Geek Fallacies: An Introduction

Over the last few weeks, Eden Paradox and I have been discussing what she calls Geek Fallacies quite a bit.  They seem to happen in every group of friends, but in particular, geeky ones.  And before people go calling us names and pouting over what we’ve talked about and what I’m writing, yes, she and I have fallen into them on many occasions.  I’m not writing this short series to make anyone angry, or to poke fun at anyone or anything.  In fact, I’m pretty sure many of these “Geek” Fallacies occur within any group of friends.  I think it’s because geeks tend to seek out other geeks, and want to remain in social circles with similar interests and views, that they happen so frequently.

See, being a geek can get lonely.  You try to talk about your interests, and it’s hard to find someone who understands.  I discovered Lord of the Rings and all things Tolkien during my senior year of college, and was total, irreversibly obsessed.  Unfortunately, no one else I knew was, so I kind of felt cut off.  I could talk about anything with my friends and family, but the One Thing I did want to talk about, no one knew anything about.  Conversations about it were one-sided, and I feared boring people.  Eventually I found outlets for it, yada yada yada; but that’s another story for another time.

The point is this: as geeks, we wind up gravitating toward other geeks.  We like that we have friends who ‘get’ us.  When I met MLHawke and joined a D&D game at her house, and we became close friends, and as an extension I met many others with whom I shared interests, goals, and values, my mother said, “You found your people!”  It’s a great feeling, not gonna lie!

But as social circles expand, there are things that crop up.  We all have flaws, that’s just a fact.  But there are things that some people do that, as friends, we just accept because they’re part of the group.  And I’m not talking things like laughing too loud at the movies, or eating the last of the dip, or things like that.  Things that are not always socially acceptable, or are very, painfully awkward; and behaviors that, by overlooking and shrugging off, we just enable and encourage and inadvertently make worse.  We overlook these things, or just quietly accept them because “they’re in the group” and we figure we have to.  Or, “they’re not a bad guy/girl otherwise.”  Excuses we make because we feel we have to, because we feel that if we are intolerant or unaccepting, we’re being disloyal to the group.

I’m rambling a little bit now because it’s almost 3am and I can’t sleep, but my brain is only semi-functional as well.  But the point is this: often we don’t realize there is an issue until we talk about it, and it may be a little taboo to talk about geek fallacies for any number of reasons.  But by opening up a discussion about them, we may in fact improve our relationships with one another because we’re not slowly building up resentment and just grinning and bearing it.

So I’m not sure how many parts this will be, I just know there are a few things that I’ve learned from my own geekily fallacious behavior, and seen and heard and talked about, and figure what the hey, it’s the internet.  Sharing is caring.

Geek Life Recap

The last couple months have been pretty full.  I finished up the school year, and as I was a co-advisor to the graduating class, I had a great deal of things to help plan and implement.  I’ve also been planning and implementing my wedding, which is in two and a half weeks.  We’re working on the details of getting me moved into Bard’s house, along with our three furbabies.

I also went to PortCon Maine, a 2,000-ish attended con in southern Maine at the end of June.  I presented on games and mythology: how games use old myths, and also create new ones.  It was really interesting to put together.  I got the idea from the mythology class I taught second semester.  I was fortunate to have many gamers in my class, all of whom began talking about how they saw their favorite games utilize elements of mythology.  Some inherited existing creatures and deities, while others used the tenets of mythology to create something new and original.  It was my first time going to PortCon, and hence also my first time presenting there.  I had some technical difficulties; for one, I made a Prezi, rather than the usual PowerPoint.  I’d seen Prezi in action at a PAX East presentation, and thought it would be more technological and visually appealing than PowerPoint.  Well, it is if you can access your Prezi on the internet, which I couldn’t do.  We were going to have our friend set up his phone as a hotspot, and then I found the Prezi app on my iPhone and presented from my iPhone.  It was not idea, but it did in a pinch.  And the crowd was pretty wonderful, adding a lot to the discussion that I will be able to file away and use in next year’s classes.

My bridal shower went very well, and I did a meadery tour and tasting for my bachelorette party.  There was also dinner, karaoke, and Cards Against Humanity!

