Whats?! In the HAT!?: AFTERCON 09!

JUST BOUGHT 2 TIX to AFTERCON 09!!! myself +1 (hopefully Theatreg33k ) are -ing GOING to this shindig. GET DOWN!

AFTERCON 09!

AFTERCON 09: MC LARS, Cyanide & Happiness,SMBC,Doomtree,MC Frontalot, ytcracker

AFTERCON 09':MC LARS, new animated shorts by Cyanide and Happiness, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal Theater, Doomtree, MC Frontalot, ytcracker.
PERFORMANCE INFO
Sat, Jul 25
Doors at 7:30PM Casbah San Diego, CA Ages 21+ Only $18.00 - $20.00 Onsale Jun 27

happening Comic Con weekend, less than 10 mins from the con. best beleive i will be there.

Represent The Nerdlife, forthright!

S.G.I.S.Con 4 Spoiler

A friendly reminder to those in the know. SAME BAD PLACE SAME BAD TIME!

I anticipate both trilogies being played the entire weekend, with special screenings of SW-centric movies. I'm hoping for FANBOYS , SPACEBALLS , and maybe even the terrible X-MAS SPECIAL !!!!

I also really want to do a Lightsabre building workshop, and I'm sure we can dig out numerous SW-themed games to play.

More itinerary as we get closer to the event.

S.G.I.S.Con: The Tale

" WTF is S.G.I.S.Con?!"
Sad Geek In Snow Convention. A "con" held every year in honor of my birthday at a family cabin. I invite every geek I am buddies with and we assemble in a beautiful section of the wilderness, and stay inside for the entire weekend. well, I do, usually the guests venture farther up the road to some snow and get all cold and wet then come back. good times.
I know, "wow, how pretentious, a 'Con' just for your birthday?" but, if you've ever met me, you know I have great plans, just like anyone else, big dreams. One day I hope for it to actually be a full blown Convention, dedicated to all things geeky! Well, most things. I have often complained how Convention season is in the summer, so I would prefer a winter con, especially if I am the figure head and its soul, its true con type, would be flavored by me and my friends interests.
So, a weekend long get together, by invite only, we have begun doing themes, and vague itineraries, as well as, registration fees (so we can afford food) for room and board.
Of course, being the elitist jerk I am, I wont publicly advertise this Con, but I do extend invitations to friends of friends in the hopes that it continues to be a VERY harmonious event with like minded, yet unique individuals.
So far we have had as many as 25 geeks assembled for the festivities, and I will post synopsis of past S.G.I.S.Cons. Also watch Theatreg33k who posts day by day journals of most of our trips.

Old R4n7 (4-17-08)

R4n7 4-17-08

as for me, lord, where to start. well, horny beyond belief, but thats nothing new, damn hormones . . . im only in 2 classes this semester and im still finding it hard to go to them regularly. screen writing is interesting, im working on a semi-autobiographical script chronicling my break up with my ex as well as the rekindling of my love for thaetre, very deep, meaningful and dramatic . . . I HATE IT! i lived it, i dont want to relive it again, thats why i play warcraft and D&D and play dress up no less than 3 times a year.

Speaking of Warcraft, good lord am i addicted. and now, 2 of my friends who dont even play WoW are hooked on the card game, its like Magic The Gathering, only for WoW and they want to play constantly. poor guy, one of em, (The Blave), has played all the original Real Time strategy versions of Warcraft, so he knows all this back story, but he's never played WoW so hes always like "but hat makes no sense in the old games, this and this was this way" so Tink(theatreg33k) and I have to explain to him "NO! no making sense anymore, WoW has ruined any semblance of plot the game had, get over it!"
But yeah, WAY too much time spent playing that, ive got my 70 mage doing dailies constantly, and a 65 hunter im finally getting up to 70, and a 42 war i need to get up to outland so that guild can get raiding.

THE OTHER class is advanced acting, and well, it should be "excersices and coaching for acting" cause all we do is read scripts, listen to the proffesor, do scenes and play acting games.

I am sound designing for not only a high school show (the odd couple, female version), but for a "real" theatre company, Arclight Theatre and i'll be doing the sound for Twelfth Night, so that should be fun.

