The idea of “Challenge Charlie” has become a bit vague as of late. For example, If I was to tell you that I had two new videos lined up, one where I reel off a list of all of the nerdy things about me, and one where I do a 160ft bungee jump, you might expect the latter to be the more challenging one. Apparently I don’t work like that. To me, bungee jumping is something that I just want to do anyway, while partaking in a Nerd-Off is an arduous task to which I have to throw down my gauntlet. I’ll point out that this is something I’m completely cool with, because while I still will be using Challenge Charlie to do things that are, you know, actually challenging, at the end of the day I just want to make fun videos. I can’t always come up with the best stuff on my own, so having you guys as an asset, a video idea fountain as it were, is something I really value. Even if most of your suggestions seem to involve me dressing up as a girl (not going to happen).
I’ve loved watching through the video responses that have been coming in so far -- it’s always great when you can be a nerd, acknowledge that fact, and be proud of it. And even if “nerd” isn’t the first word that you’d use to describe yourself, celebrating whatever nerdy tenancies you might have is also brilliant, because to me, being nerdy just means having something that you’re intelligently passionate about. I’ve noticed a few commenters over the years proclaiming “you’re not a nerd, Charlie! You’re too [insert superlative]” probably because the word has some negative connotations attached to it, but I’m not interested in pretending, I’m completely happy with my nerdiness. Actually, you know what, it’s pretty futile for me to even start talking about how great nerds are when John and Hank have been doing it for years already. Just go and watch all of the videos they’ve ever posted, and report back here once you’re done.
However, even if I am proud to be the nerd that I am, it was clear to me from the start that I’m not the cream of the nerd crop, and I’ve definitely already been out-nerded by some of the people who have posted video responses. The guy that I would place right at the peak of the pyramid currently would be this guy. Computer programing conference shirts, super-old-school video games, writes and publishes quantum physics papers for fun, has seen every single episode of Doctor Who (original series), only ever had one girlfriend, glasses, nerdy posture, nasally voice, and best of all he’s a rocket scientist. I tip my hat to the good man, and can’t wait to see if there’s anyone that thinks they can top him.
Now, Sons Of Admirals! First off, most importantly, I need to tell you all that I didn’t tell Tom to smash an egg on his head. Seriously, all I said to him was “do something quirky” and then he sent me a video of him smashing an egg on his head. That guy is the best. And secondly, although the infomercial style sequence at the end of the video was very much tongue-and-cheek, the bundle itself is an actual, like, real thing. http://dft.ba/-sons is the link if you’d like to get it, or any of individual bits of the bundle, though buying everything together is considerably cheaper. Although I do need to point out that, at time of writing, one of the videos as part of the bundle is called “To Our Fans” which, I’m aware, is one of the most pretentious titles for a video in the history of iTunes. It was meant to be called “Meet The Admirals” but there was a bit of mis-communication down the line. Such is life… but anyway, I digress. All that’s left to say is that if you do buy it the bundle then I hope you like it, and I’ll see y’all soon ^_^