This weekend coming up, I head down to Burlington, Massachusetts for ReaderCon.  ReaderCon has fast become one of my favorite points in the year.  It’s not quite up there with PAX East, but I definitely look forward to it.  It’s low-key in that there are no costumes, and the dealer’s floor is all books.  But it’s very intellectual, and I love going to panels and getting more insight into speculative fiction.  Last year I went to one about Frankenstein, and one about language acquisition and reading and how it affects the teaching and appreciation of speculative fiction.  This year’s schedule is looking very promising, and what’s more, Eden Paradox, my best friend, is joining this year!

In between these things I’ve been bringing my things over to Bard’s as we get things sorted for my move.  This week I’ll be doing some work to help prepare things for our new home together.  When I can’t do things there, I’m packing here, and when I can’t pack, I’m usually gaming.  I’m working on achievements in Skyrim, my AU Dragon Age fanfic, and browsing courses on coursera.org.  I took a class on gamification through them, and it’s going to really help my teaching strategies.  I did some experimentation at the end of last year, and while I didn’t collect hard data, I noticed a great improvement in achieving target behaviors from even my toughest students!  The next class I’m taking through there is about MMOs as a new form of narrative, and my homework is playing Lord of the Rings Online.  Ouch, not sure I can handle that! 😉

That’s the geek life recap for now… while I hang out I should blog more about more things.  Maybe some more about gamification, or what Eden Paradox calls “geek fallacies” in friend circles.  Or any requests.  So… any requests?  Put it in the comments, and prepare for a cynical response!

PAX East Day 3

This was my third year at PAX East, but it was the first time I’d been able to stay for all three days.  The first year I had a three day pass, but commuted and was exhausted by Sunday.  Last year we only had Friday and Saturday passes, and Sunday was Easter anyway.  This year we had a nearby hotel and three day passes and believe me, we took full advantage of it!

MLHawke’s husband drove down to meet us, and brought along Bard’s sister.  I didn’t do a cosplay, but after two full days in costume it felt nice to wear jeans and a t-shirt (and my snazzy new N7 jacket) and just my normal hair and makeup!

Bard and I met up with his sister; MLHawke was in line for the Elder Scrolls Online demo, but from the point she was at, it was a 3 hour wait.  She wound up getting out of line, and she and her husband went to wait for the Education Gamification panel (since he’s a teacher, and her job involves a lot of classroom/curriculum work).  I wandered around with Bard and his sister for a bit, then joined MLHawke for the panel.  I’d gone to the games and education panel on Friday, and this one was also awesome.  It gave me some incredible ideas and links for resources.  I left inspired to roll out an experimental learning model to my classes.  More on that later though.

Sunday’s panels were a little sparse for me; I didn’t really have much I wanted to do.  Bard and I knew we wanted to paint miniatures again, so we put our names on the 2-hour waitlist, then headed to a panel done by OC Remix.  He and his sister are really into them, so it was nice to see them really enjoy the panel.  I found it interesting for certain; I love when things are mixed up and done in different genres and such.  We got back and did our mini painting.  Bard, myself, and his sister all painted minis of our current D&D characters.  My bard, Indiana Jenn, is a human and an archer who occasionally pulls out a rapier, so I picked the archer figurine (even though it looked a touch elven).  Bard’s a fighter and his sister is a sorceress.  MLHawke, her husband, and one of our friends came over, but the wait was another two hours and by then it was nearly four o’clock.

Most of the last couple hours was spent in classic console, chilling with our friend Ted and charging my phone.  The day wasn’t quite over, but I was already starting to feel withdrawal symptoms.  I kept trying to think about my new ideas to roll out at school the next day, rather than the drive home, or the amount of laundry I was going to have to do.  The last day was relaxing, but at the same time it was a slight downer because there was none of the crazy excitement of the first two days.  No, that won’t be my incentive to make three separate cosplays for next year, however.  I think it was the knowing it was ending; we’d had two days full days of complete awesomeness.  This day was also awesome, but there was the knowledge that we would have to be leaving.

However, when we did go to leave, we found that though we were done with PAX, it wasn’t done with us!  My car battery was dead!  We ended up being delayed about 45 minutes while we waited for AAA and let my engine run and recharge the battery.  By the time we finally got back home it was about 9 and we were exhausted.  Neither of us (nor our companions for the weekend) took Monday off, so collapsing into bed was met with the knowledge that the alarm was going off in mere hours, marking our return to the real world.

