Geek Central

Crowds. Claustrophobia. Geek-speak assaulting your eardrums from all directions. And- was that a Dalek, over there in the corner behind Thor and the Phantom?

As the geeks in the Winnipeg region know, this past weekend was Comic-Con. For the non-geek-inclined of my readers, that is where nerds and geeks of all sorts gather at the Winnipeg Convention Centre, discuss geeky things, play geeky games and acquire geek merchandise. Some people even dress normally- others bring out their treasured (if rarely worn) nerdy costumes and happily mill about with fellow geeks.

If you've been following me on Twitter or Facebook this weekend, you've probably heard of some of the characters I've seen. These include, but are not limited to: two Han Solos*, two Princess Leias* (Okay, one was about five years old. Same with the mini-Vader with her. But STILL...), four Jedi Knights*, an entire clan of Mandalorians*, a couple of Stormtroopers*, one Sith Lord who WASN'T Darth Vader*, at least three incarnations of the Doctor*, two walking Tardises*, three or four versions of Batman/Superman/Spiderman/Superwoman/..., two versions of Two-Face*, many versions of Poison Ivy, Jace*, V*, Dr. Horrible*, a couple of Vulcans* (including one Spock), a Klingon*, plenty of redshirts, four Jack Sparrows*, more manga/anime characters than I care to count, LOTS of ninjas and samurai, several Hogwarts students* and Waldo. Virtual cookies to those who can guess what fandoms the starred characters came from.

For the curious, one of the Two-Face incarnations was taking great joy in telling everyone that he'd been cornered by a Dark Lady of the Sith (who happened to have a makeup sponge with her lightsabre) and her cohort, who proceeded to attack him with the makeup and even put glitter in his hair. For the record, the glitter was the cohort's idea- the Sith only did the makeup, and was quite pleased with her work.

The Trekkies rejoiced when they heard William Shatner was coming to Comic-Con at some point on the weekend. A few less rejoiced when they heard he was only coming on the Sunday. And very few cheered when they heard it was $20 just to get a picture with Mr. Shatner, and about $70 for an autograph. That was the deciding factor that determined I wouldn't be seeing the original Captain James T. Kirk, much to my inner geek's dismay (Worse was that we missed seeing the lightsabre duels.).

Regardless of the disappointment in being unable to meet Mr. Shatner, the Comic-Con weekend was very enjoyable.

And on that note, I'm taking off the cumbersome modified-bedsheet Sith Lord costume and not putting it back on for another year. Maybe next year I'll change it up and go as a Nazgul instead of a Sith- who knows?

*Oh yes. Han Solo, Leia, the Jedi, the Mandalorians, the Stormtroopers and the Sith are all from Star Wars (Really, how could you not get that?), the Doctor, the Tardis and the Dalek are from Doctor Who, Two-Face is from Batman, Jace is from the card game Magic: The Gathering, V is from V for Vendetta, and Dr. Horrible is from Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog. If you did not get that the Vulcans, Klingons and redshirts are from Star Trek, you lost all geek status. Jack Sparrow is from Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Hogwarts students are from Harry Potter.

They continue through the ages...

Tonight, while procrastinating on my Judaic Studies homework (after I finished reading The Bishop and loudly ranting over evil cliffhangers), I meandered onto my brother's Facebook profile, where I saw that he'd "liked" the fan page for Mystery Science Theatre 3000, or MST3K for short.

For those of you non-geeks who don't know what MST3K is, it was a TV series that ran for a solid ten seasons. The premise of the series was that there was a human trapped on board a satellite by a mad scientist with two robots for company, and to maintain their sanity, they would riff or mock bad movies. Most of the films that they did were B-grade sci-fi movies, which may help to explain why it's mainly geeks such as my brother and I who know about them.

Yes, nerdiness and geekery run in our family. It's probably genetic.

MST3K stopped airing several years ago, although the producers and actors have since gone on to create the RiffTrax, or MSTs of popular (and sometimes bad) movies. Whilst browsing the site tonight, I came across (and watched) clips of the riffs from Star Trek: 2009 and Twilight, and saw advertisements for other movies such as The Empire Strikes Back, Thor, The Return of the King, and some horrific movies that definitely deserved to be riffed, such as the rest of the Twilight saga and Tommy Wiseau's infamous classic The Room. (I first watched The Room without the comfort of the RiffTrax. If you know what I'm talking about, pity me. I refuse to make the same mistake with Twilight.)

