What I'm Geeking Out About This Week - 10/10/14

Welcome to my weekly geeklies!

(^ Shout to Alice from Twitter for the inspiration for this one! ^)

TV is on my brain a lot lately and I just wanted to get some long form thoughts out about some shows that are coming back now and will be back soon! What're you watching?

• Arrow, Season 3

This connects with the next item on the list (which just adds to each ones awesomeness). The new season of Arrow premiered this past week and continued the steady positive streak for the show. Coming off a great second season, the third season premiere promises another engaging season, with the inclusion of Ra's al Ghul as the big bad. Looking forward to what's in store!

• The Flash Series Premiere

I've been looking forward to this show since Barry Allen showed on up on Arrow last season and the series was originally teased. The premiere met my high expectations and realized all my anticipation. Grant Gustin does well as The Flash and the show is unique enough while also being familiar within the DC TV universe with its sibling show, Arrow. I look forward to all the crossovers and the new stuff coming from this show. The premiere definitely did not disappoint! Check it out!

• Parks & Recreation

I was talking about this show at lunch the other day and reminiscing about how great it is. All the great side characters, the classic gags, and quotable moments. The show has been very consistently enjoyable over its six seasons, and I'm almost glad it is ending this next season (which premieres in the spring). Its inspiration or spiritual predecessor, The Office, went on for far too long and had skippable seasons, which is a tough thing to admit about one of my favorite sitcoms of all time. Parks & Recreation is looking like it is going out on top and I'm eagerly awaiting its return!

 Thanks for stopping by!

Book Review: The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth

"...the things that make kids bullied, ridiculed, and ostracized in high school are the same things that others will value in them after high school and will even make them valuable, productive, and simply good people."

I recently finished this amazing book. It is another in the series of geek/nerd related literature I've been digging into, like Nerds, American Nerd, & Geek Wisdom. Definitely check out my reviews for all of them too if you're interested.

This book has a unique hook that I really enjoyed. The author, Alexandra Robbins, coins the idea of "quirk theory" which defines as essentially being that the things that make kids bullied, ridiculed, and ostracized in high school are the same things that others will value in them after high school and will even make them valuable, productive, and simply good people. These would be having unique interests, being creative, and having their own beliefs that resist the influence of popular conformity. Robbins has a great quote from an article written by Walter Isaacson for Wired magazine that really sends this idea home:

'What made Einstein special was his impertinence, his nonconformity, and his distaste for dogma. Einstein's genius reminds us that society's competitive advantage comes not from teaching the multiplication or periodic tables but from nurturing rebels. Grinds have their place, but unruly geeks change the world.'

I love this sentiment. I felt the pressure to be "normal" in high school and realized that I was a nerd and that was a bad thing to the cool kids in high school. I was fine with myself before that but the cruel realities of those four years made me feel less than. Robbins goes into a lot of the reasons why high school is such a gauntlet of trials for so many students. She also tells the stories of several students from different backgrounds from all across the country over the course of a school year to showcase examples of what she is talking about throughout the book. Such topics include identity, conformity, why popular people are mean, and if being popular even makes you truly happy. The arcs that all the characters in the book go through are engaging and riveting. You go through ups and downs with all of them and their lives feel real and authentic. You get their responses to everything that happens to them and I felt compelled to keep reading to see what happened next.

Robbins goes into other surrounding topics to the subject matter of high school struggles like teachers, administrators, and parents. She gives 31 awesome actionable tips at the end for folks to takeaway, which I always appreciate. It's a light read as well, and never feels long-winded.

Much like Nerds, this book is a great overview of why anti-nerd bias exists, what perpetuates it, what it does to us, and what to do about it. I really enjoyed it, and maybe some of that comes from it resonating with me so much personally but I feel like everyone has felt a little out of place at some in their life, whether that was in high school, college, work, or even within their own family. There are valuable parcels of wisdom for any and all here.

Check out The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, and I urge you to share it with any educators, parents, or anyone who struggled with their identity in high school. I know they'll get something from it.

Thanks for stopping by!

