Still coming to terms with geekdom

Anyone that reads here semi-regularly will know that this is a topic on my mind a lot lately.

I had friends drop everything to run to Vegas the day I mentioned that Star Trek: The Experience was closing. If I hadn't started reading Wil's blog, or subscribed to his Tweets, how would THEY have known? Yet, I didn't go. They tried, REALLY tried, but I couldn't justify going into debt for it. Instead they bought me a tribble and communicator badge from TNG. Good enough, no? I just resigned myself to knowing that I didn't know what I was missing and there's the chance it'll open somewhere else... and then I won't have to worry.

I really think I was destined to be a geek really. I am the daughter of 2 Trekkies and my mom is a big Tolkien fan. From the time I was a tiny kid I remember begging to look at her Froud Fairies book or through her jewelry box which contained various silver charms (ones that I'll kill my sisters for when she dies; they can have the opals and pearls, I want the silver unicorn and moon).

Anyway, my personal geek journey probably can be listed as starting when I was like 5 or 6. In my little world D&D was a cartoon (in reruns) that I wasn't allowed to watch. At the time I was told that it was too scary and would give me nightmares. As an adult I found out that Mom didn't want me, the obsessive little thing that I was watching it. The last thing that she needed was a small starting on a pathway to rolling 20s.

She had had a lonely childhood (friends wise, with 8 kids in the family, she was around plenty of people). I think she was trying to spare us the grief. Well, 3 out of 4 of us geeked out anyway. My youngest sister and I had it easier (geeky chicks are worshipped! lol) than my brother though.

Because of my obsessiveness, I'm beginning to think that the geekiness started before that (like just after I turned 3). From the time that I could barely talk, I was all about Rainbow Brite. I, again, didn't know this until I was an adult, but I could barely talk, and talked a blue streak about Smurfs and RB. I saw that happen when my nephew went though his Thomas the Tank Engine phase. it was so bad that my preschool teacher (who hadn't' seen me since I was like 4) remembered it. A few years ago she was at a family wedding (my aunt had kept up with her) and she immediately asked my mom "Where's Rainbow Brite?"

When it started at a point that I can remember clearly would be 21 Jump Street. Mom would watch it, and I remember being glued to Johnny Depp. Judy (Holly Robinson) was cool and all, but I loved Tom. That little tid bit in itself isn't geeky, but because of that, I was led to Tim Burton and Danny Elfman. That also meant that all I wanted to do for my 12th birthday was have my parents take me to see Nightmare Before Christmas.

Then there's Star Trek. I loved TNG! That flowed over to Deep Space 9 and Voyager. When Generations came out, my friend conned her dad into taking us down to Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood and seeing it there (I think) on opening day. Oh and also X-Files (which I'm Netflixing now and loving it!) and Unsolved Mysteries.

Did I mention that I read too? All kinds of things from Anne McCaffrey's Pern books to CS Lewis' Narnia, to Nancy Drew. Let's not get me started on comics okay?

Jeebus how didn't I "know" this before? I always knew that I was weird (and proud of it... popularity was overrated) but sheesh! Then when you throw in band, a passion for musical theater and the Buffyverse... yeah...

Sorry Mom, I never had a chance.

Magnets can change their shape, but they still attract

For a smallish timespan, I changed my banner every month. For one reason, I loved how Dooce changes that often, and for another, I'd get very bored with my banner. Then one day I realized I was a metal geek magnet. I found if funny and spent more time than usual on my banner. Then the month came and went, and I still really liked my banner. I thought it was fun and I'd leave it up for awhile longer than normal. Several months have gone by and a couple promises of updating as well... but the banner remains (cue the Metallica riffs).


The last couple weeks I've really decided that I needed to change it, but didn't make the time and when I did, I didn't like any concepts I'd worked up. So it's still there due to laziness. After last night, I'm thinking that I won't take it down for a LONG time.

So...


Matthew and I went to RatLand for our ritualistic public "drunkeness". 2 Skippies were skipping out, 1 planned, 1 burned out so we planned to meet Allen at Downtown Disney for dinner with Matthew's 2 brothers (Trena got her behind conned to going to Girls Camp again so Aaron is a free agent this week) and possibly hang out for a bit in the park if we felt up to it (getting old again I think).

