One of the best things about my generation:

Hey.

Writing this message is part of a long series of procrastination attempts, but let's ignore that for a second.

I'm writing right now because today I have just been overpowered by the initiative and creativity of my generation, specifically the Nerdfighteria movement. Some of the people who read this are already familiar with Nerdfighters and are smiling right now as they read it -- others have never heard of it and think it sounds pretty darn silly. Let me give you a brief background of Nerdfighteria and then I can tell you the specifics of it that have so impressed me today.

A while ago, two brothers named Hank and John Green started a youtube channel called 'vlogbrothers' and made videos three times a week, addressed to one another. They talked about all sorts of things from music to video games to strife in other countries or relevant pieces of the news. These days, a community has grown around their videos. It's often referred to as 'Nerdfighteria', and its fans refer to themselves as 'Nerdfighters' and use the motto/slogan "DFTBA" meaning: Don't Forget To Be Awesome. John is an author and has written more than three novels, and Hank is an entrepreneur and founder of organizations such as EcoGeek.org and DFTBA records, a music producing company that has allowed many youtube musicians who otherwise don't have the means to get record deals be able to produce their own music.

One of the most recent interests of the Nerdfighters has been the website Kiva. This website enables people who are NOT investment bankers or large corporations to loan small amounts of money to people around the world who are trying to start/better their businesses. The Vlogbrothers mentioned this website in their videos a short while ago and encouraged their viewers to go and join the Nerdfighter group on Kiva. Since those videos went up a few weeks ago, the Nerdfighter group on Kiva has collectively loaned more than $110,000.

I went to Kiva myself today and loaned money to a man in Tajikistan who is trying to buy a milking cow. And I thought about all of the other Nerdfighters my age around the world who have joined this movement, and I was so proud to be a part of them. I often have rather grumpy thoughts about my generation (or at least the stereotypes of it) and was so overjoyed today, I thought I would share that with you.

I realize this entry is a bit more of a public service announcement than most of what I write here is, but I really think that this is something non-Nerdfighters should hear.

I'm going to get back to Complex Analysis, but in comments, please let me know what you think. Nerdfighter readers (:D), let me know if you've gone to Kiva!

Have a lovely rest of your Saturday, everyone.