It's the Little Things

Had a moment yesterday when I thought to myself, "yep, that person is soooo not a geek."

One of my colleagues commented on how he was so psyched for the new season of Game of Thrones. Specifically, he uttered, "I can't wait for all the dragons!" my impulse reply was, "aren't we all...."

This utterance inevitably lead to a conversation during which it became clear this person hadn't read series by George RR Martin and had no clue how frustrating both the HBO series and books were.

So, being the geek I am, I set out to educate (recognize!). I told him the series was good for what it was, but the books were much better. I then went on to tell him how his hope for many scenes with dragons would go unanswered as the second book (well, all really) doesn't talk dragons much. I then explained how his hope for more dragons was echoed by every Game of Thrones reader in the world, and how so far, we've been left wanting. Also, btb Game of Thrones was the FIRST book...it's not the series title...that would be A Song of Ice and Fire.

Then he threw me the softballs of all softballs, "well, I've been waiting FOREVER for the next season to start!" oh have you? Have you really? Punkin, I've been reading this series since 1996 and THERE ARE STILL TWO MORE BOOKS TO GO! But I digress...my frustration isn't with this colleague... it's with George RR Martin, himself.

Enter, Paul and Storm. They have put to music the anguish of every reader out there:

I had the great privilege to see this performed live on JCCC2, but my fellow seamonkeys haven't posted this video yet,...so you get the one from w00tstock.

My one request: George, please don't die before you finish the final books. Please? And maybe, write a bit faster?? Just sayin....

I also leave you with the Game of Thrones Season 2 trailer:

Did anyone else notice Daenerys' long, flowing locks? Wasn't her hair burned off when she walked into the funeral fire of her beloved Khal Drogo and awoke/hatched the dragons? Like I said, it's the little things.....

And the band played on...

Quick recap: me = nerd. reader. movie watcher. history major. tip of geek iceberg.

My brain totally had me believing I was at the forefront of geek/nerd thought.  Little did I know that there was plethora of nerd-tastic  stuff out there just waiting for me.  Cue Paul. 

As most of you know, we have an interesting story which I will not bore you with here.  In short, Paul and I were friends before anything else and it was during this time that his geek started to seep out. 

Now, I knew that most guys really enjoyed playing video games.  I just assumed, however, that video games were limited to Madden.  You're probably chuckling at me at this point, don't worry, I'm laughing at myself for believing that piece of crap assumption.  So yeah, there ARE more console games out there other than Madden.....Final Fantasy, for one. 

This was ridiculous....there are games out there with a story behind it?  You actually have to follow a plot?! NO SHIT!  How did I NOT know this?! Well, Rita...there was still much much more you didn't know.

Second revelation: people still played table top games....ASTOUNDING! Don't get me wrong, I grew up playing Monopoly, I was fabulous at Cranium....but seriously? people still played Risk?? and wait, there was a LOTR card game?!!   There was, not surprisingly, an entire world of table top gaming that I had NO CLUE ABOUT.  I'll get more into this subject later, but for the sake of this post, let's just say I wasn't feeling nerd-tastic anymore. I was feeling utterly deprived and more and more like a moron. What the hell else was I missing out on???

Thankfully I had Paul, great geek tutor that he is, to help me out.  I found that I was actually paying attention when he played console games like Portal, Assassin's Creed, and Uncharted.  They were interesting, they required thought, and honestly, the graphics were ridiculous. There were still some I couldn't stand, i.e. Bio Shock, Mass Effect, and the like, but they were few and far between. As I started to be more curious about his console games, I noticed some interesting paper work on our coffee table.

I took a closer look and noticed the paperwork was character sheets, a player's manual (what required a player's manual??), and an outline for a campaign (honestly, what the frick was a campaign? we weren't in an election year).  Realizing I had more questions than he had time (or patience) for, Paul placed into my hands Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress by Shelly Mazzanoble.  I credit my base knowledge of table-top RPGs to this book. 

How it all began

I thought it best to start at the beginning: where did I come from?

I am the youngest daughter of a fireman and bank clerk. Some consider me either an accident or the miracle baby as my older sister had 13 years on the planet without me. I grew up as any normal kid did: played with friends, rode my bike, got in trouble. However, I think the unusual part of my upbringing centered around school; mainly, my parents thoughts about academics were much different than any of my friends parents. You see, my parents never went to college.

My father was a submariner during Korea and Vietnam and when he got out, he began work as a high-voltage lineman for Con Ed. He then switched careers and was fireman for the city of Yonkers until his retirement in 2003. My mother was a stay at home mom until I was in high school, when she went to work as a bank clerk. Needless to say, my mother had many hours to instill in me the the age old adage "we want better for you than we had." So, school was my main job.

I bristled under the pressure during high school, wishing I could be out with friends rather than studying. But then, sometime during the tedious college application process, something clicked; I wasn't being forced to study, I was actually enjoying it!

It's around this time that I started enjoying reading for pleasure. I have to thank my sister for putting into my hands The Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, and most importantly The Beekeeper's Apprentice. It was these books that opened my eyes; scandal, adventure, and discovery weren't just words on a page....there was meaning behind them, parallels to be drawn to modern day. In short,it was fascinating. I started to plow through any book I could get my hands on. I read histories, biographies, you name it.

This obsession has lasted well throughout college and then yet another utterly brilliant thing happened: they started making movies out of my favorite books! Lord of the Rings was first and it was beyond amazing to see the pictures in my head projected on screen. It was also right around this time that I met Paul. Enter geek that would eventually become my husband.

Thanks to Paul I had someone to talk LOTR with. But then our debates and discussions moved on to Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and our all time favorite debate topic, Harry Potter. I just thought it was awesome to talk to about how bad the Temple of Doom was or how annoying Jar Jar bunks was....and then one day Paul said, "god, we are such nerds!" and again, something clicked.

He was absolutely right! I was a nerd! It was a joyous revelation but at the same time it was damn near frightening..... Did other people think I was a geek? Did they think I was (gasp) weird ? Did it really matter?

Let's be honest here, at this point in life I was a history major with an almost religious-like obsession with Friends, the West Wing, and other odd ball movies. I bowled on Wednesday nights, participated in many board game nights, and could name the 50 states (usually with the exception of Wyoming) within 4 minutes. Somehow I had managed to make friends with fellow geeks (whether they saw themselves as such, was immaterial) and it was amazing. Little did I know I was at the tip of the iceberg of Geek-dom.

Inspiration

Well, we're back from our week long JoCo Cruise Crazy trip and I decided I needed to start writing.  Was completely inspired to write by the awesome and down-to-earth artists I met on the cruise. I got the idea for this blog after listening to Will Wheaton speak about his family and his life and I thought, "I can do this too!"

So here's my first stab at writing and posting...so please no judgement (at least for the first few posts, anyway)

I hope to talk about life in general, my absolutely loving and geeky husband, and anything that is interesting to me, i.e. books, news, clothes, music, and the games I find interesting.

Thanks for reading!