Of course, the return to the “real world” means the onset of post-PAX withdrawal.  Withdrawal is pretty common after any con, from what I’ve heard (and felt after things like PAX and ICON).  You go nearly nonstop for a whole weekend, set apart in a world of people who mostly think like you and have the same interests as you.  You see amazing things and make new friends.  You learn new information.  You want to burst with excitement from it all… and then it’s back to jobs and classes and people who don’t always feel the same way about these things.  Oh, and the con-cold.  I’ve kind of been fighting something off since the Sunday of PAX, but thanks to vitamin C, rest, and fluids, it’s not really turning into much.  Still, it’s a reminder that I had such an awesome weekend my body wants to punish me.  Hehe.

While Day 3 was a lot more relaxed and low-key, and there was much more sitting around, it was still a good day.  I got that one last day to wander aimlessly and see the show floor and experience it with Bard’s sister at her first ever PAX.  She really had a good time, which is awesome.  Our PAX contingent is growing!  And the nice thing is I left not only with some great merchandise and awesome swag, but also with knowledge of a new model for my classroom.

The event may have ended on Sunday, but the lessons from this year’s PAX East will carry through for far longer.  Now it’s onto thinking about next year’s PAX East.  And of course, the costumes!

PAX East Day 2: or, on being a fan

PAX East is always awesome; from the demos to the panels, and everything else, it’s just awesome to be a fan of gaming surrounded by thousands of other similarly-minded individuals.  Day 2 of this year’s PAX, however, truly drove home how awesome it is to be a fan who is deeply passionate about something.

First off, today was the day of the BioWare costume contest, so Bard and I donned our matching Jowan and Lily (from the mage origin in Dragon Age Origins) cosplays:

We wanted to head over to see PopCap as well; they’d just released the mobile Solitaire Blitz app, and it was the one year “splashy-versary” of the game, so we wanted to show off our Otis the worm plushie.

I was initially going to go to a panel about showing off your love of gaming in real life.  But… I already do that.  A lot.  So instead I headed down to the show floor to meet up with MLHawke, who was in line with our friend Amanda for Assassin’s Creed 4. I wasn’t too interested in seeing it, but the booth did have a free photo stage.  Chantry sister plus coffee plus pirate gun equals a little crazy!  Next I was going to hit a panel about geeks and crafting, but since I do a lot of that anyway, I decided I’d go to the BioWare panel about The World of Thedas.

It was a good talk, and makes me even more excited to get the book; Dragon Age has such a deep, richly detailed world that something like this was a long time coming.  I’ve done my share of scouring lore and codex entries and writing my own analytical pieces about it, so having a definitive work from the developers themselves will be an excellent resource.  And it’s only volume 1!  When the panel was over I hung out a little talking with some other fans, and got to meet and speak with Sheila of the cosplay duo Aicosu. Her tutorials on makeup and wigs were extremely helpful, particularly with Day 1’s Serana costume.  She was extremely nice, and after viewing and admiring her cosplays it was awesome to stop and say hello.  Plus, her Dishonored cosplays were incredible.

Bard and I had time to kill, so we headed back to the show floor with Otis.  The PopCap carnival booth was in full swing, but we found a marketing person who loved Otis and actually called out the Solitaire Blitz community manager!  Tara came out to see Otis and absolutely LOVED him!  We explained how we loved how cute he is in all his little outfits, and how we were hoping to have a chance to show him off.  And yes, we’d downloaded the app the previous day!  She took pictures of him to show at the office, then handed us Solitaire Blitz card decks and Energy Eel energy shots.  Later on we found out she’d told people it was the highlight of her weekend.  That made me so happy to hear, because I’d really enjoyed making Otis back in the summer, and being able to bring him by the PopCap station was a lot of fun.

We headed back to the hotel for some light costume repair, then it was over to the BioWare base for the Dragon Age signings and costume contest! We weren’t too far back in line, but as we were waiting, Chris Priestly, a community manager, spied our DA costumes and invited us to jump the line and go in early.  I love how much BioWare understands its fanbase, and appreciates things like cosplays.  We hung out for a bit; I was able to get a signed postcard from Raphael Sbarge, who voiced Kaiden Alenko in Mass Effect.

