Today, I wish to impose upon you the words of an author whose wisdom is conveyed through his minds greatest creation; Sherlock Holmes. It may be the words of a fictional character, but that does not lessen the truth of these words…

(Sir Athur Conan Doyle, 1859~1930)

“[...]for strange effects and extraordinary combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more daring than any effort of the imagination”

This quote was taken from The Red-Headed League by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. These were the first words that my mind recalled after having read this story, mostly because they resonate a truth that I myself approve of. We watch movies and read books to immerse ourselves in that which is extraordinary and supernatural, to experience things that we could never fathom experiencing in real life. You can go wherever you want to, become whomever you want to be, and all without having to leave the comfort of your own bed. But what we fail to realize is that the plain upon which we exist can be just as extraordinary, if not more, than anything the human imagination can conjure up.

The video below, for example, is an episode taken from the YouTube series Scishow hosted by Hank Green. It is a series dedicated to exploring the world of science, and presenting the facts on a level that almost anyone can understand. This video is a part of his newest segment, “The Scishow Talk Show”, where they have an animal guest brought in to see, touch and learn about from an animal expert. This particular video springs to mind because this creature seems so strange, and so alien, that most would think of it as a manifestation of the imagination.

I pride myself on my ability to conjure up stories for others to enjoy, and I know only too well how amazing and extraordinary the human imagination is. However, I will take real world experience over that any day, because life can be even more extraordinary if we give it the chance to be.

That is all for today. Feel free to share your thoughts on this quote – whether you agree or disagree – and until next time, happy reading!

Cheers,

BookNerd

I discovered this song just as I was finishing my compulsory education and I found that it summed up my views perfectly. Put it this way: I couldn’t wait to get rid of the petty and aggressive students who had made my life a living hell for the last 5 or so years. The teachers of the subjects that I was dropping were starting to grate at my nerves and I longed to be (and I still long to be) at Hogwarts with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

This line sums up my feelings of compulsory education perfectly, I feel: I’m not saying I’m not proud to be a nerd/But public school ain’t no place for a wizard. Though, obviously I’m a witch, you get the gist. People in school didn’t understand me, and instead of trying to, most of them just ignored or ridiculed me. Thankfully, people are starting to accept me, instead of laughing, which I have to say is a great feeling.

I also love and totally agree with this line: I’d do pretty much anything to go to wizard school/I’d even call Dolores Umbridge my friend/If it meant I’d never have to go to gym again. Now, being your stereotypical fat kid, I HATED gym with a passion, so much so that I’d even hug Umbridge if it came to it. Honestly, I was terrible at all sports and I hated the changing rooms. My low self-esteem really wasn’t helped by being in a room of skinny girls who I swear laughed at my fat rolls behind my back.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the song and the 20th Song of the Week blog. Oh, just a side note, I love Hufflepuffs, and no offence is meant in this song, I promise. Some of my best friends are Hufflepuffs

May the Force be with you and DFTBA!

supernerd394

I’ve always been a fan of Pride and Prejudice. The book, the movies, the fanfiction, the young adult spin-off novels. Yup. I went there.

So when I found out that Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers was creating a modern-day adaptation of the story in–wait for it–VIDEO BLOG FORM, I totally flipped.

The show has now since ended *bawls in a corner*, but the best thing about that is if you’re new to the show, you don’t have to agonizingly wait for new episodes!

Here it is, my friends! The Lizzie Bennet Diaries!

Enjoy, laugh, and cry,
Trish

P.S. Also, I challenge you to get into all the other facets of the LBD universe. There are twitters, spin-off channels, blogs, and more. It’s so darn easy to get sucked into their world, but so darn fun!

He rightly points out that the DPRK could launch a nuclear attack against South Korea, Japan, and Guam, but “almost certainly will not.” US military occupies much of South Korea, and so against these two huge allies, DPRK does not compare. It is also true that the provocations coming from the North are nothing particularly new – as any casual observer of their state media can tell you – although it is not quite like anything we’ve seen recently, particularly with the suspension of work at the Kaesong industrial zone and encouraging ambassadors to leave for their safety. But the nuclear weapons of the US are far more the greater threat to Asia: this was neglected to mention. Between 1945 and 1992, there were 1,054 nuclear weapons tests conducted by the only country that has used nuclear weapons in warfare. Is anyone really naive enough to think that the US government is above killing foreigners?

