The real FINALISTS are..

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First, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has sent in applications throughout February for theBME World Tour Intern Contest. I appreciate the effort that all of the applicants put into their videos and for taking the time to help me get to know each and every one of them as best as I could through their videos! Some were really fun to watch and others were a bit painful!

With Jen’s help, I’ve compiled a list of the finalists. I’d like you to watch their videos and then vote at the bottom of the videos. Vote for your FAVORITE 4 applicants! You’re only allowed to vote once. This will help me to figure out who the readers of BME want to see out there on the road with me. The winners of the poll won’t automatically be the winners of the contest but it will definitely help to show who the BME community wants as well as who can get the most people over to BME and voting for them!

I have been working on the logistics and may possibly end up choosing two teams to go out with me because it’s been too hard to narrow down just to four interns! These are the cream of the crop. They’ve either got great talents as writers, photographers or video editors or they just have some supremely awesome quality about them that came through in their applications or video. I really wish I could take them all! Help me to narrow it down because lord knows I can’t fit 18 of us in one suitcase!

Voting closes March 1st at 12:01am PST. I’m hoping to announce the winners on March 1st so we’ve only got a couple days to get those votes in! This will get reposted daily until then!

Ed

Thaddeus

Megan

Chez

Richard

Darah

Kaelahbee

Alberto

RobW

Timothy

Ari Oh


Kristen


Ferg

Adrian

Stewart


DeseRae

Jens

Nae

Now that you’ve watched the videos, VOTE for your favorite 4 applicants. Pick the 4 people you’d want to see out on the road together! Help them get out there by casting your vote! Remember, voting closes March 1st at 12:01am PST so get your friends voting for you!

158 thoughts on “The real FINALISTS are..”

  2. i thought this would not be polled by random non-BME and accounted full BME IAM member contributors, i think this should be left up to who YOU think should really go. But lets see how the race turns out at the end of voting.

  3. rachel said that the winner from the poll won’t automatically be the winner. it’ll show her what the community wants and will help her decide.

  8. Ceci: Thank you for actually reading the post. I appreciate it a lot.

    I’m just asking for feedback because the people that I might like might be totally different than what the community at large might want to see since we’ll be doing a lot of heavy community interaction.

    Norm wants me to put together an all girl team, or apparently a “no model lookin’ dudes” team..

  9. Oh my gosh I am so flattered and thrilled to be part of the pool with other amazing finalists! I swear I saw some Vimeo videos embedded here on the blog a few days ago but let me know if you need me to put it up on YouTube so it can be embedded more easily.

  11. Sara: I see her just below Jens.

    Also, for some reason the vimeo videos won’t load at all for me anymore so if someone wants to copy the embed code for those three links then email them to me, I’ll add them to the post so all the videos are on the page.

    There have already been 220 votes since I posted this and it hasn’t been up for very long at all!

  16. Ahhh This is so exciting! Thanks Rachel (and all of BME!) Good luck to everyone that made it into the Finals! Regardless of who goes, it’s going to be an amazing tour to take part in or watch from ModBlog!

  17. I’m seconding Kaelah! This will be great to see as it progresses. I really hope you guys do this again in the future 🙂

  19. I have an enormous set of things to say. Rather than votes, I have feedback.

    Here are my votes based on the videos alone (and I haven’t taken into account factors of other things I know — or don’t know — about the people, as well as other things like the history that you may work better with guys than girls in general). I would like to say that I think going with four, let alone eight, people is a huge mistake (although I agree that there are many good applicants). I think that it makes more sense to use a small team, and instead of spending money on salaries, spending it on travel and otherwise making this project bigger.

    I liked everyone on one level or another and it was hard to say “no” to anyone. What a wonderful bunch of applicants. And sorry, they sort of get shorter near the end as I ran out of energy. I haven’t bothered spell or grammar checking any of this because it’s taken too long as is.

    ** Ed ** [UNSURE, PERHAPS STRONG YES]
    There’s something about Ed that I can’t quite put my finger on, as if he’s a little too eager to say the right thing or something? But Ed seems extremely bright, competent, mature, and well spoken, and has made a great, very convincing video that makes his case well and is appropriately illustrated and edited as well. I think Ed has the potential to take a larger and long-term role at BME than this job as well, and as I said before this should be considered. If you find someone that’s right for the BME, it would be nice if they could stay for good. He runs a (sort of) competing site which is both a good thing and a risk and conflict of interest — and I’d say this in general about him, that Ed has such an impressive resume that I’d have some trust issues that he’s too big for the job and might take what BME could offer and use it more to his own benefit than BME’s. But Ed is great, and perhaps the most all-around impressive applicant… But I’d have real worries that he’s over qualified and all the baggage that comes with that.

    ** Thadeus ** [NO]
    Personally I think rather than shooting for four (or eight) employees you should hire less people (leaving more money both to dedicate to this project, and also to come visit your daughter for example), so I think that employees that are able to do all aspects of the job should be prioritized. I’m not sure that Thadeus fits this category. I’m sure he’s a good photographer and a nice guy, but he seems kind of boring and I don’t find his video very inspiring or even particularly revealing, and he says pretty much nothing about body modification other than “I have tattoos and I like tattoos”. The only advantage to Thadeus is what’s not in the video, that you know him already and get along. But from the video he should not even have made the finalist list. He doesn’t even say what makes him a good photographer or what his attitudes or motivations or anything else are. Just says over and over that he likes it. I strongly vote against him, based this video.

    ** Megan ** [WEAK YES]
    I like Megan’s photo work and I like how she was able to express her thoughts about her likes, influences, and photography (unlike Thadeus, who was totally unable to express himself verbally), as well as her thoughts about body modification. She’s also funny and quirky in the video (which is quite well edited) without being irritating — this is always a fine line — and the application is generally well put together. All in all I feel fairly neutral on her but I like her. I think she’d be a solid addition to the team.

    ** Chez ** [NO]
    How did she do the subtitles? I love that! But what I didn’t love is that there’s basically nothing in the video that tells me anything about her that’s relevant to body modification or the job. So I have to vote no, and complain that I wasted ten minutes on this person. Boo!

    ** Richard ** [VERY STRONG YES]
    Anyone that begins with The Crazy World of Arthur Brown is starting right in my books, and shows a sense of humour that I like, and I appreciate the “jack of all trades” position. The video is hilarious, and he’s really well spoken (minimal “ums” and “likes” and “i means” that most people suffer from) and seems to have a really good attitude about life, and a lot of applicable knowledge and experience that works well for this job. I enjoyed this video a lot and would love to see what he can do. Brilliant.

    ** Darah ** [YES]
    As I said before, I liked her video and thought she came off as intelligent, mature, and competent, with obvious respect for the job. I also like that she got her video in early, and I think promptness reflects well on her. Darah seems very level headed and I feel like she would tackle interviews with a sense of fairness and open-mindedness. She really reads as a very capable journalist that would portray her subjects with honesty. A little dry and professional perhaps, but I think that’s more just being very focused on clear articulation. I have no doubt that she could do a good job, although I think she’d be strongest in writing and in more academic interviewing, perhaps in a BMEradio type project.

    ** Kaelahbee ** [SOLID YES]
    Kaela seems very likable and the accent and her presentation is charming (and her dog is awesome — but will that be a problem?), and I think she could be a super personality if used for video interviews at conventions and so on. Not that I think the applicant should be judged on their look, but Kaela has a great look, and her bubbly personality could make her a really nice spokesperson for BME while doing interviews, and she has a very good travel resume, so I think she could be relied upon to be sent on missions to do interviews and coverage either on her own (perhaps with a videographer), or with a full team. Good attitude, and her history with blogging and so on shows that she would be capable in all that’s being asked of her in this job.

    **Alberto ** [NO]
    This video didn’t particularly pull me in, and I almost shut it off before it get started. I suspect Alberto is better than the video makes him seem, and that he’s probably an interesting character, but the video doesn’t strike me. Too much “ummmm….” and it seems like some more effort into scripting and thinking about how to present himself should have been put in. The montage of his photos at the end was promising though and it looked like superb work.

    ** RobW ** [WEAK NO]
    Holy moly can this guy talk. There’s an element of a funnier Phil in Rob I think, and he’d probably be a solid person to bring along as a gopher sort, but I’m not sure that he really jumps out at me. Rob might be good to bring on to staff ModBlog — I’d consider giving him a shot at that, and maybe for a podcast tie-in to that as well. But I don’t think he’d be my choice for the tour, sorry.

    ** Timothy ** [SOLID YES]
    Timothy has been a part of BME for a long time and I think everyone knows that he would be quite solid at the job. He reminds me of a MuchMusic VJ or something, so I guess that means that I think he could tackle the jobs that exist on the tour. He has an excellent and complete knowledge of the subject and of the community and has long shown his loyalty and involvement with BME. I think you could quite confidently use him for this, and I think you know that. Timothy also has the advantage of being a known quantity — there is no gamble here. He would be a good choice. He also has such a broad range of skills that I think you could put him into pretty much any job at BME — technical or creative — and I don’t feel like he’s committed to his own projects strongly enough that there would be a conflict of interest.