3 Ways to Learn From Geek Culture to Build Campus Community

With New York Comic Con drawing near and several other local conventions happening all the time across the country, it got me thinking about how there is such a vibrant community of geeks/nerds out there that come together wherever they are to celebrate what they love, whether that's anime, video games, comic books, television, or movies. Any organization or institution would love to see such a passionate and engaged audience come out for their efforts or programs. An audience that buzzes about things coming up, is willing to wait in line, and has no problem paying for content that is valuable to them.

Transitioning the best of the geek realm to the worlds of higher education & student affairs may be a jump and easier said than done, but I think there are some valuable takeaways to be considered about how to get a community excited and engaged.

Traditions

All good geeks & nerds know the foundational times of their favorite cons and in an age of instant streaming on demand, still make an appointment of viewing their favorite shows like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead or make sure to go to midnight releases of the stuff they can't wait for. Making annual traditions on your campus allow for students and the community to have something to look forward to each year. A yearly week long series of events or an annual concert allows for people to know generally when something is coming and they can build buzz for the thing they're anticipating. There is also power in sharing in an experience like Comic Con. People can share the past years they went and what was special about it for them and there is a connection if you've ever been to San Diego Comic Con, it doesn't matter which year. A common example of this on college campuses is homecoming weekends, where current and former students always have it to look forward to and there is a connection to the tradition itself and what it symbolizes. Everyone there has a bond to the campus and feels like they're coming home. Striving for more events like this for students and our communities allows for a common identity and an engaged audience for our efforts.

Symbols

Shared symbols are another important way to get a community together. Be it the Green Lantern symbol, the Starfleet insignia, Spider-Man's emblem, or the mushroom from Super Mario, all good geeks and nerds know these symbols or any others as a sort of badge of honor and instant geeky credentials. Colleges benefit from this as well but shouldn't rest on their laurels. Maximize these symbols with traditions to connect students and the community with the institution so people will display the school's logo proudly. I've seen a lot of schools go all in on this to build pride in their students and an instant identity in their communities. Just think about the Nittany Lion from Penn State, the block R from Rutgers, or the other simple, commonly known emblems from the big state schools across the country. All they need is their symbol for instant recognition. No words needed.

Connections

Of course, all of this means nothing if you don't get people connected to each other. People are excited to talk about what they're passionate about, so if you provide and venue and context to do this, connections will ensue. I love to talk about geeky stuff I'm into with friends and I love finding new people to geek out with. Something similar to this in the college sphere is alumni of an institution finding each miles away from their collegiate home. They can reminisce about their time on campus and make a bond from their shared experience. Many institutions do this of course but it can be taking this a step further to actively make introductions, provide more contextual opportunities for alumni to connect with each other and alumni to connect with current students like workshops on particular topics or networking events centered on a certain major or affinity. There are numerous opportunities to capitalize on the passion folks associated with your institution have and all of us in student affairs can be the conduit or provide the conduits for this energy to be maximized.

Working through these simple avenues will help create a passionate community surrounding your institution. Your students will have an identity, school pride, and be excited to be on campus. Hopefully these simple concepts are helpful to folks, and that they at least start the gears turning of how to get your students to geek out with you!

Thanks for stopping by!

What I'm Geeking Out About This Week - 09/26/14

Welcome!

Another week has gone by so that means we're here for another spotlight on what's been going on in my world lately. This edition is television centric in honor of the fall seasons of shows starting up. Enjoy!

• Nathan for You

I just started watching all the episodes of this show (also available on Hulu) and I've been loving it. It's dry, absurd, and very smart. It's premise is parodying the shows like Kitchen Nightmare or Bar Rescue where someone comes in with ideas to save a small business. Nathan Fielder comes in with ridiculous ideas but sells them with an aloof confidence. Watching the scenarios play out is hilarious and I highly recommend this show for anyone who loves to skewer reality television (like myself).

• Agents of SHIELD

I've been a fan of AoS since the premiere of season one, and while it has been sort of rocky getting this point, I'm excited for what season 2 has in store. The new season just started this past Tuesday and set up a cool new premise for the show with the SHIELD folks being made into fugitives and having to work in the shadows with no backup or most of their fun tools. The show is evolving with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and I'm eager to see how it develops on its own as well as along with the movies. Check it out if you haven't and especially so if you enjoy the Marvel movies of late!