ALSO, i recently got a job at Armor-geddon, and i should start monday, that's gonna be interesting. It's gonna be like working at a corporate comic shop, the guy who hired me is really gun-ho about making the store into something great and caring about the store and the product, as well as making sales, in order to keep the store afloat. so more of a commitment then i was looking for in a store, but thats okay, it should be good for me, and i like that in a management staff.

so thats whats up with me.

Old R4n7 (the first)

As afore mentioned i owe housing a ton and as such there is a hold on my account and because theres a hold i cant add classes, and if i cant add classes i cant get aid AND>>>.... i cant pay the debt until aid comes in.. isnt beaurocracy wonderfull.
p.s. I dont sp43k in l337 t00 much, i simply utiliz3 it.
so that should sum it up...
More R4nt later.... (posted before april sometime.) (before 08 even eddit:09)

An old R4n7 (4/16/09)

R4n7 4-16-09

Damn, I want a childhood. maybe just for a year would be nice. Have someone else pay the bills and not feel guilty about it. Maybe have an allowance, or even just keep my paychecks for myself. Then I could buy all these goodies I want so I could be sub-culturally awesome, such as nerdcore albums, ACTUALLY support music I want to support instead of pirating from musicians I want to give money to, as well as buying equipment and clothes, for everyday as well as construction on various costumes, and . . ah yes, a lightsabre.. It would give me time to work on several projects I've neglected for almost a decade now, not to mention the ones more recently to find a home in my skull. Do some shows without having to worry about when I'm getting up for class or whether or not I will be able to do homework during rehearsal.
I don't often sit back and realize, that I am a full time student with two part time jobs trying to live on my own. and yet, I still live with SOMEONES parents, and am barely able to keep my bills in check. High school needs to teach how to survive, or something. My fiance is as smart as any person i know, but shes had a seven year head start on me and shes in even deeper than I am. Quite frankly, this is bullshit and i want a cheat code, or a reset button, or something.
Alas. this real world stuff is crap, but its something we all share in common. some-odd billion people do it everyday, why does it feel so difficult to me?
It's also a challenge to try and pull yourself half way through your social circle. I never considered it when i was in high school even, but ever since college, it hit me that I was lower-middle class at best, eating weenie soup and thinking it a grand event any time we took recycling in because that meant MickeyD's for lunch. Now I'm very good friends with people who have no idea what it's like to live with your grandma, your aunt, your mother all in a two bedroom apartment on the shady side of town, with your grandma sleeping in the living room on the coach even though she's the one paying the rent, having her pain pills wear off at 530 AM so she takes two more, gets up and goes to work, where she deals with other KIDS problems, inner city misfits worse off than me, and attempts to put them on career paths. Seeing your mothers face drop into blanch shock as you blab "what about grandma? she lives with us?" when the social worker asks her if anyone lives with the two of you because answering "no" would mean more food stamps to feed you. Than not understanding why there wont be a treat of The Golden Arches or even the hot dog cart out front, because you told the lady something wrong. taught me children were to be seen and not heard, not that i had screwed myself and my mother for the next year. ah well, when you're young, you learn differently.
Oh damn, i rambled. anyway, i guess that's why its a rant, well. Geoshities is going down soon, so this will most likely go up on . . i dunno, *shudder* maybe myspace, hopefully a REAL site, ty to epyon avenger.
-H4773r done . . . for now

The Traveler

How 'bout some of my work?
I am an artist of words.. lessee?


The Traveler

A vacant heart that doesnt twitch
Revealed behind a dark gray mist
A time 'afore history was writ
I give to you an elven myth

(chorus)
He danced around a great stone ring
He did dance and he did sing
Into the frigid cold of night
Beneath the moons silvery light

Through a weirding forest I did walk
And only the owl my path did mock
Then into a clearing I saw through my hair lock
An odd man with a great hat who skipped among many a rock

(chorus)

he stopped a moment and then sighed
to my unspoken question he replied
this is where I jig for this is where I died.
I was smote here by mine own spirit and most trusted guide

(chorus)

so here I dance but also wait
for this very single date
when I shall find one to mate
my hat to themselves and my spirit take.