    ** Ari Oh ** [WEAK YES]
    I think she has a rich set of skills that would apply nicely, but nothing really jumps out at me. She speaks with clarity (although with lots of “ums”) and seems to have a good head on her shoulders although she’s still young (and reads as such), and has a decent attitude about life and has a lot of potential… But I don’t feel super pulled-in to this interview even though there’s nothing wrong with it.

    ** Kristin ** [YES]
    First, I appreciate her going to some effort on the video, which is also well edited — not many people seem to have done that. She’s extremely well spoken (for all I know she’s reading from a teleprompter), seems crazy smart and very, very, talented, and I’m quite sure she’s a great writer from. I don’t know if she’s right for the tour, and she may well be, but I think she should be strongly considered as a writer for the site, doing interviews and written coverage for BME. But I don’t think that she’d be ideal for things like video interviews and live coverage — although her ability to design and edit them is superb. All in all though I’m sure you would be very happy with her.

    ** Ferg ** [NO]
    Ok… I think the world of Ferg. He’s brilliant and creative, but he’s uncontrollably independent and too strong-minded and driven to do his own thing to have as an employee. Amazing guy, but not right for this. If you were going to work with Ferg you’d be better off sponsoring him for an independent production of some sort. He’s capable of doing the incredible, but in my opinion he’s not capable of working for you or even particularly on a team.

    ** Adrian ** [NO]
    For starters I’m afraid that I would, for various technical and convenience reasons, recommend — in general (as you may know there was a Russian that I liked) — that you hire either an American or a Canadian. I feel that’s more than a little unfair, but I would eliminate someone from the UK. But this video doesn’t particularly inspire me. Seems like a nice guy though.

    ** Stewart ** [NO]
    He definitely fits the profile of a BME community person, but he doesn’t jump out at me either, sorry. There’s nothing in this video that inspires me. Sorry, I know I’m not giving it a lot of time but having gotten through this many I know there are better options. Again, seems like a nice guy and I like him, and I hope he keeps working. I also think that the person/people chosen should be multi-talented rather than primarily just a photographer or otherwise one-dimensional.

    ** DeseRae ** [NO]
    Oh, gosh, this is really unfair, but I don’t think she’s at all marketable, and someone doing work where you are a part of the presentation that’s important. The video is a bit of a downer and not that interesting.

    ** Jens ** [WEAK NO]
    I don’t know if this is currently the case, but historically BME has strong competition in Germany, even though Germans speak decent English, so there’s a good argument for hiring a German, to say nothing of the fact that Jens has a set of skills that’s unique and sets him apart from the other applicants. I think that if you wanted to take the tour in the direction that only he can serve, that he would be the best choice, but it’s my feeling that for now you should choose a safer path for this tour. But you should definitely put Jens aside for perhaps working with in the future.

  22. Oh, and now that Nae has been rightfully added…

    ** Nae ** [YES]
    I’m too tired out to write fully on her but I think Nae is like Timothy in that she’s a known quantity and has long since proven her ability to do this job, so really, it’s just for Rachel to decide if she thinks that Nae is the right fit for whatever team she ends up building. But obviously Nae is capable.

  23. Why wasn’t I up at the same time as everyone else? I wasn’t there when I checked this morning but just got a message on IAM saying ‘congrats’… I’m really excited to be considered with all of these amazing people!!! Good Luck everyone!

  24. can i get an up top?! anyone?!

    nae?!

    thanks for picking me 🙂 oh i’m taking photos of a pull/suspension this weekend. get this party started early.

  25. Darah stands out so far above the crowd, I’ll be flummoxed if she doesn’t get in.

    And will people please *read* posts properly?!!!! Man…..

  26. I agree with 24. But I preferred Ed > Darah.
    After some entries in Ed’s blog, it was evident that he has tubular writing skills and is very computer literate.
    My choices (Not like anyone cares. But I do!) were Ed for writing position, Timothy for videographer, Megan for photographer, and Richard for the “jack of all trades type”.
    Autobots, roll out!!!!

  28. #20 Kaelah: Yeah!!! It’s so cool to see someone I’m familiar with on the internet get the opportunity to do this (as much as I wish I’d been chosen, haha). Good job, lady, and I wish you the best of luck! You best be posting some epic Empires updates if you get chosen, haha.

  31. Thank you Shannon! I appreciate it! 😀 As far as my dog being a problem, It most certainly wouldn’t be! I live with my boyfriend and 3 very capable roommates and they all love Georgia as much as I so she will always have caring hearts looking after her!

    Good luck everyone!

    #28 Molly: You betcha! I’ll actually HAVE something to blog about! haha

  34. I don’t necessarily agree with all of Shannon’s feedback but I certainly respect the insight and opinion he has on the candidates.

  35. Mitch, this site is to some extent my “legacy” and on this particular subject I feel like having my voice be heard. Obviously it’s not my decision, but I would be disappointed to see the site employing people who I feel it shouldn’t. In addition, I have a fair amount of experience with the specifics of working for BME.

  37. It seems that you arent picking people for specific roles, rather just people, and going to fit them into whatever you need?

  38. As usual, anything that gets put on Modblog becomes insta-beauty contest. Calling someone “unmarketable,” seriously?

  39. Trying to answer from my phone at the doctors office.

    Shannon: thanks for your email. Will reply when I get home.

    Nae: I added you about an hour or so after the post went up. I had multiple windows going and that was an accident.

    As far as voting goes, it wont be reset daily. The same poll will be used all week.

    As far as the positions, I know what roles the individual applicants have applied for. I don’t really need/want feedback on the specific roles but the vibe that readers get from the videos. That is why I’m posting them with just their videos and names. I have significantly more material/information on each applicant than what has been posted here.

    I’m not sure where the confusion lies but the whole point is about this being a group project, not something where I’d send these people out solo. There is no world tour if people just cover their local areas. That changes the concept completely.

    This is also a short duration internship, not a long term job hunt. There aren’t “big salaries” being wasted that could be used to expand the project. THIS IS THE PROJECT.

    More when I get home. Please vote!

  40. in response to shannons comment. subtitling was super easy. you just upload a word file of the audio via YouTube. also, I didn’t include my relevence to bme or other qualifications because that wasn’t a requirement for the video. Rachel said she wanted insight into ourselves and like I said in the video, the paperwork submitted with the video details my experience. the video is only there for everyone to get to know me and my travel habits.

    thanks for the feedback!! if anyone has questions regarding my qualifications, feel free to contact me via iam!

  42. Congrats to the finalist. Extremely grateful that I’m even in consideration, especially since I come off as an awkward dork in my video. But that’s only because I am an awkward dork.

    Good luck to all!

  43. Rachel – No worries! I’m not upset or anything, I was just confused and bummed out at first! Things happen! I’m just happy to be considered (and to apparently have an awesome following!!) for this opportunity! And I apparently love exclamation points!

    Shannon and everyone else who voted for me – Thank you for your support! I appreciate it a lot 🙂

  44. It seems that this whole opportunity went from being exciting and different to a legitimate popularity contest. I saw a slew of applicants that had great audition videos and were more than qualified, but seemed to have been overlooked. Personal preference of course, but I can’t help noticing.

    “Norm wants me to put together an all girl team, or apparently a “no model lookin’ dudes” team..”

    This quote alone is the most disappointing of them all. There were SO many great male applicants. Why have them audition at all if Norm is looking for the Charlie’s Angels of BME?

  45. marketable? i wasn’t aware i was auditioning to become a product. that’s insulting.

    moreover, i apologize if my video was a “downer.” i’m not sure why, other than that i make an awkward video, and i guess one of my goals is to, you know, help suicidal people maybe not be suicidal?

  46. i should also note that, while my skills do not lie in making audition videos, they DO lie with the written word and the printed image.

    in our applications, we were asked for links to our work, and i provided many. how come the video is the sole offering strangers are given to vote on as evidence of my value to the BME world tour? had i known that none of those things would be seen, i would have spent more time talking in my video about the fact that i’ve interviewed the likes of tori amos and tegan quin, or that i’ve photographed sting and journey and jay-z. i would have spent more time delineating my qualities as a photographer and a writer instead of speaking directly at the camera to give the viewer a sense of my character itself.

    i think these are valid concerns. sure, some of those videos are cute and quirky and i totally want to be best friends with some of those people, but they don’t present the whole picture in the same way that the information we provided on our applications does.

  47. Wow, just realized i sat here and watched every video. Pretty awesome stuff! I really like all of the videos, but i would say something about what Stewart said stuck out to me. As well as Darah, her video was nice. They were both simple as well.

  49. Since we know winners, I want to say something too.
    At first, I want to say big “thank you” to BME and personally to Rachel for this great idea (or probably it’s better to call it “project”?)! And although I see no Russian guy in the short list, I feel that I got something good and useful from this competition. Now I know my weaknesses better (of course my biggest problem is English which is probably good, but now it’s clear for me it’s not good enough for this tour) and this knowledge will help me in fighting against them.
    At second, I truly appreciate Shannon’s sympathy to me. Maybe next time I will be good enough for similar projects!
    At third, I wish good luck for all these talented people and I’m sure that they will do incredible job during these 3 month!
    And at last, I will provide any possible help to Rachel and Co when this tour will reach Moscow! Just let me know!

