My year as a DIF lurker

Fair warning: this is a love letter to DIF. It's long, it gets gushy and sentimental. If you don't mind that and actually want to read about my experience with DIF, read on. If you don't care, I don't blame you.

I'm a 30-something dude who lives in a little town beside a big city in Ontario, Canada. I work every day on the web and I'd like to think I'm generally up on the movings and shakings of the Internet and its various points of awesomeness - certain funny websites, geek hubs, forums, blogs, memes, podcasts and whatnot. Oh, and I like movies a lot.

I'm a husband and a dad. I love my family to death and enjoy the time I get to spend with my wife and two boys. My desk job isn't particularly exciting, but it holds my interest and pays well enough. I'm happy with where I'm at, but I need just that little extra... something in my life; adult conversation, dry humour, biting sarcasm, intelligent discussion. And besides my wife, who is awesome at all of those things all at once all the time, there aren't many other people around to fill that need. And she ain't no geek.

So lo and behold, I came across a post on TheOneRing.net back in May of last year called "Unique, new commentary on LOTR movie trilogy" (http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2012/03 … e-trilogy/). They linked to the DIF LOTR movie marathon.

Clicked. Subscribed. Downloaded. I put it on my phone to listen to on the long commute home. I listened. And I was in love. THIS was what had been missing in my diet; fun, smart, witty, insightful discussion about movies and pop culture from a bunch of friends in my head.

I began to consume every single episode from the inception of the show, in order, over the course of a year. I listened during long commutes, runs, trips, snow storms, bike rides, late nights pulling overtime, while coding, cooking, relaxing and going to bed.

Every time I listened, I felt like I was sitting right there on the couch with the guys, silently watching the discussion and hilarity unfold. I felt like I was one of them, even though in reality I'm just a listener like everyone else.

And that's the biggie for me. The DIF crew aren't just a bunch of silent bloggers or yammering YouTubers talking at me. I'm part of the conversation, in a way. I find myself laughing out loud, talking back to the show, inserting my own banter. It feels entirely different from other content. Somehow, the show feels more fulfilling than a blog post, more meaningful than a tweet, more satisfying than a video clip.

I've gained a lot more knowledge and insight into movies and how they're made thanks to DIF. I've learned how to take what might be a popular movie, look under the hood and see how it can actually be incredibly broken. I've learned that there are movies I've discounted over the years that are actually gold nuggets. I've learned that, you know what, even though it sounds cool I DON'T actually want to see attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion because sometimes it’s better to leave things out of a story and let the audience fill in the details. I've seen movies that seemed okay but left a nagging feeling, only to have that feeling exposed, diagnosed and dissected by the guys.

And Brian? I completely agree with you about Spider-Man 2.

There have been some adverse side effects. I now find myself a little bit out of sync with my friends. My friends are intelligent guys, but we'll come out of a movie and I'll be the only one who wants to talk about it on a deeper level than "that was awesome." I'll ask them if they checked out The Skin I Live In or if they saw Dogtooth and they'll look at me like I'm crazy because it wasn't something starring Nicholas Cage or directed by Tony Scott. They don’t have a problem with the Phantom Menace. They're not even into the idea of a viewing of The Room, fer chrissakes! My wife doesn't get half the references I make anymore. My Facebook feed is an enigma to all but a few friends. I find myself using terms like "magic bean", "save the cat" and "hang a lantern" to confused faces. That's okay, though. In a way it makes it feel like DIF is something just for me; that I'm in on something cool.

And all of this enjoyment isn't even taking into account participating in the community that surrounds the show. Because I haven't been. I'm brand new to the community. But I've experienced it, nonetheless. It's in the forum; it's on Facebook, on Twitter; it's on the show itself in every episode. Its presence has taken what at its core is a good show and has vaulted it to great show status. But "show" isn't the right word, is it? It's become a bigger thing than that.

Anyway, today is my one year anniversary of listening to DIF.

I've been listener and community creeper but not a community member. For some reason I can't explain, I maintained a self-imposed community embargo to be lifted only when I hit a year of listening to the show and was all caught up. Why? So I could write an overlong, meandering love letter to the show and its fans? I really have no idea why. I just got far enough along that it seemed like the thing to do and because I'm anal like that. So I stuck with it.

But today is the day I de-lurk. I’m looking forward to hanging out with you guys. It might sound funny to you, but people like Zarban, apchrist, Doctor Submarine, Ewing and many others are - after listening to their input from the forums and chat on the show - practically celebrities to me. Wait, that’s weird. More like… hmm. The extended friends in my head?

Anyways. At this point, if your brain isn't complete mush and your eyes haven’t rolled out of your head and you happen to have gotten this far into my inane rambling, you made it. This is the end. This is also the part where I say thank you. Thank you to the show and everyone involved with it. And thank you to the fans who make this awesome community of which I hope to become a part.