It has been a couple of days since my last update so I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch you all up to our happenings.  First of all, the video above is our Challenge #3 entry.  The video won the third challenge popular vote with an astounding 47%!  Unfortunately, the way Samsung has been judging has the public vote as a small percentage of the overall challenge vote.  Other judges from Samsung also weigh in and help choose a winner.  So for challenge #3, while the public thought our video was the best (and it clearly was), Samsung did not.  Team Cool Kids shall NEVER give up! It just means we’ll have to work that much harder next time!  However, the video that DID win was hilarious and well executed by Freddie & David (whom we love).

Samsung Mobile Explorers Challenge #3 Results

I’m currently working on the video entry for Challenge #4 and it is taking considerably longer than I anticipated due to unforseen computer crashes, software failures, and transcoding glitches.  These are all criteria that we just can’t take into consideration when we plan our videos out ahead of time and guage time allocation.  However, when all is said and done, this video should be damn good and feature far more production value than any of the other entries.  The challenge theme was “Freestyle” so we could do anything we wanted. And we did a lot. Just wait until tomorrow morning at 9am when the videos are posted and the voting begins.

If you haven’t seen it yet, Lindsay and myself have also been blogging and droppin photos over on our facebook (check it here) everyday.  There have been so many amazing moments while we’ve been here that it’s hard to remember them all.  In recent days, we experienced REAL korean BBQ with Samsung’s CMO/EVP David Steel; a field trip to the Salish Longhouse in Squamish; Hannah Teter’s silver medal finish in the Ladies Halfpipe finals up at Cypress; holding Hannah’s actual silver medal in my hands; the band “Stars” performance at the Orpheum; and pretty much walking every niche of this gorgeous city.  This trip has been amazing.

View of the sunset along the Sea to Sky highway

Yes, it has been stressful. Yes, I’m exhausted. Yes, I miss home.  But the overall experience and memories I know I’ll have for the rest of my life will be worth it.  Just walking through the streets of downtown Vancouver last night showed me just how much energy and pride Canadians have for their country and the 10s of thousands of visitors that are currently visiting.  It was by far the most people I’ve ever seen in one place at one time.  It was electric.

Ok, my renders are wrapping up so it’s back to the grind. I miss you all and will try to keep you posted on what else happens over the last stretch of this adventure.  Team Cool Kids is so close to taking this thing. None of us can give up now. We have to see this through so let’s just nut-up and win this frakkin’ competition together!  In the meantime, enjoy this secret video I made about our driver up here, Duffy. She’s a goddess.