New this week in Newsweek

This past weekend I decided that I wanted to read the current (November 16) copy of Newsweek cover to cover. This may sound insignificant, unimportant, or uninteresting, but it's something that not only do I never do... I'm not sure I've ever done it at all. In the past, I've read some of the articles, flipped through the stories while eating breakfast, or simply opened it straight to the political cartoon page... but I'm not sure I've ever read every word of every story.

My family has had a subscription to Newsweek for quite some time now -- before that it was Time, or maybe it was both... but they've been piling up in our magazine basket for several years now. I don't know exactly why I'm never drawn to them -- it's partly an issue of time, I think. I also currently get Entertainment Weekly, People, Glamour, Allure, and Real Simple [before you protest, they were all free and I only have them for a limited amount of time. Oh, and I always give them to friends before recycling them] and I barely have time to read those as it is. On top of that, there's reading for school, for my bookclub(s), for fun... Yeah, I just basically never make it to reading Newsweek.

But I had a few quiet minutes on Friday, and it was just sitting there staring at me, so I started flipping through it, then I started reading it, and then I started reading all of it. I actually haven't finished at the time I'm sitting here writing this, but I certainly plan to read the rest. I can't say if this is indicative of a new pattern - if I'm going to be able to read every word of all the Newsweeks from now on, but I certainly have gained a new appreciation of the magazine as a whole, and a new knowledge of how interesting it can be to really read in depth.

The magazine's cover story is about lessons we can learn from Vietnam - and how they can be applied to Afghanistan. The story is really quite interesting, though I don't see what made it timely enough to make it the cover story; but I particularly enjoyed John Kerry's subarticle. He had a very striking conclusion that I think is worth sharing: "One of the architects of the Vietnam War, Robert McNamara, confessed decades later that he knew victory was no longer possible well before the American death toll had reached half its eventual total. He offers a horrific lesson that the time to voice concerns is now." It seems clear to me that America's involvement in Afghanistan is far from over, and I hope to follow its events and debates closer than I did with events in, say, Iraq. I was too unappreciative at the time of what was going on in Iraq to keep up and as such generally don't know what was/is going on there.

I have always admired John Green and other individuals who are very well versed in current events -- people who understand the innerworkings of what's making headlines well enough to explain them to others and debate them intellectually. I guess my reading Newsweek this weekend is, in part, an attempt to follow in those footsteps. Next semester I'll be taking a Modern US Policy/Diplomacy class, which I'm sure with further my understanding of the crazy world of political happenings.

The Newsweek issue had many other interesting stories - lots of chatter about the Berlin Wall Fall anniversary, about the recent elections in favor of the Republicans and what that means for the country, etc, etc. But I'm not going to go into that now... If you're interested, you can read for yourself!

If anyone out there happens to read this, I'd love to hear what YOU read in the realm of magazines, websites, RSS-feeds, newspapers, etc. How do you keep up with current events -- or do you not care at all? Let me know!

Cheers :)

DFTBA!!

Okay, I just have to take a moment to write about the Vlogbrothers aka Nerdfighters aka John and Hank Green (even though I really should keep working right now. Heck, it's still winter break until Wednesday. A little procrastination won't kill me.)

Basically, in 2007, two brothers, John and Hank Green, decided to start a project called Brotherhood 2.0. They decided that they would partake in no form a textual communication for a year, but instead would release a video blog every week day (switching off days) for a year. They had rules, did challenges for fun, and even got into funny punishments (if they failed to put up a video). Punishments include waxing a leg, dying hair green, and eating a blenderized happy meal. (Just watched that one... disgusting but hilarious).

But the project evolved. One day, when John was in an airport (he's an author, so he travels a lot), and he found a video game called Nerdfighters, and he and Hank got to talking about nerdfighters - people who are made of awesome and fight with their intelligence to decrease World Suck (their brilliant words, not mine). So, then B2.0 ended at the end of 2007, but they kept online communities going, and kept putting up videos.

Even though this was a few years ago now (that still sounds weird), I recently got into watching their new videos, but couldn't get enough, so I've been watching all the old videos also. I'm currently up to August 2007, and I'm having so much fun. I'm sure my parents are getting tired of hearing about them, so I'll probably be talking about them on here whenever I have something to share.

Basically, I really admire their outlook on life. They're both what you would call "nerds" - one's a writer, and the other is a blogger for a website about green technology. They both have glasses, spend lots of time reading and on the internet, and have gloriously nerdy photos from high school that they've shown on their videos. And, did I mention they started a project where they decided to vlog every day for a year? Yeah. But the way they put it, being nerdy is not a bad thing. Nerdfighters (the group of people who has risen around them) are "made of awesome," and when you spend time with them (okay, it's on the interenet and it's kind of one way through a video), you don't feel bad if you're a little nerdy (which I am). Heck, having more and more people form a group around being awesome is not a bad thing, and being nerdy certainly isn't!

Plus, to me, they represent everything that I love about the internet. They rallied a group of people from all across the globe around them. They're raised money for numerous charities just by suggesting it in their videos. They've built a global community, and made the big wide world a little less scary.

And finally, they're just plain hilarious. Really. Just take Hank's Christmas Song, all about how Jesus never gets anything for Christmas. (Check it out here). They have this joke that they always bring up about "In My Pants." For example, there's the In My Pants rule: that adding "in my pants" to any book title inevitably makes it better. (Just think about it: The Stranger... In My Pants. Yeah. Funny.) They're both very intelligent, talented, and funny, so it's a real delight to watch them.

Now, as I mentioned, Brotherhood 2.0 was in 2007. During 2008, as I understand it, they were basically uploading videos when they had time. But just recently, they announced Brotherhood 2.0.0.9, which is their project for this year. Basically, they have certain days where they will put up certain types of videos. News videos, question and answer videos, songs from Hank, etc.

Yesterday was the first video, and since it was a Sunday, it was John's day to talk about some sort of news. Now, he chose to talk about the situation in Israel/Palestine right now, which is pretty heavy, but he did so while showing pictures of his absolutely adorable puppy. I don't know about you, but it's pretty impressive! John doesn't just blather on about it either - he knows quite a bit about it! I'll share it with you, for reference:


(By the way, isn't Willy (the dog) adorable? I love how he keeps turning his head back and forth! Oh, and John's mismatched socks are hilarious!)

So that's what's occupying my time in cyberspace right now. I'm guessing that the nerdfighters are going to stay quite popular, and I know that they're certainly a part of my life now.

As they say, then, DFTBA! (Don't forget to be awesome!) <--Best sign out ever.

P.S. I mentioned that John is an author, and he's quite a good one. I've recently finished his second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, and I'm now reading his first, Looking for Alaska. I next want to read his most recent, Paper Towns, and then I'll probably blog on them all together. Long story short, they're very good.