Our friend Steve Garfield, the videoblogging pioneer who first put video on his blog on January 1, 2004, was interviewed recently by another friend, Paul Armstrong of MySpace. It's always a treat when someone we respect shouts us out when asked about the people and shows pioneering in the world of online video. Thanks, Steve! :)

Paul Dateh recounts his personal experience with friends who were victims of gang violence. I wanted to pass this on because in this online web 2.0 world of ours, these are stories we often times don't get to hear (or speak about), but are all too familiar. These are the stories we need to share with each other.

Our friends at Moblogic did some interesting street interviews in New York to see what people thought of Martin Luther King, Jr's legacy today.

How do you think his legacy is doing today? Seems to me it's a mixed bag. I don't know if it's progress, but economic factors seem to be the most dividing elements of today's world. There's more tolerance on the surface between the races, but if you scrape your fingernail along the surface of America, what you find underneath is pretty ugly.

Now that we're back from SXSW and Berlin, it's time to catch up on everything that we've been doing.

Tim Shey of Next New Networks organized a panel at SXSW that was titled, "Quit Your Day Job and Vlog."

The video is the full length of the panel, so it's about an hour. Just fyi. If you're interested in online video and know a bit about the people on the panel (or want to know), this was very interesting. I couldn't help but sit in the audience and be struck by what a special time this is for those of us working in this industry. And how open and giving almost everyone is.

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In the hundreds of emails we get each week, it's easy to miss the good things people write. I'm really glad we saw this, because it definitely touched us:

Epic-fu, Just wanted you all to know, that I thank you for making my tour in Iraq a little less unbearable. It's people like you, who pursue your dreams regardless of all the negativity that may suround you, that make this country worth fighting for. Zadi some of the things I seen from you outside Epic-fu are inspiration and showcase your creative genius. Peace

—Elroy

Thank you, Elroy. Please get home safe.

Tonight we got this great email from Luke:

Hey to all at Epic-Fu. I just wanted you all to know that I as well with many others really love your show. I was a geek in hiding until I discovered you guys. I was always embaressed to do the things that I recently discovered alot of us do. Such as, coming up with creative ways to jazz up your myspace or listening to thesixtyone.com.

Without you guys, I might still be in hiding. But I am out and proud to be a geek. Keep up the great work.

Luke

Thanks, Luke! You made our night!

If you find yourself bored or in need of a fun distraction, artist Ferry Halim posts his delightful flash games on his site. They are all very refined and very intuitive and easy to play. I've toyed around with about 10 of them, and they were all really simple and a lot of fun.

If you're throwing a party for all your geek friends, replace those boring old place holders with little Lego people! These Star Wars ones are super fun, but I can imagine you can tailor your Lego person to fit your party theme - or even make them look like the person on the card.

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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."