If you’re a regular reader of VCN you’ve probably noticed that the site looks a little different today. After 3 1/2 years of loyal service, our faithful cartoon mascot “Beardy” has retired. He was getting up there in years so I sent him to a farm where he can run and jump and play and grow his beard as long as he wants. Only Beardy the mascot is retiring. The guy who runs this blog under the name “Beardy” (A.K.A. me A.K.A. Dan) isn’t going anywhere. I probably should have put the beard-man out to pasture a long time ago but I just couldn’t think of anything I could use to replace him. Then a few days ago I was filming myself with my DSLR and as I was staring into the lens I realized an aperture symbol might make a nice, generic, un-bearded logo.
Good night, sweet prince.
So Beardy is dead on a farm now and I feel like VCN is a lot more professional looking. I was never very attached to him and I’m glad that I finally took the time to create a new banner. Let’s face it, Beardy was kind of a frumpy looking sadsack. It also bugged me that he was holding up some kind of Hi-8 video camera from 1998. The funny thing is, he was just supposed to be a temporary place-holder mascot. I started this site on a whim in the fall of 2009 and that was the first semi-relevant iStockphoto image that I came across. Originally VCN was supposed to be an anonymous blog and I never thought I’d actually want to share my real name here. So when it came time to pick a new name I just named myself after the mascot guy. I wound up ditching the “anonymous blog” idea pretty quickly but for some reason I kept the nickname. But from now on I’ll be blogging under my own name, Dan L. Actually, if you read my old posts it already looks like I’ve been posting as “Dan L” this whole time. I just changed my wordpress profile and I guess it changed my name in every VCN post I’ve ever written. Right now I’m in the process of de-beardy-fying all the other facets of my VCN persona. I even figured out how to change my twitter handle. Here’s the link in case you’d like to be the very first VCN reader to follow the blogger formerly known as Beardy:
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1) Hooray for your real name!
2) Update the title to say “bye bye beardy mascot only” or something because at first glance it looks like you’re shutting down the site.
3) I feel compelled to say I hate the new logo. It looks so lame and soulless. Beardy was adorable. You don’t have to call yourself beardy to keep that smiling face logo on top of your site.
Joel,
I figured some people might think “Bye Bye Beardy” meant that the site was shutting down but because I’m a jerk I decided to leave it. It was a test of loyalty. You got upset so you passed.
Beardy will probably make cameo appearances every once in a while. As I’m writing this I’m realizing Beardy is still my “gravatar” comment icon. So maybe he can live on in the comment section of the site.
Hooray!!!
I got upset for a moment as well! Glad you’re not going anywhere – I appreciate the existence of this space for video contest news and other contest related hijinks. You’re the righteous voice of reason (and sometimes moral outrage) in a sea of disjointed contest-entering filmmakers and VCN should be required reading for anyone thinking about setting up their own video contest. Keep on keeping on!
Wow well thanks Marissa. I agree 100%!
R.I.P. Beardy May, 2013. A sad day for all…
Bye, Bye, Beardy! Hello, Chase Bank!