The claim that everyone and their mums gets sent to a concentration camp is really unknowable at this point. Hank admits that we know very little about the DPRK’s political leaders and day-to-day decision-making. The same critical thinking should be applied to incarceration. When Google Maps claimed to have marked all the main prison camps, they provided no evidence but it was generally treated as factual, when it’s perfectly possible that some of them could have been farms. If we find out that North Korea has a prison population like Mississippi or Louisiana, I’d be more likely to believe the huge claims about concentration camps. But for now, there is enough confirmed tyranny for us to not rely on conjecture.

Hank rightly answers that North Korea is not communist, but for the wrong reasons. He weirdly sites the fact that they have some kind of show-elections. It would be more appropriate to consider the consistent poverty and divide in class. Inequality in the North is even worse than in the strongly capitalist South with its very limited welfare. Of course “communist state” is a stupid term: ‘socialism’ is a better word here.*

Anti-Americanism can be presented dramatically and irrationally but it is essentially a legitimate worldview. Looking past “South: Good, North: Bad” is essentially for any serious discourse. Alternative views aren’t that hard to find, and you don’t even have to look to the nutjobs at the Korean Friendship Association. Kim Young-ik, a South Korean, wrote in the Socialist Worker newspaper (UK) on the 6th a short piece titled US rhetoric and sanctions ramp up dangerous tension with North Korea. He says that “Socialists should not support such actions by North Korean rulers. But their actions and rhetoric are the result – not the cause – of tensions ramped up by the US.” He goes on to claim, like others, that the joint US-ROK military excercises are part of an attempt to extend American imperialism: “It is an open secret that these exercises simulate an invasion into North Korea.”

*Hank was just answering questions from Google’s auto-fill, one of which was: “Is North Korea communist?”

It is also worth mentioning that China, at least formally, is not North Korea’s only ally. Cuba, Russia, and Cambodia are also counted. Hank says that China is NK’s only ally.

By the way, did you know you can subscribe to 1HAT at Google+ or Twitter to get even more interesting and compelling articles and videos? Now you do!

This last week was my first week in quiet some time without The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.

It was a sad week…

I loved The Lizzie Bennet Diaries immensely!  It was my first introduction into Web Series’ and I will admit that I was pleasantly surprised.  Though, at times I felt some of the acting in the series left something to be desired, some actors were great comedic actors but struggled with the temporary shift to drama, (just my personal opinion).   Then there were other times that I felt the acting of certain characters was astonishing (I’m talking to you Darcy aka Daniel Vincent Gordh).

The transmedia aspect of the series I think is probably the most engenius form of advertising I’ve ever seen.  Once you become involved in the story you begin to follow the characters on Twitter and Pinterest and the rest.  You don’t forget about the series or to watch because the story keeps evolving off the screen and reminds you when there is a new episode.  You are fully immersed in the story!  It feels like a new kind of entertainment and I love it!  In a world where we are constantly distracted and our attention is pulled into ten different directions all the time a show like LDB is perfect, it is comprises of short episodes that keeps you engaged and then it keeps you involved through twitter and other platforms.  I can foresee others trying to replicate this format, I only hope they do half as well.

The whole series to me felt like it was designed for its target audience (read: women) in an intelligent and thoughtful way.  It seemed through the creators put a lot of thought and effort into making the characters both well rounded and for each to embody their own type of feminism.  It was one of the things that separated LBD from other shows for me.

On a side note, (possibly the most important thing in this post) LBD made me try coral blush because it just looked so good on everyone in the series.  The makeup and wardrobe was flawless every episode, I won’t lie sometimes I re-watched episodes to look at dresses.