    From under 80 cm of pure white russian snow,
    Sergey “Tyler” Popov.

  50. Amy – Norm is Rachel’s SO. Rachel will take the most qualified. It’s a joke, more or less, though I’m sure Norm would prefer if no good looking men accompany Rachel. I doubt Norm is looking for Charlie’s Angels of BME but rather made a joke to Rachel about not taking hot guys with her.

    Ultimately the final call is Rachel’s. I’ve given her my opinion, based on the applications themselves as well as the videos. She knows who I have nothing but a resounding NO for and who I have strongly suggested YES for.

    I think in some cases the votes are probably reflecting the person’s appearance rather than the content of their video. Such is the nature of the internet but how the applicants are handling what is essentially the reality of being a part of ModBlog (which is what this job entails) says tons.

    The videos are here to show everyone who the finalists are and to see what the readers of ModBlog think. As Rachel clearly stated, the results of the poll do not mean those are the people chosen, it’s just one more thing that she can use to consider who she’ll take because believe me, this is incredibly hard! As it is, I’ve got 5 or 6 choices for 4 spots. I’m just glad Rachel has to make the winners announcement and not me because I’d probably cry.

  51. If you know that calling someone “unmarketable” is unfair, why in the name of hell would you say it? By unmarketable, do you mean “not trying hard enough to be adorable”?

  53. for obvious reasons, I’m in love with Megan and Ari Oh. and yeah, Richard as well!
    they all seem like very valuable lazer dogs <3

  54. Wow, this is getting intense. I’ve come back to check this post a few times today, partly based on my own vain curiosity and partly based on my interest in the feedback people would leave via comments. Regardless of what the masses may think about these videos turning into nothing more than a popularity contest, I know Rachel is going to choose candidates based on who will be most qualified and competent for the jobs ahead. I’m not spamming other social networking sites multiple times a day asking people to vote for me just so I can get a high percentage because I know that, ultimately, what will matter most is the honesty I put forth in my application and the quality of my written interview. I am comfortable with my skills and my ability to represent BME in a positive and culturally respectful way which also has the opportunity to be entertaining and challenging. And even if I don’t get the position, knowing that I’ve made it this far in the application process is rewarding just on its own.

  55. Wow! I made it to the finalist round. Thanks for the votes everyone. I know a lot of people don’t know as I haven’t been on iam as long as some of the others, but I do hope that some consideration is made.

    As others have said, the video is just to give you an idea of who we are as people. My entry for writing was well over 15 pages of sample writing (including 5 just on the application itself), as that is my strong suit. I also didn’t put a lot of prep work into my video because of the personality aspect. I wanted to show who I am, so I just did it on the fly. When doing something that is to be broadcast, or an interview, I prepare ahead of time so I can carry a slightly more professional tone. Standing in front of a group of 17 year old kids for several hours a day, you learn real fast that you need to be on top of things or they’ll eat you alive.

    Also, when voting keep in mind that while you are voting for people you like, you’re voting for members of a team. So think of diversity, as well think of who your vote recipients will work well with.

    Shannon: Thanks for the kind words. I just wish you could have seen my complete application as it shows a lot more of my talents.

  57. Amy: I guess you don’t get the joke. My SO would clearly not want me to be romping around the world in a van of “hot dudes”. You also can’t say you say people who were more qualified than the people I have narrowed it down to because the VIDEOS were only a very small portion of the application process. Norm clearly has absolutely nothing to do with BME, nor does he have any say in the winners of the contest. I run BME and find it a bit demeaning that someone would come on here and act like my SO would be looking for a “Charlie’s Angels of BME”. He would simply rather see me out on the road with a crew of girls than a bunch of hot guys. Duh.

    Some people may be more talented in one specific area but I am also looking for THE TOTAL PACKAGE. There are so many complete unknowns as far as “popularity contests” go. There several very prominent members who applied who would be “cream of the crop” as far as popularity goes but they didn’t make MY CUT.

    As far as Shannon’s comments go, I’m sorry that people are offended by them but he is who he is and he puts his opinion out there. He could have just blogged about it over on his site but instead of talking about you guys behind your backs, he decided to post it here. Cudos to him. Take his criticism for what it is. He is a very talented individual and BME’s founder. That being said, he no longer has anything to do with BME so his opinions are just that. His opinion and they don’t sway me. Again, if you think someone saying you aren’t as marketable (which yes, we are all products when we are selling ourselves and our work, if you don’t like it, then you will need to remove yourself from the marketplace) then try having what you say completely disregarded over that of your ex husband’s and you current SO. Neither of them have any say in who is going or how the tour will shape up.

    Before you freak out, keep that in mind. You guys made it to MY FINALIST ROUND out of the hundreds of people who have applied. What I said is what matters. You guys did what I asked you to do. I don’t need you to sit there and talk about body modification non stop in your videos because I clearly know that you’re into body modification OR ELSE YOU WOULD NOT BE HERE!

    So for the last time, if you’re taking what Shannon says over what I say as far as for the qualifications then I guess you should go apply for his tour. Oh wait. Yeah, that’s right, he’s not doing one so that means that you can just keep on movin’ past what he has to say if you don’t like it.

    As I posted earlier, I know what roles the applicants are here for. I know all the information that was submitted and the extra credit assignments that I asked for from some of the applicants. The only person that you need to convince is ME and arguing in the comments on Modblog is not a way to win me over because you need to get over it quickly if you’re going to come on this tour. We are going to get hated on. Someone won’t like the way you looked in a photo or how you made a typo on an article or made some weird error in a video that we didn’t catch. This is the internet and people are assholes. If you can’t handle it then you can’t have a job revolving around it!

    Tyler: We don’t know the winners yet, we only know the finalists. I will post when I have made my decision.

    AGAIN, SHANNON’S POST ON HIS OPINIONS DOES NOT MEAN THAT THOSE PEOPLE ARE THE WINNERS OF THIS CONTEST!

    I thought I had my four picked but this post has revealed a LOT about who would be able to handle the constant criticism and microscope that we will be under in addition to the stress of being on the road. We will be working long hours, creating content, meeting new people and ultimately sharing it with everyone here on Modblog.

    Remember when you guys hated my photos from Hawaii? Get ready for 5 of us sharing all sorts of travel adventure goodness in the modded world that is BME.

  58. Liz and Des, I don’t want to gum up Rachel’s forum by going off-topic but since I think you’re misinterpreting what I mean by “marketable” let me very quickly clarify, which will also help explain what I think part of working for BME entails (although this is of course just my opinion). If you’re doing video interviews and video presentation of BME content, which seems to me could be a significant component of this particular job/tour, then the way that you present yourself visually and dramatically is very important. That is, you’re marketing a concept, you’re marketing an interview, you’re marketing a lifestyle, and so on… That means being upbeat — which you also seemed to take offense to, but I think that’s important as well, because you want people to be excited about the material you’re presenting, or at least believe that you are generally supportive of it rather than depressed by it — drawing people into what you’re talking about, and so on. It doesn’t have a lot to do with beauty, and it seems like that’s how you’re characterizing my statement and that’s unfair. It should seem like you believe in the BME life (and I hope you genuinely do) and people should be able to feel that in the way you talk and move and so on, and relate to it themselves and get drawn into the same emotional space.

    Please don’t read my feedback as a personal attack. It’s in no way meant to be, and I really do think that you’re part of a wonderful group of applicants. Also understand that nothing I say should reflect on Rachel or this job’s hiring process. These are my opinions alone.

  59. is this poll really an accurate representation of peoples’ preferences? can’t people just vote for themselves or whoever they like over and over again?

  60. Lauren: No, people can only vote once.

    Let me also reiterate that you can’t judge people solely on the videos. I just wanted to get feedback on the vibe that people got from the videos as far as their personalities which are what the videos were supposed to reflect.

    This is why modblog readers aren’t picking the winners because I don’t want it to be based on who has the best pair of tits & ass. I doubt the majority of the people voting would take the time to watch every single video, read everything that was submitted, go through hundreds of photo portfolios and everything else that Jen and I did to narrow is down.

    All that being said, settle down or I’ll turn this bus around and go home!

  62. shannon: i didn’t interpret your remark on my “marketability” to be about my personal aesthetics. i just think that, based on my video, it’s hard to see how i could NOT be marketable. i’m skilled in a variety of areas, most notably photography, writing, and my work with parasuicidal behaviors. i’ve been a member of the modded community for a long time. i’m just very laid back (which is not to say that i’m not generally upbeat, i just don’t bounce a lot, if that makes sense) and not the best Self Talker. in any case, thank you for clarifying.

    rachel: thank you for choosing me as a finalist. i know that, as a finalist, you are the only person i have to win over, but look: if i do this, i have to quit my job. i live in new york city. the market isn’t easy here and i don’t have the kind of safety net a lot of people do if i fail. that’s fine, though. i want to do this. this is a fucking awesome opportunity and anyone would kill to be picked. i just think that my video is my weakness, and my video is what readers are basing their votes on. even if you do have the final say, it would be nice to have the polls in my corner based on my merits other than utter awkwardness while talking about myself, you know?