MSTs continue unofficially throughout all of geekdom, ranging from muttered comments in theatres to mockery of certain novels that shall not be named, but which concern sparkly vampires (What makes you think I hate Twilight? *angelic expression*), and having a prominent niche in the fanfiction world. I myself am part of a small group of fanfic-writing nerds who take a sadistic pleasure in taking the worst of the worst fanfictions (usually Lord of the Rings fanfics written by hormone-driven girls without spellcheck and victimizing Legolas) and riffing (or sporking) the crap out of them.

The fine producers of MST3K have created a masterpiece trope that will continue for as long as there are nerds and geeks to appreciate it. On that note, this nerd is going to browse the RiffTrax store and ponder acquiring the MP3s of certain movie-riffs. Like Twilight. Because that is the only way I'm going to watch the movies.

(By the way, if you're interested in seeing what a fanfiction MST looks like, follow the link to the "Sue Free Zone" on the right-hand side of this page and look for the ones written by Xaja Silversheen. That's my alter-ego online.)
(... Oh, the heck with it. Here's the link to one of my earlier Lord of the Rings troll-fics: In the forest)

On Gender, Relationships and Sexuality

Tonight was the night when Providence Sociology professors Dennis and Val did the annual "sex talk" with students from across the school.

Before I continue, perhaps I should specify that even though this is a Christian liberal arts university, all of us are quite aware of how babies are made. Some of us even have little minions to care for (For the record, I am NOT one of the above, nor do I plan on being one for a few years yet.). This talk was not on the "birds and the bees", but rather on how relationships, gender and sexuality issues are viewed and dealt with today, both in common society and within Christian circles.

Not all of the points that we as a group wanted to cover in the alloted time slot, such as the LGTBQ debate, male-female interaction, and sexual tension in a relationship, were discussed. However, some major points in the discussion included inter-racial relationships, cross-gender friendships, pornography and chastity in the church's eyes. The points brought up were very intriguing and thought-provoking for all involved. As I'm fighting a cold at the moment, my memory's a little fuzzy (my apologies to the people sitting next to me who had to listen to me sniffle), but I do have some thoughts after this talk.

Why do Christian leaders, as a collective whole, look down so harshly on those who commit a sexual sin? Why are we youth told to "do this, do this, don't do this, and don't even THINK about that!", without getting an explanation? Are our spiritual mentors afraid to cross the metaphorical line and talk to us about the issues we're dealing with as young adults?

More thoughts will probably arise when I've gotten a decent sleep and am no longer distracted with sci-fi memes.

Sleep's overrated anyway, right?

If you were to look at the lists on the right-hand side of this page, you would see that the Patrick Bowers series is under my favourite pieces of literature (Right with the Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and A Song of Ice and Fire.). But to my misfortune, I only own the first two books in Steven James' thriller series (that being "The Pawn" and "The Rook"), and have not had an opportunity to read the next books in the series.

And then I realized that one of my friends owns all the books in the series that have been published so far, and she was more than happy to lend me Book Three, "The Knight". No prizes for guessing why I'm so over-tired today- I was reading, and not for a course. Bad student.

Also, this is why I missed the discussions on the NDP, religion and politics. I think it was a worthy sacrifice.

Disclaimer: There be spoilers in this post. Ye be warned.

I was surprised over some of the changes in this book from where we left off in "The Rook". I was disappointed to see that Patrick, the protagonist, was slowly breaking up with the love interest in the first two books, Lien-hua. I've always loved the thought of Patrick and Lien-hua together, but evidently Steven James disagreed. But I think I like the new love interest, Cheyenne, although she comes across as one of the multi-talented Mary Sues that I've seen on FanFiction.Net. I don't know of too many people who have such a talent with a gun that they can shoot a chain out with four shots while riding a galloping horse out of a burning barn. I suppose I will have to wait until I read "The Bishop" and "The Queen" before making a judgement.

When I saw mention of Sebastian Taylor, the main villain from the last two books, I automatically suspected he was the antagonist in this story as well. Considering he had been brutally murdered by Chapter Four, I was wrong. This left me perplexed for most of the remainder of the book as to who the murderer actually was- something I admire in James. How he can create such diverse, blood-chilling, clever villains consistently and never bore his readers is beyond me. I want his job. No, I'm not mentioning who the villain in this story (and potentially the next book) is- you'll have to read the book yourself.