• Gotham

This show also just premiered recently and is set in the city of Gotham where Batman (eventually) calls home. This is an origin series, much like Arrow, and has a very similar look and feel. We follow Jim Gordon when he's just starting as a detective for the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD) and most of the rogue's gallery of Batman villains have yet to manifest. I'm curious to see what the pace of this show is going to be and what it works toward. Arrow has thrived as its been able to do flashbacks to Oliver's training and journey to be the Green Arrow while moving at a brisk pace in the present timeline to get his team together and evolve the storyline. I hope Gotham doesn't move too slow and gets to the sort of moments like Arrow has been able to achieve and do so well.

Thanks for stopping by!

My Writing Process: From Stray Thought to Full Out Geekery

"I hope people can have fun with what I write but also learn something useful for their lives."

I recently go a shout out from the marvelous Marci Walton to write about my writing. It's meta and I dig it so I figured I'd jump on here and leave some thoughts from my work here for the past year and a half of writing.

I have only been writing weekly since January of this year with my geek out posts and movie reviews, with other stuff sprinkled in between, but 2014 has been a good year for me to get in a regular habit of writing. I've written around 160 posts for this blog, covering all sorts of geeky topics that matter to me. I hope the framework of stuff below helps others get into a flow of writing however they wish about whatever they want.

On My Writing Process 

What are you working on? 

I'm currently working on a few different blog posts about stuff that has been popping up in my head recently just as stray thoughts or from reading books, articles, and keeping up with the news. I'm also working on reading more books to review and keeping my regular schedule of movie reviews from Netflix and geeking out about new, cool stuff. Keep an eye out for some awesome posts coming soon!

How does your work differ from others of its genre? 

I feel my work is pretty unique since I always try to find connections to student affairs in geeky topics, such as Star Wars, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Spider-Man, and Green Lantern. I don't see a lot of that out there in the blogging world and I enjoy being something original and unique. I think we should all seek to do our own thing and not just create an echo chamber for the usual zeitgeist.

Why do you write what you do?

I write what I do because it is what interests me and it is how my brain works a lot of the time. I always joke that I take my entertainment seriously. I look into their subtexts or symbolism to see what they have to say about society or greater topics like choice, love, friendship, family, or any number of other things. I hope people can have fun with what I write but also learn something useful for their lives. I seek to provide value and happiness to my readers!

How does your writing process work? 

I usually just let my mind wander and allow for ideas to pop in. Whether that is something about one particular show or movie or is about a general topic, I usually make sure to draft up a blog post for it so I don't lose the idea. A lot of the time I'll be watching or reading something and find something relevant in it, like with Green Lantern. For something like Star Wars, I was surprised I hadn't blogged about it specifically already. I also just think a lot about topics like positivity, social media, sustainability, or nerdy stuff in general so ideas will come to me all the time. I typically will bounce ideas off my partner to see if they make sense or not instead of always just having them rattle around in my head all the time. I don't have a formal, structured, or detailed process for getting the content together. I just let the writing flow out and then I'll proof myself afterwards. This works well for me but I know it might not work well for everyone! I'm also a very brief writer so I don't feel the need to prepare too much for posts since they're just quick bits and thoughts I want to share.

Thanks again to Marci for sharing her process and for the shout out! I nominate Tom Krieglstein & Jennifer Keegin. Why do you write what you do?!

Thanks for stopping by!

What I'm Geeking Out About This Week - 09/19/14

Come geek out with me!

Hey there! Thanks for checking out what I'm geeking out about this week. This has been a random week of awesome stuff that I want to share with you all so lets dive in!

• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 Trailer

This amazing trailer dropped this week and it is really getting me hyped for this movie. There isn't much else coming out this fall that I'm getting a lot of buzz for so I'm definitely going to look forward to seeing THG: Mockingjay P1 when it comes out November 21. I've warmed to this series of films, especially with Catching Fire being really great. The first movie didn't do too much for me and I was just left wanting basically what is happening in this movie to happen. Catching Fire was a solid bridge movie though and definitely worth a watch before Nov. 21!

