I'm sorry, as per usual, for the interruption in service.
In H4773r related excuses(news) we had ANOTHER successful S.G.I.S.Con: This year with less stress!
In less exciting turns of events my store is going out of business which means I will be job hunting in between rushing around trying to sell every last fixture and piece of product up until the last day of the month to help recoup losses for the owners. As well as getting my official paperwork into each of the School Districts to begin subbing. Oh yea (short rant) and while we were gone at S.G.I.S.Con mysterious persons were in our room and we have yet to interrogate our roommates as to the actual events, meaning I will want to focus even more in finding replacement employment after my store closes and then moving out shortly thereafter. Because I am tired of this bullshit.
As per Joesky's Law, here are some cool things I enjoy:
For those of you who may have missed it I am still listening to Nerd Poker and if you haven't yet, here's the link to Ep 9? Anyway, don't listen tot he episode if you haven't heard them all yet, but listen to the "crazy shit" clip lower on the page about Sark's fave story about an old TSR spy game. It's awesome.
http://www.earwolf.com/episode/the-survivors/
And then, get yo SWAG on! Steampunk Writers & Artists Guild!
http://steampunkwriters.ning.com/
Gonna get maself up in there before the end of the spring so I can start getting feedback on some pieces I need to get fleshed out.
And I'm starting up a couple D&D games again Friday & Sunday. Friday should get jumping here this next week. I'm DMing, get this, a high level Pathfinder game SET IN Eberron! Yay setting conversions!
And Sunday should also be Pathfinder set in Golarion BUT we had some discussion of doing a Vampire: Dark Ages (yes OLD ASS White Wolf) game. we voted off that because we only had one physical book, BUT, Moose may let me borrow his AND I might just use a pdf of the book I have and run a print off of it and use that as a "ghetto" book. It could work, yeah?
There ya go guys, sorry to not touch base but I will try to find some time to make a buffer of posts with my usual fare of nerdness as I am prepped to be busy as hell the next few months with birthdays and cons and adjusting to a new schedule with subbing and whatever job I acquire next.
Later H47ites!
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Banging It Out
My own issues with "The Big Bang Theory"
When I first started watching it, I saw some of the later episodes of Season 1 and fell in love. Oh man, this show was the best. Nerdy, smart, funny, comfortable (thanks to the sets from Friends and the cameos from "sitcoms past" like Roseanne & Cybil) and cameos aplenty from Nerd luminaries & heroes abound! It was mainstream and I knew people who I thought were "cool"-yet-nerdy who loved the show and fantasized about the characters.
But then, every know and then, I would see a random episode that would piss me off. Or a certain gag would be funny, I won't dispute that, but would feel dirty to me, or cheap, like they took the easy way out for the laugh and it felt insulting to me.
In short, I tell most people, I love it 4 out of 5 times, and hate it 2 out of 5.
I haven't spoken up about it since I had this revelation as I felt maybe it was beleaguered already and kind of old news and that honestly, what influence do I have over anything that my opinion matters.
I remember some short flurries on twitter about (terribly poorly paraphrased and not quoted at all to original authors) "how BBT is like black face for nerds!" and replied with "STFU the actors are nerds and know what they're doing!" As well as having read some blurbs here and there about the issues of watching the show as a nerd especially if said nerd has really deep seated emotional recall attached to their psyche in regards to being ridiculed for their nerdyness (isn't that all of us, really? as nerds?)
But then I saw
THIS POST linked through The PA Report and read it all the way through. I'm sorry, here's homework and it's a juicy post so if you were hoping for lighthearted quick fare from me, today is not that post, I'm sorry, come back later, it will be here, I promise you.
Read it? or at least skimmed through and got the gist? Well whatever, here we go.
I'm gonna start with devil's advocate as I was, and still feel I am very capable of becoming, a ragging asshole douchenozzle of slavering mad adolescence and low self esteem. I mention that as most humor I enjoyed and still do to this day, is self deprecating. I think I might be trying to generalize.
In high school one of the preferred forms of entertainment among my social group was to insult each other. Through ostracizing and belittlement we further ingrained ourselves into each others company. This was our normal mode of communication. Angry, mean little bastards (in some cases nigh close to literally) and we vented that frustration at each other. I feel it's given me a lot of perspective through my life to never take myself too seriously, to always question everything, and always be thinking critically as a result of years of learning to pick out or intuit the most hurtful and shameful of details in anyone and anything.
