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August 20th: Winner, South Dakota

2007-08-20 · letter vlog · John · 3:36 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria (also: Personal life) · mode: Personal update · tags: community lore

John jokes about needing a haircut and about buying Winner, South Dakota - the Missoula-Indianapolis midpoint found by secret brother Tom - for a Nerdfighter commune, then says the Nerdfighters' work is making him believe in humanity again: maybe nerdfighting is for winners.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; needing a haircut ('Muffin Head' in middle school); secret brother Tom finds Winner, South Dakota as the brothers' midpoint

  • ★ John needs a haircut: after weeks of meaning to get a preventive one, he wakes up with the hair that got him called 'Muffin Head' in middle school. (playful) — 00:00:09
  • ★★ Secret brother Tom calculated the midpoint between Hank in Missoula and John in Indianapolis: a town called Winner, South Dakota. (playful) — 00:00:09 · Winner, South Dakota, Missoula, Montana, Indianapolis, secret sibling

00:00:54 — Buying Winner for a Nerdfighter commune (sustainable buildings, race car beds); Wikipedia on Winner: population, location, a made-up history

  • ★★★ John muses that the brothers and the Nerdfighters could pool their resources, buy Winner and build a Nerdfighting commune of sustainable buildings where everyone sleeps in race car beds. (hypothetical, hedged) — 00:00:54 · Winner, South Dakota, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Citing Wikipedia, John says Winner has a population of just over 3,000 and lies in south-central South Dakota. — 00:00:54 · Wikipedia, Winner, South Dakota
  • ★★ John reads Winner's Wikipedia history - a French fur trader and magician hunting a non-existent giant beaver, later rich in canned chicken - and asks whether Wikipedia will ever tell him true facts. (joke) — 00:01:24 · Wikipedia, Winner, South Dakota

00:01:53 — End of the fake history ('will you ever tell me true facts?'); Nerdfighter achievements: animations, a secret-sibling intro, the wiki, pictures, the forum overload, a humiliation-for-charity project, songs, old and new Nerdfighters

  • ★★★ John lists the Nerdfighters' recent work: animations, an intro for all secret siblings, helpers building the wiki, hundreds of Nerdfighter pictures, songs, and a humiliation-for-charity project he calls awesome. — 00:01:53 · Nerdfighteria, secret sibling, Brotherhood 2.0 forum
  • ★★ So many Nerdfighters are in the forum that the site sometimes goes down; John thanks Hank for working on it. (playful) — 00:02:22 · Brotherhood 2.0 forum, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John says old-school Nerdfighters are integrating the new ones well, so everyone finds they are made of more awesome than they thought possible. — 00:02:22 · Nerdfighteria, made of awesome

00:02:58 — The project makes John believe in humanity again; more nerdfighters than nerdhaters; Loser vs Winner: nerdfighting is for winners; sign-off

  • ★★★ John says Brotherhood 2.0 is starting to make him believe in humanity again; he catches himself saying outlandishly optimistic things. (hedged) — 00:02:58 · Brotherhood 2.0, optimism

  • ★★★ For the first time John feels the world may contain more nerdfighters than nerdhaters; having long thought himself suited to 'Loser, South Dakota', he now thinks maybe nerdfighting is for winners. (hedged) — 00:02:58 · nerdfighter, Winner, South Dakota

    “maybe nerdfighting is for winners”

Humor (significant)

  • Tom's calculation puts the brothers' midpoint in Winner, South Dakota. — 00:00:09

    “Winner, South Dakota, Hank! As in the opposite of Loser, South Dakota!”

  • Wikipedia places Winner in south-central South Dakota. — 00:01:24

    “which is exactly like South Central Los Angeles, except different in every possible way”

  • After reading Winner's history on Wikipedia about a magician fur trader, a non-existent beaver and canned chicken. — 00:01:53

    “Oh Wikipedia, will you ever tell me true facts?”

  • John says he finds himself saying outlandishly optimistic things while staring outside at the weather. — 00:02:58

    “Wow. That's going to be really great for the plants.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Brotherhood 2.0 · nerdfighter

Also: Projects: Brotherhood 2.0 forum (“Wiki? Wookie? Wookie!”)

Organizations: Wikipedia

Terms: in your pants · made of awesome · secret sibling

Concepts: optimism

Places: Indianapolis · Los Angeles · Missoula, Montana · Winner, South Dakota

Characters: Wookiee (“Wiki? Wookie? Wookie!”)

Only in the description or credits: Secret Brother Tom

Later videos replying to this one

Part of an exchange of 3 videos, 2007-08-20 – 2007-08-22.