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THE EYE OF LONDON: Thoughts from Northern Montana

2012-09-28 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:53 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life (also: Philosophy & meaning, Science & nature) · mode: Personal update · tags: on location, recurring series, self promotion, community lore, punishment or challenge

Hank recounts his sixth-anniversary trip to northern Montana with Katherine in a chain of "that made me think of" associations (spilled beer, a near-miss with a deer, moral luck and punishment, a scary chairlift, paths), then plugs his projects.

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; sixth-anniversary trip to northern Montana with Katherine; beer spilled onto their dinner from the deck above; almost hitting a fawn near Whitefish

  • ★★ Hank and Katherine celebrated their sixth anniversary last week (mid-September 2012) by escaping the smoke to northern Montana: D&D characters, Glacier National Park, and a VH1 90s countdown that disappointed him in his generation. — 00:00:00 · Katherine Green, Montana
  • ★★ At dinner on their hotel deck, someone on the deck above spilled beer through the slats onto them and their kielbasa; Hank says no one was to blame but he still felt mad. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Katherine Green
  • ★★ On the way to Whitefish Hank almost hit a small spotted deer; he avoided it only because he had not left the gas station two seconds earlier. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — Luck and fairness: drivers who hit deer versus those who just miss; punishing murder more than attempted murder; the justice system

  • ★★★ Hank: every time we drive we are, in some alternate universe, killing animals; he did nothing different from the driver who hit the deer, yet only that driver must feel bad. That's not fair. — 00:00:58
  • ★★★ Hank: punishing murderers more than attempted murderers rewards them for being bad at what they wanted to do; success is just a roll of the dice. (playful) — 00:01:27
  • ★ Hank says this makes him think of other ways the justice system is kind of screwed up, and he changes the subject. (hedged) — 00:01:27

00:01:56 — Chairlift ride up Big Mountain with Katherine; fear of heights; the Missoula Ferris wheel and the "Eye of London"

  • ★★ Later that weekend Hank and Katherine rode a chairlift to the top of Big Mountain; both are a bit afraid of heights, Katherine slightly more. — 00:01:56 · Katherine Green
  • ★ Hank recalls a Ferris wheel ride in Missoula that scared them a third of the way up, calling it Montana-sized, not "the Eye of London" (the London Eye). (playful) — 00:01:56 · Missoula, Montana, Montana

00:02:43 — Walking the four-mile path down: man-made constructions, habitat edges and paths in nature

  • ★★ Walking the four-mile path down from Big Mountain, Hank thought man-made constructions can make nature more beautiful if informed by the nature they are part of. — 00:02:43
  • ★ Hank notes that the edges between habitats can often be the most productive areas of an ecosystem. — 00:02:43

00:03:08 — Paths shared with someone you love; Hank has chosen a gluten-free punishment; Lizzie Bennet Diaries 50th episode; Guild Season 5 recap on Geek & Sundry; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank: a path is a communal creation of countless footsteps, and indicates both a journey and a destination, which are always better shared with someone you love. — 00:03:08 · Katherine Green
  • ★★ Hank tells John he has also chosen a punishment, made gluten-free to accommodate his "terrible excuse for colon". (playful) — 00:03:08 · Punishment, John Green
  • ★★ The Lizzie Bennet Diaries has reached its 50th episode; Hank thanks viewers for helping the project survive and thrive. — 00:03:08
  • ★★ Hank's Season 5 recap of The Guild will go live on Geek & Sundry (on Monday, per the description); he talks faster in it than ever before. (playful) — 00:03:38

Humor (significant)

  • After hearing everything the couple on the deck above said, one of them spills beer through the slats onto Hank's dinner. — 00:00:29

    “And then it was a lot awkward.”

  • Hank frames attempted murder as a D&D attack roll that just failed to crit. — 00:01:27

    “just because they happen to roll a one, they don't have to go to jail.”

  • Hank calls the big London Ferris wheel "the Eye of London" and is corrected on the chairlift. — 00:01:56

    “The London Eye. Not the Eye of London.”

  • Hank announces he has chosen his punishment. — 00:03:08

    “though I have had to make it gluten-free in order to accommodate my terrible excuse for colon.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Katherine Green · Montana · moral luck

Also: Works: Dungeons & Dragons · Minecraft · The Guild · The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Organizations: Geek & Sundry · VH1

Rituals: Punishment

Concepts: acrophobia

Places: Glacier National Park · London Eye · Missoula, Montana · Whitefish Mountain Resort · Whitefish, Montana

Only in the description or credits: Thoughts from Places · Ze Frank

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