Nerdfighteria

This blog is about Nerdfighters, the Vlogbrothers and all their associated channels. Also sometimes Arsenal.

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New Nerdfighters are awesome

Welcome to the world Alice Green!

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To Gain Wisdom

  There was once a man of much renown

Whose store of wisdom was said to have grown

To such a degree that was beyond comparison

And with it had grown love and compassion

Beauty and strength, and of course soon there came

With all these virtues success and fame

He lived a life of pleasure, one of great luxury

But never for one moment did he lose his humility

Though others denied it, he said he was no better

Than any other person, no cleverer, no greater;

The one thing that might set him above the rest

Was curiosity and learning, for which a burning zest

Had been, since childhood, his constant companion.

And that was his secret, his source of wisdom.

What we get to learn from this anecdote

Is that wisdom should lie at the end of each road

We chose in our lives; and that the road should be

Fraught with the key to learning, with curiosity

And if the road we choose should fulfill

The destination- wisdom, and fit the bill

 For the path- curiosity then I proclaim

That on the way will be success and fame.

So thus, in short, is the moral of the story

The aim of our lives should never be money

Nor should it be the means to obtain

Such meaningless trifles as that fickle fame

Instead the only purpose of our journey

Should be that all-important curiosity

Which will then lead us to the home of wisdom

And will open the door and on the way in will come

Great knowledge; and on the way up the stairs

We shall meet with money, fame and success.

And when we finally reach that magical place

Wherein dwells wisdom, and we shall come face to face

With God Himself;

What this meeting we have to do to earn

Is to always be curious and to strive to always learn.

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Ancient Greek Impact on Modern Society

As a student of Classical Civilizations, I study the vast impact that the Ancient Greeks (and the Romans) had on modern society (especially western society). Theoretically, I know that the ancient societies I study continue to strongly influence the world today but practically, my mind still boggles whenever I see something  that is clearly Ancient Greek or Roman play a huge part in the mainstream of today's society.

Take companies and corporations for example. When we think of coffee, most of us think of Starbucks. Next time you're at a Starbucks, take a good look at the seal on the sleeve protecting your hand from the piping hot, delicious latte. The woman in the logo with all the snakes for hair: that's Medusa. We all see Nike products every day but we rarely recognize that the company derives its name from Niké (pronounced NeeKay) who was the Goddess of Victory for the Greeks. Apart from being omnipresent in books, art, television, movies and songs, the Ancient Greek flying horse Pegasus has found itself as the logo/name of thousands of corporations including Mobil, FBR Capital Markets, Pegasus Express Ltd, the UB group, Pegaso, Reader's Digest, Pegasus Airlines, Air France, TriStar Pictures and even Dallas, Texas. Most of us are loyal customers of Amazon.com. Where do you think the name comes from? When we think of the moon landing, we think of Apollo 11. Who do you think that series of spacecrafts was named after? Just do a Google search of Greek influences in industry and you'll turn up an astonishing number of hits. It completely blows my mind.

Don't even get me started on Film and Television. It seems that every second film produced by Hollywood these days is directly influenced by ancient mythology and the rest are indirectly influenced by it. Greek influence in modern music is as surprising as it is extensive. The Greek Epics are ubiquitous in classical music and references to Greek myth in pop music is more common than you'd think. However, arguably the field where classical civilizations have had the greatest impact would have to be literature. A ridiculously high percentage of fiction books produced today draw from the Ancient Greeks. Medieval works of literature, of course, is almost wholly based on Greek or Roman influences. Romantic poetry is famous for being based on Greek mythology. The Classical period of literature is named after the overt classical influences apparent in the literary output of the era. I end with possibly my favorite example: the Bible. The best-selling book of all time tries exceedingly hard not to draw from Greek society but ends up drawing more from it than almost any other book. Just pick up any Dan Brown novel for proof...

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Swoodilypoopers Everywhere!

When you look for them, you can find Swoodilypoopers everywhere.

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The only use for Twitter I can think of is to promote your tumblr.

John Green, 2013

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TIL that French the Lallana plays for Soton! He didn't make it to the tardis but he made it to the premiership after all!

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Good day!

That moment when John replies to you on twitter!

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1. Shailene Woodley is a brilliant actress and Golden Globe nominee. I cannot think of any 18-year-old actress who has received the kind of critical acclaim that she has (she also won an Independent Spirit Award).

She auditioned for The Fault in Our Stars not because she needs the part (I mean, she’s in the new Spider Man movie, for God’s sakes) but because she loves the book. Her depth of understanding were immediately obvious in the audition and for me there could be no one else to play Hazel. (There were a bunch of really good auditions, but Shailene just understood Hazel as I imagined her.)

I am not particularly concerned with physical looks; Hollywood can fix that stuff. (Remember when Nicole Kidman became Virginia Woolf?) I’m concerned with whether she can embody the voice and experience and life of Hazel. She can.

2. Ansel Elgort is also a huge fan of TFiOS (it is, in fact, his favorite book). He was a high school basketball player who also happens to be a very intellectual guy. Most importantly, when he auditioned, he became Augustus. Watching him audition with Shailene, he was just Gus and she was just Hazel. He understood Gus, and clearly had a very deep and thoughtful relationship with the book. Honestly, I’m a bit confused as to how you can dislike an actor whose work you have definitionally never seen, since his first movie isn’t out yet.

3. Novelists do not cast movies, so these were not my decisions (although I did have a lot of input). But I’m defending them because I think they’re both perfect for their parts (and I’d tell you if I felt otherwise).

4. There seems to be some concern that Ansel and Shailene are playing siblings in a different movie. I guess I can understand that, but they’re actors. They can play different roles. They’ll look different and act different and be different. I mean, no one watched Silver Linings Playbook and thought, “When did Katniss move to the suburbs of Philadelphia?”

If the movie works, you’ll sit down in the theater and you won’t say, “Oh look it’s Shailene Woodley,” or, “Oh, look, it’s Tris from Divergent.” You’ll say, “Holy wow Hazel Grace.”

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Check out my Blog!

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TFIOS

Both Hazel and Augustus decided! How exciting.