When the DA developers came back, I got in line to get my DA2 game signed (got DA:O ultimate edition signed last year) and scored a hard copy of “Asunder”, last year’s DA novel.  They commented on my Chantry outfit, and I was able to explain how, because of DA, Bard and I met.  (Long story short, I played DA, got obsessed, joined a Facebook community, met MLHawke, who then introduced me to Bard).  It was nice to be able to share with them what the game meant, not just as a game, but as something that helped as a catalyst for the most important thing in my life.

The costume contest started a short while later.  Let me tell you, there are some VERY talented people out there!  What they are able to accomplish, and how they are able to bring the game to life, is amazing.  I was and still am impressed by how many people make the Shepard N7 armor from Mass Effect; it’s a difficult costume to pull off, requires a lot of material, and is multipart.  And that’s just the armor; never mind if you want to add on weapons, which most do for accuracy.  LOTS of amazing Shepards were there, as were quite a few Asari!  I’m also an admirer of Asari cosplayers, because not only do you have the armor issue (if you’re going that route) but then you have the headpieces and makeup.

There weren’t many Dragon Age cosplayers; maybe only four of us or so.  There was me and Bard of course, but then two Wardens in the blue armor uniform introduced in DA2.  One was my friend Gabby, whose armor is amazing!  The scale work, hand riveting on the shrug, and overall attention to details is great (even down to a leather belt case for her iPhone!) And she even had the rose from Alistair.   She looked like she could have just stepped right out of the game.

When it got to us we got to tell the judges (and a room full of people) that we’d met through a friend I’d only met because of DA, and that we were getting married in four months.  And yes, we’d turn out better than Jowan and Lily did!  We got lots of applause and commentary on our costumes (including a note on the paisley fabric I’d found for Jowan’s sleeves) and then went on our way to see the rest of the cosplay.  We scored N7 jackets from Mass Effect for our participation!  THAT was awesome.  Then came the judging.

In a room full of such excellent, well-crafted costumes made by so many talented people (and I will tell you that most all of them make these things themselves) I didn’t expect to win anything, which was fine.  Being in the contest and having the new jacket was awesome enough.  But BioWare took it a step further.  Before announcing the winners they called up the “Dragon Age couple”.  They gave us the two hardcover comics, a deck of Dragon Age cards, and a Flemeth dragon statue as “an early wedding present from BioWare”!  I was floored!  We went to show our appreciation for their games, and then they turned it around for us.  We got pictures with Chris Priestly at the photobooth, who then tweeted them immediately; when I tweeted a thank you for making our day so special he replied!  They truly know how to treat fans and make us feel appreciated; there are so many things they don’t have to do, but do anyway, so thank you BioWare again for making our day beyond special; Amanda later said that it was “transcendent”.  And to top it all off, there was a four-way tie for the contest, but Gabby’s Warden armor took the grand prize!

Then it was back to the hotel to get changed; after two days in costume it felt good to kick back in jeans and a t-shirt, and my new jacket of course! Bard was in the Tetris Attack tournament, defending his gold medal from last year.  It was a smaller group, and missing some of the guys from last year, but Ted was there attacking away.  The first few rounds went as expected, but toward the end things got intense.  Ted wound up losing to someone, and Bard lost two matches because his opponent psyched him out.  He got back on track though, and won his match, then went up against Ted’s defeater.  It was intensive, but in the end Bard pulled off another victory and got another gold medal to clank against the one he got last year.

When all was said and done, it was almost a dreamlike day at PAX East.  If a day could be perfect, day 2 may have been it.  It was extremely validating as a crafter, cosplayer, and all around fan.  PopCap and BioWare made my weekend, and I was glad I got to share it with Bard, MLHawke, and Amanda (for whom it was a first PAX experience).  Up next, Day 3, or how everything I know about doing my job is about to change!

PAX East 2013, Part 1

This was my third time at PAX East.  Each year it’s different for me: in 2011 I drove down each day, I was singlemost , and went alone because hey, PAX East, why not!  I loved it and it was amazing, and I was excited to go the following year.  In 2012 it fell on Easter weekend, so I only went Friday and Saturday; I had a boyfriend, we had a hotel, and it was across Boston from the convention center so we had to pay double in parking because we had to drive.  It was also my first year cosplaying, and I learned a lot about the process of costume making and the aftermath of it all.

