The King of Random

That name… The King Of Random… where did it come from?!  Some say it’s a little self-aggrandizing.  Grant worried about that but; after all the other options and most of the ones he really liked being already taken, he decided on that one. 

That would be the official name of the channel that Grant wanted to use to make 100 project ideas he had. He wanted to make them into videos and post them for all the world to see. There were others posting already, like, ‘Tinkering Tuesdays.’ He posted his projects on Tuesdays.  

Grant didn’t want to be limited to only one day nor tied to one particular day of the week.  The Grant Thompson channel?  Well it was fine, the use of the name; but it just didn’t communicate anything.  It wasn’t exciting to him nor did it communicate the message of what he wanted to share.  

He desired to show the world greatness and that wasn’t in just a name.  There needed to be more mystery, intrigue, and most important of all, no limits.  The king of random would be perfect for all those thoughts because if it was random, he could do anything!  He was made to do anything.  

So how did it start then?  Well it came from him really.  He didn’t think of the name, no.  It came from who he was and how he lived. It came from his energy.  Five years before any video was ever made, he tinkered.  

He experimented and tried to perfect many different things he wanted to learn.  First to know for himself, then later to show all of you.  He didn’t film any of that, but that was part of where it all came from.  It was his dedication to learning.

All the exploring he did and making all the mistakes it took to find the truth of how things work.  Magic.  When he discovered it, it was like finding the magic ingredient.   Everyday it would be something new.  Some new element that he’d find and ask… 

What can I do with this?  Where does this come from?  How does this work?  What would happen if I did… And most controversial of all was; hum… this says do not use this product for… and then he would proceed to do exactly what the warning label said not to do.

He did it just to figure out why that label was on there.  Good god… sometimes I think it’s a miracle he lived as long as he did without injury or death.  Thank God for that time we got.  This was our lifestyle.  

I’d be making dinner, nursing the baby, picking up kids, cleaning the house, reading a book and where would Grant be?  In the basement.  Where’s Grant?  In the basement. That’s where all this would go on.  

When there was an especially intriguing discovery… I would hear “Janae… come see this!”  With excited anxiousness that would hardly let me finish what I was doing.  He had to show me.  Friends would come over and he’d take them right to the basement where his mad science lab had made its home. 

He’d say look what I can do!  I can separate hydrogen and oxygen!  I can capture and contain the hydrogen gas in a water bottle, like this… watch! Then he’d do just that and a clear, empty water bottle would stay looking clear and still look empty.  

Then he’d take it outside and light the end of it.  You’d hear the loudest explosive sound. Everyone would  scream, be shocked and say something along the lines of what the?  What just happened?  What was that?   OMG!!! 

Then our little 3 year old would run and say, “Hi ja renn gas go boom so high!”   Guests or friends would look at the toddler, then look at his dad beaming with pride.  He’d say, “Yeah, that’s what happened.  Rhys knows, and he’s only 3.  Isn’t this obvious?!” 

Nope, not to us.  The next time friends would come over it would be something else, maybe sodium metal.  He’d throw it in the water and it’d start to bubble.  

He’d look at his friend and say, ‘Here, throw this block of wood right on top of that.’  So the friend would take the block of wood from Grant and toss it onto the unassuming bubbling thing floating innocently in the water.  BOOM!  

It would explode with another big sound that started getting the neighbors a little unsure of this new family that had just moved in.  Well this would go on everytime these friends would come over.  It was something new, exciting, sometimes explosive.

Mostly it was Grant beaming with enthusiasm over all the things he was discovering. It was his thrill at the many different ways he could explain, teach and better understand what he was learning. 

And, he was doing this while using any willing person who dared to come to the house as his unassuming student.  After several of these visits, our friend Mike just looked at Grant and said… “Dude, you are like the king of random.”

And that’s where the name idea was planted.  Grant laughed and loved being called the king of something. He loved the notion that it gave, of having so much to show on so many different levels. 

 He enjoyed how much variety there seemed to be with each visit.  It was mind blowing to the outsiders that came in to see what was going on that day.  For me, I saw the hours and hours he’d spend on each thing.  I’d see how he’d immerse himself into each concept. 

It was anything but random.  It was precisely orchestrated by him. It was very intentional. From the outside, it looked like the simplicity of discovering many different things and showing them off all at once. This is why he loved the name, the king of random.  

It seemed random, but it was not random at all.  He liked to say, it looks random, but it is very purposefully planned, and designed, not random at all.  Random by Design.  He orchestrated everything with clear planning, intention and purpose. 

That name though, that perfectly placed title in that basement workshop was perfect for him. It helped him give himself all the leeway he needed to express all the vastness of what he had to share that would have no end for him.  Ever.