): Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! You’re just talking and talking away! Stop talking! Look at me! Pay attention! Stop the hand speak! Finish! Enough jabber! Now pay attention! I want to wish you all a happy show!!!! (…I’ll save that for later.)
Joey: We are now with the Live feed, which means I will have limited movement from this area, but that’s fine! (Too the Live Feed audience:) We are HAPPY all of you out there watching can join us here tonight!
Joey (to the Deafread audience): Ok. Welcome to the 2007 DeafRead Awards for Vlogs and Blogs. You know, I’ve been thinking about which sign I should use first, vlog or blog. If I use the sign for blog first, I become a little nervous. It might look like I’m making written English first and foremost important over vlogging. Yet, supposed I use the sign for vlog first. Some might think I’m making vlogging more important, right? So here’s my solution: Welcome to the v/blog DeafRead Awards tonight! (One hand signs vlog while the other hand signs blog). (Crowd roars with waving hands!)
Joey: To those of you who have bravely expressed yourselves, taken time and made sacrifices to make vlogs and blogs to keep them going, a special thanks to you vloggers and bloggers! You are important! (Hands waving!)
Joey: This conference was made possible by Sprint Relay. We have 4 of their representatives here tonight. A big thanks to them! (Hands waving!)
Mike Schmidt: …and the winner of the Best New V/Blog for 2007 goes to…. Seek Geo! (Hands waving!)
Tyler: Hello! Did you all learn something from today’s workshops? Ok. Now, my brother, Sean, will give a brief act. He will be copying two of the vloggers. Right after his copy act is finished, I will ask who you think he was acting like and you try to identify and guess which vlogger he was. I’ll let you know if you’re right. Ready? Please welcome, Sean! (Hands waving!)
Sean Berdy (wearing a black Jacket): You know our future filmakers? Chad and Wayne Betts? …. OMG, OMG,… I’m nominated twice… I can’t believe it! OMG!…. I can’t believe it! Why didn’t you tell me? Shame on you! Shame! … (dancing and signing a song) “Let me tell you my story… It’s time to look positive…. show your heart full of positive… look at our bright future full of stars… they are shining…. our children…. (dancing) … Our future children can see you smile… Thank you my friends… I’m your friend…” (Sean dancing then freezes)
Audience: “Gary! Gary! Gary!”
Tyler: Guess who? Guess! Who? Right! The answer is Gary Brooks! (Hands waving!)
Joey: Wow! That was great! These guys are an important part of our future. I know there are just 2 of them here, but they both did a wonderful job and have been doing so all along. Keep it up! Your reputation will spread around. Many young people will look up to you guys along with many other vloggers and bloggers as well. Good job!
Ben Olson: Whoo! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Thumbs up! (Talking to the Live Feed) Hello Andy! I know you’re watching! Too bad you’re not here. Too bad! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Thank you! Yeah! First, I want to thank God for blessing me with 2 Deaf parents. They are a blessing! Truly. I’m proud of them. I cherish ASL and I cherish my Deaf parents. (Hands waving) I love you guys and I thank DeafRead. I am completely hooked to DeafRead! It’s wonderful! You’re all great!
Tyler: Ok. (Politely pushing Jon and Aidan off the stage) Thank you. Now for the next part 2 with Sean Berdy! (Hands waving)
Sean: (with big teeth in his mouth) Really, I… Did you have a happy new year? Great! Last night, I slept in. I woke up on January 1st. My eyes were squinty because it was so bright! Why? What happened? Am I in heaven or what? Then I saw it had snowed outside! Oh! What a morning!
Anyway, one of my friends let me know a story I thought I would share with you. Ok. There was one deaf man who often went to one place where he loved to fish. (Sean trying to suppress his own laughter) That place was under a bridge. He was looking around for more fish down there. If he saw any fish then he would go fishing there. But at that time, there were no fish. So he decided to go to another place nearby. So he walked around and did see some fish and decided to make that his new spot for the day. Then, he saw a car pull up with the car headlights on. Then they turned off the lights. He looked over at the car, then turned away and ignored it, which meant he kept on fishing. Now, there was another man who came down from that car and handed him a piece of paper. It was a long read, but he read it and then wrote back. The two men wrote back and forth a while. It was a very interesting morning as they both chatted on paper. But the man decided there wasn’t enough fish there, so he decided to move to another place. Both men agreed that they would both move to a new location to fish and enjoy their morning. Some how one of the men noticed the other man made a sign or gesture while reading the notes they were writing back and forth. All of the sudden, one of the man asked, “Are you deaf?” “Yes! Are you deaf?” “Yes!” What a joke! Both men were deaf but thought each other was hearing and had been writing notes to each other for hours! Cool! Farout! (Sean freezes with a big toothy grin)
Audience: ABC! ABC! John Lestina ABC!
Tyler: Right! Of course! ABC! Of course! We are now finished. Enjoy the rest of your evening here with the remaining awards. Ok? Enjoy and thank you!
Sean: And you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving, ok? (laugh)
Audience: Champ! Thumbs up! (Hand waves!)