More than anything I loved how they adapted the original story, and understand I loved the original story.  I love Jane Austen and I love Pride and Prejudice, but I love the way they changed parts to modernize the story.  That said, I think it’s the things that weren’t changed that I loved the most, those were always the things that made me laugh the loudest (or sometimes squeal as quietly as I could).  That includes that the only thing that was truly modernized about Mrs. Bennet was that she now had anxiety medication (even though it didn’t seem to help calm her in the slightest), that Lizzie and Caroline still took their turn about the room, and that Darcy’s old fashioned way of talking allowed him to use many lines verbatim from the book.

As for my favourite changes; I loved that Lizzie and Charlotte were career driven young women struggling to find there place in the world rather than young women trying to find security through finding a man to marry.  I loved that Kitty the sister became Kitty the cat.  I loved that Ricky Collin’s proposal was a job offer (lacking as much romance as the proposal of marriage in the book did).  I loved that Lydia’s relationship with Wickham was portrayed as emotionally abusive.  I also liked that Caroline was forgiven in the end as well, and that is said by a typically unforgiving person.  Caroline in my opinion was one of the best acted characters.  You hated her but you understood all of her actions (as did Lizzie in the end) and I wanted her to have her own happy ending.  There were many other things that were wonderfully adapted but I’m not going to break down of every episode.

One of the best parts of the series was that Lydia, Charlotte and Gigi became far more fleshed out as characters than in the book.  Gigi might have been my favourite character, I loved all of them but I think the modernized version of Gigi was best of all, though cunning Caroline and Charlotte are tied in a close second.   I cannot wait until we get more of Gigi in Welcome to Sanditon, May cannot come soon enough.  Keep in mind though, my opinion on my favourite character changes every time I watch a new episode.

Charlotte and Lizzie’s relationship was fantastic and could be understood in a more complex way in this format as well.  I think it showed their friendship as something that was important and real to both of them rather then simply being friends by proximity.  It was a real relationship were both parties had faults but where there were both equals.  I think the realistic relationships might have been one of the greatest strengths of the series.  Then again I always felt the realism of the original story was what made it timeless.  Just as in real life we can unfairly judge people and let ourselves be prejudice to others only to realize we’ve imagined them to be someone they aren’t.  We can be cruel to others without really realizing the power of our words or actions.  That is because we are people and we all make mistakes, same as the characters in LBD/Pride& Prejudice.  We can all be the heroines and heros of our own stories without being perfect.  When I first read Pride and Prejudice I don’t think I took that away.  It is a beautiful love story and that is what I took from it.  The Lizzie Bennet Diaries helped me to look at the same story in a different light; without the beautiful words and the romantic English countryside setting I was able to see the story as more than a romance.  It is a story about an imperfect girl who grows as a person and happens to eventually find love along the way.  She continues to be an imperfect person but that doesn’t make her unlikable; it makes her a person.

I cannot wait to see what comes next from the creators Hank Green and Bernie Su, I only hope they can continue to attract an even larger audience.  I am a long time Nerdfighter and booklover and the existence of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries was a dream come true for me.  I will continue to watch whichever book is adapted next, after Welcome to Sanditon.  Who knows maybe it will end up introducing me to a new classic and its adaptation at the same time.

(Full disclosure I have never read Sandion and I’m not sure I will as the idea of it being unfinished makes me extremely anxious.)

Fantastic rant by Hank from the vlogbrothers. Advocating for gay-rights has been an interest of mine for the last couple years, I think this video really hits the issue on the head.

-A

In 1982, Delongis et al. devised the Hassles and Uplifts Scale, which measured Daily Hassles (regular things that irritate you in your day-to-day life, like the car being slow to start) and Daily Uplifts (regular things that made you smile a little bit, such as getting a compliment). Hassles provided stress, while uplifts combatted that stress. Makes sense, right? So, why not keep those uplifts in a box, and read them again later on, which provides yet another uplift? Well, that’s what I’ve done, and if it works this year, I’ll do it next year and the year after and so on.

Feel free to do this yourself, and try some of the other life hacks in the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWGR8cSM1dI

May the Force be with you and DFTBA!

supernerd394

That doesn’t bode well for the next five to six weeks.

Anyway, this morning I became almost inexplicably (and ridiculously so) jealous of a note I found on my friend’s fridge. It was obviously from a girl, and she said that she hoped he liked handwritten cards and that she thought he was wonderful. There weren’t any hearts on it, but she did sign it with a smiley face and “me.” I mean, this girl clearly likes him.