I tell you all this because that's why I think I still watch The Big Bang Theory and think it has potential to be a shining beacon of Nerdy awesomeness we want it to be.
Or maybe that's why it's still being written by the people who write it and "are X" whereas "X" is whatever the person being represented is, be it nerd, hip, foreign, gay, straight, actor or person of disabilities. They write/produce/act the show because they are who they are. Trying to make money, doing what they love, making sure they get the laugh, reaching as broad an audience as possible.
As someone who has done A LOT OF THINGS on A LOT OF SHOWS I know how many people it takes ( and how many people you SHOULD have) and how many different dynamics there are between those people and where conflicts arrive and how differently different people at different times those conflicts are passed over or resolved. I don't know if any of that made sense but I'm trying to cut some slack to the folks who make the show as a fellow entertainer.
The people who make this show, combined, are not amateurs at their craft, nor your everyday nerds. Their popularity is a testament to great creators of television. I also don't doubt the nerd cred of the bulk of the people on the show, yet DO doubt how "legit nerd (WHATEVER THE FUCK THAT MEANS)" some of the cast/crew are.
(Real Nerd? Legit Nerd? I think I will have more of that in another post, but effectively, lets agree that this means someone who is like the people who read & write this blog, eh?)
This means that the majority of the time the show will entertain and make you feel warm and fuzzy through the crews antics and you will come to appreciate the characters. BUT once every now and then, and perhaps even the occasional episode, will make real nerds (or maybe just me) angry and sad that we are still living in a world where Tri-Lambs can only be awesome after a montage. (Speaking of which, I will try much harder to have vocal opinions of THIS later)
Before posting this particular tirade I considered canning it one more time, but the discussion showed up in my feedsm once more due to one of thier most recent episode trailers
In context here, I can see how it's offensive as I have worked for & know personally 3 women who owned & managed comic shops as well as an additional 2 who worked there, and am/was friends with . . . easily almost a dozen ladies who regularly go to comic shops for COMICS (DC, Marvel, Image, Top cow, Oni) since before 2009 (when I met them, some have been going, I'm sure, since before 2000).
BUT, just watching the promo objectively, I think to myself, "hahaha, that's funny. The common stereotype is that girls NEVER go to comic shops, even though I know that's not true. Look at these caricatures enact that stereotype even though 9/10 times I believe these are actual human beings." I most likely think this reflexively because I, and many of my female & male geek/nerd friends, use self deprecating humor consistently in our every day lives. Being able to joke about ourselves and complaining/laughing at our plights and proclivities.
For more fuel and other points of views IM SURE you can FIND SOME all over the intarwebs.
And so, in summation I will take the easy way out and not give any sort of "solution" as I don't have one really. There are too many unknowns as to WHY they "take the easy laugh" and it can't be because they "hate nerds" because many of them ARE nerds and many "nerd stars" who would NOT put up with a bullshit nerd-bash show REPEATEDLY GUEST STAR on the series.
So, I will continue to watch it on reruns, maybe even watch it marathon from episode 1 to end one day to get all the jokes. But I will also know to don my "nerd armor" to protect my heart against jokes that go too far or make me rail at how these characters should REALLY handle a situation with dignity and pride, and then remind myself of all the crap I wrote above.
I guess after all that I am glad I'm not a Neilson home because I would honestly have a difficult time deciding whether or not to give them the ratings as a nerd.
When I first started watching it, I saw some of the later episodes of Season 1 and fell in love. Oh man, this show was the best. Nerdy, smart, funny, comfortable (thanks to the sets from Friends and the cameos from "sitcoms past" like Roseanne & Cybil) and cameos aplenty from Nerd luminaries & heroes abound! It was mainstream and I knew people who I thought were "cool"-yet-nerdy who loved the show and fantasized about the characters.
But then, every know and then, I would see a random episode that would piss me off. Or a certain gag would be funny, I won't dispute that, but would feel dirty to me, or cheap, like they took the easy way out for the laugh and it felt insulting to me.
In short, I tell most people, I love it 4 out of 5 times, and hate it 2 out of 5.