  63. Does this mean I’m not a model-lookin’ dude? hahaha. Kidding!

    I am truly honoured to have made it to the finals. Thank you to Rachel for selecting me, and thank you to the people in this comment thread for your support.

    I think this World Tour is an amazing opportunity for whoever gets chosen to go, as well as an opportunity for BME to raise their visibility and generate a ton of engaging content.

    I’m eager to see how this all turns out! Thank you to everyone who’s written on Modblog, and written IM’s to me on IAM with kind words.

    Good luck to everyone, and remember that you can only vote once, so make ‘em count!

    P.S.: Are you tracking IP addresses? How are you ensuring that people don’t mega-vote for themselves?

  64. I hate to see such a strong community divided by something as trivial as youtube videos. We all have our favorites and we’re all “pro-someone” but in the end, it IS Rache’s decision and if she’s managed to run a tight ship here at BME, you can best bet that she’s fully capable of making an educated decision on who will be crammed in a bus/train/plane with her for 8+ weeks. There are SO many qualified people for the positions being offered, I’m sure of it because I’ve seen nothing but stellar videos, but just because someone is qualified doesn’t necessarily make them the best choice for the spot. Some people are incredibly intellectual, well written/spoken, etc, but lack sincere social skills. (Not pinpointing anyone here; This is merely a generalized statement.)

    BME is a COMMUNITY. Every single one of us is connected by this site… Even if you feel like it’s turning into high school all over again with the popularity battles, rest assured that regardless of the final poll results, Rachel will choose the 4 she feels are best suited for the environment and project. Regardless of whether or not you are in the final round, even if you’re neck-and-neck with a friend in the poll, we need to come together and support this project rather than skew it down to Homecoming Court our senior year. We need to support the winners no matter who they are because in the end, they will be representing every single one of us. The 5 people that take on this challenge will travel the world and give all of these cultures a little taste of what can be found at BME. THIS is what we need to keep in mind. Not voting for the prettiest or quirkiest, or the most intellectual. We need to vote for who we would without-a-doubt send out into the world to represent us as a whole.

    The main idea of this project, as Rachel has stated, is to help create more traffic for the BME site. If that means inviting people to vote, so be it. I did this (I didn’t say “vote for me! vote for me!”). I made a post at my blog (kaelahbee.com) expressing my excitement for making the finals round, but I urged my readers to familiarize themselves with WHAT they were voting for, and vote for the most qualified applicants. It doesn’t matter how cute you may be; If you can’t do the task you’ve been asked to do, What good are you to Rachel, the team, and ultimately the entire BME community?

    Instead of bickering over these polls, why don’t we use this as an opportunity to strengthen our group by supporting those we feel are qualified, and leaving the rest alone? No sense in belittling anyone or bringing down the group morale. (Remember what your Mama said? If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.) Look at this in the grander scheme of things… This is huge for BME. And if we’re able to pull this one off without any stops, maybe it will help open the door for future trips and projects, and open the floodgates of new community members. We’re here for body modification… not senior superlatives.

    With that being said, I still greatly appreciate any and all support I receive from any fellow BME members, and even to those who don’t necessarily find me to be their “cup of tea”. At the end of the day, we’re all one group. Everyone in the finalists round is more than stoked, I’m sure. Let’s keep the morale high and support the team throughout the entire trip! 🙂 Enough of my rant. 🙂

  65. Hmmm, I really that the roles weren’t separated out, rather that you were looking for four people who were talented in ALL of those areas. It certainly would have changed my application at least…

  66. stoked is a pretty good adjective for it. not gonna lie.

    i’m not much of a bickerer on the whole, so i think i’m going to stop reading the comments section and let this thing get done.

    good luck, everyone.

  68. Everyone: IN THE END, THE VOTES DON’T MEAN SHIT.

    All the voting will really do is maybe make me take a second look at someone because they came out with 90% of the votes out of nowhere.

    Timothy: Polldaddy.com has services in place to protect against that. Plus I’m a smart cookie and if someone takes the lead in a bizarre and clearly robotic voting sort of way then it will be clear. Plus, like I said, the voting doesn’t matter much!

    Des: I’m basing my decisions on the work that you guys did FOR ME. The applications, the materials submitted, the portfolios and everything else that was sent to me. The videos were a way to have a little 10 minute look into your life to just SEE YOU in a way if that makes sense. They’re really not for much more (unless you were applying to be a video editor then your video should be bangin’).

    As far as quitting your job to do this, that is a very serious thing to do, especially in this economy. I commend you for wanting to take that step but it’s also one that you really need to think about before doing so.

    Kaelah Bee: Welcome to Modblog Comments. This is where people let loose and rip each other to pieces on a regular and unpleasant basis. Thanks for keeping a level head about it and not taking certain comments personally.

    You’re one of the primary reasons I wanted to see what a vote would look like. I dug into every candidate. Some people are currently getting emails asking them about things they didn’t disclose which I found out about. You for example have a crazy amount of myspace friends and I wanted to see what kind of audience you have. As far as bringing traffic to the site, BME pretty much has the corner on the market when it comes to well verses sophisticated internet users. They do more than just type in piercings.com or tattoos.com and they find their way to a specialized niche corner of the internet. It’s like the forums that I frequent in the car world, they’re the specialized niche sites that you wouldn’t find. I want to show the joe average web user what BME is all about and see about broadening their horizons as we’ve spent the past 5 years really preaching to the choir. You can’t continue to mold change and evolution if you’re not expanding your audience and casting a wider net (while still staying in our niche!)

    If you didn’t put a blog post about being a finalist, I would be alarmed!

    I can say you are handling yourself with the kind of class and respect that I would demand in someone who was representing BME. Kudos.

    The only reason I even get to go is because I’m the one putting on the tour. If this was a popularity contest or a vote for the prettiest, quirkiest, most awesome person, I’d be the one with no votes. Modbloggers have made that clear enough.

  69. I WILL say that some of these people definitely have a lot of good talents that will benefit you in the tour (judging just from the videos obviously) and I have to say my vote still stands with Timothy as my favorite

  70. Congratulations to all the finalists! I hope everyone who makes it to the end has a blast of a tour, and be sure to look me up when you come to Australia!

  71. Dylan: The roles ARE separated out but I am not putting the finalists that I posted here into their categories because a lot of them applied for multiple roles. I may pick four people and they get assigned as the main writer, photographer, videographer and the jack-of-all-trades/tour manager and then a week into it we figure out that maybe the video editor is actually better on the fly than the writer and the writer has suddenly developed a better photographic eye and we all swap roles.

    Flexibility is also a HUGE part of this task because of how daunting it is in and of itself.

  72. Best of luck to everyone.
    As for comments, everyone is entitled to theirs; if you put yourself ‘out there’ in the public eye, you need to learn to take the rough with the smooth. All part of the great tapestry and wonderfully funny.

  73. there are way too many comments for me to read through…
    so i’m just gonna say, who ever wins this, hope you have a great time wherever you go & get some good footage & information. travel safe!

  74. @Rachel: I wouldn’t take everyones comments to heart – I think the opportunity presented here was a pretty insanely awesome one, and its understandable that people are upset if they weren’t chosen, or their friends weren’t chosen or whatever. You know, its not about who “deserves” it more or who thinks they do. Ultimately its about who can contribute the best to documenting this trip. Whenever you have to do something like this, and you have to narrow people down, you become the bad-guy to everyone who you booted out, which is a hard thing to do. Forgive this reference because I sort of hate this show, but right now you are the Simon Cowell of BMEzine, and are all those people who think they can sing.

  76. I just revised and resent my comments to Rachel on who I think are the best choices and why. Obviously, mine is just another annoying opinion she gets to listen to and not the be all and end all/final say. I want to be Paula and take everyone (well, no, not quite everyone, but a lot of you)!

  77. I’m quite stoked to have made it to the finals. I wouldn’t have expected it, since I myself wasn’t happy at all with my video, but I didn’t have the time to make a better one. I guess I’m just not very good at selling myself, I prefer understatement, that’s just me. It’s great to see how many people did very good videos, and everybody who made it to the finals really deserves it.

    Shannon: Thanks a lot for taking the time to write an insightful feedback on all the finalists, I really appreciate it. I find it a bit disheartening, though, that you think this first tour should be reserved for Americans and Canadians only. I can see where you’re coming from, but I don’t think there would be any problems with logistics or whatever it is that you’re worried about. If you ask me, a mix of nationalities would make the tour a lot more interesting and fun for everybody involved, provided they are all open-minded people, which I guess is the most important thing when you go travel anyway.

  78. i consider these people to be representing the mod community as a whole and i would prefer to be represented by professional, approachable, intelligent individuals. i don’t want people who are unfamiliar with the mod world to only see the sort of attention-grabbing people they are used to seeing, e.g. scene queen hipster types. but that’s just me.