UGH.

It drove me CRAZY to see this note on his fridge. Why would he keep it there? Who was “me?” WHY DID SHE THINK HE WAS WONDERFUL? WHY WHY WHY?

I allowed myself insanity for about 45 minutes before I was forced to acknowledge that I’m due to get my period this week (ew, I know, but c’mon, people) AND that someone sending him a card that says good things about him isn’t a bad thing at all. Why wouldn’t he want to put that on his fridge? I have a lovely note from my favorite professor up on my wall, and I’ve saved letters from people saying great things about me as a reminder that I’m NOT ON MY OWN.

Why do I think it’s unacceptable for my friend to have the same kind of support? Should I be his only friend in the whole city? I mean, it’s bad enough that he doesn’t make an effort to include people in his life at all. If someone else wants to offer him comfort and support, then I should be happy, shouldn’t I?

Quelle pathetique.

After much examination (and chocolate distractions), I think I’m just going to trust my friend. If he says he cares about my feelings and doesn’t want to hurt me, then he truly won’t do anything to hurt me. I will be happy that someone took time out of her day to say something nice to him. He’s had a pretty crappy couple of months and needs all the friends he can get. Ergo, I need to be understanding and CALM THE CRAP DOWN.

This is probably why I decided to make one of my New Year’s resolutions NO BOYS.

Well,  look how that turned out.

Anyway, I’ve got a ton of homework to do this week, but first, I think I’m going to watch some more youtube videos and possibly read my book. It is Sunday afternoon, after all. The sun is shining and God is still in charge. Happy Sunday, everyone.

One of the best explanations of jealousy (and envy) I’ve ever heard is by one of my favorite youtubers, Danisnotonfire: “Jealousy is wanting to keep what you already have, while envy is wanting to get what you don’t have.” Thank you, Dan, for explaining life.

Because I, too, fail at it.

Anyways, while I have all this spare underused time I thought I would make some productive use of it to write a post that I’ve been meaning to for a while now. It’s about acceptance and it’s something that’s becoming an interesting topic for me to ponder in the past two weeks at home.

I’m not ashamed to say that I feel alone in the world. This is mainly because of a mixture of psychological issues that get in the way of life (I’m pretty sure that if the psychology department got hold of me they’d have a field day studying my brain patterns) but also because of my attitude, although some would debate that’s just another psychological issue. Now unfortunately this means that I end up feeling rather alone and confused for much of my time and in fact as I write this I feel confused.

Throughout High School everyone is thrown in to some sort of social group. To coin the American names there’s the Jocks, the Populars, the Nerds and Geeks (yes, they are different) which you are soon separated in to. Personally I think this is wrong because you are soon separated away from a large proportion of the student population and this generally means that you have no hope or really ‘finding your true self.’ This is something that, I’d say, everyone goes through during High School and cannot be avoided and I know many a person who is now someone completely different to what you’d imagine pre-high school because of this social peer pressure with in social segregation.

Now many people will argue that what I’m saying is rubbish. To them I say to look around when they are in a high school. It is so apparent and obvious that you would be stupid to deny it. So in that case, why do we keep letting out kids fall in to these traps? A prime example, and I know it’s not quite at high school age, but the murder of a goth in Manchester and now it being possible that offences against goths and punks can be seen as hate crimes to me points out a great flaw in our society. Yet it will continue despite what we do.

Back to me… So during high school and sixth form, although less so here, I feel as if I found myself between social groups. Now this seems impossible what with the variety of personality you can find in schools and colleges. However the flaw in this lies in the foundation state run systems which is, at this age all the students come from a similar background and a similar geographical location. Which being in the countryside of Norfolk at the time means that everybody knows everybody else’s family, grandpa’s Mima’s and third cousins. Although to make the stereotypical Norfolk joke, they’re all the same person.

