KEEP CALM AND DFTBA
I need to be reading a ridiculously long article and then writing about my cultural heritage, but I keep thinking of the AWESOMENESS that was last night, so want to do a quick summary of how cool this was. For anyone wondering what my brain is like in squee-mode, enhanced by coffee at 9 pm - this next paragraph is basically it:
Ok. (I'm imagining myself talking as fast as Hank and John, btw) About a week ago I discovered that the guy who wrote Looking for Alaska, which is a book I keep hearing about but have never read is named John Green. A LONG TIME AGO julie told me about two brothers who vlog back and forth. ALSO A LONG TIME AGO Julie told me about a guy name Charlie who does cool video blogs on youtube. Charlie is oddly the first part of this. He's awesome. Anyway, Charlie's best friend is Alex and Alex wrote an awesome song called Forever Yours. Somehow (possibly through a shirt Charlie was wearing that said Priori IncanFandom) I discovered that Alex was involved with a website called DFTBA. Which stands for Don't Forget to Be Awesome. (I swear there's a sort of point to this.) About a week ago, Changing Hands posted a great video of John Green which caused me to realize that YA teen author and vlog brother were the SAME PERSON. And then I watched another video in which Forever Yours was playing in the background and he mentioned Alex Day. At this point I was dying of the glee that can only come from realizing that nerdy youtube people on two sides of the world were friends. And that his brother Hank, was equally awesome. And helped run DFTBA. And a lot of other cool stuff. And wrote silly, but awesome songs about anglerfish and quarks. And that they (the brothers) founded a group called Nerdfighters with the mission to "Decrease worldsuck and increase world awesome." All of this led to last night, when Changing Hands brought the Nerdfighter tour to Phoenix. (and prolly confused a lot of people just here for an author talk...because it was ALSO a book tour for John's new novel, The Fault in Our Stars which has hit #1 on the YA charts.) SO. THINGS:
-Convincing Dani to come. Since she knew WAY MORE about the vlog bros than i did.
-There were lots of nerds. Including an awesomely cute girl dressed up as the 11th Doctor.
-Hank borrowed Alex Day's guitar strap months (?) ago and has not returned it.
-SO MANY NERDY SHIRTS
-Authors reading from their books are amazing.
-Everyone dancing-Hanging out waiting for our turn to sign
-Hank playing Dani's favorite song (quarks) and mine (anglerfish)
-The shocking game, created thanks to Charlie
-John telling Hank to repeat the question just so he would get shocked.
-Hanks Fandoms: Harry Potter, Sherlock, Star Trek, (Doctor Who - he was asked for his top three and DW was four, but I can hardly mind when he included Sherlock)
-John's snarkiness when answering questions
-Looking like the Proclaimers and singing 500 Miles at the end
-Hanging out waiting for our turn to sign with Julie and Dani.
-Knowing what to say when I finally got up to the signing table (this is a problem for me)
-Them signing our communal journal!
-Getting a Keep Calm and DFTBA shirt (love it)
-Having random person tell me they liked my DW owl shirt.
-MANY OTHER THINGS.
So yeah. That was a good night. And I REALLY don't want to do homework. Here's a song about anglerfish:
Ok. (I'm imagining myself talking as fast as Hank and John, btw) About a week ago I discovered that the guy who wrote Looking for Alaska, which is a book I keep hearing about but have never read is named John Green. A LONG TIME AGO julie told me about two brothers who vlog back and forth. ALSO A LONG TIME AGO Julie told me about a guy name Charlie who does cool video blogs on youtube. Charlie is oddly the first part of this. He's awesome. Anyway, Charlie's best friend is Alex and Alex wrote an awesome song called Forever Yours. Somehow (possibly through a shirt Charlie was wearing that said Priori IncanFandom) I discovered that Alex was involved with a website called DFTBA. Which stands for Don't Forget to Be Awesome. (I swear there's a sort of point to this.) About a week ago, Changing Hands posted a great video of John Green which caused me to realize that YA teen author and vlog brother were the SAME PERSON. And then I watched another video in which Forever Yours was playing in the background and he mentioned Alex Day. At this point I was dying of the glee that can only come from realizing that nerdy youtube people on two sides of the world were friends. And that his brother Hank, was equally awesome. And helped run DFTBA. And a lot of other cool stuff. And wrote silly, but awesome songs about anglerfish and quarks. And that they (the brothers) founded a group called Nerdfighters with the mission to "Decrease worldsuck and increase world awesome." All of this led to last night, when Changing Hands brought the Nerdfighter tour to Phoenix. (and prolly confused a lot of people just here for an author talk...because it was ALSO a book tour for John's new novel, The Fault in Our Stars which has hit #1 on the YA charts.) SO. THINGS:
-Convincing Dani to come. Since she knew WAY MORE about the vlog bros than i did.
-There were lots of nerds. Including an awesomely cute girl dressed up as the 11th Doctor.
-Hank borrowed Alex Day's guitar strap months (?) ago and has not returned it.
-SO MANY NERDY SHIRTS
-Authors reading from their books are amazing.
-Everyone dancing-Hanging out waiting for our turn to sign
-Hank playing Dani's favorite song (quarks) and mine (anglerfish)
-The shocking game, created thanks to Charlie
-John telling Hank to repeat the question just so he would get shocked.
-Hanks Fandoms: Harry Potter, Sherlock, Star Trek, (Doctor Who - he was asked for his top three and DW was four, but I can hardly mind when he included Sherlock)
-John's snarkiness when answering questions
-Looking like the Proclaimers and singing 500 Miles at the end
-Hanging out waiting for our turn to sign with Julie and Dani.
-Knowing what to say when I finally got up to the signing table (this is a problem for me)
-Them signing our communal journal!
-Getting a Keep Calm and DFTBA shirt (love it)
-Having random person tell me they liked my DW owl shirt.
-MANY OTHER THINGS.
So yeah. That was a good night. And I REALLY don't want to do homework. Here's a song about anglerfish:
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