Jon Savage and Aidan Mack: Do? Do? What do we do? We just accept it. Just accept it. (smiling) The Olson Brothers! Yeah! (Hands waving! Crowd breaks into a wild roar!)
Ben: Thank you! Hey! Whoo! Again!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Roger? What… me here…. you there? My pants are wet! I’m cold! (Laughing)
Roger Desmarais: Yeah! Yeah! You got it, man! Yeah! I can’t let it out of my mind now!
Mary Ruth Summers: The Best Storyteller… and the winner is… The Olson Brothers! (Crowd breaks into a roar again with hands waving!)
Audience: Sean! (Hands waving)
Sean: Thank you. Thank you.
Tayler Meyer: And now for the last award of the evening… Ok. The 2007 Best Overall Blog of the Year goes to….. LaRonda Zupp, The Ear of My Heart! (Hands waving! LaRonda makes her way stumbling over the chairs from the back of the room while camera still rolling on the rug…)
Tayler: All day, it has been such a positive conference with great discussion and comments. The live feed here worked well, and your involvement and volunteer help was amazing! It turned out perfect!
Tayler (to Joey): He is a great guy, and I personally thank you!
Joey: You’re welcome and thank you.
Tayler: We’ll find more things to talk about in the future. Thank you! (shaking hands and hugging) We’re done! (Hands waving)
Joey: Ok. Enjoy the rest of your evening socializing with one another.
LaRonda: (ILY Wave) Look here! (Pointing to the DeafRead 2007 Best Overall Blog Award in her hand) They picked me. (Humble smile) Bye! (ILY Wave)
You’re doing great job video rest of all vloggers/Bloggers..
So Many Thanks bring sharing for everyone viewed it..
Wonderful!
*smile*
Terri~
Left by Terri Watts on February 4th, 2008
LaRonda! What a nice pleasure to have met you. I laughed yet again through this vLog, especially with Sean and Tyler Berdy. They are even funnier now. Their parents are such awesome people.
Left by todos la vie on February 4th, 2008
Waiting for ur youtube video! Curious curious curious. Thanks for sharing.
Left by drmzz on February 4th, 2008
Congratulations for the Best Overall Blog of the Year in 2007 in DeafRead. You earned it! Your approach, philosophy, and even the blog itswelf is a big winner. You have set a good example for me, because I stormed DeafRead with particularly strong comments in other blogs, you humble me. I do learn from how you comment in blogs. Sometimes I feel necessary to make strong statements in a controversial manner. But if I do learn from you, I will go much farther…Maybe do blogs with a toned down approach. I have a feeling I would do a more petty blog than a comment.
Keep the great work up, you will win many more awards, and if not, you will always be considered and voted for.
Left by John Critser on February 4th, 2008
Mike,
The video clip ran over the set time for YouTube, so they rejected the first attempt to upload. I will have to go and break up the clip into to parts and then try to upload it onto YouTube again. Ugh. Will take a little time to do that. Bare with me…. Those who have Quick time can view it now.)
Standby….
~ LaRonda
Left by LaRonda on February 4th, 2008
Lol yea DRMZZ, Im at work and I’ve already refreshed this page 10+ times waiting for the youtube video. Looking forward to it LaRonda!!
And congrats again on winning, you deserved it!
Left by Roger on February 4th, 2008
very cool… thanks for sharing ur experience at the conference… i liked watching those 2 boys act… they were good and everyone was good too… congrats on ur winning a blog of the year!!!
Left by Rita on February 4th, 2008
OIC. I keep getting the QT plug in error. BTW, typo in “Crowd roads with waving hands!)”.
Left by drmzz on February 4th, 2008
C-hand over my heart -
Left by cnkatz on February 4th, 2008
I get error on my end too, I dont know why, in the past I didnt have any problem until this one… Please advise as soon as it goes in http://www.youtube.com. Im sitting restless like the ants are crawling up my legs waiting for this video to come out… Hurry!
Left by deafKathy on February 4th, 2008
Try updating your Quicktime plugins. You probably have an outdated version. But I’m working onn splitting up the video into two parts now. Thanks for your patience. It was a total of 13 mins. I thought having compressed it would help YouTube upload it, but they won’t allow videos over 10 mins. I had forgetten that. So please bare with me while these two parts upload. It takes some time. I’m home sick from work so things are going slow. So sorry to make you all wait.
~ LaRonda
Left by LaRonda on February 4th, 2008
No apologies needed
Left by Roger on February 4th, 2008
Wow! First of all, congratulations to you for winning the best blog!! It is much deserved knowing how hard you have worked on your blog and vlog as well.
Secondly, I can’t tell you how much I appreciated for you to post the video where I am able to get a better close up view of the DeafRead Awards and to see a hilarious performance by the talented Berdy Brothers.
You rock!
Left by Barb DiGi on February 4th, 2008
Thank you for bringing some of the DEAF READ CONFERENCE to us unable to attend!
I’m feeling lucky to log on to catch glimpses of what happened through your eyes and hands!