Now this left me in the position that I’ve grown up in a manner that means I feel like I don’t belong. I see no real connection to my parents in that they both have different interests to me. They aren’t musical, aside from occasionally listening to the radio in the car and they both don’t understand what it feels like to be depressive. No one understands what it’s like to be depressive unless you are. It’s impossible. It was at this point that I effective “became” and introvert and hid from the world. I focus on work and learning and the few friends that I have are very scattered and I’m not really sure that any of that are in the same friendship groups. I am a lone oxygen atom in diatomic world.

Naturally this lowers everything I feel about myself: my mood, opinion of myself, right down the very foundations that I am made of. Yet despite this at the end of High School I leave with a girlfriend. I think everyone was more surprised at me. I’ve written about this time before and it was great. However because of my state of being I dragged myself in to a position where I became someone that I was not and furthermore I could not see what was happening to me, it was a belated stereotypical high school saga, five years too late. Eventually this led to what became the one of the darkest weeks of my life when the relationship crumbled at a time I most needed stability. I was working towards my Oxford entrance exam and on top of everything else my grandfather died.

This was the first experience of death I have ever had to deal with, and it is something I implore the world that I never have to deal with again. Whilst I know this is pointless, it is almost a ritual now. Death is inescapable.

So after a christmas of reclusiveness and self pity I came in to spring in a way that only I could. Trying to be better and myself. Unbeknownst to me I am slowly becoming more obsessive, compulsive and depressive inside. A recipe that eventually can only lead to disaster. Yet I continue on and try to be a better person, not just for myself but for my parents.

It is at the time that I should explain that I am OCPD, more information can be found here, this is a personality disorder similar to that of OCD. Again I want to say that I had the idea that I apparently have a “disorder” there is nothing wrong with me, or at least in my opinion. To put it in lay-mans terms it means that I’m controlling and obsessive about attention to details. Which is desirable in my opinion; after all, mathematical research will not get anywhere if you are lax about your methods.

Again, in spring last year, somehow I end up having a girlfriend. I know I am repeating myself, I have spoken about this before, Chloe tried to be understanding about the problems I faced in a day to day life. Yet fundamentally it seems we were too different to be together, or at least this is the only way that makes sense to me. For more about that you can read my earlier posts.

Now the problems that I face eventually led to my Mother confronting me about aspects of my life last summer. Most of which revolved around my lack of commitment towards finding a summer job. This is understandable in my eyes since I have spent the last four years of my life working extremely hard parsing exams with grades that my parents could only have hoped for. Yet apparently I still aren’t allowed some time to cool off over summer and relax, I have to go out and start earning my way in the world. Unfair if you ask me. So after some exchanges in words I completely explode at her and explain the how my mental position is completely unstable and how I feel each day. Which freaks her out, or at least that’s what I saw in her eyes.

I’m sure that no parent likes to hear their son talk about this, and as time has gone on she has become more understanding about it all. However she still uses it as a weapon against me, which I do not like. Yet because of my self confidence I will not challenge. You shouldn’t talk back to your own Mother after all.

I feel like I’m beginning to drag on. So I’m skipping to Christmas, since the rest can be filled in my reading back on this blog.

The beginning of twenty thirteen saw many changes for me. Firstly I had rediscovered YouTube and the various channels that it has: Vlogbrothers, Piano Guys and Charlieissocoollike being prime examples. For me this year has been a year of self discovery so far. I feel like I am thirteen again and that I am living the life I want to.

Yes, I have to deal with crippling depression and OCPD. They’re very difficult to deal with. I’ve spent probably a tenth of this year in bed locked in my room starving myself because of them but I’m still standing. I play Ultimate Frisbee with teams and people that I could never have met if it wasn’t for the internet. I blog, and vlog and I enjoy writing for myself. Yet overshadowed by it all is the fact that I am not “Happy” by definition.

To people who say that happiness can’t be found while you’re depressed I show you this

which is a YouTube clip by ZeFrank. The master of vlogging. He talks about how happiness is not constant, but in the moment. Which I see to be true. In my depression there are moments of genuine happiness. Hearing a wonderful song for the first time, or sitting in the sun reading while the song blasts out with crowds of people dancing to it. I say that because as I write this I’m listening to “On Top of the World” by Imagine Dragons for the first time. It’s happy and it reminds me of summer, but in a way that I’ve not experienced for months. It’s giving me happiness in the moment.

