Geeky Soap Box

Every once in a while, I feel the need to get up on my very own little geeky soap box and just write about something quite nerdy and near and dear to my heart.  It's that time again, so I apologize in advance : ) 

As we all know, I spend a great deal of time on Pinterest.  A few weeks ago I started seeing a name and a face pop-up quite a bit: Misha Collins.  I had never watched Supernatural so I had no idea but the geeks on Pinterest seem to regard him as a bit of a god.  So I just had to figure out why.  It's why Google was invented.  In my experience the ones they usually worship (i.e. Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus) have no reason to be worshipped and are quite honestly big 'ol spoiled brats so I didn't have much confidence in what I was going to find.

I'm happy to admit that I was wrong, and while you shouldn't go around worshipping false idols and all that, he's about the best false idol to worship I can find.  And so not for the reasons you'd think.  Yes he's very, very funny - almost too funny in a way you can't believe anyone is actually that witty off script.  He has 2 adorable children, one of which he hosts a cooking show with I went gaga for a few weeks ago.  And yes, he's on a cult TV show which makes his fanbase HUGE ...in the nerd community.  So yay for all that.  But the man leads a charity called Random Acts that focuses all of its power (and it has some serious mojo due to the cult TV audience) on spreading random acts of kindness and encouraging others to be kinder and nicer to their fellow citizens. (It has built an orphanage in Haiti and reunited a girl who had been trafficked with her family.) How can you not like a guy that encourages people to not be jerks and actually succeeds?

But, wait there's more.  I was listening to the Nerdist podcast this morning during my walk (and yes, that's the nerdiest thing I've ever said, thank you very much) and they happened to interview him, while he was in a Scottish castle with the winners of GISHWHES - The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen, which he also leads.  For the last 3 years, he has run an international scavenger hunt for thousands of people (in 2012 there were 14,000 participants).  One week a year, teams of 18 that are randomly thrown together after they sign up, join up virtually and try to find items as crazy as a portraits of Jensen Ackles made entirely with skittles, or "a bus in a volcano" and as responsible as bringing drinks and snacks to a dialysis center or leaving a kind note for someone you don't know then filming their reaction.  All of the found items are then recorded or photographed and uploaded to the site where points are awarded.  The more you do, the more points you get.  And the name isn't just a hoax, it has been awarded 3 Guiness World Records, included most charity pledges as well as most participants.

There are multiple reasons why this is awesome. For one, who doesn't love a scavenger hunt?  It's something fun and crazy and probably makes a whole summer.  Nerdy too, but I go for that... For another, how many people can say they've met and become friends with people all over the world? Some of the teams have planned meet-ups all over the world and some stay in touch throughout the year with email and other fun techy ways.  Then there's the charity aspect.  The $19 entrance fee (how many fun things are under $20?!) all goes to Random Acts.  And the charity list items all promote Random Act's mission statement to spread kindness.  Lastly, it's the creativity that it takes to put something like this together and the creativity of the participants to complete the list items.

That was the most interesting part of the interview when Collins said that it's his favorite part.  He likes taking ideas and seeing them from different angles and he feels like he's teaching people to think about these items (and probably other life problems as well) in this same way.  For instance, a bus in a volcano sounds completely impossible.  But if you lived in Hawaii for instance, you could buy a toy bus and take a hike to Kilauea.  Basically what seems impossible, never quite is.

So I suppose, this all was a very long winded way of saying something quite simple.  Why in the world are people worshipping singers who wind up behind bars for speeding in over-priced cars when there are good people like Misha Collins out there spreading the love?