Monday, February 13, 2012

So… Who the Eff is John?

                Sorry this is a little late; this last week completely flew by before I realized I hadn’t done a post! Also, I am writing after a lengthy neuroscience study session, so hopefully this all makes sense(?)  My brain is tired …from learning about itself all day.  Anyway:

 It would only be right to begin my Nerdfighter story in early 2009, with one of the best decisions my mother has ever made - ditching our dial-up internet in favor of wireless.  I remember helping set everything up and then spending a solid week hidden away in my bedroom with only a laptop, soaking in the wonder of high speed Internet and taking my procrastination to an entirely new level.  I was completely mystified by the immediacy of music downloads and Google searches (and baffled by how Facebook was still able to suck up all of my time regardless of loading speed).  Every new Internet finding was like a major event, culminating with the realization that I would never again have to tape TV programs using our VCR when I couldn't be home during their original airings.  I’m fairly certain that if I had an internal monologue going on, it changed into a series of exclamations at that point (Whoa… so I can watch shows on the computer now?! Like whenever I want?!?!  ‘FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS’ WHENEVER I WANT!?!?). 

It was sometime during this period of technological awe that I really started to discover what YouTube had to offer (or at least realize that the site had users other than the all-powerful UniversalMusicGroup).  At first, I primarily used YouTube to track down decent piano covers of popular music and ensure that a substantial amount of my news would be brought to me in song form courtesy of Schmoyoho/BarelyPolitical.  However, at some point in 2009, I must have been wrapped up in hype for the new Harry Potter movie and stumbled across the first Vlogbrothers video I remember watching - Hank’s ‘This isn’t Hogwarts’ video.  In the video description, it was referred to as “Hank’s apparently annual Harry Potter song,” which first prompted me to track down his past Potter songs, and then prompted me to ask a question that has possibly never been asked before by a Vlogbrothers viewer (see title) and figure out what these guys were all about. 

While I continued to watch their videos on occasion, it wasn’t until about two years ago (sometime in the pre-Henry, pre-Will Grayson era) that I began regularly using my YouTube account and finally hit the “subscribe” button.  And that was that.

                So far, I haven’t been a particularly active member of the Nerdfighter community.  I’ve never been to a proper Nerdfighter gathering, and while I have a few Charlie fans in my circle of friends, I am only acquainted with one other Nerdfighter in real life (we figured out our mutual love for all things YouTube after I mentioned Starkid Potter in a room full of people, and she was the only one who didn’t give me a blank stare).  I also didn’t really bother explaining anything Nerdfighter-related to anyone in my family until my mom found my copy of TFIOS in the mail box last month.  And while she did not understand why anything called a “Hanklerfish” would be in such high demand, she really did try to share my enthusiasm over the blue J-scribble on the book’s title page, which I appreciated.

So, I definitely don’t have the most exciting Nerdfighter story, but hopefully I’ll be able to do some more cool Nerdfighter-y things in the future.  Farewell for now and DFTBA!

4 comments:

  1. We used to have dial-up internet too, it was a nightmare! I was only allowed to use it after 6 pm because it was cheaper then, and nobody could call us when I was using the internet, so my family was unreachable after 6 pm (that was before the mobile phone era).

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    1. Oh dial-up. Took up the phone line. Made an ungodly noise. Cost an arm and a leg because it charged use per minute...

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  2. I did the same thing recording every tv show I followed on the vcr when I wasnt home until very late too. until an angel one day explained torrents to me, xD...LOL, the awe in my brain

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  3. I mean, I was like 16, but everyone seemed to know about that before x)...

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