I haven't spoken up about it since I had this revelation as I felt maybe it was beleaguered already and kind of old news and that honestly, what influence do I have over anything that my opinion matters.
I remember some short flurries on twitter about (terribly poorly paraphrased and not quoted at all to original authors) "how BBT is like black face for nerds!" and replied with "STFU the actors are nerds and know what they're doing!" As well as having read some blurbs here and there about the issues of watching the show as a nerd especially if said nerd has really deep seated emotional recall attached to their psyche in regards to being ridiculed for their nerdyness (isn't that all of us, really? as nerds?)
But then I saw
THIS POST linked through The PA Report and read it all the way through. I'm sorry, here's homework and it's a juicy post so if you were hoping for lighthearted quick fare from me, today is not that post, I'm sorry, come back later, it will be here, I promise you.
Read it? or at least skimmed through and got the gist? Well whatever, here we go.
I'm gonna start with devil's advocate as I was, and still feel I am very capable of becoming, a ragging asshole douchenozzle of slavering mad adolescence and low self esteem. I mention that as most humor I enjoyed and still do to this day, is self deprecating. I think I might be trying to generalize.
In high school one of the preferred forms of entertainment among my social group was to insult each other. Through ostracizing and belittlement we further ingrained ourselves into each others company. This was our normal mode of communication. Angry, mean little bastards (in some cases nigh close to literally) and we vented that frustration at each other. I feel it's given me a lot of perspective through my life to never take myself too seriously, to always question everything, and always be thinking critically as a result of years of learning to pick out or intuit the most hurtful and shameful of details in anyone and anything.
I tell you all this because that's why I think I still watch The Big Bang Theory and think it has potential to be a shining beacon of Nerdy awesomeness we want it to be.
Or maybe that's why it's still being written by the people who write it and "are X" whereas "X" is whatever the person being represented is, be it nerd, hip, foreign, gay, straight, actor or person of disabilities. They write/produce/act the show because they are who they are. Trying to make money, doing what they love, making sure they get the laugh, reaching as broad an audience as possible.
As someone who has done A LOT OF THINGS on A LOT OF SHOWS I know how many people it takes ( and how many people you SHOULD have) and how many different dynamics there are between those people and where conflicts arrive and how differently different people at different times those conflicts are passed over or resolved. I don't know if any of that made sense but I'm trying to cut some slack to the folks who make the show as a fellow entertainer.
The people who make this show, combined, are not amateurs at their craft, nor your everyday nerds. Their popularity is a testament to great creators of television. I also don't doubt the nerd cred of the bulk of the people on the show, yet DO doubt how "legit nerd (WHATEVER THE FUCK THAT MEANS)" some of the cast/crew are.
(Real Nerd? Legit Nerd? I think I will have more of that in another post, but effectively, lets agree that this means someone who is like the people who read & write this blog, eh?)
This means that the majority of the time the show will entertain and make you feel warm and fuzzy through the crews antics and you will come to appreciate the characters. BUT once every now and then, and perhaps even the occasional episode, will make real nerds (or maybe just me) angry and sad that we are still living in a world where Tri-Lambs can only be awesome after a montage. (Speaking of which, I will try much harder to have vocal opinions of THIS later)
Before posting this particular tirade I considered canning it one more time, but the discussion showed up in my feedsm once more due to one of thier most recent episode trailers
In context here, I can see how it's offensive as I have worked for & know personally 3 women who owned & managed comic shops as well as an additional 2 who worked there, and am/was friends with . . . easily almost a dozen ladies who regularly go to comic shops for COMICS (DC, Marvel, Image, Top cow, Oni) since before 2009 (when I met them, some have been going, I'm sure, since before 2000).
BUT, just watching the promo objectively, I think to myself, "hahaha, that's funny. The common stereotype is that girls NEVER go to comic shops, even though I know that's not true. Look at these caricatures enact that stereotype even though 9/10 times I believe these are actual human beings." I most likely think this reflexively because I, and many of my female & male geek/nerd friends, use self deprecating humor consistently in our every day lives. Being able to joke about ourselves and complaining/laughing at our plights and proclivities.
For more fuel and other points of views IM SURE you can FIND SOME all over the intarwebs.