We got our food at the Tortilla Joe's window and the guy leaned across Matthew to yell out the little window at me. He wanted to know if I was excited about "the new album." And then proceeded to tell me that he can't wait until he can see them live. Die hard Metallica fan who was desperate to escape Disney insanity for a minute? Or could it have been the Metallica logo stretched across my boobs? Who knows... but they always wanna talk to me.

Hi-dee ho!

I know, I've been slacking off. I don't really have any true excuses so I'll spare you. Wanna see what I've been up to? :) Of course you do!

We have a friend who recently obtained his pyrotechnics licence. He had several friends from church come down to assist him in his first show on the 4th. Jeremy was totally in charge of the whole set-up and take down as well as all that went in the middle of that. Here is Matthew and his buddy, Rocky, taking a quick break while Sarah, Rocky's wife, and I took their picture. The boys had fun, but it was a LOT of work!


That whole set up behind them is their "camp". Here is a fun photo and some footage of the show. It's sideways because I'm terrible about turning the video. I'll fix it someday... but for show here it is!

My cousin's little baby girl, Delilah, was blessed that Sunday. I wasn't able to make it to the blessing in LA (I'm the new Primary chorister and it was hard to find a sub so quickly) but had lots of fun at the open house afterwards.

Kristal, my cousin, has given up on scrapbooking due to time constraints & motivation, but she asked me to customize her prints for the blessing for her instead, so I have the whole set anyway! ;) Here is our grandma (my maternal, her paternal) my aunt, Kristal and Delilah taking a 4 generation picture. I'll post some of my creations with the photos another time.


And the Yippy Skippies at Disneyland this last week. The 5 of us on the right have been going every Wednesday night for the last 6 weeks or so. Seth even made a shirt to commemorate our fun little group. Those are my beloved new Chucks on my feet there too. :D The 5 of us go, invite our other passholder friends, and just have a blast being stupid silly together.

(L to R: Dawn, Jaana, Blaine, M&M, Seth, Allen & Cindy)

That's the quick version of what's been going on. I hope to post again soon!

Yippy in my Skippy!

Good Lord. Last night has to go down as one of the craziest trips to Disneyland ever. We've been going weekly for the last month or so and LOVING it. Cindy has been bringing assorted people but her new buddy Seth has been coming every time. He's hilarious! The first time we went with him, a few weeks ago, he yelled "Yippy in my Skippy" as we were finishing up on Thunder Mountain. As of last night, we are determined to get people to start yelling it. Someday it'll be the thing to do while you're on a ride and we'll be able to tell our kids we started it all! So next time you go over the dino bones, you gotta yell it loud and proud!

We had quite a good time last night. I think most of it was one of those "you hadda be there" type things.

Makes you wonder…

According to this article the US citizen test gets harder starting in October. They include a sample test of 20 questions that are among the "harder" ones. Granted, the REAL test isn't multiple choice, but almost all of these I would *hope* that the average American could answer, or at least come close. The sad truth is that most of us probably couldn't. I'll be honest, I took a guess on one (got it right) that I should have known… and now I do.

The one I got wrong, I should have known, and may have if I had spent time really thinking about it. I'm protesting that one because my American History classes rarely got that far. Isn't that sad? My 5th grade history was supposed to take me up to the Civil war, and we never got close. In 8th grade we as far as the Industrial Revolution I think, I don't remember ever discussing WWI. High school probably got up to the Korean War but she was cramming it in so fast that I don't really remember much. We studied up to the Civil War enough to actually retain, and maybe finished out the century but after that it was a BIG BLUR. And college? Ha! I graduate with a degree in Liberal Studies next semester with only 1 actual history class under my belt. I picked it myself from many different options. It was a survey of American history UP TO the Civil War (and I don't think we even got that far!).

It makes you worry about "the system." I think myself to be pretty knowledgeable about HOW the government is set up to run, but look at how one question points out huge holes in my education. Another one that made me think is the last one. Susan B. Anthony. I don't think I remember EVER discussing her in a class. It may be my faulty memory as far as school goes, but I know I learned about her from my grandmother. She really worked on me and my siblings to start collecting coins so she quite often gave us silver dollars or something like that for our birthdays. At the time, I think she was the only historical female to appear on a coin (or at least that I know of) so I was really interested.

If you're curious, my results are here.

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