Everyone deserves a chance to strut their stuff from time to time and today's your day! Tell us one thing that gives you your biggest bit of Nerd Cred, something that certifies you as a card-carrying Genuine Geek. Sort of your best "Nerd Merit Badge" if you will.
For instance, in my case if I want to establish that I really am a geek, my brag swag is "I can point to the exact spot on the screen where the USS Enterprise will emerge in the opening credits."
So what about you, what is your big geeky accomplishment that gives you pride?
If you want to ask me a question about something, go ahead, but mostly I just wanted this to be a "let's all feel good" kind of day.
Nothing Major like Creating Heromachine or anything, but I guess my biggest claim to Geekdom is that for 5 years in a row several years ago I Dungeon/Game Mastered several RPG’s ( AD&D 2nd, Rifts, Heroes Unlimited and Paladium Fantasy games ) at a local Gaming Convention here in NJ called DefCon. I really miss those days!!!
Sounds like fun, Kaldath!
Changed up the example I gave in the post to something more relevant.
Oh it was a blast, it was a weekend long event, starting Friday Afternoon, and ending Sunday Evening. Game Masters got free registration to the event only having to pay for the games they played in( $3 per 2 hour block of game), and they were paid $1 per person per 2 hour block the game lasted with a set limit of 8 players per Game unless you had multiple GM’s so usually my only expense was the hotel room, food and swag as the money I made GMing usually paid for the games I played in. Needless to say sleep was lacking as there were games running the entire time from beginning to end.
Ach… I had this really long post about how I personally built a medium-sized desktop computer which I lugged around to and from the local Nerd Headquarters, more officially known as Crossroad Games. When I clicked the “Post” button, my internet connection quit on me just long enough for me to lose the entire post. Ah, well… You get the idea.
My question was regarding the aforementioned computer: Since my mother forced me to get a laptop after seeing me carrying the desktop to and fro, it’s not getting used. I was wondering if anyone here was interested in buying it. Of course, I realized that Jeff might not allow me to post a request for buyers on this comment page, so I figured I’d prepare a second question.
The second question was whether or not anyone knew of a decent pencil sharpener, one which would sharpen pencils so much that you could hurt yourself if you didn’t handle them with care. The reason is because my drawings have been suffering lately due to my pencils’ thickness, and mechanical pencils just don’t cut it for me.
I think my biggest claim to “geekdom” is the fact I have been swinging sticks (Lightsabers, I tell you!) around since I was five. I have fond memories of picking up one on my way to school, then dropping it when one of my parents (usually my mom) drove by, with the casual “I’m not doing anything wrong” look. I am proficient in both staff and stick wielding.
As a side effect, I have memorized all seven/eight official styles of lightsaber combat, their opening stances, the underlying philosophies behind each one, and can demonstrate. I can often tell what style a duelist uses in fan-made-duels, and which style is most effective against which.
When I use mechanical pencils I uses a hand-held rotating sharpener. Works great, points get wicked sharp, and it’s small enough to tote. Plus it has this nifty lead-cleaner slot, you jam the sharpened lead in there and it comes back clean so you don’t get schmutz all over your drawing.
Would you be appropriately terrified if I said that I was in love with you?
I s’pose my geek cred comes from the fact that I can quote entire episodes of Firefly, and am now on my 4th set of DVD’s, having worn out the previous 3 from watching them so much.
I’ve also been writing in RPG’s (all storytelling) mostly featuring Marvel superheroes for about fifteen years now.
Hmmm… were to begin? I had a “Tribute to Arnold Schwarzenegger” shrine in my bedroom when I was younger because he was my favorite action hero. Complete with German-language movie posters. I am able to recite entire movies line-by-line with my friends. The movie depends on which friend. For instance, my buddy Scott and I can banter “Caddyshack” and “Airplane” but we can’t “National Lampoon’s Vacation.” I need my buddy Pete for that.
Ah… I got it. I still make mix CDs for my friends!
Question… Any update from Super Omega Deathbattle Warzone Apocalypse? I’m sure they have a long way to go. Maybe an update posted now and then to pique our curiosity.
I’m not really sure if this counts but I guess the two biggest geekdoms for me is 1: I’m a gamer and 2: I like comics superheros ext,(otherwise I wouldn’t really be here now would I.) The funny part about that is I’m a girl, so any guys I meet in game stores or comic shops(we have one in our mall, it’s really cool) always give me an odd look. It’s hysterical. Girls game too you know.
The best place for updates is their Facebook page. The latest is that they’re moving to a 3D modeling environment instead, and they’re about ready to bring Faradox into the digitizing stage.
Good for you, Monalux!
I guess my biggest geekism today is I still collect comic books after 35 years. I just can’t give them up! I love Wednesdays! (new comic book day for you none collectors) And with all the superhero movies coming out, how can you not be a little interested to see what happens next? Goto you local comic book shop to find out, true believers!
It’s relatively minor but last year I bought an Anakin Skywalker lightsaber hilt flashlight. The geeky part is that I added and subtracted decals to it to make it my own personal lightsaber hilt. I wore it to the Episode I 3-D showing.
My question is, do you have any nerdy memorabilia, like a model of the USS Enterprise or a Darth Vader voice changer, and if you have more than one, which is your favorite?
I think my geekiest accomplishment is that I was paid (sometimes money, sometimes food and soda on credit) to enter GM’s games as a special NPC. I would be told clues to seed, given free reign to mislead, and allowed special latitudes to boggle the minds of the players while I merrily jumped in and out of play. Sometimes I would do this in person and sometimes I would be on speaker phone.