  81. Thanks to BME and Rachel for picking me as a finalist. I’m honored and eternally grateful to have the opportunity to be included in this.

    Thank you to everyone who believes in me and has voted for me. Your support means more than I know how to say.

  82. Wow. Most of these videos were pretty entertaining. I’m glad that we as a community are being afforded the opportunity to voice our opinion on this matter. I’m into it. With that being said, my vote all day long goes to Richard for the “jack of all trades” position. He is smart, interesting, well spoken, captivating and pretty damn hilarious. He seems to pour heart into every word that pours out of his mouth. I think a person with so much passion, experience, and personality as Richard has, would be an asset to your team. I checked out his website and he is really talented as a director, film producer and photographer. Plus he’s adorable. I mean, i’d hit it.

    So, there’s my two cents.

  83. As a note to the finalists- congrats on getting this far! There was a lot of weeding to do for her to boil it down to you guys.

    To those of you who have been offended by the comments, etc.. learn to deal with it. being involved with BME, or with Rachel for that matter, means you are gonna have some serious shit slung at you. It’s time to toughen up now and get ready for it.

  85. The worst part about a video interview is that, unless you keep a regular video diary, it’s kind of awkward to be in front of a video camera. It’s hard not to forget something or be…a complete…spaz…

    It’d be nice to personally interview all of the candidates, obviously, and get more of a feel for their character and skill set, but with the video submissions this contest can reach a wider range of contestants and that is stellar. I would obviously not be able to compete if it were a local, and I sincerely appreciate you considering me for the finals. I haven’t wanted something this bad in a very long time.

    #48 …even if i don’t win this contest…maybe i’ll get a date. AWINKKKKK.

    no…but seriously i want to win the contest.

  87. Hooray! Thanks for choosing me as a finalist! That in itself is something awesome and worth appreciating.

    I’m really excited for this tour, whether or not I’m on it. Traveling the world for BME is going to create some amazing stories.

    I have no idea who to vote for since everyone has something different.

    Shannon, thank you for your thoughts and comments. I’m flattered by your string of compliments! thanks! Making the video was difficult and I’ll admit I was doing my best to both say the “right thing” but also stay true to myself and what I do. It’s a tough balance between wanting to sell yourself for a job as well as be yourself. There’s a whole philosophy I have on this in relationship to my own body modifications that I won’t get into but I imagine many others can relate.

    The thought of taking on a long-term role at BME? my knees get weak.

    I do run a site that could be considered “competing” (I’m assuming you’re talking about geekytattoos). The site is such a tiny niche that I have no intention of growing to compete with BME. I wanted a site to share geeky tattoos that was SFW and had more back stories so I started the site. I’ll admit, it was inspired partly by ModBlog. But the day that geekytattoos truly competes with the whole of BME is the day that something is wrong with the internet. 🙂

    On the note of taking what BME can offer and use it to my benefit, totally valid concern. I won’t lie, if I do go on this trip I’m going to brag the hell out of being able to write/photo/video/whatever for BME. But as far as warping it to my advantage I have no intention to use this as a jumping board to stardom or anything. In fact I’m not really even sure how I would. hehe I’m very much about a team or organization. With our fire art group all of our large scale projects don’t come with artist’s names on them. It always falls under the group and not an individual. Key thing is keeping your ego in check.

    You said that you are worried that I might be over qualified and that this would come with baggage. I’d be curious to hear what sort of baggage you’re thinking of. I love to hear people’s impressions of me when they don’t really know me. No rose-colored glasses that my friends have and it sheds light on how to better interact with people. If you’re up for expounded, shoot me an email: [email protected]

  88. Wow, this is a really intense contest. I’m glad I got the opportunity to compete, and best of luck to all the finalists!

    “It seems that this whole opportunity went from being exciting and different to a legitimate popularity contest.”

    I read all of the comments, and after feeling upset about the “popularity contest” or “beauty contest” aspect, I came to the realization that that is a big part of what this is.

    Why I watch TV or read blogs, (as much as I like to think I’m not shallow or discriminatory) I prefer to look at people that are beautiful, or engaging in some way. I’m sure I’m not alone! I spend more time reading modblog than “ugliest tattoo” blogs! In addition, I always get more excited about something if it’s happening to someone I know.

    Ethically or morally, I don’t like the idea of this vote and I’m thankful it will be worth little. But realistically, I think BME is forced to choose between a lot of smart and talented people, and could go far by choosing the best looking and most popular. Sad, but maybe true.

    “I saw a slew of applicants that had great audition videos and were more than qualified, but seemed to have been overlooked.” – It makes me sad that people with great videos (apparently) didn’t have good applications, and conversely, I think some people’s videos don’t showcase how talented they really are.

    This is really tough busy! Good luck to the future BME team, and good luck to Rachel for having to contend with all the issues!

    And thank-you Shannon for your opinions; I think you’re in a position to offer a lot of insight and I’m glad you did.

  89. oh my stars I dont know how I managed to miss Richard’s video but I just went back and watched it. Yes yes yes! Even as my competition, My vote goes to him! His video was so incredibly entertaining. Better yet, pick us both because I want to be friends with him 😛

  91. This is going to be a very expensive project and the people on the team are going to have to be 100% capable of doing the job in a sometimes hard working environment. There are some people that may be capable but will find the team dynamics hard to live with. All the candidates have done a great job making it this far. Having read Shannon’s comments I think his thoughts are accurate and objective. Please do not take offence at his candid remarks which are made in the interests of the project

  92. wow, did someone tell Shannon he is not allowed to comment on here?? did i read that correctly?? Shannon built BME!

    anyways, great videos…..i say Richard, Darah and Kaelah…..i know thats only three…..but so what

  95. Rachel: As for your “People can only vote once” comment, the poll seems to refresh each time I visit this page, and gives me the option to vote again.

    I obviously do not, but I’m just saying..

  96. Wow guys, i’ve made a few videoblgs before, so i know how hard it is to get used to being in front of the camera, let alone doing a job app via one!:D

    I guess all the members picked are already qualified, so then it’s just down to a personality test, and who you’d think you’d feel most comfortable sharing squishy sleeping arrangements (thinking of my own budget travels!) with haha. (I’d have to ask, who snores first:D!). But I enjoyed watching Rob and Meagan’s applications the most, and when you travel and you only meet people for such a short amount of time, first impressions count!

    Otherwise (from the vids) I thought Timothy and Ferg were friendly easy going and seasoned travellers who i voted for (reckon i’m biased cos i love to travel;)).

    Reckon the people with vids down the bottom got stooged a lil cos i dunno about other people, but my attention span did’t last that long>.<

    Good luck to everyone!:)

  97. Tobias: You always get that page, but if you tried to vote, you see “We’ve already got your vote thanks”.

  98. Rachel, sorry for not getting “the joke” because I had no idea who Norm was, just that his remark was valid enough to repeat, sparking the assumption it was someone involved with BME. I’m sorry you found that demeaning, though at the same time, how was I supposed to know in that one post that it was your SO?

    “Ceci: Thank you for actually reading the post. I appreciate it a lot.

    I’m just asking for feedback because the people that I might like might be totally different than what the community at large might want to see since we’ll be doing a lot of heavy community interaction.

    Norm wants me to put together an all girl team, or apparently a “no model lookin’ dudes” team..”

    No indication who he was. Sorry ’bout that. 🙂

  99. Ah, I wish I didn’t have data-limited Internet right now; I really want to see these videos!

    Good luck to all of the finalists. I’m really excited to see how this tour pans out and what results from it! I’m amazed it’s come together so quickly.

  100. Amy – Norm’s been mentioned several times on ModBlog, in Rachel’s posts. There was a post awhile back about him and Rachel being denied entry to a restaurant and there’s a photo of them together in that entry.

    I wanted to say something about the comment made awhile back about how some people with great videos who seemed qualified got overlooked. They didn’t. All anyone has seen are the videos. Rachel and I have seen full applications. This hasn’t been easy. We didn’t overlook anyone. I say we but Rachel is the final say, I’ve just been helping sort through things and sounding off on various videos/applications. I guess that remark irks me a little simply because it implies that we were carelessly or haphazardly choosing people as finalists and that isn’t the case at all. There were A LOT of applications. There are a lot of videos that didn’t get posted at all and not necessarily because they weren’t good. There’s been a fair bit of complaining about the videos being posted, I can’t imagine how people would have reacted if we had posted them all.

    I see both in the applications and in the videos how excited people are at the possibility of being part of this. In a perfect world, everyone could get a shot. Unfortunately, it just isn’t possible. Narrowing it down to the finalists was extremely difficult and narrowing it down to the final group is proving to be just as painful!

    So yeah, all that just to say, no one was overlooked. If anyone feels overlooked, I’m very sorry but it’s just not the case and none of this was taken lightly by me or by Rachel.