As always, there is a subtle Bible lesson worked into the book. Today, it was discussing lying. It's a sin!, you say. Right, yes- but the Israelite midwives in Egypt lied to save the lives of baby boys. Rahab sinned to save the lives of the spies. There are many other cases in the Bible where people lied to save others, and God rewarded them. I won't mention why exactly this came up (it concerned a murderer Patrick caught thirteen years ago and a re-trial), but it's made me ponder. What is God's view on a person lying to protect the innocent?

"The Knight" is an excellent read, although perhaps not for those of the weak of heart or stomach. It makes you think. It makes you afraid of your neighbour. It makes you appreciate sarcasm, wit, and good coffee.

In which, it is proven that we are a pessimist.

The world's populace is becoming less violent.

Uh-HUH.

Steven Pinker, the University of Harvard psychologist who brought this topic up, presents some interesting points, referring to war casualties and torture stats over the last several thousand years. It's relatively simple to see how less people die in combat, torture isn't sanctioned (Unless we're speaking of Guetalemo Bay. We're not even going to talk about that.), and genocide rates are down, after the horrendous events of the Holocaust and Rwanda. All well and good, no?

Perhaps I'm just a cynical person, but my thoughts are that these stats are not JUST due to literal deaths in battles or deaths from violent crime. Yes, according to Pinker's statistics, 1.2 million people died in the Old Testament of the Bible. That was also six thousand years ago in the Middle East, when medical treatment was highly lacking and it was easy for people who lost limbs or blood in battle to die after the war was over. The same is true for Middle Ages wars and the World Wars. God only knows how many soldiers suffered and died from conditions in the trenches without fighting. The wars in the world today could potentially have the same amounts of violence (whether on the battlefield or in a POW camp), but just have better medical aid to prevent deaths.

This topic came up on a discussion forum that I am on. One of the other posters commented that the lack of deaths like this is because as people get smarter, we learn how to psychologically damage and abuse people- therefore, physical harm is no longer required to make someone else's life miserable. Violence is not only to the body, but to the psyche as well. And really- why kill people, when one can merely take over their lives? Is that, perhaps, the thought behind the reduced levels of violence?

Another person commented that Pinker is correct, and we're raising a generation of pacifists. I facepalmed at this- because if Pinker IS correct and we're becoming less violent as a whole, then we're teaching our children that it's all right to run at the first sign of danger. Fine. Running is good. But what happens when there's no choice but to turn and fight? What are the weaklings that we're raising going to be?

Disclaimer time! I don't like violence. Really. I wish I weren't so cynical- then I might believe this article. But I am far from a pacifist- considering I have a brown belt in Shotokan Karate and am considering training in Hapkido or Ninjitsu (or both?) and consider it an asset that I can disarm, seriously injure or kill someone in defense if I need to, I'm not a non-violent person. And if I ever have children, they will not grow up pacifists- they'll be in martial arts by the time they're five years old, not because I want them to grow up starting fights, but because I want them to be able to stop fights if they need to, especially if they're a target.

Where was I going with this? Oh, right. Non-violence.

The stats may have some weight to them, but I don't think it's from people becoming less violent. I think it's because people learn how to be violent without being physical, or from unreported stats, or from a psychologist who views the world through rose-coloured lenses. My pessimistic, slightly-grouchy (and undercaffeinated) self thinks that we're just coming up with new, creative ways to destroy people? Why? Because humanity sucks.

Second disclaimer time: I just had two midterms and six hours' sleep. Pardon this post for crankiness and a lack of quality.

It's about bloody time!

After nine years of combat and almost 4500 casualties, US President Barack Obama announced today that all American troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by January 1, 2012.

And lo and behold, it's a politician who actually kept one of his promises that he made while running for office!

Anyway. Understandably, the Iraqi people are no doubt very pleased that they will be left alone shortly, without a constant American presence in their nation. And the soldiers in American uniforms are ecstatic to be going home. The question now, is this- Why did it take nine years, approximately 4500 deaths and over a trillion dollars to come to this decision? It's still debatable that the war had an actual, legitimate reason to begin- and I'm for the side that thinks the US should have just kept their metaphorical noses out of Iraq in the first place.