• Apple iOS 8

I upgraded my various Apple devices this week to the new operating system and have been loving all the new little features. I always appreciate that every year, with the new iOS updates, I feel more value coming into my pocket at no cost to me. Apple definitely does well by me with their continuous improvements. I can't wait to get OS X Yosemite on my laptop and desktop!

• @midnight

I've been enjoying this late night comedy show hosted by my role model, Chris Hardwick, since it premiered earlier this year. They've been very consistent with the quality and the guests and I find myself watching it every day along with current episodes of The Daily Show. They crush it with their signature Hashtag Wars on Twitter (even when they're off the air for breaks!). I also can't complain with seeing Chris Hardwick more often on my television. He's so great, the show is great, check it out now!

Thanks for stopping by!

Star Wars & Always Seeing the Good in People

"No. You're coming with me. I'll not leave you here, I've got to save you."

"You already... have, Luke. You were right. You were right about me. Tell your sister... you were right."

I have surprisingly not blogged a lot about Star Wars yet, even though it is one of my major fandoms. I've loved it for a long time now and I am cautiously optimistic about Episode VII that is due to come out next year.

A major arc of the Star Wars films is Anakin's journey toward the dark side and coming back to the light in the end to save the day and rescue his son, Luke, from the Emperor. Luke, after discovering that Darth Vader is actually his father, Anakin, can't bring himself to simply kill his father for the good of the galaxy. He knows Anakin is a good person who did bad things, not just simply an evil person who must die without any chance for redemption. Others see Luke as foolish for believing he can save his father, who others see as too far gone. Luke commits to his stance to save his father AND the galaxy, not willing to give up simply from the pressure of others. In the end, he is able to accomplish his goal and give Anakin a brief moment in the light before he dies from his injuries inflicted from his rescue of Luke.

If you've seen Return of the Jedi, you know the whole sequence I'm talking about and if you've seen the whole saga of films, you know Anakin's arc from the six films. While there is a lot of valid gripes folks have with the two trilogies (myself included), the thing I love about the story is Anakin's character arc, going from a wide-eyed kid on Tatooine, to Jedi Knight and hero of the Clone Wars to a broken man (literally and figuratively) and back to his good natured self that has always been there deep inside.

A major takeaway here that I really appreciate is not giving up on people. People make bad choices, we all do, but that doesn't mean they're bad people. People make choices based on their past, what they're feeling now, and what they want for the future. All of this is subject to flux based on who they surround themselves with, their environments, and who may not be around them to help them make positive choices. I'm a empathetic person, and I always see things from others' perspectives. It can be a gift and a curse, but I would never want to not feel anything for others when they're suffering, confused, lost, or misunderstood. Working in student affairs, and especially in residence life, I see this a lot. I can't ever assume everyone is hiding something, has ulterior motives, or is doing this to hurt me personally. I prefer to stay positive, give people chances, and trust people until they give me a reason not to.

This lesson from Star Wars is a big one, I feel, in my ongoing effort to reach zen status (or perhaps Jedi Mastery?!). I don't ever want to be someone who is just mad at the world and thinks everyone is evil, selfish, and immoral. I think when people are given the opportunity to do what's right, they'll do it. We just have to trust each other, love unconditionally, and put good energy out into the universe. Maybe then we'll be able to work together to build a more decent, good, and just galaxy here and far, far away.

Thanks for stopping by!

Book Review: Geek Wisdom

“What was your religion when you were growing up?” And my answer was: “Uh, science fiction, pretty much.”

I've been wanting to review this book for a while now, as I read a few months ago but I just haven't gotten around to it. This 2011 book is by a collection of author who curate awesome geeky quotes from movies, television, and literature to explore the morals and lessons that make up the nerd lexicon.

Everything from Princess Bride, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man, The Twilight Zone, and much, much more is covered here. Each quote has a short page or two's worth of extrapolation where the real world lessons are found. The writing is fun, light, and engaging, with a lot of great life advice woven in. The writing is broken up by broad topics; quotes about the self, conflict, the future, the universe, etc.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

"With great power comes great responsibility."