This year I have a fiance, we went for three days, and we scored a hotel across the street from the convention center, making things extremely convenient.  I had people I met last year and got to meet up with and share our love of gaming.  And I did two costumes for myself.  All in all this year’s PAX may have been the best yet, as this and the next couple posts will likely show.

I came to the decision that I need PAX East.  I look forward to it like most people look forward to a Disney vacation.  There is something exhilarating about being surrounded by 20,000 other gamers; not to mention the bright colors, bright lights, swag, costumes, demos… the list goes on.  And this year I was able to, unlike in past years, truly experience the joy of being a fan.  But more on that later.

So first off: Friday.  Bard and I left the house a little after 7:30am, in costume and me in costume and full makeup for my first cosplay of the weekend, Serana from the Dawnguard DLC for Skyrim:

(Funny enough, I got a Facebook message later that day from a friend whose wife was pretty sure she’d seen me stopping for coffee, but the black wig confused her!)

We were making good time in light traffic until about Winchester, which is only a few miles outside Boston, when we hit the crawling traffic.  From Winchester to the top of the exit 23 ramp, it took us a full hour of stop and go, inching along traffic.  Good thing we weren’t planning on attending much of anything at 10am!  I’d thought of trying out the Con Cosplay Survival panel, but I’d read a lot on good preparation and such for costuming, and felt fine missing it.  Bard and I found the parking garage for our hotel, and a friend who was,  staying with us met up to stow his gear in my car.  I finished up putting on my costume, we clipped on our badges, and we were off to the BCEC!

When we got inside we met up with MLHawke, checked our mutual schedules (MLHawke, Bard and myself all used the Guidebook App–VERY handy for scheduling, mapping, and figuring things out!) and decided to meet back up later in the afternoon to check out the Elder Scrolls Online food truck.  Hey, free lunch provided by #ESO?  Yes please!

My first panel was about education and gaming.  The speaker, Steve Swink, is a gamer, game designer, and educator who really knew his stuff, and was very passionate about where we have things wrong as far as education in this country goes.  We treat our students like flashdrives.  They sit down (plug in), we load them with knowledge that sometimes seems randomized and is often impersonal, then expect we can just get that info back later on in the form of a test.  The issue is that they’re not flashdrives.  Flashdrives process information the same way whether they’re 4GB or 64GB; students are people who process differently.  Swink’s presentation dealt with how we can use games to reach students, and now they don’t have to just be supplementary to the curriculum, but could even be the curriculum itself!  It’s a great idea, though I’m not sure that the district I work in will ever embrace it (or at least get the technology for it) during my time there.  We’ll see.  At least it gave me some ideas to go off of.

Then we all met up and hit the #ESOFoodtruck for lunch.  It was located on Congress Street.  We started walking, all happily discussing our mornings.  It was a bit farther away than I’d thought or expected, and MLHawke and Bard were FREEZING by the time we arrived!  Luckily Serana is a multi-part costume with a lot of layers, so I didn’t do too badly in that regard.  Lunch was good, and they had a photo station with a green screen, where I got the greatest picture of my cosplay:

We headed back to the hotel after that, and Bard changed out of his costume because he was super cold in it.  Silly wind.  I fixed my makeup and my wig, then it was back to the BCEC.  I went to a panel on parents as characters in video games, on which Mike Laidlaw of Dragon Age sat.  It was interesting, and it has made me more aware of the changing role of parents in games, and given me stuff to work with in class with the books we read.  Bard and I met up again and I saw our friend Ted, a Tetris Attack beast, and caught up on life since last year.  My final panel of the night was on curing chemicals and special effects cosplay, which was interesting.  While I know that some of that will improve my cosplays immensely in the future, it’s a little daunting.  There’s a lot of prep work and measuring involved, but anything worth doing comes with some difficulties, so who knows.  Maybe I will attempt it at some point, just out of curiosity!

Then it was back to the hotel for the evening to make myself human again (sort of literally, since Serana is a vampire after all!).  The night was spent debriefing about our day’s experiences, and plans for the next.

Tomorrow’s recap will cover Saturday, with cosplay number two, and the awesomeness that is BioWare!

