Countdown to Geek Week
I’ve mentioned it before, but my uber geek husband as well as my little geek in training are embarking on what I have termed “Geek week”. This involves our family attending two Comic book/Anime conventions on different coasts. I’ve been meticulous about wanting to save a reCOCulous amount of money to dump at these cons while limiting the expenses I’ll spend on accomodations . Here is my secret:
1. I secured the hotel. The swanky one. Thanks, Marriott miles.
2. I think I might have enough flight miles to fly our entire family for free
3. a frugailty plan that will allow us to save almost $1500 monthly. No, I’m not dieting on ramen noodles and rice cakes with peanut butter. Since we have no debt, living frugal is easy. if you want to know my secret…well…It’s called living below our means.
I’ve decided to put a counter down below. We’re excited about this vacation. I am, because it will be the first time that I will ever see California. Anyhow, I hope that this is as cool as we’re hypin’ it up to be.
January 29th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Of course it will be! That’s so cool - all three of you creating a holiday out of something you all enjoy. I dig the family-osity of it all. Even while I don’t understand the comics/anime of it all…
January 29th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
hahaha…There are a lot of people who dont get it…but those families (and we are few and far between) who do get it…we have a fun time.
January 29th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
When we go on vacation, I like to see EVERY STINKIN’ LANDMARK there is. World’s Largest Ball of Twine? I’m there. Thomas Edison’s spitball? I’m so in. Alligator circus? Where do I get a ticket!?! And my family tolerates it. So it’s all good.
January 30th, 2007 at 7:11 am
I can totally appreciate that. One vacation idea we have in mind is a RV tour across the US following Historic Rt 66. Start in Chicago and end somewhere near LA.
January 30th, 2007 at 7:22 am
Have fun…let’s see pics!
January 30th, 2007 at 10:18 am
My list of people to get all Fanboy giddy over:
Steve Niles: 30 Days of Night. You’ll see.
Ben Templesmith: Awsome, Awsome artist
Sergio Argones: Remember the little margin toons in MAD?
Stan Lee: Screw Spidey. He made Ben Grim.
Keven Smith: Icon of nerd.
Brian Posehn: Live in Nerd Rage. Get it.
Bruce Campbell: You KNOW he’ll be there.
Seth Green: This is getting too obvious.
January 31st, 2007 at 8:24 am
Aaronichi: On Kevin Smith, I’d only partially agree. In normal circumstances, probably sometime in the mid to late 90’s, sure. Kevin Smith was the Icon of Nerd. Now though he’s at a point where he’s allowed himself to sit in the throne that his now mainstream and trendy fanbase has created for him. He seems to now consider himself the “cool nerd,” and tends to poke fun at other nerds more than himself, which really makes him more of ah asshole. Nerds making fun of their own nerdiness is cool in that nerdy, awkward, introspectively witty way. Nerds who feel they are so cool that they make fun of other nerds because, well, look at how fuckin’ nerdy they are, not so cool. It’s the jock or frat guy picking on the chess club, only the dickhead reads Wizard magazine instead of Sports Illustrated when he gets home.
It’s not that he’s sold out, which can be debated, it’s that somehow a Star Wars reference and a bunch of “F” bombs elevated him to this King Nerd status that he really doesn’t deserve. He’s a nerd, sure. Is he a bigger nerd than, say, me? Fuck no. He doesn’t stand a chance at competing with my geekitude. If he’s an icon to nerds because he can say ‘Yoda’ and ‘Fuck’ in the same sentence, then this new breed of nerds that flock to him are far too easily led, and maybe they deserve to follow him.
The maximum verbosity used in this comment is precisely the reason I don’t blog much anymore, as a side note.
January 31st, 2007 at 9:59 am
Soapboxdevil must be a LOTR fan…
He’s an Icon is that he did it his way, like it or not, and has never compromised. Like him or not, it’s true. Just like Seth Green (who according to your logic is a HUGE asshole). Everyone thinks they’re cool, and they never sold out.
January 31st, 2007 at 9:59 am
oh, and
There can be only one trilogy!
January 31st, 2007 at 10:29 am
Yeah maybe my problem is that I expect the geeks I respect to be geeks, and not mainstream cool. I’m an LOTR fan, sure, but no more than I am a Star Wars fan, or Comic book fan, or D&D fan, or Monty Python fan, or anime fan, or any other geeky thing. I spread my interests around pretty evenly. Can’t do Star Trek though. Never could get into it.
