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Hanging with High School Hank

2014-09-12 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:57 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life · mode: Personal update

Emptying his bookshelf before moving house, Hank sorts his childhood and high-school keepsakes (teenage art, friends' notes, a life timeline, an uncashed check from John) and announces the family's move to a new house.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — The bottom shelf of memory stuff: diploma, art journals, family tree without John, a friend's SimCity 2000 tiles, a hockey flyer

  • ★★ Emptying his bookshelf, Hank goes through the bottom shelf where he has kept his memory stuff and nostalgia. — 00:00:02
  • ★ Among the keepsakes: his high-school diploma, journals of art, an elementary-school family tree, and a friend's mock-ups for SimCity 2000 tiles. — 00:00:21

00:00:40 — Teenage art: Mars crater city, too-many-abs aliens and merman, Death electrocuting, They Might Be Giants fan art, ASCII Magic mana

  • ★ Hank shows his teenage art: a crater city during the terraforming of Mars, many-abbed aliens, They Might Be Giants fan art and ASCII art of Magic mana. (playful) — 00:00:42

00:01:42 — Class-schedule anxiety dream; Willy Wildcat mascot letter; binder of notes from friends; asks if viewers pass notes

  • ★★ A 1997 letter shows Hank was selected as one of the Willy Wildcat personalities: he was a mascot at his high school. — 00:01:51
  • ★★ Finding a binder of notes from friends, Hank calls note-passing, done before Tumblr and texting, a lost art. (playful) — 00:02:06 · Tumblr
  • ★★ Hank asks viewers whether they still send notes in high school, or did when they were there. — 00:02:13

00:02:17 — Childhood life timeline: five new tropical fish, the Loch Ness Monster in 2018, John at 14

  • ★★ Hank's childhood life timeline set goals by year: find five new tropical fish by 2014 (unmet, though he has a fish tank) and find the Loch Ness Monster in 2018. (playful) — 00:02:17

00:02:47 — Magic cards, an undeposited $200 check from John, Brotherhood 2.0 art, a cut dollar bill, childhood photos for Throwback Thursday

  • ★★ Hank finds his Magic cards and a $200 check from John that he never deposited; John's signature was different then. — 00:02:52 · John Green
  • ★★ Hank finds Brotherhood 2.0 art and many photos of himself as a little kid, including one of him and John asleep on a couch. — 00:03:24 · John Green, Brotherhood 2.0
  • ★★ Hank says he will save the childhood photos for future Throwback Thursdays and tells viewers to follow him on Instagram. — 00:03:30 · Throwback Thursday, Instagram

00:03:35 — The empty wall; moving to a new house next week; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank says the empty wall where many amazing things happened makes him sad: they are moving to a new house next week (week of 15 September 2014), which he looks forward to sharing. — 00:03:35

In the description and comments

  • ★ In the description Hank says the new house will have more room for projects, adding that he doesn't mean small-human projects. (playful) — video description

Humor (significant)

  • Hank finds a family tree he made in elementary school and notes that John is not on it. — 00:00:18

    “Not sure who I hated.”

  • Reviewing his teenage drawings of over-muscled creatures, Hank looks at a four-armed merman he drew. — 00:01:03

    “Glad that I gave him two sets of pecs there so he would be more anatomically correct”

  • Hank's childhood life timeline schedules finding the Loch Ness Monster in 2018. — 00:02:37

    “So I've got some years to find the Loch Ness Monster.”

  • The same timeline describes his big brother: John Green, age 14. — 00:02:43

    “Loves football and beating up little kids.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: nostalgia

Also: People: Sydney Green

Projects: Brotherhood 2.0

Works: Magic: The Gathering · SimCity 2000

Organizations: Instagram · Tumblr

Groups: They Might Be Giants

Concepts: ASCII · terraforming of Mars

Myths: Loch Ness Monster

Memes: Throwback Thursday

Also centred on nostalgia: Like a Snake Swallowing an Egg: Thoughts from Florida · Zero Severed Hands: On Star Wars and Making Things · You Can't Go Home Again, but I Tried

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