I spend a lot of time in the car. For people like me there are a couple of things that keep us sane. Good books are one of them.
This week, let’s talk about You’re Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day.
Overview
If you’re not familiar with Felicia Day then you’ve been missing out on one of parts of the recent nerd culture revolution that always makes me smile. I know her first from Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. If you don’t know what that is, stop, go watch it, then come back. I’ll wait.
The audiobook itself is read by the author, which can sometimes be hit or miss but in this case was a definite bonus. If you have the option, I’d definitely listen to it on Audible or your favorite audiobook player.
Homeschoolers Unite!
One of the best sections of the book is Felicia’s origin story. She’s the product of a homeschool education (like me) and more or less had a comparable family experience to mine in that the homeschooling decision was related to her family’s thoughts about education rather than anything else.
I’ll leave the rest of the story (being the young kid in college, a violin prodigy, etc) up to her. What I do also really relate to is being a kid on the Internet (the other Prodigy, for the under-30 crowd) and into MUDs, MUXs, MOOs, and the other creative spaces that were available at the time. I can’t help feel that the comparable creative spaces for kids now (Minecraft, WoW, etc.) suffer for having too much graphical detail. It was a definite plus to have to get your creative thoughts out in text when you’re a 13-year old.
Creative Nerds
Chris Hardwick has defined “Nerdist” to be a mashup of Nerd and Artist, which I think Felicia exemplifies that ideal pretty well. Go read the book, then check out The Guild and Geek and Sundry and enjoy.