Saturday, March 26, 2011

Stuff that makes me smile Saturday!

Just going to share a few things that make me smile every Saturday they may be stories or things that I wish I could afford, or things that I own.

Today is about Star Trek since that is what started this whole journey for me.

First is a fantastically funny book about Season 1 of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Memories of the Future by none other than the King of the Nerds, Wil Wheaton. I had been wanting this book for a few years and just never had the money or the frame of mind to actually purchase it until a few weeks ago (the Price of the book BTW is $19.87 which is the year TNG started airing on TV) , but i had listened to Mr. Wheaton's Memories of the Futurecast podcast and it was fantastic. I received my book last night and finished it already, I was literally laughing out loud and getting funny looks from The Husband. If I ever meet Wil Wheaton at a Con (planning to go to our first con in May) I will have him sign my book because it really made me laugh.
If You are a fan of Star Trek and familiar with TNG you should check this book out at this link to Wil Wheaton's blog.

Second on the things that make me smile list this Saturday is THIS. If you are a Trek Fan, you need no explanation as to why I would want it.


And Lastly is the Star Trek Scene It? game. I would love to have this game in my collection so that I would finally have a trivia game that I could beat The Husband at :-)

Friday, March 25, 2011

You know the what... now the WHY.

Back in 2009, I was super excited about the new Star Trek movie coming out. It came out around my 24th Birthday and it was a celebration of epic proportions for us (we don't really party). We invited some folks over just to hang out and play Rock Band and eat with Star Trek 2-4 playing in the background while we talked and hung out. My husband who knew me so much (even what I had been hiding for years) he got me the best birthday cake ever, it had a Star Trek theme and the Enterprise on it and said "Damnit Jim, I'm a Doctor not a cake decorator". He even went out and got some of the new Trek action figures and stuck them on the cake. When he brought it out with the candles and let me see it I was just giggling and happy. My friends at the time didn't get it, in any way shape or form.
They didn't understand how a woman could be so super excited about Star Trek, they were excited for *insert whatever romantic comedy was coming out at the time* and what ever movie would get their kids out of the house for a few hours. They tried to explain it by saying I was just excited because my husband was excited, when in reality it was quite the opposite. He was excited because I was, and I think he might have known that it would wake me up.

At that moment I realized, something. I had been lying about who I really am, not just to others, but also to myself. After seeing the new movie, and LITERALLY crying when Leonard Nimoy appeared on screen, and crying harder when he read the classic "to boldly go" at the end of the movie. I knew it was time to stop being afraid of what people think, I needed to be more concerned about the things that bring me joy. It has been a slow journey for me, but I am getting there.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

What Is a Geek?

I am sure everyone has their own definition of Geek. To clarify my personal mission I Guess should share what my definition of Geek is.
This is what Webster's Dictionary has to say:
Definition of GEEK
1
: a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake
2
: a person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked
3
: an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or activity

Examples of GEEK

1. He was a real geek in high school.
2.

Origin of GEEK
probably from English dialect geek, geck fool, from Low German geck, from Middle Low German
First Known Use: 1914

That's all well and good, except maybe that whole biting heads off chickens (EWWWWWWWW!), I know a lot of self proclaimed geeks, and well, none of them are doing that in their spare time, at least not to my knowledge.

The popular definition boils down to (with my interpretation) someone who is enthusiastic and smart about something, and sometimes they annoy people with their passion. That fits my personal definition fairly well, my definition is that a geek is a person who is very passionate about something and with that passion comes the desire to learn about it and celebrate it, and some people may not like that.
I also believe that EVERYONE has a specific brand of nerd, everyone has something that they are passionate about.

For instance My father was REALLY into the History of the Civil War, that was his brand of geek.... He was Passionate, knowledgeable and willing to drag his family to every civil war battle field possible. I remember a trip to Gettysburg PA, when I was about 12 where we got to see a huge reenactment, and he was totally geeking out the entire time we were there.

Another example is my husband, He is more a "stereotypical" Geek, he LOVES computers, he builds them, Plays on them (MMOORPGs)reads about them and attempts (not sucessfully) to teach me how the magical boxes work. (I still think its little fairies and magic smoke lol) He also reads a lot comic books (he's on a first name basis with comic book store owner guy) and has decided Stan Lee is his personal hero.

My Brand of Geek consists of a deep abiding love of Sci-Fi, mostly Star Trek, but also Star Wars, Stargate (mostly just SG1) and Firefly; also the books the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I am also a HUGE fan of the works of J.R.R Tolkien and I have read the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit more times than I even care to think of. I am also fully capable of a full blown geek out about horses. Thats right, I am a horse geek, I spent the first my first 20 years with them. There are other facets to my geekdom but those are the two major things that get comments from my mother that i should just get NERD tattoo'ed on my forehead.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Hello... I'm Zazzy

Hello Everyone I'm Zazzy, and I am just a girl on a journey to reclaim my inner geek that I worked so hard to hide from people, that I forgot she was there myself.
I was always happy being a geek, but I found that some did not appreciate me being a geek and I didn't enjoy being an outcast. After I got married, for many years I hid that side of myself to "make friends" in the "real world" and started to discover I didn't have all that many "real friends" because they became friends with the "fake me". I only showed them the fake me because I was afraid of what they would say. That ends for me here and now. I have rediscovered things that I love and I am passionate about and I have found that I (and my husband) am much happier now that I am rediscovering what made me who I am I am out to find the inner geek and bring her out into the daylight and be myself.

Thanks for joining me on this journey.