"Not all those who wander are lost."

"No matter where you go, there you are."

"Ideas are bulletproof."

"There are weapons that are simply thoughts. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy."

I take my entertainment seriously. I look into the symbolism, character arcs, lessons, morals, quotes, and implications of what happens in my favorite stories, no matter what it is. A lot of people are dismissive of geeky pursuits but I've always known that there is power behind what we enjoy. We learn, grow, and create community around what we love and this book helps capture some of that spirit.

I definitely recommend Geek Wisdom for all those geeks and nerds out there looking to find the deeper meaning behind their favorite geekdoms or even those not yet acclimated to all these wonderful worlds. Maybe it will get you excited to check out something new!

You can find it at Amazon, or any of your favorite booksellers.

Thanks for stopping by!

Movie Review Monday: Star Trek - The Motion Picture

Welcome to another edition of Movie Review Monday!

This week's movie comes to us from Netflix (note: it went off the service 9/1/14, but it seems to keep popping up on streaming services and is one I've wanted to watch for a while) and is 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

I've seen pretty much all of the Star Trek feature films, and I have to unfortunately admit, this one is another miss. It just doesn't seem like the best parts of the series translate well to the big screen. This movie isn't terrible, it just seems to be confused and sort of full of itself.

My first big complaint with this movie is a long winded sequence of Kirk riding around outside the Enterprise. I understand that this was the first time it was seen on the big screen but just for the sake of pacing, it seemed to be overdone. Pacing was generally a problem with this movie, and it was made over 30 years ago so there is that but not all classic films has this issue. The best ones stand the test of time.

All of the original cast is back for this adventure, an eager Kirk is ready to take the helm again, a beleaguered Spock is looking for logical enlightenment, and the rest of the team is their usual selves. The main plot of the movie is intriguing enough, but the only real pay off is at the end with an interesting twist as to the reveal of what this alien entity is that the Enterprise crew is trying to stop from destroying Earth.

Perhaps I can't give it a completely fair shake since I saw most of the other Star Trek films first but this one just feels tired and overdone. It doesn't have the heart or interesting moral dilemmas of the show and doesn't really come close for me to any of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Maybe I'd be more invested if I watched the original series, but I haven't so my stance is that this one is a skippable entry in the film series.

Come back next week for another movie to check out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Green Lantern and What I Learned From 'The Blackest Night'

Recently I just wrapped up reading the main story line of 'The Blackest Night' event in DC Comics. The story centers around the Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, which is one of my favorite superheroes.

The basic premise of the story is that the emotional light spectrum (based around the ROYGBIV framework) has split. Where there is usually just the green light, powered by will, there is now lanterns for all of the aforementioned colors. Yellow is powered by fear, red by rage, blue by hope, orange by greed, violet by love, and indigo by compassion. This creates an imbalance, more or less, that realizes the prophecy of the "blackest night" which would extinguish all the light in the universe and end the chaos this splintering of the emotional light spectrum caused.

Long story short, this plot involved a lot of discussion of emotions, their causes, and their validity. Certain lanterns are obvious opposites of each other and an emotion like greed, turned up to 11 (so to speak), is just chaos. In the end though, all of the different colors are able to come together to end the rampage of the undead husks of the "Black Lanterns" that are destroying life all over the universe. They come to an understanding of each other at times, or at least an acceptance that for some, the power of their ring is the one controlling them, making them a single-minded embodiment of greed for example.

This was my big takeaway and my favorite element of this story line. People feel what they feel, we shouldn't judge them or assume anything about what they're feeling. Sometimes rage is the appropriate response to injustice. Sometimes hope is the hardest thing to do for someone. Sometimes fear can make good people do misguided things. In the end though, it furthered my love of the Green Lantern to know that no matter what else is going on, you just need to have the will to carry on because there are people that care about you and it gets better.

I highly recommend all of the Blackest Night story. It's action-packed, involves the whole DC Universe, and has this great undercurrent of emotional stuff. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Thanks for stopping by!