So please take to your heart my desperate matter
Its not just stylish, oh, but rather
Will give you powers that can bind and tatter
So place this upon your crown and be ever known as a hatter

(chorus)

I then accepted this mantle from his head
And even though he was very dead
it was alive. black and white and tall and red
And the hat has lived up to everything he said

Also, as you can see
Since the day he gave this thing to me
His spirit has lived and does agree
That the true hatter for now is me

(chorus)

JabberWow

4-8-08
JABBERWOW
Twas WoW time, l337s and noobs
did Pug to raid.
The Gold Beggars yell LOLBBQ!
And Chinese farmers got paid.

"Beware flagged skulls, dood,
one shot and you are pwned.
Shun loot ninjas, the rude,
and players who are stoned."

He accepted the quest,
Fiery chant on a Grey item.
He medded to grind the next.
Targeted? he'd take 'em.

Aggroed out of no where,
an elite rare did add.
The Lowbie hit his cool down buttons.
Now he's mad.

Oh shit, crit crit, finishing blow.
The mobs went down.
He bandaged, looted just so,
and hearthed back to town.

"You roxord boxors of creeps?"
The quest guy did ask.
The rewards: a silver piece
and a blue quality mask.

Twas WoW time, l337s and noobs
did Pug to raid.
The Gold Beggars yell LOLBBQ!
And Chinese farmers got paid.

Maintaining Youth

This will be a repeated theme, I'm sure.
Growing up sucks, ooh, real ground breaking, I know. But, I have found many people have managed to circumvent the ravages of adultship and maintained an immature lifestyle, I also seek this status.
A couple nifty things Theatreg33k poked for me this very morning include SCIENCE!! which is pretty funny, we have many friends who need TONS of these badges. as well as, well, One of the more obvious perpetrators of my childishness. I see a Scout theme. hrmm . . I blame the Pixar film UP as well as the fact I haven't been harassed nor harassed by a peer in the woods. (maybe next S.G.I.S.Con? don't worry, I will post more about this particular convention in another blog)
Another not-so-secret obsession is to be a nerdcore hip hop MC. Combined with the fact that I need a new phone (old phone is old) the fiance found this abominable app that would allow me to mix beats on the fly and spit rhymes to my i-box-o souls.
But yes, linkgasm aside, I remember back my parents told me to enjoy being young because I didn't know how good I had it. No, my parents made me well aware of how lucky I was, and as such I have continued to -Not grow up-. To the point where my theatre mentor, V-A, nicknamed me Peter Pan, and the group of my friends at "Ehouse" were dubbed my lost boys.
Often enough it is merely the balance of meeting responsibilities and refusing to be hindered by what is considered childish or silly. In many things in life (relationships, business) confidence is key. The mantra "be yourself" or even Polonius' "this above all, to thine own self be true" resonates across the ages. Even if he was kind of a weaselly little bugger (played by Bill Murray in a horrible modern version of Hamlet). Lessons I still haven't learned, I know, but that's why we seek to emulate the things we value. Otherwise we would all be perfect, and if art has shown us anything it's that a perfect world is a BORING world.
Hrrm, distractions, I lost my groove. More on this later.

Nicknames (blog name)

In reference to the people in the post about my blogs name.
Mjerk: the name we most often called him by started with an "M" and he and Jjerk both prided themselves on being the smartest of asses, with whom I honed my more viscous skills against the forge of my nerdrage. At the time, he lived with his single mom, receiving the bulk of his dad's child support checks, he always had the coolest toys, the best box, and during, not school, the latest hours. Last I heard of him he was attending -Local JC- in his area.
Jjerk: similar situation, "J" was the main initial used, and he was proud of his ability to win an argument, usually by not making sense. "I win because my brain is a computer and you can't outhink a computer so that's why I win." Mjerk hated this argument with a fiery passion. Jjerk was a, well, redneck, and being a geeky, football playing redneck, I always respected him for not being anything he wasnt. These two were heterosoulmates. Dont know what became of Jjerk after high school.
FeetRcold: Yet another a-hole from my past, he attended a different High school than we did, but J-jerk knew him from elementary and he trickled into our gaming group. red headed and lispy, FeetRcold was a stereotype incarnit for nerd, president of the computer club at his high school. When the lot of us went to stay at my great grandmothers for the Ren Faire there, we came back fromt he first day tired and pleased. we were outside in the back yard, evening, hanging out, drinking our over caffinated drinks of choice (Bawls, Jolt, Surge, Code Red) and a few of us we're barefoot, summer was on the wain and so it was just right outside. Earlier that day we had a blast at the Faire, we looked around, Mjerk commented "it's like you expect elves to be jumping accross the trees, its awesome." So, it was night, the full moon was out, one of us noted how bright it was, and how awesome the day had been and that we were gonna go back the next day. We shared a silence, started to take it in, and then a voice muttered, "mah feet are cold" and broke the moment. Mjerk, Jjerk, and myself began to chase FeetRcold around the back yard and pummeled him with whatever can or bottle we had in hand. from then on, anytime he tried to get serious on us or build suspense in a game one of us would chime in, "yeah, but than my feet were cold."

