"JohnT", I mean Joe. I give you props for coming up and introducing yourself to me at the West Palm Beach show, however don't misrepresent yourself here on the boards. You're also a schmoe, not that there is anything wrong with that but it is what it is. You talking to 15-17 of the 22 competitors was most likely you asking them to shoot on your HD video. You are a Val fan and that's great. Val told me in person she wasn't aware of what was being said until you called to tell her. As I told you in person, I have and will tell Val everything I am saying online to her face. After talking with Val, she is clearly in her own world and I say cool, let her live in her own reality.
You're right about one thing Joe, there are a lot of things I do many people don't consider normal. One of them being in this industry. 
Isaac, sorry, but you just don't know what you're talking about here. You're wrong on pretty much all of your points above. Most of the "15-17" from the O that I talked to had nothing to do with shooting or not shooting for any particular website. A lot of it was just catching up with competitors I've known for quite some time, or in some cases, getting together to discuss DVD production services they had emailed me about, or explaining (to the competitors that know us well) why my wife wasn't able to make a trip to vegas! LOL. In almost all these cases a casual conversation about the prejudging came up, and of course, Valerie's routine (the extra 15-20 seconds of quarter turns...) was part of that conversation.
As far as being a Val "fan", sure I am. If you want to label me a "schmoe" for that, fine by me. I have a professional releationship with Val, but I also find her to be an outstanding person - intelligent, friendly, great sense of humor, and is always willing to help out other competitors. So sure, go ahead and label me a fan, or schmoe, or whatever you want. She's as nice a person as you'll ever meet.
As far as being the "tattle tale" to Val regarding the venom you and Malibu throw around here, that's just 100% inaccurate. Either you mis-understood Valerie (most likely), or Val misspoke. It was one week ago today (almost to the minute, actually) that she called me, asking if I was going to be able to make the Florida show. I remember this clear as day, as I was in the line at a local Jiffy Lube waiting for an oil change, and there was a car wreck right outside (some drunken idiot in the middle of the afternoon drove right through the glass bay doors - lol - pretty funny actually, since there were no injuries). But anyway, we discussed things, then I said "looks like you caused quite a stir on some of the internet boards". She said "yeah, I've heard about that.... kinda a bummer that some people feel that way, but oh well". I said "yeah, I'm not too pleased about that", then she said "really? what have you seen?" Then I just filled in some blanks for her. Nothing that she didn't really already know from someone else, just minor details. None of the comments bothered her in any way, except for the outright lies of her being less than nice backstage. That's the total opposite of who she is, and was disappointed that she was being misrepresented in that way. That's really all there was to that conversation.
A day later, I lucked into a hugely discounted airfare to WPB, so I was able to make the trip and see the show and Val's routine. I think Val's routine was well received, and with a little more polishing (faster transitions, etc...) could really catch on as a guest performance. Obviously you can't have 150 figure girls at the USA's doing 3:35 routines, but surely some of the freedom in movements might catch on. Good job, Val.