I suppose this is also because I have discovered the wonderful world of Nerdfighteria. It’s a group of people who follow the vlogbrother videos and anything that the Green brothers produce. Whether that is Hank’s music or John’s books. Whether you just sit and get tips on playing Mario and Fifa on Hankgames. Whether you attend Vidcon. Donate to the project for awesome. Even if you are just a nerd who needs a home. We welcome you.

They are a wonderful group of people who I have found peace with, it’s like I can be myself and pretend. I don’t feel ashamed of what I am, or to talk about any of this to them. A nerd fighter is the very reason that I write this blog post. It is for them that I want to try and transpire some hope in their life.

For anyone that is lost out there. Try and find them, it’s very easy, and you will be rewarded with friends on the internet. It’s worth it.

I’m unashamed to say that I think of the community as my best friends, yet I do not know any of them in person. I hope one day that will change.

Goodnight.

Luke.x

Postscript: To the nerdfighter I write to, I hope you know who you are. I know that what I talk about is not directly the same to you. I suppose I just want you to know that no matter what your parents think of you, you can find a group of people that accept you. That you can have an enjoyable time with whatever you want to do. There’s no shame in waiting for the wonderful moment you discover your true self.

Post postscript: Apologies if this is not quite correct English. It is 5am and I am very tired. yet I wanted to write. I shall edit this soon.

Their newer project, Crash Course, makes learning fun.  My 11 year old with high functioning autism loves to watch these online lessons – even the ones he doesn’t initially understand, because they are so darn fun to watch.  They have lessons in the following subjects:

US History
World History
Chemistry
Biology
Literature
Ecology

Six awesome courses in one awesome channel: John Green teaches you US History and Hank Green teaches you Chemistry. Check out the playlists for past courses in World History, Biology, Literature, and Ecology.

You should check out their channel, and if you have tween or older kids, they will likely enjoy watching their videos too!

Here is their latest chemistry video on “Water and Solutions…for dirty laundry” by Hank.

DFTBA (Don’t Forget To Be Awesome!)

Krysten

This game is perfect for parties with your nerdy friends. If Apples to Apples and Dungeons and Dragons had a love child, it would be Story Wars. Here is the basic rules of gameplay, as described by the official FAQ:

Each turn represents one battle between two teams of players. The setting is defined by a randomly drawn Battlefield card. Players then look at the Warrior cards and Item cards in their hands and try to come up with a clever strategy. Once every player has played their Warrior cards face-down, everyone flips their cards over simultaneously. Then players must quickly describe, in an open discussion, how their team would defeat the opposing team.

Each battle is moderated by a judge that rotates every turn so the shared pop cultural context of everyone in the room is very important! Harry Potter fans might play the Basilisk card differently than Percy Jackson fans. Pokemon fans can cite obscure typing match-ups to explain why you can’t punch a bird. Dungeons and Dragons players will often overlay D&D rules onto the game – don’t even try to convince a D&D-playing judge that the Giant can defeat the Dwarf!

As stated above, people will come into the game with their own perceptions the power certain creatures or items may hold. I played this game with a number of my D&D friends, and it’s true, we often used D&D concepts to justify our characters’ actions (ex: I’m an Elf Ranger! Of course I dodge that attack, I’M A FREAKING ELF). The flavor text is fun and goofy and we all laughed a lot. The game is ridiculous on so many levels – last night there was a battle between a Sky Whale with a Poison Dagger (launched from his blowhole) and a Mummy in a Mirthril Tuxedo.

If you want to watch the game in action, Hank Green from the Vlog Brothers has a live demo playthrough that’s worth a watch:

I’m definitely pre-ordering the official set (with expansion) because this game might be a new favorite. Sorry Cards Against Humanity!

- E.B.

Mental Floss is another channel on YouTube that was started with the help of the Green brothers.  These videos are fun and entertaining, but filled with many unknown and some known facts.  They’re a great way to learn new things and astound your friends with your knowledge on random subjects.  Watch the video above and have a look for yourself!