And so, in summation I will take the easy way out and not give any sort of "solution" as I don't have one really. There are too many unknowns as to WHY they "take the easy laugh" and it can't be because they "hate nerds" because many of them ARE nerds and many "nerd stars" who would NOT put up with a bullshit nerd-bash show REPEATEDLY GUEST STAR on the series.
So, I will continue to watch it on reruns, maybe even watch it marathon from episode 1 to end one day to get all the jokes. But I will also know to don my "nerd armor" to protect my heart against jokes that go too far or make me rail at how these characters should REALLY handle a situation with dignity and pride, and then remind myself of all the crap I wrote above.
I guess after all that I am glad I'm not a Neilson home because I would honestly have a difficult time deciding whether or not to give them the ratings as a nerd.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
FIRST!
. . . POST! . . . of the year.
Heaven help us, I passed my CBEST, which means I can corrupt . . I mean influence young impressionable minds legally through the California educational system. HA! Or conversely, The little overly-hormone'd bastard that I once was may now torment me as an acne'd avatar of vengeance.
Hopefully to use the boost in income from subbing and potentially teaching full time to beef up my stage combat armory, as well as continue my certification in several disciplines AND get back into musicals. Almost got a callback to a production of Funny Girl in the area but due to a scheduling conflict I will see about auditioning for their next production because . . .
I will be signing up for FOUR panels to host at Fanime this year. So stay tuned for that.
Some fun stuff so far this year you might want to check out . . .
STANDARD ACTION IS BACK YAY!!!! For some previous discussions, here & here.
For those of you who miss my usual music blurbs, I do apologize, I just haven't had anything come along that juiced my ear hard enough to move me back into slinging artists with the same zeal as in the past.
however . . .
NURSEHELLA ISNT DEAD! YAY!!!
She released a second album finally, getit!-getit!
Also, if you like to CONSTANTLY have FRESH BEATS and free? As well as even better beats for a small fee, ADAM WARROCK! Go get all the music, then listen to it. If you do, you win an acheiv that's very difficult to acquire.
And also, as per a couple tweets
NOOO!!! DOC AWK WAS QUITTING MUSIC NOOOO!OOOO!O!O!
but then
SO YAYAY!!!! DOC AWKWARD ISN'T QUITTING BECAUSE HIS MOM TOLD HIM TO NOT BE DUMB! HAH!
So go get some of his music so he knows how much we love his music making abilities!
Heaven help us, I passed my CBEST, which means I can corrupt . . I mean influence young impressionable minds legally through the California educational system. HA! Or conversely, The little overly-hormone'd bastard that I once was may now torment me as an acne'd avatar of vengeance.
Hopefully to use the boost in income from subbing and potentially teaching full time to beef up my stage combat armory, as well as continue my certification in several disciplines AND get back into musicals. Almost got a callback to a production of Funny Girl in the area but due to a scheduling conflict I will see about auditioning for their next production because . . .
I will be signing up for FOUR panels to host at Fanime this year. So stay tuned for that.
Some fun stuff so far this year you might want to check out . . .
STANDARD ACTION IS BACK YAY!!!! For some previous discussions, here & here.
For those of you who miss my usual music blurbs, I do apologize, I just haven't had anything come along that juiced my ear hard enough to move me back into slinging artists with the same zeal as in the past.
however . . .
NURSEHELLA ISNT DEAD! YAY!!!
She released a second album finally, getit!-getit!
Also, if you like to CONSTANTLY have FRESH BEATS and free? As well as even better beats for a small fee, ADAM WARROCK! Go get all the music, then listen to it. If you do, you win an acheiv that's very difficult to acquire.
And also, as per a couple tweets
Haha that made me laugh RT @raychl_rockstar: Welp, @doctor_awkward isn't making music anymore. I guess the world really is ending tomorrow.
— Dr. Awkward (@Doctor_awkward) December 21, 2012
NOOO!!! DOC AWK WAS QUITTING MUSIC NOOOO!OOOO!O!O!
but then
The best xmas present I got this year was the message @doctor_awkward isnt hanging up his mic!
— Lauren Furze (@TheFifthSister) December 29, 2012
SO YAYAY!!!! DOC AWKWARD ISN'T QUITTING BECAUSE HIS MOM TOLD HIM TO NOT BE DUMB! HAH!
So go get some of his music so he knows how much we love his music making abilities!
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