Using My Scroll of “Raise Dead”

I’m not dead yet.  Honestly.  I realized it’s been months since I blogged, and I keep thinking I should start again but am not sure how.  Ideas come to mind and I wonder if it’s worth starting again.  Then I have to tell myself that it is, and it’s for the best and the best way to start up again is to just do it.

Since the summer, when I last blogged, a lot has happened.  At that time I was dating Bard, a wonderful man who is into gaming and a talented Irish harper.  In July he proposed, and that has set off a whirlwind of activity!  Now I’m planning a wedding, which is busy in and of itself.  I’m pretty organized anyway: I’ve planned events on a large scale before, so I have my ducks in a row and I’m doing fine with the planning.  My future mother in law says I’m the calmest bride she’s ever seen, even!  But that also means many other things: in the fall I moved.  Bard lives an hour away from my current job, and we had some things to work out, so I didn’t move in with him for this school year.  But my family lives close to my old apartment, and my lease was up at the end of October, so I wound up moving in with them until the wedding.  I HATE moving, but Bard and his family and our friends and my family were very helpful, so in the last few months I’ve been living at home with my parents and my cats.

It’s not bad at all.  I have my own space in the house, which has been good for costuming, since PAX East season is upon me!

Work’s been quite crazy, as I’m co-advising the senior class this year in addition to my regular teaching responsibilities.  Things have improved substantially at my place of employment over last year, so it’s looking like I’ll commute next year.  Next year’s my tenth year teaching in that district, so it’s pretty vital that I put in that final year.

So there’s been a lot going on: major life changes and the like, and it’s crazy, but it’s all good.

PAX East is this upcoming weekend, and I’m costuming again this year.  I’ll blog more about this, but let’s say that a year, improved skills and materials, and a sewing machine make a big difference in my costume outcomes!  This year’s PAX East schedule looks interesting as well, and I’ve compiled a good schedule of events and panels to go to.

I’m hoping to start blogging more, now that I’m over this major hurdle of just starting up again… and I promise not to spam too many wedding details.  This is about gaming and writing and overall being a cynic, after all!

I Just Saved the World! (Now What?)

This is something that’s been on my mind for awhile, but it wasn’t until recently that I decided I should sit down and write about it in earnest.  See, I did something important a month ago or so.  I saved the world.  Twice, if you think about it.  And nothing happened.  Life went on.

Okay, so I didn’t save our world.  I saved Skyrim.  But I’m still rather perturbed about it, because it is the most anticlimactic thing I’ve ever experienced.  I spent hours scouring the countryside helping villagers on their quests.  I stole thousands of dollars of merchandise, picked dozens of pockets, altered hundreds of books, and picked a few hundred locks to restore the Thieves’ Guild to its former glory.  I overtook the Dark Brotherhood.  I killed a few dozen dragons, and then I killed the mightiest dragon of all: Alduin.  I sundered the space-time continuum to travel to Sovngarde and meet the beast on his plane of existence, and I killed him and restored peace.

At least I thought I did.  When I came back I was on the top of the mountain surrounded by Paarthurnax and his buddies, and they were like, “Good work.”  And that was it.  So I figured I should fix the whole Imperials vs. Stormcloaks thing, and maybe then I would feel better about saving the world.  And maybe other people would, too.  Because I didn’t get a single thank you from any villagers, even in dragon-ravaged towns, for killing Alduin.  If anything, I had to keep my head down because of all that Dark Brotherhood/Thieves’ Guild stuff.  Everywhere I went I heard, “Wait, I know you!” and I did wait, because I wanted to say, “Yes, yes you do; I’m the badass who killed Alduin and saved your world!”  But as it turned out they knew me because I was a wanted man and I had to bribe them, or else kill everyone in sight.

So I went off and spoke with Ulfric Stormcloak and made Windhelm my new home.  My affiliations with Whiterun were over, and I led the charge on that first fair city that had welcomed me in after I escaped from Helgen.  I betrayed the Jarl and oversaw the change of power there, and then helped Ulfric take Solitude.  I killed General Tullius and freed Skyrim from the clutches of the Empire.  I returned it to the true Sons of Skyrim!