Ironically of the three GM’s, the one that paid kept having his games fall apart. He had organizational problems and had to trash entire storylines because of gross inconsistencies. People kept playing because it was fun, though; he was a great entertainer. He had to quit because of a debilitating illness.
The other two didn’t usually pay in money and eventually each one stopped wanting me. . . and their groups stopped coming. One guy who attended both GM’s games told me half the people playing were only doing it because of my NPC. I figure he was exaggerating because he wanted me to start up a game of my own. My sessions would have had to have been max 2 hours though.
Monalux? By a prior comment, do you know you can submit fiction in the forums? Oh and my wife games–you may be suffering for the immature majority is all.
I can’t remember my own phone number, but I can still accurately predict what any character in any episode of ST:TOS will say before they say it, driving friends & room-mates crazy since 1974.
Jeff? what was your favorite transitory geek experience? Something you knew going in that it could never be revisited. A one-shot RPG, unique movie or comic experience, etc.
Mine was a creature movie I tried to help produce. We ran out of money, lost access to editing equipment, half the crew / cast left us–we were all both. Somewhere in a landfill is about a hundred pounds of fake blue fur. My Ed Wood days. It was a terrible tragedy, but I loved all of it. (except for trashing the fur.)
I’ve watched each movie of the Star Wars original trilogy 100+ times. This has led to me being able to quote lines from the movies. Not just individual lines, but full scenes, verbatim. In fact, I’m not even 100% certain this is something I should be proud of, but it is true.
By the by, I actually checked (and you shouldn’t be at all shocked that I would have checked this), and it actually takes almost 30 minutes of movie in A New Hope from the time from the line “Orbiting the planet at maximum velocity. The moon with the Rebel base will be in range in thirty minutes,” until the firing crew start charging up the main gun on the Death Star. I think I timed it at around 29:21. No lie. This is what people with too much time on their hands do (at least when I actually had too much time on my hands).
No question today.
No I did not, but thank you. I don’t really use the forums buut I will keep that in mind. And I must be…
I would probably say that my biggest nerd achievement is that I started playing the Yugioh trading card game when I was seven and now, twelve years later I still play it and was the best player at the high school I just graduated from and have recently moved on to an awesome website called Dueling Network where I can play all the time!!!! (Actually I think I’ll go do that now) No question.
I have a Superman statue my brother made for me when he was in dental school that is arguably my most prized possession.
Heh. I am sooo dumb at sciences, I haven’t even finished university, but I know exactly what is the difference between Yami-Yami fruit and Yomi-Yomi, or Horo-Horo, Goro-Goro, Gura-Gura and Horu-Horu Devil Fruits. I can tell why “Sanjuroku Pondo Ho” is a cool pun and what is common between Sonic the Hedgehog and Ms. Doublefinger. Oh yes, I am One Piece geek! I love One Piece manga and anime and I know about it a lot more than I know about my native city or real world history. So, talking about One Piece I’m all geek! But…without extremities. Like, you ask me “What was on the page 7 of the chapter 338?” and I will not give a satisfying answer. So…I am geek and I am not geek. Muah-ha-ha!
Jeff, how would you like if a comics you know and like would get a really unusual “reboot”, that totally changes them (even a lot more then DCnU)? Like, for example, a Spider-demon vs. Kid Octopus or Fantastic Hobos vs. Giant Cthulhu-like Dr. Doom? And not in a way of “What If” one-shots, but in an official way, like FOREVER. Like “Hey guys, forget Bruce Wayne, new Batman is Edward Hope, he is an elf and uses an axe, and THAT’s IT!”
Well…. Geek cred….. You mean something besides my having pretty much the entire collection of Star Trek books (and in there I include the Federation Star Charts, the Ferengui Rules of Acquisition, the Federation Passport and even The Klingon Hamlet) And all the series on DVD (including Enterprise)? Let’s see… I know, I assemble my own models out of paper. Yeah, like the Millennium Falcon, a Star Destroyer, R2-D2, or even Batman or the Stargazer.
That should do it. 😉
As far as questions go, Malfar, NOOOOOOO! Better to make new characters than to so fundamentally alter already established ones.
and Jeff, since I can’t think of a deeper more meaningful question, here goes: What’s currently on your reading list? (i.e. what’s sitting on your bedside table just waiting for you?)
Cool, I’ll pop in now and then (though I shun Facebook).
@Malfar: I agree with Worf about the “unusual reboot” thing. However, if you want to check out some radical re-designs of established characters, check out Project Rooftop. They have some nifty artists there.
The I would say that my “nerd cred” can be summed up by the interview I did with Joey Esposito from IGN.COM: http://mcknightsreview.blogspot.com/2012/04/comically-speaking-interview-with-joey.html?m=1
the comic I’m working on and the reviews I did for my University’s newspaper (which I need to get back to starting with the films.)
My claim to geekdom is that I read either The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, or Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth AT LEAST once every few days. On the last count, I have read The Lord of the Rings AT LEAST 40-50 times in my life. (Am I the ONLY one in the known universe to notice that LOTR is 6 books, not 3?!?!) I also am attempting to learn Quena from Minecraft (Languages, select Quena (Arda) ) and from the Appendices. I play D&d every weekend at my uncles, who is a bigger geek than any of you. Hes a dungeonmaster with 20+ years of experience, owns 4-5 LOTR sets, a reenactor of Roman battles, he makes steampunk models, and he owns 20+ swords, orc armor, hoptilite armor, Roman armor, varied helmets (most of which he himself made) , chainmail hauberks, very old lego sets, and much more!
Oh, I know that one and reeeally like it. Actually, it gave me an idea of that question.
I’m a comic book illustrator and writer in Israel, a country which have no knowledge or respect of either profession. And I carry on and do it anyway.
that’s what i aspire to.