Paranoia & Nicknames

So, If you read more than a few posts here, you will notice I don't use peoples real names anywhere, and more often then not, they're nicknames.
Ever since the wee years of my internet exploits I was aware of the fact that bad things happen when random people have access to your personal info. It has remained a prudent exercise ever since, hence, why my real name is never used here, and anyone who doesn't already have a well established web handle, gets a nickname I feel adequately describes them, or has been pre-approved by them. a few people who will probably re-occur follow:
Theatreg33k, my fiance, she is also an actress, we live together, owns a cat (don't even get me started on that cat), she's currently employed by a major corporation, is a presence in most social networking sites and has her own site which I can't find right now. More about her and our relationship in other posts, trust me.
Epyon_avenger: A good friend of mine out here in the left valley. He is a Tech for a private school, a nerdlinger supreme, and hosts a couple Neverwinter servers. One of the many geeks In my D&D circle, doppleganger to . . .
PievuhG: Origionally just, my co-worker, at the high end weapons shop we work at, soon became a great friend as her geeky flag flew brightly, with a rainbow on it. One of the lesbians Theatreg33k and I have added to our collection (we collect lesbians, i'm sure there will be a post) she's cureently single, and it has been established by all of us that her and Epyon are the same people from different realities, or something to that effect. She used to do Repo, and is a mechanic, soooo dykey, its great.
The Blave: An overacheiver, a bear of a man, a teddy bear that is. He looks like like a viking, very norse pillager, but he's happy and amicable all the time. A theatre/english teacher at a local high school, The Blave is also a constant fixture in our D&D groups. I call him The Blave because he has a penchant for telling outlandish white lies, and more often than not people beleive him. see D.O.S. in any of Theatreg33ks other sites.
I will post other character profiles later, probably name them Nicknames again.

WHATS?! with the blog name?

