Hello to all you fine gentlemen and ladies who have stumbled upon my blog. It’s surely going to be a place where I’ll rant about many a nerdy thing but also a place where I’ll review games, talk about gaming of all kinds, movie news, television news, and sometimes just the world in general. I promise that you won’t ever see politics or religion discussed here, though; those are bullets I’d rather keep from firing at all instead of having to dodge them later. This blog is also going to be as light hearted as it can be. A place where you can come to laugh, think and sometimes learn…like Reading Rainbow!
You guys remember Reading Rainbow right?
No?
Anyone?
Just me then, Brilliant.
ANYWAY, I wanted to start off with the guts of my first post being about nerd/geek culture. Before the Year 2005 or so (I’m guesstimating give me a break) nerds and geeks were mostly shunned by society; looked down upon, made fun of and laughed at. The term geek even comes from the old sideshow term for an odd individual like “The Amazing Bearded Lizard Boy” or the “12 Toed Human Pin Cushion”! The term nerd comes from even more embarrassing roots, with a meaning similar to that of a recluse or shut-in. Luckily though, or unluckily depending on who you ask, nerd culture started to bleed into the mainstream. Suddenly the things I enjoyed and got made fun of for in high school were “cool”.
Typical Exchange circa 1998:
Me: “I love Batman Forever because Two-Face is my favorite villain!”
Normie: “Lol, wut? That movie sucked, get outta here loser.” (In retrospect he may have been right about the sucking.)
Typical Exchange circa 2009:
Me: “I love The Dark Knight because Two-Face is my favorite villain!”
Normie: “AW Shit yeah! Dude was fucking gangster, flippin' a coin to decide if he should cap yo’ ass. That’s some justice son. And when The Joker was all like… (It’s about this point that I stop listening).
Now, I don’t necessarily fall into the camp of people who are furious that “normal” people like the things I’ve always liked but I do become quite angered by it from time to time. That bubbly cheerleader type who’s wearing a t-shirt that says “I (Heart) Geeks”? Instant rage. You don’t “Heart” geeks, you “heart” your frat boy boyfriend who plays Call of Duty and/or Madden and thinks Spider-Man is the shit because he’s seen a couple movies. She wouldn’t give a real geek the time of day. It’s very similar to the women who are maybe a few pounds overweight but consider themselves hideously fat;
Geek and fat…you keep using those words, I do not think they mean what you think they mean.
I’m all for geeky things becoming mainstream in most cases, I’m not sitting here pouting about how there’s Super Mario t-shirts at Hot Topic or that every teenage girl in existence likes vampires all of a sudden. Granted, those vampires sparkle and creepily watch you sleep on a regular basis, but like Kevin Smith once said: “That’s the next generation of geek.” Sure,we look down on it, us vampire hipsters, the ones who were reading Anne Rice before those little girls were even born; watching Bella Lagosi tell us he “never drinks…wine” before Ms. Meyer somehow got her atrocious writing published; dressing up in a cape and fake fangs for Halloween before Robert Pattinson decided to sully Cedric Diggory’s good name by playing Edward “I sparkle like a gay disco ball” Cullen…..
….Whoa, got a little carried away there, apologies…
You see, the previous generation is always going to look down on the next one because we don’t understand it. This isn’t just true of nerdom it’s a truism in general. The irony of the whole “hipster” meme is that everyone is a hipster. We were all into something before it was popular, we were all “there first” at some point. How you should look at it is that mainstreaming things like comic book movies and sci-fi television just means we get more of the things we nerds enjoy; a perfect example of this is Zombieland and The Walking Dead. Back in the early 2000’s Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were shopping around a zombie themed television show called “Zombieland”. They talked to every big network and got shot down every time, always being told that there wasn’t a big enough audience for it, that it was too niche’. So they took their story arc for season one and turned into the movie we know and love today. Fast forward to a couple years ago and Robert Kirkman’s amazing human centered zombie epic “The Walking Dead” gets picked up to become a television show…which goes on to win emmys and is widely popular in two different mediums now.
So I say if you’re a geek or nerd then embrace it harder and enjoy the benefits of seeing more of things you’re into. If you’re not then what the hell is wrong with you and why are you reading my blog?
Just kidding.
If you’re not a nerd then take a good look at the things you like. Take a look at your hobbies, your DVD or book collection. I’ll bet you’ll find that you are in one way shape or form, in fact, a nerd.
Here comes the point kids, better put on a helmet CAUSE I’M ABOUT TO BLOW YOUR MIND.
To be a nerd basically means to be passionate about a certain subject, usually a hobby or something related to pop culture, its true meaning lost among the popular stereotype. Those meatheads who get together at the beginning of September to form their fantasy football league? Sports Nerds. The women who get together and gossip about celebrities? Paparazzi Nerds. Chefs? Cooking Nerds. CEO of a company? Business Nerd… I think you get it. We’re everywhere man!
So with that being said, I hope I’ve set a good tone for the ol’ blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed the first post and continue to come back for more insightful rantings! Until next time.
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