A topic that most people do not like to be involved with, unless they are seated behind a screen; film making and video journalism is one of the most growing features in online social media right now. We believe the main reason that people do not want to create content is because they believe that it cost unbelievable amounts of money that will never be available; little do they know that there is an online community that includes thousands of people whom have made a living out of creating videos in their bedrooms… talking to their webcam. This is not the only route in filmmaking; most youth centres around London are interested in creating and supporting young people to produce short films and journalism videos.

Another issue that young people fear within this subject is that criticism that will feedback from the content they produce. This is a big problem for every film maker, institute and actor; although receiving criticism that you don’t really want, actually builds your confidence to help yourself create better content. On the other hand, positive feedback has to be found and when you find it, it’s great. So have a go, as this is a definite recommendation if you have any free time on your hands and you can get hold a camera… everything deserves a first try.

If you want examples of people who have started a career from the social site YouTube, there are videos linked within this blog showing you their first videos which started their inspiring careers.

Film making is not hard, it does not take a lot of money; just a bit of effort and you’re on your way.

Okay, so back in 2008, my sister discovered the Vlog Brothers.  Then called Brotherhood 2.0, Hank and John Green had a bet or task assigned to each other. Hank, the runner of the website EcoGeek who lived in the Montana, and John, an author of young adult fiction, lived in New York. Tired of only communicating through email or text messages, they decided that for an entire year, they could only communicate through video messages or blog posts. This was highly entertaining and they developed a very large following, the fans of Brotherhood 2.0 were called Nerd Fighters. They had several slogans like “Don’t forget to be Awesome” and adding “In My Pants” to the end of book titles. They even set up a forum named My Pants, I’m fairly certain just so they could say on camera, “And you can check that out, in My Pants.” Or “You can find more, in My Pants”.

Around that time John was working on his novel “Paper Towns”. Periodically he would read chapters or ask for ideas for names and other things in the story. The book wasn’t due to come out for another year. I liked what I’d heard about his new book and while waiting for it to come out I decided to give his other books a try.

His first novel was titled, “Looking for Alaska”. Okay there are a lot of things you can think when you read the title. “Oh, this is an adventure story! Kids are lost in Canada.” Well you’re not even close! The story begins with a 16 –year-old boy names Miles.  Miles has a thing for biographies; he also likes to remember peoples’ last words. He uses Francois Rabelais’s last words, “I go to seek a Great Perhaps” as his mantra and motivation in leaving his home in Florida to attend a boarding high school in Alabama.

When Miles arrives at Culver Creek Preparatory High School, he meets his roommate Chip “The Colonel” Martin. They form a friendship and the Colonel gives tall and thin Miles the supposed ironic nickname of “Pudge”. We are soon introduced to the Colonel’s friend, Alaska Young. Alaska is a good-looking 17-year-old, but she is neurotic, and self-destructive. Shenanigans ensue as the three sneak out and buy booze with fake IDs. After a violently emotional outburst, Alaska finds a car and leaves campus. The next chapter begins with a school assembly; everyone is there but Pudge cannot find Alaska.

I feel like if I continue telling about the plot I’ll ruin things.  I know I say that a lot, but this time more than others I really believe it. I’ve been debating for a couple days about how much to write, and if I should include any spoilers. I’ve decided not to. There are a few things in this book that I did not see coming. I feel like I might be sending your mind down the wrong path, but once you finish the book you’ll get what the title means.

This is a really hard book for me to write about. Mostly because there is so much I CAN’T say in fear of ruining it, but this one stuck with me.  Alaska has a tortured past, The Colonel always wearing a tough mask, and Pudge breaking out of his timid shell. I believe every reader can feel for each character and completely see the mess life can be.

I feel like I’m not doing this book justice as I write this, but I know that it is worth every minute you spend with your nose in the pages. Happy Reading!

Today I don’t have any grand new insights to share, but I do have a recommendation to make to all of you who love Pride and Prejudice…heck, even if you only vaguely know the P&P story, I recommend this.

May I present to you, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries!

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, in just a few short sentences, is a modern-day re-vamping of the classic Austen novel. This time, Elizabeth (Lizzie) is a 25-year-old grad student in California with a bunch of sisters and a crazy mom. She begins a video blog for her graduate school thesis, and, well…things get interesting. And really, really good.