Regardless of his reasons for waiting until now to bring the troops home, Mr. Obama says that full withdrawal of American forces will not risk the nation's political stability. (While I fully encourage the return of the soldiers to their home turf, I can't help but remember that this is the guy who's leading a nation with a painfully-dying economy, a great part of which is his fault.)

Meh. Only time will tell if this is the best course of action. For the sake of the soldiers and the Iraqi people, I really hope it is.

Seriously? You doubt my relationship skills?

... If you are the ex-boyfriend I had in Grade 11, you can shut up now.

As some of you are aware, I have been happily un-single since Saturday evening. (If you haven't seen the Twitter feed in the right-hand corner of your page, you've probably heard me squeaking and jumping around in ecstasy.) My Facebook status changed on Saturday to say "in a relationship". All well and normal, no?

And as those of us who use Facebook know, Facebok tailors their ads to best suit the person viewing them. (Not, of course, that the ads are accurate. I still get advertisements for prom dresses and graduation rentals, and I graduated high school in 2009. Maybe that's 'cos quite a few of my Facebook friends are still high schoolers...) Recently, I've seen plenty of Head & Shoulders ads on my sidebar, featuring a chance to win prizes or some such nonsense.

As of Sunday morning, those ads changed to this...

Seriously?

So, either I'm set to be a very bad girlfriend without this Alyson Hannigan (whom I've not even heard of before these ads appeared on my Facebook sidebar, although Dan says she's from the TV show How I Met Your Mother), or I'm to be a very bad girlfriend without Head & Shoulders shampoo and conditioner. If this ad is correct, then I'm going to best make my boyfriend happy if I switch to this brand. Because I won't be able to be a good girlfriend any other way.

I happen to prefer Herbal Essences, thank you very much. And Dan has said he doesn't care what I use on my hair, as long as I use SOMEthing. With my OCD tendencies, that won't be difficult for me to manage.

On that note, what exactly constitutes a "good girlfriend"? My classmate Kevin (who happens to be a mutual friend of both myself and Dan) is of the thought that a good boy/girlfriend, in very general terms, is someone who loves their counterpart as best as they know how, and is more honest and open with that person than with others. I agree with him on that.

Yet to hear H&S tell it, a good girlfriend (besides obviously using their hair products), is materialistic, focusing on making themselves look "pretty" for their male counterpart so they can be the trophy girlfriend. There are other factors, of course, depending on the personal preferences of the guys in question, but it seems that a large part of this in North American culture is based largely on beauty. (Depending on the group one talks to, being "easy" and meekly submissive are bonuses.)

Right, yes. Because I know so many girls whose sole focus is on being the perfect trophy girlfriend/wife for their guys. Who defines a "good girlfriend", anyway? The boyfriend in question. Do his criteria match the rest of society's? I rather doubt it.

Tales of a Tag-along

Yesterday, the Theatre students from Prov went on a field trip to watch the play Bingo!, performed at the Prairie Theatre Exchange in Winnipeg.

"But you're not a theatre student, AJ! You're in Social Science!". Yes, but I'm doing my Field Ed credits with the theatre program, I'm friends with half the people in the theatre program (including the professor) and my boyfriend is one of the stage managers for both the full-length production and the one-act troupe. So when they had a free ticket, they offered it to me and I got to tag along. Hence the title of this blog post.

Anyway. I was a teensey bit apprehensive about this, since the last play that the theatre students went to see (which I also went to), quite frankly, sucked. But I was pleasantly surprised with this play- there was a story, actual acting (as opposed to simple public speaking in costumes), and characterization. The play's focus centred around five people at their 30th high school reunion, discovering how much each other changed (or didn't) in the last three decades. The 70's music was loud, the alcohol (or, in this case, coloured water) flowed freely, secrets were divulged or discovered, at least one marriage was ruined, and the Calgarian got the girl. So I'm a little bit biased.

Surprising to all present, we discovered that one Ted Atherton, a Winnipeg-born actor, was in the play as the snobbish "douchebag" character Dookie. ("Douchebag" was a name given to him in the script, and not my own insult.) For those who weren't aware, he also played the character of Miles Leland III in the short-lived TV show Sue Thomas F.B.Eye. I have never seen that TV show, but more than a few people in the audience were familiar with his former character.

I've been told that I should watch it. I think I'll have to work that in at some point.

