What an amazing weekend I had at Mahalo headquarters. The auditions have taken us through various reality show type challenges. It started with a basic preliminary interview, then we entered American Idol and then the Bachelor.

My preliminary interview went well and I was passed on to the second round. I did a mock interview in front of Jason Calacanis and two celebrity judges, Alex Albrecht of Diggnation and Loren Feldman of 1938 Media. The overall consensus was that I needed more energy. Alex didn’t think I pop’d enough for him so he gave me a no. Luckily, Jason and Loren gave me a yes! I must admit…the combination of streaming live the entire 4 hours leading up to the mock interview mixed with my nerves…my energy was low. You can watch this part of the audition here.

Sunday, the top 10 met back up for a new challenge. We had five minutes to interview people “man on the street” style. This was a fun and easy challenge for me. I think this will truly show who has the chops for this job. The nerves were gone for me and I just had FUN! (and lots of energy)

The judges will review the footage and announce the top 5 on Thursday. I am really looking forward to the next phase (fingers crossed). The top 5 get to produce/host a full Mahalo Daily episode. Well, nothing makes me happier than doing the actual work that I love! Check out my seesmics if you want to see my updates throughout the weekend.

It appears the front runner in this race is Lisa Brewster. I met Lisa almost immediately on Saturday. She is a very smart, tech savvy gal who doesn’t have on-camera experience but is clearly a quick learner. Lisa announced her campaign for the job and called for a “Lisa Nation” to help support her on her blog. I’m sure people are waiting for me to do the same but I announced my campaign before Mahalo Vlog Idol was even announced.

I am a true believer in letting the work speak for itself. I think it is clear that I know this industry and am a part of this online community. And those that have gotten to know me well, know that I truly love this community. Its awesome that Lisa asked for people to comment on a flickr picture, what a great idea. I’m glad my network of supporters jumped on my pic as well but I also have a large network of supporters who aren’t flickr members. They are your average internet users that need Mahalo.com and will follow me to Mahalo Daily. Lets not forget about them.

The fact is, I’m the only girl in this competition that has the blend of on-camera experience and web savviness. I feel I compliment the Mahalo brand and would love to have the opportunity to bring my quirky style to their daily podcast. I just hope my work speaks for itself!

What is the point to video on Flickr? I’m all for video on the net but Flickr is set up so nicely as a photo sharing site. Why fix something that isn’t broken?

I happen to enjoy the simplicity of a website that is focused on one thing. Twitter = updates no longer than 140 characters, Flickr = photos…I’m on these sites all day long, whereas Facebook and MySpace have soooo much going on that I can’t visit more than once a day, its overwhelming.

I hope this turns out to be a complimentary addition to Flickr and not some crazy version of YouTube but I am being pessimistic at the moment. Check out the photo pool “We say NO to videos on Flickr”. People are so creative!