"A conversation with my 12 year old self" (video)

[Video Link] An amazing video by Jeremiah McDonald. In this piece, he digs up a tape he recorded as a child 20 years ago, and has a conversation with the 12-year-old version of himself who once intoned to the video camera, "I think I'd like to talk to myself in the future." (Thanks, Joe Sabia.)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: Entertainment • Funny • Kids • video

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http://twitter.com/mechtroid Cole Wardell

Really reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZRhj03MZD4
- Sagodjur
  
  Hence the reference to that episode…?
  - Snig
    
    yes, it was gratuitous repostage, but it’s a great episode. I found myself watching the whole clip, and may have to dig up the episode.
jahxman

I am impressed with his 12 year old self for providing so much material to work off of.

It’s funny how we forget the persons we were a long time ago; the only analogous experience for me has been finding an old story I wrote in my teens, and somehow not recognizing the voice that was telling the story, yet it was “my own” voice. I’ve forgotten that boy…
- http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker
  
  I have the same problem. I’ve got lots of little writings from grade school and early junior high that my parents saved, including my 4th-6th grade diary. I do not recognize that little girl. What’s worse: I’m not sure I like her very much. Especially in the diary. She’s a little too insufferably pleased with herself. I apparently spent a lot of time trying to prove my own precociousness back then.
  
  Starting somewhere around 10th grade is where I started to sound like me. And it’s easier to deal with. I can cringe at bad poetry written by 16-year-old Maggie, but by that point, I’m no longer cringing at the thoughts behind the writing.
  - blueelm
    
    I have the inverse. I miss that kid. She was bright. I’d say I wondered what happened to her, but I know that. Hell, I even know where she’s buried.
- jackie31337
  
  That happens to me with my daughter more than with my own memories of myself. When I think about what she was like as a baby or look at old pictures, I start wondering where that baby/toddler/little girl went. It’s hard for me to make the connection between the person she was then and the person she is now at 9 years old. I suspect things will get even weirder as she gets older.
Mitchell Glaser

Fucking brilliant. I loved all the empty booze bottle in the background, nice touch.
http://twitter.com/strugglngwriter strugglngwriter

The only thing that would make this better would be if Sally Sparrow appeared.
http://twitter.com/strugglngwriter strugglngwriter

Aaaaand I wrote that before the end of the video. Brilliant!
- GuyInMilwaukee
  
  Your future self should have known and saved you the second post. You two need to talk more. Your future self is also a bit judgmental of your past self. Give yourself some slack. Impatiences is a virtue.
- http://twitter.com/M_Champouret Marine Champouret
  
  As the good Doctor would say.
David Pescovitz

If I knew now, what I knew then…
- sarahnocal
  
  If I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then..
- http://dailygrail.com/ Red Pill Junkie
  
  If I knew that I wouldn’t know what I wanted to back then…
zartan74

Genius.
lorq

Great performances and *really* great editing. Packs a lot of humor and meaning into a very small space. Hats off.
- waetherman
  
  I second that. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me want a bourbon. And a time machine.
E T

Wow! Why not do one now to his future self in 2032?
jimh

Love it. Great edit.
Makes me wish I had some video of myself at 12. But it would have had to have been shot in super 8, I suppose… sigh.
- blueelm
  
  I had video of me at 12 but my dad recorded south park episodes over it :/ Oh well.
grs

Awesome.

I recently received a box of old keepsakes that my parents found in their basement. Now my girl’s get to enjoy a stickerbook with Pac-Man scratch ‘n sniff stickers even though they don’t know what a Pac-Man is.
- Boundegar
  
  What does Pac-Man smell like?
  - http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
    
    Lemons. And ectoplasm.
    - grs
      
      HA!
      
      I searched ebay. Someone is selling some like the ones I have (rose, orange, cherry, and strawberry): http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-12-PAC-MAN-MS-1980-SNIFF-UNS-fruit-stickers-Scratch-and-Sniff-Smell-/370622354042?_trksid=p4340.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D11%26meid%3D405639576702657190%26pid%3D100011%26prg%3D1005%26rk%3D1%26
      - http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
        
        They actually look pretty cool, but the price is a little steep!
  - dr15
    
    pizza
  - http://www.spellingmistakescostlives.com darrrrrrn
    
    pills
- waetherman
  
  How could you raise children who don’t know what Pac-Man is? What kind of parent are you?
  - grs
    
    I bought one of those plug in joysticks with like 10 Atari games. Go figure, the kids are like their old man and prefer Galaga and Centipede.
    
    Side note: If anyone knows of a good browser-based emulator for Super Pac-Man, let me know. Not the knock-off Pac-Man floating around, but the arcade style Super Pac-Man.
    - penguinchris
      
      Why not use MAME? Why does it need to be browser-based?
Gavin Smith

hands down cool super coolicallity.
Palomino

An excellent example of “Precociousness”. I would love to hear his answer when asked, “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”
Halloween_Jack

Nice. I’m not sure I could stand to do something like that with anything that I’d have done when I was twelve (in part because I’m four times–four times, my god–older than that now). The closest thing that I’ve got is an essay that I wrote in eighth grade, not that long after I saw Star Wars, titled “If I Had A Lightsaber”; answer, in case you’re wondering, is murder anyone that irritated me. You could write something like that then and not end up expelled from school for life.
- petsounds
  
  Sounds like George Lucas found your essay shortly before filming the prequels.
  - Halloween_Jack
    
    Dude, I am so sorry.
RJ

That’s some good video editing.
Sigmund_Jung

“I am the result of every decision you make”
When you realize your future is in the hands of a 12 year old, you ponder.
Pope Ratzo

I would almost certainly kick my 12 year-old self’s ass.
- timquinn
  
  He just needed a hug.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I’m pretty sure that my 12 year-old would outweigh me.
bolamig

I think I know what the most common answer to “If you could have a conversation with anyone in the world, live or dead” will be, when the singularity happens.
http://www.peterbagge.com/ Buddy Bradley

I like how the adult Jeremiah seems totally bewildered and unimpressed by the whole thing while his young self enjoys the hell out of it. I imagine this is a commentary on how we often lose our sense of wonder and excitement when we grow up.
http://www.avoision.com/ avoision

I recognized one of the *blips* during the montage, where the years roll by. Jeremiah is the same guy who created “Jazz Dispute,” which made the rounds many years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsBC5C5ERho
- SamSam
  
  Wow, now I can really see him as the 12-year-old as well. Glad to see people don’t actually change that much.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XYGZSGPNF3S34USZILM6TLG6DE Ron

Loved it. Made me laugh out loud and also a little sad just thinking of my younger self and how I(then) might not recognize me(now).
hypnosifl

This is great, I remember seeing an earlier draft he did of the same idea a while ago, but he’s definitely fine-tuned it and made it much funnier (and more poignant!)…found the earlier one on his channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rSs80_DKKs

Also, checking out some other videos in his channel, it seems he’s been playing around with these kind of ideas since he was a teen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbXiRB5muY0
penguinchris

This was great. Very touching and very well done. I wasn’t sure why he was acting so cynical at first, and that bothered me, but it turned out to be very effective and the reason why it’s so powerful (that and the perfect editing).

I was really into playing with my dad’s video camera when I was a kid. There must be many hours of footage. I can only recall two things I recorded – one my sister taped over, which I never really forgave her for, and the other is a record of me being an annoying little brat (which dramatically stopped – mostly – at age 13 or so). I’m sure I couldn’t stand to watch any old footage of myself – partly because it wasn’t even that long ago (I’m 25 now). But I’m sure I’ll be glad it exists in the future.