I think it’s the whole, “EVERYONE thinks they’re cool” thing that really has me thinking they’re not actually geek cool. They’re mainstream media cool, pop culture cool, the yuppie who read Spiderman when he was 11 years old and thinks that makes him a dork cool. They are hardly geeks anymore.
Go back in time 10 years ago and find Kevin Smith. Strike up a conversation about comics. He’d likely talk your ear off. Try talking to him now. Go to a con and try talking to him, about anything, and I guarantee you get the brush off unless you’re ‘hollywood’ cool enough for him to bother spending his time on you. Sorry, but that ain’t cool in my book. He’s a very ‘keeping up appearances’ type of nerd now. I liked Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy. Everything after that was Kevin Smith playing the part.
Sorry, but to some he might be an idol. To me he’s that guy that made me laugh a decade ago because I could relate, but is now that older guy who’s still trying to fit in with the cool kids.
February 1st, 2007 at 7:02 am
“I liked Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy. Everything after that was Kevin Smith playing the part.”
Hello…Dogma? It doesn’t get more nerdy, subversive, fuck-the-establishment than that.
But yeah, I don’t think he’s going to regain his UberNerd status, either, but only because both he and his audience have moved into the next age bracket.
Just my opinion.
February 1st, 2007 at 8:23 am
With Dogma he was simply playing the subversive, fuck the establishment role he created for himself with Clerks. He’s got an image to uphold now, and that’s far from nerdy. Sorry, I WAS a Kevin Smith fan, but he ain’t that Kevin Smith anymore.
February 1st, 2007 at 8:27 am
You can’t get into Star Trek? What, are you too good for it? Who are you too look down at Trekkies? They are nerds too!
Enough about you being a hater, back to Kevin Smith.
All I need to say about Kevin Smith is this:
He owns a Snow Speeder. A real live snow speeder from the set of Empire. C’mon.
And about him “brushing people off”? No way. He goes to cons and he’s all about the fans. That’s why, even after Jersey Girl, he still has a faithful audience.
Yeah, he’s a big dog now, so I’m sure he does get sick of the same old fanboy crap, who wouldn’t, but he’s all about the fans and the community. Also, he owns an indie comic publishing company.
February 1st, 2007 at 8:49 am
I recommend some good geek educational TV:
http://www.g4tv.com/icons/episodes/5695/ICONS_Kevin_Smith.html
the G4TV Icons episode on Mr. Smith. It’s great.
Also, if you’re so inclined:
http://www.g4tv.com/icons/episodes/5806/ICONS_Seth_Green.html
a little dose of haterade
February 1st, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Umm, I’ll challenge you to explain exactly what about, “I Can’t do Star Trek though. Never could get into it.” means that I’m too good for Star Trek and hate Trekkies. It’s absolutely not the case and I don’t see how you could have come to that conclusion. I simply can’t get into it. It’s just not my thing. Couldn’t get into Buffy either, but that doesn’t mean I’m too good for it or that I look down on any of the fans. I’m far too aware of my own geekiness to judge anybody for any geeky thing they’re into. Way to cast stones though, glass houses notwithstanding.
And of course Kevin Smith owns stuff like that. He’s got the scratch to pay for it all. Keeping up appearances. I worked for a video store once and we had what we called The Brady Box. The box existed to store all of the movies that Brady Anderson would pick out to buy at a later date. He bought one metric assload of movies. We once asked him how he finds the time to watch them all and he told us that he doesn’t. He opens them up and sticks them on display so it looks like he’s well versed in film. He did it to look like a film nut because people thought it was ‘cool.’
That and Kevin Smith does, regularly, those little stints on like Jay Leno and other shows where he is at cons interviewing other nerds and basically makes fun of them for all the norms watching late night television to laugh at. If that isn’t selling out, I don’t know what is. Oh, and during these skits Mr. Smith goes very much out of his way to seem like the ‘cool’ guy that’s making fun of a bunch of nerds. Can’t dig that.
Again, not saying anybody is beneath me for liking the guy. Fell free to like whomever you want. I just mentioned that I don’t agree with you and I’m explaining exactly why. Argue what you will to justify your own fandom of some rich guy who’s really run his course already, but it won’t change my opinion. I just don’t like the guy anymore.