About me
NOTE: The contents of this post (with some important editing) has now become my About page. I recommend reading that over bothering with this post.
Well, I need to create some sort of bio for the about page. I'm enjoy creating these altered images of our traditional statesmen, imagining what they'd be like if exposed to modern geek culture or what geek culture would be like if it stretched back into their eras. Sort of like the steampunk concept. I'd like to think that a slight temporal nudge would establish Ben Franklin as one of our founding geeks. Think of the geek aphorisms that we'd have right now.
I'm nowhere near his league in experience or wisdom, but compared to the vast majority of younger geeks I meet at conventions and online, I have achieved some sort of elder status. Combined with my interest in the breadth of geek culture, I've wanted a place to store my explorations, thoughts, observations, experimentation, and occasional exploitation of my geek experience. This site will become that repository.
I've been a geek for over half a century. I count the start when I read my first comic book. It was a Marvel Journey Into Mystery featuring Thor, and I remember that he was fighting gangsters. I believe it was issue #89 with a cover date of Feb. 1963, and that more or less fits all of my other memories of the time.
Since then I've marveled at the Silver Surfer, wondered at the coming of Galactus, cried over Gwen Stacy and Jean Grey, watched the Hulk fight the Wendigo and some little Canadian guy dressed in yellow and black, rolled my eyes at the Punisher, tried to understand The Watchman, felt overwhelmed by Crisis after Crisis, and ... well, you get the idea.
And that's just comic culture. I voraciously read science fiction and fantasy; grokking the Kwisatz Haderach while flying on a white dragon with my precious. I've watched the premier of EVERY Star Trek series (TOS through Enterprise, and I like ALL of them). I remember asking my father about every villain in the Batman TV series (remember I was a Silver Age Marvel reader). And in college, I took a woman on our first date to see Star Wars (before it was called A New Hope).
Gaming has run the gambit from RPGs (including the original D&D), LARPs (Shadowrun and Vampire: The Masquerade), text games (Crystal Caves, Zork, etc), video games (from Pong and ASCII Star Trek to Lara Croft), MUDs and MMORPGs (so many choices), and the current table top craze (who'd have thought).
Although I attended the first San Francisco Star Trek convention back in the 70's, I took a long break from conventions until my 50th birthday when I finally attended San Diego Comic-Con. I've been back ever since. Convention culture has become its own phenomena, and so I'm also attending WonderCon and APE, and plan on adding a few more conventions to my schedule in the next couple of years.
And every year I've tried some new geek sub-culture, from Bronies to Furries. Some stick (I attend the Kung Fu movie round up every year at Comic-Con) and others don't (I appreciate My Little Pony, but it's not on my regular watch list). My current obsession is Cosplay, and I'll be documenting my progress.
To be clear, this ain't no humble brag. I'm flat out bragging. I like geeks, and I'm proud to be one. I like the imagination and creativity they show, the seriousness and the humor, the detail and the lack of continuity. I dive in where I can and try to understand the joys, motivations, and dreams. I've lived long enough to have some perspective and have enough disposable income to explore. What I record here is subject to my biases and viewpoint.
Live long and prosper, may the force be with you, and excelsior!
