I think X-Stacy is one of the first active commenters on the HeroMachine blog who I actually recognized and look forward to hearing from. Her comments are always intelligent, well written, and entertaining, the kind of digital guest every host wishes would be more common.
Plus, she has the coolest collection of action figures I've ever even heard of set up in her house.
I thought it would be fun to find out more about this witty, erudite person, so it is with great pleasure I give you the woman herself!
- Online name used in HeroMachine environs: X-Stacy
- A photo (or drawing) of you in "real life": I couldn't possibly show my naked un-goatee-ed face. Instead, here's an example of why I need HeroMachine!
- Real name: Not provided.
- Real city/state/country: Colorado, USA
- Real job: Wal-Mart
- Real age:36
- Gender: Female, last I looked. *checks* Yep, still female.
- Relationship status (married, single, in a long-term relationship, dating someone, "it's complicated", etc): : Pleasant!
- Online archive of your creations (if any): Not provided.
- The best piece of HeroMachine art you've created: Honestly, I've yet to create anything I'm proud of in HM3. I just haven't put the time into getting familiar with it, though, so that's on me. I hope to change that when I go on vacation in a couple months.
- Favorite all-time geeky movie if any: My favorite ever has to be Tron. It blew my wee little mind when I saw it. I especially loved the look of it. Still do, in fact.
- Favorite all-time geeky book if any: Well...I'm tempted to say Stephen King's It, because I read that once a year, every year. And you can't say a book about a monster from Tibetan mythology that turns out to be both an Ancient Evil from Beyond the Stars and a giant spider that can only be fought telepathically isn't geek-flavored. But it's probably too mainstream for most geeks to claim it. So instead I'll go with Dream Park by Larry Niven and Stephen Barnes. If you haven't had the pleasure, it's a murder mystery set in a high-tech future theme park built around industrial-strength LARPing. Anybody who loves RPGs should probably read it.
- Favorite all-time geeky TV show if any: Fringe is my favorite thing that's still on the air. But for all time? To my own surprise, I'm thinking Misfits of Science. I loved it like you can only love something when you're ten. And thinking further about it, I believe the fact it wasn't on the air very long is actually in its favor. If a show stays on long enough, it tends to disappoint you--like X-Files, or Battlestar Galactica, or Heroes. If it gets cancelled prematurely, you'll always have your dreams of how great it could have been.
- Favorite all-time comic book character if any: Renee Montoya. Whether she's the Question or not.
- If you could have one super-heroic power in real life, you'd choose: Teleportation. I'd like to see the world, but I only want to see the good bits. I don't need to see Kansas, for instance. Plus I could maybe find a way to make some money with my power, which wouldn't hurt my feelings any, and it would let me avoid my unfortunate road rage. (Ask me what superpower I want when I'm in traffic, and I'll say "Telekinesis--so I can crush that jerk's car like a beer can without getting criminally charged!")
- In your leisure time you like to: Mess with the space-time continuum. Okay, not really, but I can make hours disappear when I'm surfing the internet! Other than that, though, I like watching WTF movies. Whether they're intentionally crazy B movies like Bitch Slap, or low-budget weirdness like Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, or foreign insanity like the Machine Girl, I just love movies that make you drop your jaw and laugh like a loon.
- Character design turn-ons (things you love to see that make for a good design): Clean designs. Nothing wasted, nothing included that you couldn't explain if somebody asked.
- Character design turn-offs (things you hate to see that make for a bad design): Muddy colors. Not, you know, stuff that's mud-colored, but an entire outfit that's shaded so closely together that nothing pops.
- Best tip for a HeroMachine newbie: I hardly think I'm qualified to hand out advice! Everybody here who goes out for the contests or puts their creations up for critique is a rock-star in my book.
- Any personal message you'd like to share with the HeroMachine community about Geek Life: This is very important, so pay attention. You know how teachers are always telling you to follow your dreams? Well, they never mean the one where you're naked in class. Never. They probably don't mean the falling one, either.
Too true about shows being cancelled before they can suck. Talking to you, “Galactica 1980.”
congrats
Wow, Misfits of Science. There’s a show I haven’t thought about in a looooong time. Remember the guys whose powers would only work when he sang Johnny B. Good?
Congrats X-Stacy! I always look forward to your comments, because they genuinely make me laugh, which with my warped sense of humor is not an easy thing.