    And if I can give some advice to people, should there ever be another competition like this, it’s this… Have fun with your video but remember you’re applying for a job. Your application should reflect that. BME might not be your typical job but that doesn’t mean you should approach your application like it’s a joke, or a text to your friend. If you’re applying for a specific position, you should show that you are qualified. If you want to be the writer, you better be supplying some writing and making sure that it’s grammatically correct and without spelling errors. Not using any capital letters, for example, is probably not going to win you points. If you’re applying to be the photographer, show your range of skills as a photographer. Name dropping isn’t useful. Evidence is. Truly, there were some really good photographers who have applied who didn’t make the final cut for one reason or another but it’s definitely important to show what you can do, not just say it. While you may be interested in one position over all the others, letting us know what all you can do is also a bonus. Better yet, tell us AND show us.

  101. “If this was a popularity contest or a vote for the prettiest, quirkiest, most awesome person, I’d be the one with no votes.” Now that’s very far from the truth. 🙂

  103. Wow, there’s a lot of people around who are far too sensitive and a bit self-important considering it’s a HUGE COMMUNITY…muchos chilling-out, reading other posts properly before commenting and thinking about what you say before you say it is needed!!

    Otherwise, this is a great project and will be even greater when Rachel and the BME team can just get on the road! Good luck all.

  104. I read the comments before I even watched the videos and voted, and am really glad I did. Some people left really eloquent responses to a barrage of comments, and some people sounded whiny. You are applying for a job, people. It may not be the most conventional job out there, but maintain some form of professionalism please lol.

  105. Hi Timothy,

    Good to see that you are enjoying yourself. When I was your age I treveled the world and also had the luck to travel with many music artists tours in the music industry. All the best of luck and I vote for you and hope you make it.

    Good luck,
    Cheers,
    Bob Johnston

  106. I am casting the largest vote ever for Timothy. I have known Timothy for 13+ years and know what an amazing man he is. He is incredibly intelligent, honest and fun. He is an amazing writer and this opportunity would be absolutely PERFECT for him. Good luck Timothy!!!! xoxoxox

  107. I have to say, I’m with Amy on this one…
    “Joke” or not posting a comment like “Norm wants me to put together an all girl team, or apparently a “no model lookin’ dudes” team..” doesn’t seem to reflect the level of professionalism that you are looking for. What was even more alarming is your response to people’s cirticism: “My SO would clearly not want me to be romping around the world in a van of “hot dudes”…He would simply rather see me out on the road with a crew of girls than a bunch of hot guys. Duh.” That doesn’t sound like a joke to me – I wont make any assumptions about your relationship because I don’t know either if you, but that comes off like “I’m not secure enough with our relationship for you to take the most qualified people because they may be more attractive than me.” and THATS what is alarming.

    Not to say the finalists you have chosen wouldn’t do a good job – some of these finalists have an amazing array of qualifications and I think would do an awesome job, but the insinuation that some people weren’t chosen because they were “model lookin’ dudes” comes off in a way that would understandably rub people the wrong way.

  108. Jen – I get this now, but it is somewhat discouraging that I’m getting such defensive feedback because I haven’t been an avid reader for that long. I’m new. Is it my fault I didn’t know? Should I stop voicing opinions about vaguely misleading statements that are on a public forum because I didn’t research every post she’s made as a resource first? Like I said, sorry I didn’t get “the joke” but even still, I feel like it CAN potentially sully whatever professionalism there is to something like this. I’ve never been hired by someone that mentioned their SO’s opinion on the matter… hence, once again, why it was a misleading statement for new readers.

    I’m merely voicing my opinion on what we’ve been shown – the videos. Which, I think, is the point of sharing them. You can’t get too angry about people wondering why certain people weren’t chosen, which is the huge double-edged sword of only sharing a portion of the applications. I’m sure you were aware of this. If you’re relying on us to vote based on video submissions alone, then you SHOULD be aware some people may have preferred other submissions to these. If we’re not getting the full story, naturally we are operating on WHAT we are getting.

  109. Amy – That wasn’t defensive feedback. Only the first paragraph of my response was for you and I was just pointing out that Norm has been mentioned many times. Perhaps, if you had no idea who he was, making a comment that wasn’t all that nice wasn’t the wisest choice? Either way I was just pointing out where you could find more mentions of Norm and a photo if you wanted.

    Obviously some people would have preferred themselves or their friends to have been finalists. That wasn’t the issue and we’re well aware that we’re disappointing people. That sucks, it really does. That’s the drawback to something like this. My comment was merely to the suggestion that we’d somehow just chosen these finalists out of a hat. No one was overlooked. I think it’s important for all the contestants, their friends and the readers of ModBlog to know that. This wasn’t a decision made lightly and we appreciate the time people took to send in applications. A lot of people have offered to help any way they can, even if they’re not chosen and that just speaks to how great this community can be.

    As far as posting all the videos, it just wasn’t logical or feasible. There were too many! Too many is great but we just couldn’t post them all. People complained about the relatively small number (compared to how many we received) that we did post. It would have been all out mutiny if we’d posted 100 or so videos.

  110. Hopefully the people who end up going have a good sense of humour because Rachel jokes around a lot and clearly her joke about Norm was completely missed. If the best candidates were all “hot dudes”, she’d take them, period. I guess it’s hard for me to understand why those comments are being taken seriously because I know Rachel too well and I just laughed right out loud when I first read it.

    In any case, people can rest assured that candidates are being chosen fairly. This has been a long process and it’s been very hard. I know that the chances are the vast majority of the people who applied could probably do this job, it just comes down to who will do it best. It’s a lot of work. I won’t lie, I would have loved to be going to but the reality is, I couldn’t do it. My health isn’t up for it and while I’m still slightly jealous, I know that without a doubt I could not handle the schedule that is going to be maintained on this tour. Hats off to those who can and I hope the winners think of me languishing on the east coast of Canada while they’re off seeing the world and meeting cool new people. 🙂

  112. Jen – “Perhaps, if you had no idea who he was, making a comment that wasn’t all that nice wasn’t the wisest choice?”

    Similarly, for new readers, it might have been a better choice to give slightly more context. If my comment was seen as mean, I definitely apologize, but I suppose the same could be said for the remark of “Duh.” Rachel gave me thinking I knew who Norm was when I clearly did not. Perhaps it was my humor that was lost with the Charlie’s Angels remark, haha. This is one of those endless cycles, though, because I feel as though you’re not understanding my intentions weren’t bad and that I had a fair assumption to make. Had she said “the boyfriend/my boyfriend/my boo/my one and truest love of them all” I may not have given it a second thought. So I couldn’t help but wonder if Norm was a team member of BME. Rachel said she found my comment demeaning which is unfortunate, but a new reader would have to go back several pages to see any mention of Norm and his standing.

    I also made a comment that I felt others were being overlooked.

    However, I really am wondering about the intention of the public voting. Is it actually the deciding factor? Or is it just for fun participation? If so, I don’t think some people are that far off with the popularity contest comparisons… like I said, we’ve only been given face value video auditions. Someone might choose the endearing boy over the girl who has a killer portfolio, no?

  113. Rachel mentioned, I think, that it isn’t the deciding factor but rather another factor she is taking into consideration. People are going to choose those they feel are “attractive” or their friends whether they’re qualified or not, it’s the nature of the ‘net. But hopefully there are others who actually put some thought into who they choose. I know, personally or online, several of the candidates, both in the finalist round and some who didn’t make it. It’s hard but in the end it comes down to a very small group who can go. Any online poll will be part popularity contest but we are watching and reading and taking lots of things into consideration.

    There are some things that I think I’d like to mention as far as videos go, if there is a future contest but I’ll save it until a more appropriate time.

  114. I think that this post has certainly affected who we’re narrowing it down to. I had given Rachel my picks and reasons why I thought they should go, prior to this and have sent her a new list since then based in part on the discussion that’s gone on here. So it isn’t all for nothing, that’s for sure.

  116. See, I don’t think it matters who made the comment that Norm did – had he just been some random mod who had said it, it still would have been equally as bad. The fact that its someone who is in a relationship with the person running the trip is inconsequential – I personally probably wouldn’t have posted it at all.
    And Jen don’t worry about the grammatical errors – I actually think they lend to the personality of people’s writing on the internet, for better or worse, which can actually lead to some keen insight of their personality overall 😛

  120. Thank you for your support! A few people above have said some very nice things about me and it feels good.

    I woke up today to see that I’d jumped up a bit in the voting. Thanks again! <3

  121. I’m glad I don’t have the final casting vote on this. I don’t think I’m in any specific way qualified to comment on who should go, but I appreciate the invitation to express my opinion. Frankly, the best I can do is put a cross in the box of those who had seemed to give off the best “vibe”, and I think that’s all anyone can. How you get to a selection is your opinion, and my thought process was in many ways quite cynical. I suspect the same will be said for a substantial number of the people who vote. Fundamentally I’d like to say well done to everyone who was courageous enough to sit in front of a camera and expose themselves to the judgement of the world!

    On a slightly different note – I think this has been a great idea and I’d love to see more like it. I think that the challenge laid down by a contest and posting the applications could be a driver to some really high quality content in the future. I don’t know what that would necessarily entail but I find the format intriguing.

