A lot of things happened at ROFLCon a few weeks back. I gained a new understanding for LOLCats, my faith in Rick Astley wavered, I was blinded - and changed forever - by Leslie Hall's gem sweaters and I sat in the back of a science lecture hall and did not fall asleep, just to name a few.

But I also got to meet a lot of cool people.

Half the reason to go to ROFLCon was to take in the unprecedented spectacle as it unfolded. The other reason was to get a chance to meet and chat-up a lot of people whose work you enjoy and admire from around the Interwebs.

I cast a pretty wide net going in and wound up with a few really great interviews for the NXT podcast, starting this week with Whitney Matheson from Pop Candy.

Watchful readers of NXT know Pop Candy regularly appears in the links in the Weekly Scanner, so it should be no surprise I am a big fan of The Candy. There are a lot of blogs that have carved out a niche writing on Pop Culture, music, movie or TV, but Pop Candy stands a little bit taller than the rest.

After Whitney mentioned in the blog she would be in attendance at ROFLCon, I e-mailed her along with several other people I was hoping to speak with and she was the first to e-mail back.

We met up the first afternoon of the con and sat through one of the odder sessions - "Pwning for the Good of Mankind" - a panel that featured Dino Ignacio (Bert Is Evil), Leslie Hall (Gem Sweater), Justine Ezarik (iJustine), Ji Lee (Bubble Project) and Eric Schoenborn (ACLU).

I don't know if anyone (including the panel) was quite sure what the focus of the session was (using memes for social causes? the disruptive power of the interwebs?), but it made for lots of great unintentional comedy and plenty of conversation fodder.

In the show Whitney and I talk about our early thoughts on ROFLCon, surviving geek-gatherings, a day in the life of Pop Candy and some of Whitney's favorite things. You can listen to the interview in the player or directly download the show to your computer.

It was absolute great fun and definitely a high-light of ROFLCon - right up there with inadvertently meeting Rich Stevens of Diesel Sweeties and next week's interview with Christian Lander of Stuff White People Like.

Big thanks to Whitney, and you can check out her reflections on ROFLCon over at Pop Candy.

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