Your job is Wal-Mart? Like working in one, or you are “Wal-Mart: Defender of Truth, Justice, and Cheaply made clothes”? Also, I don’t think you’re art is that bad. It’s better than anything I could make, that’s for sure. As for liking IT, I think it’s a great book. I’ve acutally already pre-ordered the new anniversary edition that’s coming out in the fall, on top of the three different copies I’ve somehow managed to accumulate (still not as bad as The Stand, though, which I once somehow had five of before giving a few away)…
Thanks, guys!
I’m in the meat department of Wal-Mart, Gero. And before that, I was in the bakery. Sadly, there seem to be no candlestick-making jobs available.
Hey, I’m from Kansas! Those are fightin words.
Now, Oregon. That’s a waste of space.:)
When I went up Pike’s Peak, our guide pointed out east and said, “You see all that flat, empty space spreading out forever? That’s Kansas. You don’t want to go there.” And I’ve taken him at his word.
Congrats X-Stacy! And thanks for the great and memorable advice. Both concerning dreams and Kansas, not that I had a burning desire to act on either.
On a side note: I like all of the X-Files (currently watching Season 9 thanks to a series boxset), but then again that maybe because I see Scully/Reyes subtext. And Mulder annoyed me towards the end of his run on the show.
I will agree on any other show. Buffy being the #1 offender with Charmed at a close second. I refuse to acknowledge the existence of Charmed Season 8 or Buffy Seasons 6 & 7.
Wow I feel like an infant(1995), congrats.
Awesome. You’re without doubt, one of the funniest and most insightful contributors on here. Congrats. And looking forward to you getting up to speed on HM3 so we can finally see some creations from you.
All this Kansas hate is going to make me explode!!!
One good thing you can say about it is that it’s awesome for drag racing. Long stretches of flat roads, especially in Western Kansas (aka Flatter Than Flatland). Colorado is terrible for driving, unless you like plummeting off cliffs.
Welcome aboard.
thus the war of the midwest begins(colorodan myself)
It’s not that I hate Kansas, dblade, it’s just that it’s not for me. It’s kind of like…religion, or heterosexual sex. If you enjoy it, I’m glad it’s there for you, just leave me out of it. 😀
MusicAddict, I loved X-Files when it was mostly monster of the week episodes, but just didn’t care for the ongoing alien invasion plot. So the bigger and more complex that got, the more I tuned out. Also, on a completely meta note, it bothered me when interviews and articles started using the awkward-sounding “Cigarette-Smoking Man” instead of “Cancer Man.” What, were they afraid they’d give people the idea that cigarettes were bad?
As far as the follow your dreams thing, how about the one where you’re fighting alongside the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on a bunch of floating islands on a world that looks like a cross between a Salvador Dali painting and an MC Escher sketch? Because that’s one of only 2 dreams I still remember from when I was 9.
I live in the southwest corner of Colorado. I was at the pharmacy once, and overheard the couple in front of me asking if they had anything OTC for anxiety, because the local roads were so scary, and they had to get to Denver. Now, my particular corner of BFE has mountains, but the big ones are all between us and Denver. The pharmacist advised them to go down to Santa Fe, New Mexico and take the interstate. It adds a lot of hours, but if our local mountains scared them, it was really their only option. Later in the lot, I noticed they had Kansas plates. Before that, I had always thought that Kansas couldn’t possibly be as flat as I had heard.
I’m in SW Colorado, too, Bael, in Ignacio (just outside of Durango)!
Well, McKnight, it doesn’t seem like it would embarrass your mother or guarantee your death, so I’d say go ahead and follow that dream!
I always enjoy your humor and insight in debates X-stacy. You are a welcome addition to the Power User group.
I had a dream. Some even called me mad because of it. And why? Because I dared to dream of my own race of atomic monsters, atomic supermen with octagonal shaped bodies that suck blood…
X-stacy (18): Thanks for the go-ahead on that one. It’s been eating me up inside. But now that a genuine Power User is cool with it, then so am I. I think I’ll stick with the track I’m on though, but I’ll keep that one in my back pocket just in case.
I’m on the other side of the hill, in Cortez. Pretty similar territory.
I like her geek advice. Cleared up my life, *tears* thank you.