Bingo! will be playing for the remainder of the month at the PTE. Go see it. It's well worth it.

Speaking of living with parents...

I so wish I could take credit for the following letter. But I cannot infringe on Her Majesty's words now, can I?

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II:

 

In light of your immediate failure to financially manage yourselves and also in recent years your tendency to elect incompetent Presidents of the USA and therefore not able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

 

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).

 

Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

 

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

 

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

 

1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.'Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').

 

 

2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ''like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.''

 

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

 

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not ready to shoot grouse.

 

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

 

6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

 

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

 

8.You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

 

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. New Zealand beer is also acceptable, as New Zealand is pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

 

10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

 

11. You will cease playing American football. There are only two kinds of proper football; one you call soccer, and rugby (dominated by the New Zealanders). Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

 

12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America . Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the Australians (World dominators) first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

 

13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

 

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

 

15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

 

God Save the Queen!

I KNOW Her Majesty didn't legitimately write this. But were truer words ever written? I think not.

Besides, things would be so much simpler if we all stuck with the metric British way of doing things, no? YES. *sits back with tea and biscuits to observe the commotion*

Microsoft, I hope you and your SpellChecker get this memo shortly.

Life Is Beautiful

And thanks to the prayers of several thousand believers over the last twenty days, there are at least 220 children who will be able to agree with that statement, instead of being killed by professionals before they have a chance to see the light of day.

Harsh? Perhaps- but true.

Disclaimer time! I know quite a few of you readers probably are of the opinion that abortion is a necessary option, the woman in question should have free choice in the matter, yada yada yada. Might I point out an interesting statistic? 100% of the people for abortion are former fetuses (fetusi?) themselves. And if the testimonials are any indication, the people who kill their unborn children face a lifetime of grief and regrets.

That being said, I'm only for abortion if it's clear that it will kill the mother to carry the baby full-term. In every other instance, there are plenty of barren couples looking to adopt a baby, if the baby can't be raised by its birth parents. Handicapped babies or babies born in poor homes or from premarital sex or rape are no exception to this- what did the child do to earn death before it could even breathe or see?

Rant over.

Where was I again? Oh, yes.

This is the midway mark of the 40 Days For Life crusade, a program in where people of the church will go to abortion or planned parenthood centres, sit outside, and pray, despite harrassment and persecution from the more aggressive pro-choice supporters. There are no loud rallies, no vehement protests- it is simply prayer, in many cities across North America, Australia and Europe.

"How can this possibly work?", you may ask. To that, there is no simple human answer- it's all God. From the prayer and friendly conversation that the vigil volunteers devote themselves to, many women choose life for their babies- and have no regrets. Despite negative reactions from many pro-choice people at these clinics, the pro-life supporters keep praying, and their prayers have saved 229 babies in the last 20 days alone.

I fully support the people praying for the lives of the children at risk for abortion. There is no child who deserves to be killed because its mother feels that she can't or doesn't want to raise it. On that note- Is anyone going to the 40 Day campaign in Winnipeg that I can hitch a ride with?


Now that it's over, I just wanna hold her
I'd give up all the world to see
That little piece of heaven looking back at me
Now that it's over, I just wanna hold her
But I've gotta live with the choices I've made
And I can't live with myself today

"Lucy"- Skillet (Written for a couple who aborted their daughter- whom they named Lucy)

40 Days For Life Campaign: http://40daysforlife.com/about.cfm

Hum dee dum...

I had a brilliant idea for a blog topic today. Alas, for eleven hours' sleep and a remarkably unproductive Friday afternoon have successfully wiped my memory of all trace of this brilliant topic, and my Facebook feed is granting me no alternative ideas. Then again, I also have a throbbing headache, I'm freezing, I'm still irked over the lack of Silver Wolf, Black Falcon fanfiction (Okay, I admit it. I need a life.), my iGoogle news feed is not producing any noteworthy news, and I'm finding myself strangely unmotivated to do anything, much less browse Teh Interwebz for interesting topics to write about.

Wait. Is it..? It can't be...

It is.

A foul curse upon writer's block! As if strangling my original stories and attacking my fanfiction and even beating on my art muse wasn't enough, now it spreads even to my academic work?!

*sigh* At least it's the weekend, and I have til Monday (around trying to study for MIDTERMS next week) to resume finding relevant topics. Yay?