This is one of my favorite stories. It's long, detailed, and geeky (insert wang joke here). You have been warned.
I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons in all it's incarnations since . . . '97? maybe '98, definitely before 2000, as I started in AD&D. One way our friends would find each other would be to yell "What's a THAC0!?" But, I digress. (watch out, these parenthesis, and tangents things happen a lot.)
With my very fist gaming group, Mjerk, Jjerk, FeetRcold, and a couple others (nicknames are be covered in another blog, don't worry) I rolled a Bard named Ran Dansin. Mjerk, was the DM and this was a Alice in Wonderland-centric game. We ended off in a Battle of wits against the American McGee's version of the Mad Hatter, and through our exploits, my bard acquired a Mad Hatter Hat. This hat was awesome because not only could our gnome walk its brim like a turret(magically, of course) we could dangle him into the hat and had a 65% chance to pull out any mundane item, 23% chance to pull out any uncommon item, 10% chance to pull out any truly rare items, and 2% for anything ridiculously rare, but there had to be more than like 2 of it in the universe.
Fast forward about four years, I begin gaming with The Blave, Epyon_Avenger, Jubbles, and a couple others and The Blave is our DM. I ask if I can resurrect my bard and more importantly his signature hat. The Blave approves, but because he is a stickler for rules and our group was full of power gamers, he "neutered" or more precisely set rules for the hat with random tables. I blindly agreed, thrilled my hat would make it into the game (we started fairly low level and this was effectively a wondrous item) little did I know what horrors this item would visit upon us. The two most common items we pulled out of the Hat were shards of broken glass, which dealt about 1d4 damage to your hands, and really smelly cheese, which would cause -1d4 temporary charisma damage. Mundane annoyances weren't the only things we pulled out of the hat, to The Blave's credit, over the course of a nine month campaign, I pulled out two wee genie's which helped me meet the preq's to be a duelist(these were mostly to accommodate my lack of power building skills and allow me to be more useful in combat) as well as a jackalope named Plot Point who was originally our sorcerer's new familiar, but became this unmitigated ball of dragoon brokenness run by The Blave as his harbinger of doom in his game world. Later, I would pull out a flock of giant, cat sized mosquito's that literally killed me(I have been constantly reminded by The Blave how because I was his favorite character he was constantly smudging damage to keep me alive. great, I was his personal stress ball). As well as lesser jackalopes, males, so that Plot Point could defeat them in single combat and then devour their glands(this was how he leveled) and female jackalopes, so that he could mate with them, defeat them in single combat, and eat their glands, you see the pattern? Apparently this increased his charisma, whatever.
At one point, as I was reaching into the hat, something grabbed me and pulled me into the hat, I was terrified, after all the things I had pulled out, this was not a good idea. Turns out, a giant version of me in another dimension pulled me out of HIS hat. I stood there in shock, and he stared at me for a few seconds, and said, "I wish for a plus two keen, fiery rapier." I replied, "That sounds awesome, but get Vicious and keen if you've got a healer." To which he replied, "No, you're a wee genie and you're gonna grant me a wish, although you look really familiar." Me,"sorry dude, but I have a hat on the other side and you pulled me, I can't grant wishes." Him, "you have a hat too? Isn't it great, wee genies and gold all the time? and a healing jackalope? I pull out the genies all the time!" Me, "really? all I keep pulling out is crap!" He seemed to take pity on me at this point, so he sent me off with a copper piece, which to me was about five feet in diameter, we lugged that thing around till we found a forge to break it down. It was miserable.
Later on, it became a tradition between some of the more screwball members of the group (it fluctuated from he original 5 up to a total of fourteen, technically, over the summer, and everywhere in between) that any new members of the group were greeted with "It's Time for everybody's favorite initiation! WHATS?! IN THE HAT!?!?!?" One of the more memorable initiations was -Brad Again-'s warrior. Not the sharpest shovel in the drawer(yes, I know) he actually managed to pull out a cockatrice, which is an undead chicken that can turn things to stone. Fortunately this warrior was too dumb to be turned to stone, so he pulled it out of the hat, made his fort save and the chicken crowed "bwuahhah!" Me, "what is it?" Jubbles moved his pointer finger through a ring of his other fingers and made a squeaking noise, "his name is herbert." me, " if it wasn't before, it is now." and coincidentally, that's how my rubber chicken got his name. Herbert became the warriors drinking buddy, and one morning after a night of too many ales, the war grabbed the cockatrice and yelled "HOW DID YOU SLEEP CHICKEN!?!?" too which it replied, "KROAWAH!!"
So, there you have it, since the H47 sits on my head, you're reaching your hand right in, be careful, you could get stinky cheese, or hopefully, wee genies.

Mad, Slick Beats and L337 Lyrical Feats

"Nerdcore Hip Hop Could reign supreme!" Its true, MC Frontalot, Nerdcore, the online, musical phenomenon could become a lucrative musical genre. It's more or less geeky rap. Hip Hop about everything from apple computers to zordon. A great place to start is either the wiki page on it, or HERE!! , rhymetorrents.com, has many up to date releases in the geeky hip hop world.
I have been exposed to this subculture since about '06, thanks to my buddy - Brad_again - who showed me THIS VIDEO which led me too THIS SITE and I now own the DVD. (S.G.I.S.Con 3.5 was Nerdcore themed and featured a showing of the movie.)
At first I ate up every single piece of music I could find, like anyone would do with a new obsession, but I think I have now distilled most that I had been exposed to some of my top choices, as well as the stuff that, well, musically, sucks, regardless of content.
Due to my enthusiasm and wish to see this culture thrive and become stable, I intend to do a Nerdcore Artist of the week, maybe call it Weekly Geek Beat, or something, maybe Monthly, it is a small culture. WE shall see, wont we?

The beginning of the BaGee

And so a choice has been made. Look out for a few posts in the near future. I will do my best to update regularly, once a week. Haven't yet decided what day of the week that shall be. Thanks for coming along with me, I hope the ride is as entertaining and informative as it should be for me.