PAX East Proves Geeks Should Rule the World

Today, I spent some time browsing through my favorite forums.  There are lots of sites that I frequent for content, but only a few on which I take the time to read the forums because although forums are a wonderful place for interesting discussion they also tend to be a wonderful place for completely useless chatter.  One forum that I've been lurking on a lot lately is PAX East because it's only about a month away and I am ridiculously excited.  Every day there's some new tidbit that makes me jump up and down and nearly spill my coffee. (Wil Wheaton!  Jonathan Coulton!  Yippee!)

First, I found a list of boardgames that will be available for play and was happy to see many of my favorites, though no Star Wars Epic Duels.  I don't care that it's out of print or that it's only for ages 8 and up.  The game is fun people!  I also had a good laugh reading about how first time visitors think they're going to get around in Boston.  Then amid all the fun and happy I found a post that was so annoying and bullheaded it made me want to scream.  A guy I will now call Persistent Geek was being critical of how the folks at PAX run their show.

I know everyone has an opinion and that it's impossible for people to always agree.  Just imagine how boring your average tabletop game would be without rules debates.  "You don't have line of sight."  "Yes, I do."  "Oh, my bad.  Your Space Marines can surely see right around that corner.  Take the shot."  It would be awful.  So it wasn't that Persistent Geek had an unpopular opinion, but that he was so single-minded in his defense of that opinion.  Most everyone disagreed with him and some were none too nice in their rebuttals while others had thoughtful responses to counter his original statements.  Didn't matter.  Through it all Persistent Geek stayed the course, not altering his original statements an iota.  After getting past my initial reaction I suddenly realized that this thread was the key to, well, everything.

Imagine a world run by geeks.  Conference rooms would be full of people wearing The Official Geek Uniform of cool tee shirts while eating fast food and drinking highly caffeinated beverages.  Wars would never happen because there'd be at least one Persistent Geek in the room and he'd never agree on where and when to fire the first shot.  Natural disaster?  No problem.  Get some MacGyver Geeks on that and give them a little duct tape and they'd have the place looking great again in no time.  Big project with limited funds?  Find yourself a Gamer Geek because those guys know how to work every angle and get the best possible deal.  Computer Geeks to optimize the internets.  Scifi Geeks to dream up the next big thing.  Tech Geeks to actually build it.  Think of the possibilities!

Now if we could all just agree on how to get this plan going...aw, forget it.  That'll never happen.

Asari, Na'vi, Mystique, Why So Blue?

I'm watching Russ play Mass Effect 2 as he doesn't want to "fall behind" in his gameplay.  How do you fall behind on a game that doesn't have a deadline?  He's not Cinderella and this isn't a ball so I'm pretty sure the disk isn't going to turn into a pumpkin at midnight.  Heh, that would be funny.  "Pumpkin Morphing Imminent! Save Game!"  But since as far as I know this game is not pumpkin-equipped, Russ will play it until his vision blurs.  Currently, I am watching Shepard have a nice chat with an Asari and I find myself wondering, what is it with being blue?

Think about it for a second.  First, you've got the Asari, sexy blue aliens that all look like women and have psychic sex.  Then there are Avatar's Na'vi who are giant, scantily clad, blue aliens that mind meld with horses and trees and each other through funky tendrils in their hair.  And of course there are characters like Mystique (X-Men) and Zhaan (Farscape) and a list that just goes on from there.  I get the sexy aliens/mutants but I cannot figure out why blue is always the color of choice.

Why not green?  Captain Kirk was all about green-skinned Orions so they can't be all bad.  And what's wrong with red?  The closest thing to sexy red aliens that I can think of are the Cylons whose spines glow red during the heat of the moment and that only kinda counts since most of the time they look just like humans.  What about yellow?  Or orange? There is no love for the other colors of the rainbow.  I don't think I'm going to figure out the answer to this one, although I imagine that somewhere there's a guy with charts and graphs and reams of paper that prove why blue is the best color for sexy aliens.  Until I find that guy, I'll just have to file this away with the other great mystery of the universe....men in kilts at conventions.

Geeks With Heart Haiti Response

 

Today, while you're in the lovin' mood, why not share your big geek heart with others.