*crawls back to the lair with tea to contemplate further actions for the evening*



*emerges four and a half minutes later* This just in- I was bored (obviously), so I clicked on my "stats" and went to "traffic sources", just to figure out where most people are finding my blog from. Took a look at the "search keywords" section and nearly snorted tea up my nose. For the record, that hurts a lot.

I'm still trying to figure out how a search of "lego darth revan" could lead to this humble little blog. I'm not sure if I should be impressed or facepalming. Either way, I am amused.

Perhaps the Greatest Sign of Geekiness?

Not World of Warcraft or Dungeons & Dragons. Not Magic: The Gathering. Not being able to quote The Big Bang Theory and intimately knowing every single fandom they mention. Not being able to speak Sindarin or Klingon or being able to write in Dwarven runes.

... Frequent attendance at Comic-Con is a plausible contender.

No, I'm speaking of fanfiction, and the inevitable stigmas that come with it. As some of you know, I've been writing fanfiction since my senior year of high school, and reading it for far longer, starting in the Lord of the Rings universe and since moving onward. My current fanfiction projects are, in order, Star Wars, SW/KOTOR II, and SW/LOTR fics, as well as riffing the bad fanfics in true MST3K style. Props to all those who understand what I just typed.

However, seeing as I get tired of frequently seeing 10th Walker stories or Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan slash (That will ensue an entire new rant. Don't get me started.), I like looking for new fandoms. Depending on the movie I've just watched or the book I just read, the fanfiction can be plentiful and good, such as the Chronicles of Narnia and Knights of the Old Republic. It can be plentiful and bad, like the Twilight fandoms. It can be meagre and decent, like the Song of Ice and Fire series.

Or it can be completely nonexistent, as in the Mithgar series by Dennis L. McKiernan. I picked up Silver Wolf, Black Falcon at a used bookstore a couple of weeks ago, finally got around to reading it and became emotionally attached to the two main characters enough (NOT fangirling. No. Nu-uh. Even if I do like fictional guys with long silver hair. Maybe that's why I have fangirl crushes on Rhaegar Targaryen and Cin Drallig...) to Google fanfiction for that series. Normally, Google produces at least decent results, most of the fiction from FanFiction.Net or from a specific board, even for the elusive fandoms such as the Codex Alera.

This time, Google failed me by not bringing up ANYthing even remotely pertaining to fanfiction. I strongly doubt Yahoo! will do any better. I did, however, see a Q&A with McKiernan, where he discourage fanfiction for the purposes of copyright and the reasons that if one wants to write, one would be better off creating their own universe.

I am disappoint.

Why does fanfiction (and the people who write it) earn such a negative connotation from others? Is it the excuse that we fanfic writers are obsessive geeks who lack enough creative brain cells to come up with our own stories? Au contraire- while that might apply to the thirteen-year-old Legolas fangirls with nothing better to do (and evidently no Spell-Check on their computers. Those who just blinked in confusion at that are now dared to go into the Lord of the Rings fanfiction archives.), there are plenty of fanfiction writers who have since gone out and created their own fictional universes and stories. I am one of them, even though my fictional works are suffering a severe case of writer's block, and have been since high school.

The copyright worries I can understand. But it is clear that the fanfiction writer does not own the work she (or sometimes he) is writing a story from. The original author/producer/writer/whatever should be able to own the full rights to his or her story. And every person who has created a story that was well-recieved around the world knows all about the fanbase that follows- including the fanfiction and fanart. Some even make use of this, such as the writers of the popular TV show Supernatural, where the main characters Sam and Dean Winchester attend a fan convention in one episode and meet a fanfic writer, much to the characters' bemusement and the hilarity of the watchers who are guilty of writing the same fanfiction that Sam reads online in the episode.

Yet other authors have said that they do not want any fanfiction to be written about their stories. They may be shouting to a vacuum, but sites such as FanFiction.Net have heeded their requests and do not show stories written by certain authors. Other authors, like George RR Martin, have realized that the fans will not be disuaded- FFN hosts several pages' worth of A Song of Ice and Fire fanfics, where the fans speculate over who will be the ruler of Westeros at the end of the series. (My personal hope is that it's Daenarys Targaryen or Bran Stark.) And of course, there are countless fanfics for The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, and Twilight.