  122. I would also just like to say that, if I don’t get picked, I’m flying to Kansas to hang out with Megan cos she’s hilarious and I could use some hilarity in my life.

  123. OMG my relationship must be so horrible because my SO made a joke about preferring I be on the road with a team of girls over guys.. Wow that’s so hard to believe and it certainly isn’t humorous!!

    It’s such a horrible comment that I shouldn’t have posted it and now I’m making it worse by being unprofessional!! Finalists don’t follow my example and screw up as badly as I did. Give me a second to take my foot out of my mouth before I choke on it! Oh Nooooooo! Such serious business!

    For the record, a lot of extremely attractive women applied but unfortunately not very many “model lookin’ dudes” applied. Clearly the ones that did are in the finalist round though because I only hire 10′s.

  127. i have a lot of comments.

    @Ari… You are so welcome in Kansas it’s ridiculous. Seriously. I can show you all of the natural splendors Kansas has to offer…such as pastures and ghost towns.

    @Rachel…If you, in fact, choke on your own foot…does that mean that there are FIVE/SIX spots on this tour…just curious.

    @des!…Is your website headline from “Perks of Being a Wallflower”? If so…I wish I could get a fist bump from you right now.

  129. “I’m German. I’m good at organizing.”

    Bwahahahaha.

    You definitely want Jens on your team. He’ll keep you in line. He’s got my vote.

  131. Rachel: I know you said votes don’t mean shit and people can only vote once anyways. I actually voted for a certain person SEVERAL times and the number continued to go up as I reclicked and reclicked. Just sayin’.

  132. Megan- I grew up in Indiana. I know pastures and ghost towns. Maybe not to the extent of Kansas’, but I’ve been there. Come to LA and I’ll show you the sights and sounds of a city that never dies. Literally never. Haha!

  134. It honestly doesn’t even matter if people are trying to “game” the voting system because it doesn’t matter.

    Even if someone got 100,000,000 votes, it won’t change their standing with me.

    I think I should come up with one extra credit assignment from the finalists to make this easier on me. I wish I could take the entire set of finalists. I have it down to 6 people in my mind. Part of me wants to give up my own spot on the tour just so that I don’t have to choose between the last two people!

  135. Rachel, I understand that it’s much easier to get snarky and ~LOLz~ your way to the next day about whatever is posted online… but the defensiveness about it is just silly. I explained why I commented the way I did, apologized for it coming off the wrong way, and tried to move on. I’m not trying to push buttons. Getting responses like this just kinda blows… where’s the concern for readers? The sarcastic comments are just as unnecessary as if I had continued to make remarks about Norm with the new knowledge it was your boyfriend. Seriously. It’s fine. Please don’t take the fact that SOME people (honestly not myself! I am about as indirectly involved as any other reader) may find it asinine to even hear that kind of stuff in something determining the next 2-3 months of their lives/their friends’ lives/etc. Liek omg wtfbbq amirite?

    So, I still wonder, what is the point of voting outside of a popularity contest if it has no final standing on the last decisions? Like I said, it’s cool if it’s mere audience participation… but at the same time, if it really doesn’t matter… why do it? Better yet, why get so miffed people aren’t 100% behind it?

  136. Amy – I’m guessing because those behind BME/IAM have always aimed to make this site as inclusive as possible – the more involved people get, the more successful it is. It really shouldn’t be as much of an issue as it seems to be. I think the parameters have been laid out properly, and I just don’t see what the cause for concern is here.

  137. I think it’s interesting to see who’s got “Fans” by this voting system. And to see who is capable of not only capturing interest of those who are un-decided through their videos, but also who can market themselves online through blogs, facebook, twitter pages etc and having non-BME people come here to vote.

    As someone who’s worked with a lot of bands who try to win online contests for free trips/recording time etc… it’s definitely an important skill to have!

  138. having spent most of my college career in classes with kristen, i know that she will produce the highest quality products, be the hardest worker, and the most gung-ho and on-board member of the group if (when) you choose her!

  139. I think Alberto shows signs of having a good, honesty personality with a subtle sense of humor. His jokes don’t sound canned. I think he’s the closest one to being a “10,” but it would be nice to see some modifications since this is a BME contest. I’m guessing he has some, but didn’t expect the videos to go up on Modblog? Request: Could he sell himself a bit more?

  140. Saoirsa – I can totally understand that. I’m not as much concerned as much as I’m simply curious. There was a dismissal of the whole “popularity contest” accusations some people have made, so I couldn’t help but wonder what supported the argument against that. This was a pretty interesting task to give the applicants, and I’m intrigued by how it’s proceeding.

  141. Rob W is vote whoring at fark.com. BOOOOOOO

    http://www.fark.com/cgi/comments.pl?IDLink=5059781

    “So I’m calling on the power of Fark to vote for me, RobW.

    Now seeing as how you get 4 vote choices, feel free to vote for whoever else you like (although Timothy and Chez are good peoples). I really appreciate any and all votes. Thanks!

    Also, I realize the site may be blocked at work for you. If that’s the case, just click the link below. It will cast a single vote for myself and won’t trip any work filters.

    Click here to vote instantly. (new window)”

  142. I said this on my IAM page, but I’ll say it here too. I feel extremely lucky and honored to be nominated as a finalist for the BME World Tour. There are great people on this list with so many skills and I’m really glad that I now have a reason to shoot them an IM (‘hey – good luck and congrats!’ suddenly turns into new friendships) and start talking to them. I feel even luckier to have such a huge group of friends and supporters who have gotten the word out and sent people to the site to vote for me. I’d like to say a sincere ‘Thank you’ to everyone who has voted for or supported me in this as well of course to Rachel, Jen, and all of BME for even making this possible.

    I also have to say that I’d absolutely hate to be in Rachel’s shoes right now because I would not want to make the final decisions about this at all!

    Good luck everyone and again, thank you for all of the support!

  144. Of the people in this group of finalists, I’ve met Thad, Chez and Timothy. I kind of think I met Ferg once in person too. I’ve been talking to Nae for years and know of Darah, Rob and Jens from IAM/BME. Seeing all these great people (and many people I knew that didn’t make it this far) is both great and also a bit torturous. I know Rachel is having a hard time narrowing it down and even when I gave her my thoughts and opinions, I was a bit all over the place. (Except for 2 solid “you really have to take these people” suggestions.)

    Amy – Rachel has said from the start this is just one factor. The votes don’t mean anything in that they will not decide the winner but she’s said a few times that this is being done to see who the readers like. Like Saoirsa said, this site has always tried to be inclusive of the community and this is one way the community can get involved. We aren’t ignoring the votes completely, we’re just not using them as a deciding factor. This isn’t American Idol and our concern is for who actually has the right stuff for the job, first and foremost.

    Honestly I think the discussion in this thread has been the best part. I know I said it before but this discussion (and those in previous video threads) have really done a lot for me in throwing my support behind certain people that I actually didn’t really have strong feelings for to begin with (and in a few cases, taking support away from some people).

    I think that this contest has attracted some new readers to ModBlog and that’s awesome and I think it might benefit to click Rachel’s name and read some of her previous articles, especially any contestants who aren’t really familiar with Rachel as a person and maybe don’t realize how driven she is. She’s hard to keep up with, trust me! (and if you really want to, you can read my articles too, I don’t mind)

  145. Oh I should probably add, the reason I mentioned these few that I know is that it’s hard because even if I know them or consider them a friend, it doesn’t mean they’re going to be chosen – same with Rachel, just because they’re a friend doesn’t mean they’ll get chosen which adds an extra layer of difficulty in the task. I’m not envying Rachel’s position right now.

    Also, there are several contestants that I don’t know, who I’d really like to get to know because I think they seem great! 🙂

  146. # 143 Might I say that I am extremely flattered with your kind words… Especially the whole closest to a ’10′. I remember when I was in junior high, I lost to Susan Betterman in the Princess of San Diego competition. Today I feel justice has been served…(she had rigged the election by agreeing to go to the dance with Jason the class president)

    I’ve had a sales job before so I’ll give it a shot at selling myself.

    The great thing about casting a vote for Alberto is that with every vote an angel gets it wings, an butterfly is hatched from a cocoon, a flower blooms, a Toyota gets fixed, a pot hole is filled, and a Sham-Wow! will delivered to your home*

    *While supplies last.

    In all sincerity, I can really express how grateful I am for the opportunity. I’ve done alright in my field of work, but as a freelancer, days that I don’t have work, people always remind me that I may have not made the right choice, career-wise. That I should buckle down and get a ‘real’ job. But even when I probably should have given up, I pushed on and landed some pretty interesting gigs. Some not so interesting. But I stayed true to myself and did what I had to do to get better in my field. I know I still have a long way to go, but being a finalist makes me believe I’m doing something right.

    If I am lucky and skilled enough to go on this adventure, I cannot wait to tell all the people that told me to get a real job (most are my friends, so I wouldn’t mean it vindictively) that for the next three months, I’ll be cruising around the world, while they have to stay in the city that Forbes magazine names 2nd most boring city in America.

