Stuff I Love

Wednesday's wise words: Having the integrity and strength to stand for what's right against the horde of all that's wrong in the world may earn you some enemies, but the reward of being content with yourself and the eternal reward of everlasting life in heaven far outweigh anything mere men and women can do to you.

I was thinking about some YouTube people I've been following for a long time. I remember when, sometime in 2007, two brothers, John and Hank Green, started sending video blogs (vlogs) back and forth to each other in order to strengthen their brotherly bond. They talked about current events, interesting things, and snippets of their daily lives. Brotherhood 2.0 became a YouTube sensation.

It wasn't long before they formed a charitable organization, The Foundation to Decrease World Suck, which spawned The Project for Awesome. The foundation has helped people and charities all over the world, including the World Wildlife Fund, UNICEF, Autism Speaks, Toys for Tots, and several cancer charities.

Now, you might recognize them from popular YouTube channels, Crash Course, SciShow, and Mental Floss.

Their motto was (and still is), DFTBA --Don't forget to be awesome. They formed a group called "Nerdfighters," which, contrary to what the name implies, don't fight nerds. Rather, they're a bunch of proudly self-proclaimed nerds like myself who strive to make a difference in the world by doing things that help people.

John started writing fiction, and eventually wrote a New York Times #1 best seller called The Fault in Our Stars, based on one of his teenage fans, Esther, who died of cancer. Her life and death, as well as her contributions as one who never forgot to be awesome, are still honored by John and Hank.

If you watch the videos from the beginning, you will see two brothers grow closer as they communicated across the country every day for a year. You'll see their struggles and triumphs, and you'll laugh and cry and celebrate as they make visible change in the world.

You'll also notice something that I find REALLY awesome. In John's videos, which he records in his "library" there's a wall behind him. It has lots of little cubby holes which display various memorabilia. At first, there were just a few curious things, like things I can't even identify, like in this  video.

But as their fanbase grew, John expanded and upgraded his wall, and filled his cubby holes with all the knick knack gifts his fans have sent him over the years.

He doesn't chuck the gifts his fans take great care in creating or picking out and sticking them in a file cabinet in his garage, which is basically just as much a slap in the face as throwing them right in the garbage.

Anyway, I think it's awesome that they honor their fans in that way. Jus' sayin'.

DFTBA.