And when I went to talk to Ulfric, he said it would take some time for him to become high king, but now that the Empire was gone his chances looked good.  He thanked me for my help, which was nice, but then… what?

I helped end the civil war tearing my country to bits.  And life went on in Skyrim, much as it had prior to the war and to Alduin.  In fact, I even got attacked by several dragons along the way.  I found myself wandering aimlessly through the land of Skyrim, lacking purpose and function.  Even when Dawnguard came out… wait.  Spoilers ahead.  You’ve been warned!

Don’t Exclude, Embrace!

I just read an excellent article on author John Scalzi’s blog after being linked to it via a Facebook friend. To preface: one of the things I love about being a geek is my ability to just love what I love without justifying it, and instead, as Scalzi points out, sharing it with others. The sharing is the best part of fandom, and it’s what makes a community out of many otherwise disparate people. The thing I like least is the idea of some hierarchy, which is what Scalzi condemns in his blog post. The idea that someone isn’t worthy for X reason, or having some sort of checklist or application process to be a geek goes against the entire lifestyle. To meet standards for being a geek means you’re creating an elitist community, and the whole great thing about being a geek is that it doesn’t have to be elitist. Sure, there are some groups like that, but so what? Let them do their thing. Let another group do their thing. Share the joy of sharing and not feeling the need to justify.

Here’s the link to Scalzi’s post:

Who Gets To Be a Geek? Anyone Who Wants to Be.

And a link to the post to which he’s responding, condescendingly titled Booth Babes Need Not Apply.

Being a geek is about not needing to fit in. In a society that encourages cookie-cutter sameness, having geeky outlets that allow us to display and embrace our differences is refreshing. We should embrace rather than exclude, because that can make all the difference for some people.  Without this attitude of acceptance and sharing and the love of sharing I know I, for one, wouldn’t have met some of the people who are most important in my life–including my best friend and my fiance (oh yeah, Bard and I got engaged!), or the awesome MLHawke.

And that’s just me.  So many other people have found niches and friends and even family through being a geek; to exclude on the basis of “not geek enough” just doesn’t work.

My Love/Hate Relationship with “Frankenstein”

I came to a literary epiphany yesterday.  I’m attending this year’s Readercon, which deals with science fiction and fantasy.  There are panels and discussions about the genre, looking at it from an academic and analytical perspective.  Now I love literature and particularly love analyzing it and seeing why it works the way it does.  It’s one of the reasons I love being an English teacher, and would love to be a professor someday.  In a sense, Readercon feels like a weekend of classes just on the literature I love.  Yesterday I went to a panel about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.  I’ve spent the last fifteen years of my life in a love/hate relationship with the novel.

I love the book; the story is interesting, the structure of the frame narrative is well-done, and the themes and motifs are timeless.  Shelley’s discussion of pushing scientific boundaries and the ethical issues that then arise are as pertinent today as they were in 1818, if not more so.  But I realized a few years back that I hate the characters with a fiery, burning passion.  This dichotomy of feeling doesn’t confuse or trouble me at all; I find it really interesting and a tad amusing that I can love a story so much, but hate its characters equally much.  I usually tend toward stories (in books, games, and movies alike) that are driven by characters.  Most of the characters who drive stories, I find I like.  But Frankenstein is driven by characters whom I intensely and profoundly dislike, which is why I think I enjoy the story so much.

The Irony of Revolutionaries. And Fanfiction.

Life’s kept me pretty busy lately.  It’s the end of the school year, which means paperwork, correcting, and of course more paperwork.  I’ve got my voice lessons each week, and last weekend and this weekend upcoming I have things to do with the studio.  Bard and I have been spending a lot of time together, which is wonderful, as always.  It’s all left little time for creative writing outside of this blog, and even that doesn’t always get the attention I’d like to give to it.  Sorry, blog.  Anyway, I have a forum over on Fanfiction.net dedicated to Dragon Age fanfiction, and recently a member messaged me to ask me to delete a post.

I went and logged in, and was surprised at the layout change.  But apparently in my time away from the site a lot of other things have changed.  There’s apparently a big issue with story deletions going on over on the site right now.  The issue isn’t one that’s been taken on by the moderators, but by a group of self-proclaimed revolutionaries who pride themselves on following the rules and making sure everyone else follows the rules OR ELSE.