Geek Girls Network™ & Geeky Clean have created a fundraiser to support the Haiti Relief called Geeks With Heart.

Through Mercy Corp, Geeks With Heart has a fundraising goal of $2500 and there’s no minimum for donations. If you can spare just one special cup of coffee, an iTunes download, or a crispy chicken sandwich, donate to Haiti instead. Show Haiti why geeks have heart!

As extra incentive, and not that you need any, once Geeks With Heart reaches $2500, all who donated will have the chance to win a prize from an amazing grab bag of geek prizes!

So donate, tweet it up, put a badge on your website, and tell all your friends and family. Thanks!

Geeks With Heart: http://www.mercycorps.org/fundraising/geekgirls

 

Mass Effect 2 My Favorite Game And I Don't Even Play

I like to play all sorts of games but I definitely do not qualify as a Gamer.  I've played tabletop wargames like 40K but can't get into them enough to commit.  Also, I don't paint very well so their eyes get very eeek-a-mouse huge and that just looks silly on a battlefield.  My Xbox gamer score is an absolutely pitiful 750 but, personally, I think I don't get enough credit for my awesome RockBand skillz.  Seriously, it's the one game I can play and despite hours on the drums my gamer score is awful.  I should complain to someone.  Major Nelson, maybe?  Nah, I made fun of his name once so he'd probably just laugh at me.

I want to be able to play video games because they look so darn sweet, but the same thing happens every time I try.  I struggle with the controller, get mad, jam down the buttons and end up waving it at the screen and sort of shaking it as though somehow that's going to make me look at the bad guy and shoot in the right direction.  It doesn't.  I end up continuing to look the wrong way, get lodged behind a pillar or a giant potted plant that I cannot see around and the bad guys blow me to bits.  All this happens while my poor husband tries to calmly give me direction until I want to smack him.  At which point I throw the controller at him and scream say "I am done!" and stomp away.

So, my husband spends hours playing games that I only occassionally check out.  I've caught some great cut scenes, but nothing that's every pulled me into a game.  But now he's playing Mass Effect 2 and I suddenly can't wait to see what happens next.  I have not touched the controller and I am completely vested in what Shepard is going to do.  Will he stop the Collectors?  Is the Illusive Man a good guy or a bad guy?  What is up with Subject Zero?  BioWare has managed to create an RPG that is interesting even when you don't hold the controller.  I do help him hack some computers (no controller required for me) and try to keep him from going totally Renegade, but otherwise I'm just an observer.  Ohhh, he's about to take on a Geth Collusus!  This is gonna be good.

Caprica, Just a Frakkin' Excuse

I watched the original Battlestar Galactica back when Starbuck was a guy who smoked cigars.  I was loyal through Galactica 1980 whose only possible redeeming quality was flying motorcycles.   And I watched the most recent incarnation on SyFy and was left confused, sad, and a bit unfulfilled by the ending.  So, of course, I am currently watching Caprica.  It's still early, but so far the story is interesting and the characters are intriquing.  Everyone is fighting personal demons so there is plenty of emotional turmoil.  There's also a house robot/butler/security guard that is very cool.  My problem is that it doesn't feel like this show really needs to be set in the Battlestar Galactica universe, which makes me wonder...is this just an excuse to say frak?

Frak first appeared in the original series as frack but was changed so it could officially be a four letter word.  It's fantastic because you can say it and you're swearing without really swearing.  It rolls right off the tongue just like what you can't say and although most people will look at you funny and think they didn't quite hear you, those in the know will smile and nod.  Say it, and you feel like you've gotten away with something that only you and your fellow geeks understand.  (Face it, if you've ever used frak, even once, you are a geek.)

There have been plenty of scifi swear words that have made their way into the geek lexicon over the years.  Frell (Farscape) was a pretty good one and you'll still hear it at least a dozen times at your average con.  And Gorram (Firefly) is still uttered by Browncoats everywhere.  But as those shows fade into the past, so do their swears.  Since Caprica feels like it could easily be on any generic planet of the future with any old bunch of humans, I am left with one answer as to why it's set in the Battlestar Galactica universe.  It's all just a big frakkin' excuse to keep the coolest scifi swear ever from fading into oblivion.  You got a frakkin' problem with that?