I have yet to try deviantART for Silver Wolf, Black Falcon stories, so there may be something hidden in their archives. If not, then I suppose I shall have to content myself with stories that my over-active imagination will come up with..

Lo, how the seasons e'er changing...

"But it's been autumn for almost a month now!" I can hear you saying. Yes, yes, which is why Southern Manitoba has been boasting spring or summer-like temperatures for the last week or so, and only cooling off within the last little while.

Why can't Manitoba always be in the 20 C range, or higher?

On that note, to quote a certain character from a certain fantasy book series that a certain George RR Martin needs to finish, "Winter is coming". And I'm not looking forward to what I'm sure will be a very cold winter this year. All in favour of relocating Prov to the Caribbean, say "Aye!".

What is further proof of the turning of the seasons beyond the sudden chill and the breaking out of hoodies, you ask?

Midterms! (And the university students all cringed and hid under their desks.) It is a reminder that the semester is half-over, despite what people think. This includes me, who looked at my calender this morning and said "What? But school just started! Don't I have lots of time before I have to finish that paper?"

... So I'm an inherent procrastinator. There. I said it.

As my last post may have hinted, the Canadian Thanksgiving was this weekend. Said weekend was spent with my roommate and her family, and it was highly enjoyable. Comic-Con and Halloween are also coming up at the end of the month- which are perfect excuses for me to find my interchangable Sith Lord/Nazgul/Dementor costume, procure either my (plastic) lightsabres or my (plastic) swords and act like a complete geek without getting too many weird looks. (Pictures coming after Comic-Con, if I remember.)

Also, an excess of candy and other sugar-loaded products. Because the kids aren't going to eat all of that junk food, and we post-secondary students firmly believe in not letting anything go to waste, right?

Those who say I'm terrifying on sugar or caffeine highs had best not come to near me for the week or so after Halloween. Just putting that out there.

And perhaps the biggest indicator that summer is dying? Today in choir, we broke out the Christmas carols and were informed that time is growing short before we have to perform them.

I'm not complaining. I have a special place in my heart for Christmas melodies. But I refuse to put them on my iPod until after Rememberance Day.

Of course, Kutless did just come out with a new Christmas album, which I should consider investing in at some point in the near-ish future.

Tomorrow I'll attempt to come up with a relevant, interesting topic besides the seasons' change. Apologies to my WFTM professor.

*scurries back to the lair with a mug of hot chocolate and a good book* The perfect way to spend a fall day, no? Yes.

We are thankful...

For freedom of democracy, even if some anti-Conservatives would say otherwise.

For family and friends, even those many timezones away.

For university, so I can at least feel like I'm doing something productive with my life.

For dormmates' parents, who adopt homeless college kids for the Thanksgiving weekend, even though they already have five other kids of assorted ages under their roof.

For that blessed soul who invented Pepsi.

For the Internet, without which my dormmate and I would never have found the recipes for lembas bread, Quintuple-Chocolate-Mocha Brownies, and Butterbeer.

For hindsight, which has taught us what NOT to do when attempting to create miruvor.

For fellow nerds, who understand what miruvor, lembas and Butterbeer are. (For those who don't know, miruvor is an Elvish liquer, lembas is an Elvish waybread from Lothlorien, and Butterbeer is a popular drink for young wizards in the Hogwarts area.)

For technology, even though we curse and abuse it frequently, for making our lives that much easier.

For Jesus Christ, who has surpassed all of these by giving me a reason to live.

Happy belated Thanksgiving, world.

Alas, for the loss of another great one...

Steve Jobs, founder and former CEO of Apple and Pixar, died yesterday at the age of 56.

No one is quite sure where Apple is going to go without Jobs frontlining the new innovations from the company, including the now-old-news iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad (all of which were his idea). It is the hope that the new CEO of Apple, Tim D. Cook, will be able to earn the same inovation from Apple employees that Jobs possessed in and of himself.

But whether another person with the same technological genius will rise to continue Jobs' legacy remains to be seen.

Rest in peace, Steve, with the knowledge that you managed to almost single-handedly change the world with your ideas.

*turns up music on 5th generation iPod Nano and browses prices for second generation iPads*

And they thought I was bad before...

First, it was reading The Silmarillion. Then, it was trying to learn Elvish. Then, the fanfiction archives were discovered.

And now I'm at a whole new level of geekery, a level that I swore I would never fall to.

