DC FORUM: 2020 - The Year of DC, The Content Creator

A Word from the Editor

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

And so, we have finally made it: three-hundred sixty-six days ago tonight, we were anticipating the start of the decade of the twenties in the twenty-first century. But then, reality set in... and obviously, you don't need to be reminded of the loads of depressing, negative and decisive headlines that have plagued this year of 2020. In the true spirit of the message that this person has been preaching since spring of this year in this bring "The Escape You Deserve," we will spare you the expense of making even one small mention of any of those.

   However in this brief retrospective of the year that will soon be history in a few hours from now here in the United States, if there is something that I can take away from this year it's that I have made great strides in my hobby of being one now considers himself a content creator. The almost nine months that I have spent at my own house has allowed me to take advantage of the ample amount of time of being in lockdown and in quarantine to further my standing in the social universe as not just a great blogger and writer, but now in being a part-time YouTuber too.

As I wrote here on New Year's Eve last year, I have worked tremendously hard over the course of what's now seven & a-half years of perfecting this very DCBLOG site. It is something I take a great deal of pride in having now posted over 1,300 posts and devoting the lions' share of that to going Inside MTV Reality... with occasional posts on my other passions of sports, music and the culture of Las Vegas. And this remains a big part of my identity to most of you, and my biggest contribution to the fandom of The Challenge and other aspects of TV's most-talked about reality programming.

   Despite two of the major series I cover not airing this year because of the ongoing pandemic, this is the fourth straight year that I have published over two-hundred blog posts in a single year, and I launched a Twitter promotion campaign to help bring more users to the outstanding content this site provides - the 'Pulse of the episodes, the stories behind the story that ExtraTime offers, and other things. Despite the expansion of internet coverage of the likes of the fifth major pro sport and Siesta Key to other blogs and to most especially the audio medium of podcasts, I continue to look at my baby as the gold standard... and we are looking forward to continuing this great tradition in the new year with new shows & seasons, compelling stories and much more.

But something that has also kept me from devoting the same amount of time and effort to putting this site together this year has been my progression in creating original videos for YouTube. When just relaxing, I have the pleasure of watching a lot of content on there not only encompassing my biggest passions in reality TV, sports, music and Vegas, but also many other things such as local newscasts, tours of million-dollar homes, theme park live streams, and slot play -- something I got to do before I won on the slots last year and for which now my parents have been obsessed with this year.

   It's from watching all of those that inspired me to post not one, but well over 1000 videos of eight of my travels to Las Vegas and from a 2008 trip I took to New York City. With just a few reposts of my own live streams from last year's trip to Sin City, most of my DC Vegas and DC Coast to Coast vlogs are all post-produced by me with broadcast-quality graphics, ambient audio and other enhancements to give it a different & distinctive feel compared to most other original YouTube content. And there are still plenty of good videos from the Big Apple and Disneyland that will be up very soon

As for what's next: as many of us have done most of our holiday shopping online, this month my parents were brave enough to go the traditional route and drive to the store to buy two awesome gifts that makes this Christmas a good one for yours truly. First, I got a much-needed upgrade to a new iPhone in retiring the first model SE I've been using for four years in favor of an iPhone 11 - a move that I can equate from going from the age of The Flintstones to flying with The Jetsons. And second, they gave me my very first laptop so I that I don't have to worry about queueing for the upstairs computer when my mom is checking her stocks or when my kids come over to play around with Minecraft.

   As much as we're ready to finally put 2020 out of its misery shortly, I'm most looking forward to 2021 like many of you, but not just for that we hope this year will bring us hope, health, happiness and humanity to this world. It's also that I'm looking forward to what the future brings with having those two toys along with the tablets and other gadgets I have. When we drive over to my sisters' for a weekend, instead of cramming all of those before we drive there the next day, I can now have some time to work on blog posts like these around quality family time and dealing with their new puppy.

   But I'm most especially anxious for the big one: when the time finally comes to go back to Sin City once it's safe to fly there and when things get back to a sense of normalcy, I plan on taking the DC Vegas YouTube experience to the next level. I'll be able to post new videos while I'm in town and on the same day instead of waiting to fly home & edit those later, just like Vegas vlogger Matt Bridger does when he flies in from the UK. I can offer better live streaming and cinema-quality videos of my walkthroughs on the Strip with my gimbal & vlogging camera in hand... and those are just a couple ideas.

But that's what the future brings... and we hope this will come sooner rather than later. But here in the final hours of this chaotic year, I can look at 2020 as the year that I became more than just a blogger, but now as a Content Creator on both the written and the visual side of things. And may we wish you all a safe, peaceful and a very Happy New Year.

- I AM DC

#DCBLOG