It's Akilah, Obviously!

The weather here in NYC is just abysmal and I’m overdue for a tan. I miss heat. I miss not having to wear a jacket and a coat! If you’ve followed my interests at all, you should know that I’m going to PlayList Live in Orlando in a few weeks. I’ve been dieting, yoga-ing, plotting, planning, shopping, daydreaming, and generally being way too excited for the long weekend that awaits. Did you know I love travelling? I absolutely love it; From 4am cab rides to airplane turbulence, to staying in a foreign bed, and eating and drinking about town.

Well if you didn’t know all that jazz, now you do, and that means you can look forward to me blogging about different travel things I enjoy!

♪“I watch the patchwork farms // slow fade into the ocean’s arms // calm down // release your cares // the stale taste of recycled air.”♪ These are lyrics to my favorite flight song, “Recycled Air” by The Postal Service. Their entire album Give Up is super relaxing to listen to in-flight, but I just like making new playlists for every new escapade.

I have 2 tips for building a relatively dope flight playlist:

1. Look for songs about flying. Start with the basics:

• “Come Fly With Me” by Frank Sinatra
• “Leaving on a Jet Plane” by John Denver
• “A Whole New World” from Aladdin
• “Fly Away” Lenny Kravitz
• “Fly Like an Eagle” Seal (yes, the dank version from the Space Jam Soundtrack)
• “Learn to Fly” Foo Fighters
• “Rocketman” by Elton John

2. Look for songs about your destination. Since I’m going to Orlando, I’m just gonna put songs by Disney, tropical sounding songs (like Beach Boys stuff), and Flo-Rida, but I’m sure if you’re going somewhere awesome, you should work on building that list. My NYC list is INSANE.

So that’s part one of this series on travel! I’ll keep this going because it’s one of my favorite things to do!

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Hey everyone!

I just returned from Orlando for the 2nd Annual Playlist Live convention. The weekend was kind of a blur, but it was sincerely one of the most intense (in a good way), fun (in the best way) weekends of my life. It’s not often that I’m surrounded by people who are doing what I want to do with my life, so I did my best to just soak in all of their awesomeness in hopes of producing some amazing online content in the coming weeks and months and years.

Thursday

Flew in around 6 and got to the Buena Vista Palace hotel at 7ish. I showered, watched Community, and headed out to Icebar Orlando. I ended up sharing a cab with Landon Austin, who is this ridiculously bashful, insanely talented singer/songwriter. We ended up hanging out all night and getting IHOP with Strawburry17 at 3a.m. For the record, these people are crazy successful on youtube and have endless good tips for getting to where they are.

Friday

Friday was “business day” so as such, I got to watch loads of panel discussions. Not only did that introduce me to a lot of youtubers I knew of but hadn’t subscribed to—it also offered insight into a lot of important changes and integrations with Google+. I also met up with Adande and rolled VIP with TimothyDeLaGhetto and Pedro Flores. I got to meet Hannah Hart and we now have a twitter code-word (cover of her ukulele song “Cheese Pleasin’ Me” coming tomorrow) and so many other admirable youtube partners. I figured I’d get to see them, but I didn’t realize that we’d actually be hanging out. Craziness.

Saturday

The wild portion of my weekend officially began Saturday. The actual convention-y part of the convention began, so there were a lot of fan girls to sift through. I ran into my friend Scooter Magruder who introduced me to more of his friends, and I networked my little fanny off. I watched a few performances, but mostly just chilled with new friendlies. That night I had the greatest friggin time ever at Chili’s with Adande, Lena, Valerie, Theresa, and others. I can’t wait to see their vlogs, because the shenanigans were just immaculate. After all that, Swoozie got us into the VIP after party where I officially met Jenna Marbles and a few other people. I made a gif IRL and danced with Tyler Oakley to Lady Gaga (which is like, everything). More schmoozing and 5a.m. by the pool later, I passed out.

Sunday

Said goodbye to everyone and watched a few more performances and things. I learned how to play “Kent” at which Lena and I dominated. Saw part of some band’s performance, and wandered around Downtown Disney until I had to pack and get ready for my 5 a.m. taxi. 

I’m leaving out a lot, I’m sure—which is why I’m making a vlog about it later this week. I’ll post it here. Just know that being around people my age who are living out their dreams and making crazy amazing content on the internet without worrying who is reading it and how it is being interpreted is so refreshing. I don’t know if I’ve ever been this inspired in my life, but I’m so ready to run with my youtube channel.  You’ll be seeing a lot more of this fro, soon.