    If anyone is still curious about what I do, then you are more than welcome to check out my site by clicking on my name in red.

    Finally, I just wanted to say that if Rachel wants to throw in an extra credit assignment to spice things up even more, I am game. It should be fun, even with only around 24 hours to go.

  147. Jimmy: Not sure why you would think that I would be upset with you posting that. Part of the voting is bringing new people to BME, so of course I would bring this to the attention of a community I’ve been involved with for 10 years. This is the social networking portion, and correct me if I’m wrong, but I do believe that Fark is somewhat of a social website. Fark gatherings, valentines card exchanges, and many more things bring the community together. Which is also part of what’s happening here. The community is coming together to show their support for those they feel would do well on the tour.

    Given that you took the time to come here and post tells me that even if you didn’t vote for me, you still took the time to give the site a glance, and contributed to the voting. Whether you voted for me or not isn’t the point. As for the second link, yes I did provide a link that would cast a vote for me. Why? Because I know that BME is filtered as an adult website from many workplaces, and the vast majority of people on Fark post during the workday. That was the only place I have used that link, as everywhere else it wouldn’t be necessary. As well, I had hoped that people would get curious as to what they were voting for and would come to the site later on the check it out.

  148. Amy: Despite having taken the time to explain the point of the “Voting process” several times, you still don’t “get it”. I don’t see any reason to continue to waste my time explaining it to you. You don’t see the point but that really doesn’t matter because it’s not our job to make you understand. I know why I am having people vote and that is the only thing that matters because I am the one who put together the contest!

    As far as Rob “whoring on Fark”, good for him. He’s trying to win a contest. I don’t see the point of “tattling” on him. If you also didn’t know this, I can see when anyone posts a link to modblog, it’s a function of wordpress so I’m not sure if you want me to go “do something about it” but then I’d have to go talk to everyone who has posted all over the internet about their becoming finalists.

  149. I’m about to post an “extra credit” assignment right now as well as narrowing it down to 10 contestants so that everyone doesn’t have to do the extra credit assignment if they’re not on my top 10 list.

    As soon as the video uploads to youtube, I’ll post it here on Modblog!

  150. I watched all of the videos and read every single comment here. Not that my comments mean a whole hell of a lot if anything at all, I am going to comment on a few things.

    1. It really bothers me that certain individuals want to be chosen for the internship that will documented and presented via the Internet, however, the individuals can not take criticism. Criticism on the Internet can not be avoided, nor should it. It is a valuable tool the find out how an individual responds to criticism whether the criticism is deserved or not is irrelevant, it is all about how the person handles the criticism.

    2. Shannon’s comments were insightful and with his experience and involvement in the community, I am sure he could put together an amazing team of interns.Although, I am not sure why people are fretting over his comments, like Rachel has said it is her tour and her interns and it is her opinion that matters. Actually if my memory serves me correctly Shannon also mentioned that these were only his opinions although he would like his opinions to be taken into consideration. How many times does Rachel have to repeat herself on that issue?

    3. I think it is fantastic that some of the finalists are putting it out there on other blogs, websites, social networking online communities, telling friends, etc that they have been chosen as a finalist and linking them to modblog. Many things are accomplished by this action. The finalist becomes more known to outsiders of the site, it shows the finalist can broadcast and draw people in to a certain website or article, the finalist displays that they are enthusiastic about the internship by putting extra time into putting it out there and most importantly it draws more people in who may have never heard of modblog or bmezine before this contest/internship.

    4. I think for the most part this is a great group of finalists. I like some more than others, but everyone has their own personal opinions. I liked some of the applicants more from their video before I read through all of the comments they have posted here.

    5. I wish I would not have had certain issues come up in my life that prevented me from completing my application, however, after seeing the great group of applicants that Rachel has to chose from, I am just excited to see the soon to be chosen official group of interns out there and doing a great job. This is literally the opportunity of a lifetime and I hope the chosen interns really know how truly incredible this opportunity is! Good luck to all of the finalists!

    ( My votes went to: RobW, Timothy, Darah and Chez ) Although I think Nae would be an excellent choice as well.

  151. I would honestly feel really disappointed if Kaelahbee won. She NEVER has her septum ring visible (she flipped it down for the video) which wouldn’t matter, but why wear it just for the vote?, she calls stretching “gauging” and gives TONS of bad advice about doing so on her blog/formspring, and has the most obviously popular tattoos (kurt hasley sleeve? really?) swallow on your hip? Why would you want someone that really doesn’t have ANY idea about the true art of body modification representing such an amazing and passionate website?

  152. Cindy: your comments are incredibly shallow and show that you have some kind of vendetta against her
    By your line of thinking, no one should Javier modifications that aren’t public which would preclude the majority of those with modifications. Who cares of she wears her septum retainer up?

    Secondly, her tattoos are “too popular”? Is that a joke? Should we pin down everyone who has tattoos that someone else has? Lets remove anyone from the running who has tribal, Japanese, faeries, skulls, hearts etc! Oh, now that means that I can’t go. Who wants my spot?

    “Gauging” has become common place terminology. Just because we don’t use it on BME doesn’t mean the real world doesn’t use it.

  153. I want to express my deep respect for the BME community for all of the time, work, and effort put into this current project and all endeavors over the years. With this in mind, I want the question that follows to be taken as a general point of interest rather than a critique and/or accusation, being that I am not well informed of the overall selection process or the pool of applicants. The question is: Why does there seem to be a lack of diversity in the sense that a majority of the finalists are from the Americas, are white (playing into the conventional paradigm), and of a similar age? Is this representative of a global modification community?

  154. #155 Cindy: Now now now! We all know you’re name is not REALLY Cindy… You’re the same person who lurks my blog/formspring/etc and leaves hateful comments (and I do indeed know your true identity). It’s really no big deal. The fact you don’t like my Kurt Halsey sleeve is incredibly comical. I DO in fact wear my septum down, but even if I didn’t, why would that matter? It’s not as though that is my ONLY modification. And I’m sorry, my dear, but I know the correct terminology and I do not call stretching “gauging” (In fact, as I read this to my boyfriend, he made sure I knew that I constantly correct him on this)… I realize that by posting on my blog and myspace that I was a finalist, I would receive some negative followers (because I have people who cyberstalk me all over the internet but ~hate me, just waiting to see what I get into next), but if those are your only concerns and you don’t have a legitimate reason to frown upon me, I’ll consider myself as well off as the next candidate. PS; did you forget to mention my incredibly cliche ship tattoo, too? I’ve also got script on my chest!

    If you can conjure up some legitimate reasons why I should not be chosen, then I will listen. But these are just nonsensical! Let’s make conversation on my integrity, my personality, and my ability to get the job done… oh wait, i’ve got all those covered… very well actually! 🙂

    #156 Rachel: This IS indeed a person with a personal vendetta. Woe is me! That is life, I suppose. 🙂

  155. Ps “Cindy”, thanks for your formspring comment! But I’m still in the running so you might want to hold onto it for a few days 😉 (As fellow BME members, that’s not a very nice thing to say to someone, is it?)

    “You were never gonna get the BME internship, do you know why? I’ll tell you; because you a silly little cocksucking bitch who just gets tattoos and piercings cos everybody else does! Grow the feck up and try to be yourself for once…”

    (As fellow BME members, that’s not a very nice thing to say to someone, is it?)

  156. Richard Kennedy seems to have set the bar pretty damn high, as far as audition videos go.

  157. Cindy: I want to say thank you. I was actually on the fence about including Kaelah but you’ve helped to show that she can handle the negative comments you’ve thrown her way with the level of class and professionalism that I would expect from someone that I would select to represent BME.

    Go Kaelah. Haters will keep on hating but you are handling it with class!

  158. Reclaim: There is no problem with your question at all.

    The answers are pretty easy. Basically you asked why everyone was from America, white and all in the same age range.

    The answer lies simply in the numbers. BME’s largest audience hails from America. According to the demographics, BME’s readers are something like 90% white and 18-35. The finalists that made it into the last round were American, Canadian, and Scottish and Australian (or Canadian living in Australia, I should say).

    I had very few minorities apply. I was not going to pick someone who wasn’t as qualified simply because they were a minority. I picked the best candidates from the people that applied. The finalists ranged from 21-36. I think that’s a really good range. It’s harder to find a group of people outside of that age range who could take 6 weeks to 3 months off from their lives so that’s why I think the majority of applicants were 21-30.

    The one thing that did surprise me was simply the amount of women that applied. It was awesome to see so many women taking the chance and applying!

    So all that being said, it does make sense that if BME’s readership, again according to the demographics that I have from sites like quantcast and google analytics, BME’s readers are primarily white, from the US or Canada, 18-35 and female. It makes sense to me that those would be the same demographics from the applicants that applied and that the final applicants would be of similar demographics. Part of this tour is to get out there and get outside of our demographic and reach new people. Hopefully we’ll bring a whole new slew of people on to BME from outside of our usual demographic.

    Thanks for taking the time to answer and I hope this helped answer your question.

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