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (or, The LBD as superfans such as myself know it), was co-created and produced by Hank Green, the YouTube superforce who is one-half of the million-subscriber channel Vlogbrothers with his brother and New York Times bestselling author John Green (my favorite working author today and one of my greatest inspirations as a writer). Hank knows YouTube and online video. So, The LBD masterfully balances looking low-budget while it’s relatively high budget and under Hank’s tutelage, the masterful, breathtaking story of Pride and Prejudice translates seamlessly into the new media age of 2013.

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries lasted 100 episodes before it wrapped up the story just perfectly last week, but the most fun feature of watching it was how participatory it became. The characters had Twitter, Facebook,and Tumblr accounts, and several of the characters had their own off-shoot video diaries that added to and enhanced the story (the update of Lydia’s scandalous turn in Pride & Prejudice was personally my favorite part of the entire series. The actress who played Lydia, Mary Kate Wiles, is sure to see stardom. I hope.)

As a graduate student in English with a writing emphasis, I was drawn to the update of Lizzie Bennet and have been fascinated by this modern adaptation and how they not only gave it a new spin but truly brought it to life and made it so easily accessible and engaging. This semester I am studying fairy tales and folk tales; this summer I am studying writing for new media. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries has completely re-informed and re-shaped my ideas of creating content and celebrating the classics I love so much. I have a feeling it may just shape my own thesis in a couple of years.

Before, I wrap up, I’d like to encourage you all to try it out. The series is indeed over, but it is staying on YouTube. The episodes average 5-6 minutes in length, like any good online video, and if you are especially curious, you can discover the online videos of characters like Lydia and GiGi Darcy.

If you find yourself a fan like I am, go over to their Kickstarter and contribute to the campaign to bring the Diaries to DVD. This Kickstarter campaign is the second-most successful video campaign on Kickstarter (second to the Veronica Mars phenomenon from two weeks ago) and reached its goal of raising $60,000 in 4 HOURS.

The series really is that good. I’d love to hear what my friends think of it.

Enjoy!!!

As I said, I have been watching vlogs, and one I wanted to bring your attention to was the VlogBrothers, John and Hank Green. They got started in 2007 with their project Brotherhood 2.0, in which they owed to only communicate with each other via web videos for an entire year. This was so successful they continued vlogging and now have thousands videos on several different channels on youtube, including vlogbrothers, crashcourse, scishow, hankgames, and hankschannel.

You may recognize John Green as the bestselling author of several books, including Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, and more. Hank Green is his brother, and he is a singer/songwriter.

In their videos, they talk about everything from current events, to mini lessons, to philosophical questions, to songs and jokes, all with a good deal of humor thrown in. 

Through their large fanbase (Nerdfighters) they are able to reach out and make a difference in the world by ‘increasing awesome and decreasing world suck’ with campaigns like their annual Project for Awesome. In addition Nerdfighteria has become an international community of awesomeness accessible anywhere with an internet connection.

In addition to all of the Awesome being done for the world via the Green brothers and Nerdfighters everywhere, their videos have the rare but amazing quality of balancing entertainment with information that actually matters. Several times I have come across videos of theirs that would be perfect for future lessons I will teach after I graduate.

No matter what they are talking about (books, advertising, religion, equality, music, science, Harry Potter, etc.) they are always so passionate and that passion is what inspires others to change the world, however they can.

Here are some of my favorite videos from the Vlogbrothers. Enjoy, and Don’t Forget To Be Awesome!

I’ve been following the Chemistry track and have been really enjoying the info. I remember back in high school not having a lot of luck understanding Chemistry even though I was really interested in the subject. The concepts were just way over my head.

The subject matter here is still way over my head, but Hank does a really good job of explaining the info in as close to layman’s terms as possible. The great thing about these videos, I can re-watch them as many times as I need to to fully understand them. The course in high school was only one semester and I could only retake it if I failed the year and had to take my sophomore year over again and again.

I’m going to highlight the first of the many videos on Chemistry to come. The Chemistry playlist is probably the best way to follow the track, but I’m not sure since I subscribe to the entire channel and only queue up the Chemistry videos.