Q: Who are you?

A: I’m Matt. If you want more than that, I’m unlikely to oblige, since I have this thing about divulging personal information over the Internet. But if you really want to know something, then send me an ask.

Q: What does your URL mean?

A: You mean ‘trans solem’? It’s extremely poor Latin for ‘beyond the setting sun’. I’m terribly sorry, fluent Latin speakers, for torturing you - I’d blame Google Translate. 

It’s a lyric from the Switchfoot song ‘The Setting Sun’:

Let the weak say I am strong, and it won’t be long,
Let the right say I was wrong, and it won’t be wrong,
Let us find where we belong,
Beyond the setting sun,
Beyond the setting sun

It won’t be long, I belong,
Somewhere past the setting sun,
finally free, finally strong,
Somewhere back where I belong

Q: Will you promote my blog?

A: I can’t imagine you’d want me to, since I’m hardly Tumblr famous, but perhaps, if I like it. Certainly not a promotion for promotion’s sake though.

Oh, and the whole follow-for-follow thing doesn’t work for me either. I don’t always peruse my (genuine) followers’ blogs, so don’t feel offended if I don’t follow you back - it may not be because I don’t like your blog. ;)

Q: What is ‘nerdfighting’?

A: A Nerdfighter is a person who is proud to be nerdy and intelligent, and who fights to decrease world suck. Nerdfighters are not composed of cells and tissue, but instead made entirely of awesome. John explains it excellently:

“We are people who value rationality and sensibility as opposed to vapidity and hostility, and who promote knowledge and the furthering of information as tool to combat both personal and global issues.”

The term originated from the YouTube project, ‘Brotherhood 2.0’, run by brothers John and Hank Green in 2007 - their goal was to eradicate all textual communication between each other for one year, and instead communicate using video logs. The Nerdfighting community sprang up around them, and they still post videos to this day, on one of the most subscribed channels, with over 500,000 subscribers.

John is a popular (and, might I add, amazing) young adult author, having written such books as Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines, and Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

Hank is a web designer and environmental activist turned entrepreneur through such projects as DFTBA Records and 2D Glasses, and also a successful musician.

You can check out their YouTube videos here. I would recommend it. They’re awesome. A good starting video is this FAQ.

There is also a Nerdfighter Tumblr, found here. 

Q: If I have more questions?

A: Ask me.