No, I'm not playing D&D or World of Warcraft.

I'm becoming what I swore I would never be (No, not a Twihard either) and turning into the dreaded stereotypical gaming fangirl.

"Weren't you already one of those?", I can hear you asking. And yes, I am one of the only girls I know who has played through Knights of the Old Republic and part of KOTOR II, fangirls Atton Rand and knows what HK-47 is.

But now I've fallen to a whole 'nuther level. Because I've just discovered, much to my delight and my GPA's dismay, that my computer will in fact play Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Age of Empires II: The Conquerors EP, and Stronghold: Crusadors. Hopefully I can also play Battle for Middle-earth II.

Worse?

I now am in possession of two decks of Magic: The Gathering cards.

For those of you who know what MTG is and are either shaking your heads in dismay or cheering, I salute you for your geeky knowledge. For those of you staring at your computer screens with blank expressions: RUN. It will eat your soul.

Not as much as Kyle Katarn and Haldir are going to try to steal mine. Little do they know Atton Rand already stole it the first time I played KOTOR II.

Back to the game installing and the downloading of patches...

Conspiracy Theorists have happies

... Must stop visiting the memebase. Internet grammar is getting to me.

But after watching Transformers: Dark Of The Moon, I'm pretty sure that many, many people who have ridiculous little theories about the Apollo missions and what the government does behind closed doors are now screaming "I knew it! I KNEW there was something on the moon that the government doesn't want us to know about!".

Absurd, says you? Hey, there is a legitimate Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, says I. People are not known for coherent, logical thought.

I really wish I was making that up.

But I digress.

Perhaps it is because I am notorious for watching sequel movies without watching the first movie(s). Spiderman 3 comes to mind- evidently I've only seen the worst of the series. I'm bad this way with books as well. But anyway, am I the only watcher of Transformers who barely understood the past history with the plot, or who didn't know any names of characters beyond "Sam", "Bumblebee", "Optimus Prime" and "Dutch"? Raise your hands if you're in the same boat as me.

... Okay, so maybe that IS just me.

Explosions? Not bad- and especially not in 3D. Acting? Meh- I've seen better. Granted, I've also seen worse. (Anyone else remember Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones?) Graphics? I can't complain. Female sidekicks lacking in wits, IQ, and nigh-well everything except British accents and boobs? Check. Shia LeBouf? 'Nuff said. (Let it be noted that this is a different "'nuff said" than the version that I would use for Ewan McGregor or Johnny Depp. I actually LIKE/fangirl those actors.) Emotional attachment to the characters that would get abruptly killed off? What is this emotional attachment that you speak of? Characters with the ability to keep federal secrets? Pffft. Flashbacks to Battle Los Angeles? Many, many, many.

A major US city BESIDES New York or LA that gets destroyed in an epic takeover/battle? FINALLY!

Long story short? Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a good way to spend a solid two and a half hours without having to do anything. Perhaps my opinion of it will improve after I see the other Transformers movies...

And if my kid brothers are reading this- You DO have the other two movies, right? Right? Good. We're watching them over Christmas, after I steal back my Pirates of the Caribbean DVDs.

For lack of an interesting topic...

Welcome to October! The month of Halloween, high candy sales, Winnipeg's Comic-Con (to which I am acquiring tickets tomorrow. Yay!), Canadian Thanksgiving, Rosh Hashanah (The Jewish New Year for those who aren't familiar with Jewish tradition)...

... I think I'm forgetting something. Possibly the Old Republic MMORPG, which will mean cheering for myself and my fellow hardcore Star Wars fans.

I really should figure out when that's coming out.

Anyway. Due to this being the week when I end up experiencing a hormone-induced state of depression (Ahhh, hormones.), my interested in anything extending beyond what I see on my Facebook wall or what I hear tell of from friends on-campus is lacking. Apologies- I'll try to come up with something tomorrow.

On the flip side, I now have another reason to go visit a bookstore in the near-ish future.

http://www.box.net/shared/static/a6omcl2la0ivlxsn3o8m.jpg

Evidently I need to be finding books by RA Salvatore, a novel edition of Stardust, and Wicked. But wait, I already have four and a half books that I'm never going to get finished at this rate... *sigh* I should really finish A Song of Ice and Fire and Forbidden before starting new books.

I'll go crawl back into my lair now and keep my depression to myself now. *sigh*