Gary Vaynerchuk Visits Virginia Tech

It’s not every day that a wine connoisseur and entrepreneur doles out money and jobs to a crowd of unsuspecting college students.

Gary Vaynerchuk made his first-ever college appearence at Virginia Tech on April 27 in front of a packed Burruss Auditorium.

Vaynerchuk, a New York Times best-selling author, came to speak to students and faculty at the school after seeing a YouTube video created by John Boyer’s Geography of Wine class.

“I think it’s one of those things that you don’t pick, it picks you,” Vaynerchuk said. “They made a YouTube video that inspired me and I said ‘I have got to go see those kids and that professor’ and it just felt extremely right.”

Vaynerchuk made a name for himself in the wine world by creating Wine Library TV, an Internet show that makes wine accessible to wine novices.

“There are a lot of good wine magazines and wine literature, but it’s hard to access for new drinkers,” Boyer said. “You want to talk in vernacular, a language that people get and understand. He’s really excited and passionate and all that comes through.”

Boyer uses Vaynerchuk’s Internet shows as a supplementary class material and students find it to be a helpful tool for learning about wine.

“It’s definitely something that you can take something away from, especially in the work world when you’re socializing,” Virginia Tech senior Brooke Veoni said.

Vaynerchuk recorded an episode of his new show, Daily Grape, during the event. His speech about entrepreneurship and wine turned into a prize giveaway extravaganza as he gave away an estimated $60,000 in prizes to those in attendance.

“I think that Oprah shouldn’t have all the fun,” Vaynerchuk said. “I’m a storyteller. I think it made for a special night. I think that’s something people will talk about for a while.

“I don’t know what happened. We were giving out a couple of books and then I started to want to give away things and it started getting crazy and I couldn’t stop because I was just feeding off the energy of the crowd.”

Vaynerchuk’s enthusiasm and liveliness struck a chord with those in attendance.

“I honestly haven’t heard a speech like that at Tech, ever,” Veoni said. “I’m a business major so entrepreneurial stuff is definitely relevant to me. He was very motivational and very inspirational and I definitely took away a lot of things that I can learn from him.”

In terms of a future college tour, Vaynerchuk says that the event at Virginia Tech would serve as a “blueprint” for that tour.

“I’m just grateful,” Vaynerchuk said. “That’s what makes me sit until midnight and just sign and take pictures. Kids’ enthusiasm really resonates with me.”

Mini Assignment 3: The World's WORST Website

When the videos were shown in class, I thought there was no way on on earth that I could find worse. Well, I did.

Exhibit A

This is just one of many horrific pages on this website. It is bad for oh so many reasons. The first big thing I noticed is the lack of continuity between pages. Every background is different and several are fully animated, including the rainbow-colored, seizure-inducing monstrosity on the above link. An epileptic extravaganza if you will.

The text, from page to page as well as within pages is incredibly inconsistent. The use of animation on the pages adds nothing and seems to simply be there because they knew how to do it. Many of the font colors clash with the background as well, making them virtually unreadable.

On top of it all, the navigation menu seems to be buried at the bottom on half the pages, with some being seemingly random symbols that give me no context as to the links they contain.

Overall, I would give this website a zero on whatever scale would be used. It is completely terrible in just about every way and I wouldn't recommend it for your health.

An Interview with Professional Wrestler Adam Page

There are a lot of odd professions that people get into now-a-days. One of those jobs is the professional wrestler. Adam Page has been wrestling locally for almost 4 years and has recently starting branching outside of the area to display his skills.

As he prepares to graduate from college, Adam gets ready to pursue his dream of professionally wrestling in one of the bigger circuits such as the WWE. Despite the slim odds, Page will be chasing his dream until it comes true.

Special thanks to Nelson Jenstad for the use of his song "Make The Horizon" off his new album "Faster Bicycle."

Crowd-Sourcing

For this mini-project, I asked the question on Facebook, "Which of the following graduate schools should I attend and why: Missouri, Oregon, or Wisconsin?"

The answers were all over the map. Literally. Most of the answers had to do with geographical locations. A lot of people thought I should go to Oregon because it is on the west coast. Others thought Wisconsin's proximity to Chicago would make for an interesting experience. Still others thought Missouri would be neta because of St. Louis or Kansas City.

One person thought Missouri would be great because of the program reputation, but the answer that took me by surprise was one advocating Wisconsin. The person said that since Wisconsin seems wo be something of a political hotbed, it would be a great place to pursue a graduate journalism degree. It's a compelling point and one that I will have to take into consideration when choosing where I want to go.

Have You Ever Been to Blacksburg?

Have You Ever Been To Blacksburg? from Steven Rich on Vimeo.

Photos by Steven Rich

The slideshow above shows how the music scene in Blacksburg is different from a lot of other places. The Jugbusters are a prime example of a Blacksburg folk band and were gracious enough to share their stories, as well as their images.

Establishing Shot

Brian Grieb holds out an engagement ring to Sarah Hilbert. The couple got engaged on January 29.