La Ronda, keep those fingers busy typing and/or vlogging! The sky’s the limit!
And congrats on winning the Best Blog of the Year, 2007.
Praise the DEAFREAD team for bringing everyone together once again….
amazing reports here and there, everywhere. I’m proud of the
stakes taking to grow together for the sake of unity in our community of diversity!
I see harmony and respect is the key to success. Praise the notion that together=
power which is sacred, to share even better!
Left by Suzy on February 4th, 2008
Unable to click you QT. Dunno why I can click other vloggers’ s video. Kindly advise. Smile.
Left by Jean Boutcher on February 4th, 2008
Hi Everyone.
Thank you for your patience with these vlogs. I apologize that not everyone was able to view them in Quicktime and YouTube had rejected the first attempt because it was just over the time limit. I had to go back and break up the clips into two parts and upload them into YouTube. I now have both parts, plus the original whole clip on this page. Everyone should be able to access one or the other version.
Thanks again for your patience. This was not a glicth I expected to happen. Usually my stuff pops right up. Hmmm…..
~ LaRonda
Left by LaRonda on February 4th, 2008
Although I have latest QuickTime plugin, theres still problems trying to view yours. So YouTube will do.
I left my video comment over at DeafVideo.TV.
Thanks for your work putting this up, which is greatly appreciated!
Left by Jay on February 4th, 2008
Double laugh!
First, I was laughed as enjoy at DeafRead weekend then second, I was laughed as enjoyed YOUR VLOG! You did excellent job with vlog!
Left by Jon Savage on February 4th, 2008
Thanks for the youtube videos. I’m glad u captured Joey’s “v/blog” sign since I couldn’t capture it in time. Also, a shout out for the Berdy bros.
Left by drmzz on February 4th, 2008
thank you, thank you, thank you for showing it alllll
congrats and hands waving and hugs!
Left by Deb Ann on February 4th, 2008
Aw, you didn’t give someone to hold your camcorder to film your cheers for your award when you walk to the stage. Its my honor to meet you in person at deafread conference.
I will post my vlog soon and I will add a surprise for you in the begin of my vlog.
Left by Kevin Gamache on February 4th, 2008
[...] [...]
Left by DeafPulse.com - the one-stop pulse for all Deaf-related news and blogs. on February 4th, 2008
Congrats on your best overall blogs!!
Left by JohnABC on February 4th, 2008
Heartfelt congratulations on winning the Blog of the Year award. Heck, your presentation on “Creating a Positive Blogsphere” alone could have won the award! You did great last weekend, LaRonda. You are an inspiration and a balancing act for all of us— I will approach 2008 with you in mind— gonna stay focused, positive, and uplift others.
DE
Left by DE on February 4th, 2008
Congrats for winning the best vlog and I can imagine how surprise/shock you were. Thank you for showing it all and they were great especially the young boys on the floor were so cute!! I had been so curious what was going on in there! Now I am wondering where it will be held next year and I guess that we will have to wait until the end of year.
CJ
Left by CJ on February 4th, 2008
Congrats!
Thank you for showing these vlogs. I kept smiling, feeling I’m there with you all.
Left by Mishkazena on February 4th, 2008
Thanks so much for sharing the videos of the conference. You did very excellent job cover lot things! And let me say it again, Congrats on your winning.
Left by KyDeafie on February 5th, 2008
Hello La Ronda,
It was great pleasure to see you again at DeafRead Conference. Congrats on your winning.
You deserve it. Guess what? My two bags from airport were in missing action and the airport people just found
my bags and would return them to me tonite. My DV tapes were in there. AHHHHH. Thank god…
The video will be ready next Monday. I only have time for this weekend to edit the video. The waiting
will be worth. Good job with your video. :o)
Aidan
Left by Aidan Mack on February 5th, 2008
LaRonda!
Oh wow — many many congratulations (HIGH over head) for winning the 2007 BEST BLOG OF THE YEAR!!! I’m soooo happy for you I can’t stop smiling!!!!! You are such a lovely person and that shines through in your BLOG. I’m thrilled that you are getting this kind of recognition; it’s well earned. Oh wow — I’m just thrilled! Thank you for everything you bring us. Congrats again!
Left by Pam Cavazos on February 5th, 2008
CONGRATS!!! WIsh I was with Ben to meet you and everyone there. Thanks for posting this, so good to see it!
See you around Deaf Read!
Andy
Left by Andy CODA Brothers on February 5th, 2008
Andy, you were definitely missed, but we were so glad Ben could represent you both. The crowd went wild for The Olson Brothers! What a sweep it was! Kudos!
~ LaRonda
Left by LaRonda on February 5th, 2008
Thank you so much everyone, for your warm comments my way. I am still spinning. It’s a great feeling!
Hugs.
~ LaRonda
Left by LaRonda on February 5th, 2008
Thanks for the very thorough transcription. I find your signing easy to follow along and always love to watch you.
Left by kim on February 8th, 2008
Congratulations LaRonda; you deserve it. Thanks for doing both: signing and transcribing your blogs.
Left by Learning ASL on February 8th, 2008