Some Final Thoughts on San Diego Comic Con

San Diego Comic Con is the pinnacle of geek culture. Pretty much everything you can think of in the entertainment world is somehow represented there. From Power Rangers to Galactus to Buffy to Peanuts and Charlie Brown, and everything in between. It's a great melting pot of fandom, with people coming from all over the world to take part, but there are some elements that were distressing to me as a newcomer, much like with national student affairs conventions.

The Verge did a great piece that gave voice to some of my concerns, and The New York Times highlighted well the convention experience as a whole. The long lines, the shallow industry showcases disguised as fan service, the overwhelming crowds, and the exclusive, fairly expensive nature (especially with airfare, meals, and hotels) of it all just seemed very privileged to me. The convention lost some of its immediate luster to me after spending a few days there. Maybe I just didn't do it right, but I didn't feel like the point of it all was to spend half of your hard fought ticket to SDCC waiting in lines for a short session that essentially was just a studio patting itself on the back for how great their thing is (and then the trailer you saw being released the next day online). There was a lack of depth that annoyed me to most of the proceedings. There was so much going on it's not surprising. There just wasn't a time or place for it.

Maybe the whole event has become a bloated version of what it was originally intended to be and it will eventually deflate back to a more focused event. Or maybe that is what the other conventions are for. Nowadays though, a lot of comic conventions seem to be trying to model themselves after SDCC, becoming huge entertainment industry showcases versus a focus on panels, artists, and personal interactions. Also, it's a whole other post in itself about the problems SDCC has with consent and cosplay.

Don't get me wrong, I had a great time. It just feels like it could have been even better. Maybe if I get the chance to go again it will be different. Maybe I'm expecting too much or maybe it's all just not for me. The crowds were frustrating for me at times, I couldn't buy a lot of stuff even if I wanted to (I didn't that much), and I got confused many times about just how the convention worked. Maybe I should have done more homework and preparing.

Well, either way, until next year, here's to the memories and the weird, wild, and one of a kind San Diego Comic Con.

Highlights From #SDCC15

From July 9-12 I was at 2015 San Diego Comic Con (SDCC), which was my first time ever attending this mecca of sorts for geeks and nerds (and my first time ever in California). It was a whirlwind trip that had a lot of great highlights for me.

First off, the weather in San Diego was beautiful for the weekend I was there. The sun was out, it wasn't too hot, and overall it was just a great setting to be able to explore and experience the area. I did a lot of walking over the few days I was there, which wore me out a bit and gave me a solid sunburn towards the end of the trip.

On the first day of the trip (Thursday), I walked to the convention center to check in and just walked around the show floor and other off-site events to see everything and get a lay of the land. I eventually made my way to the San Diego Central Library for the panel I was helping to cover. This was definitely a huge highlight and it was what enabled me to come out in the first place so I'm really happy I was able to sit in and take a bunch of photos of the session.

After that panel, I crashed back at my room since I had to wake up early that day for my long flight from Boston. On Friday, I did more exploring, got tickets for a session, popped in for a panel, and then played the new Star Wars Battlefront game on the PlayStation 4. The Nerd HQ was demoing the game and it was incredible! I would contemplate getting a system to play this game it was that good. Then I went to the Nerdist Conival to see of their speakers (mainly Felicia Day). Both the Conival and Nerd HQ were free to anyone to come in, no SDCC badge was required. They both a lot of fun activities and it was nice that they were there as accessible options for fans to enjoy.

My favorite session that I got to go to was the Nerdist Podcast Network Podcast Jam (an unwieldy title to be sure) that featured Jonah Ray, Matt Mira, Pete Holmes, Kumail Nanjiani, Emily Gordon, and Sandra Daugherty. There was also a kid who does a podcast apparently on the network (The Mutant Season) that I had no idea who he was but it was sort of neat to hear from a young person and the impact doing a podcast has had on him. I had never seen all these people in person, much less all at the same time. It was hilarious! They provided some neat insights as well from their collective years podcasting. As a fan of the medium and an avid podcaster myself, it was definitely a major highlight of the whole con for me.

Saturday was spent checking out a local beach and dipping my feet in the Pacific Ocean (a life goal for me). I came back to SDCC later in the day to check out Adam Savage from MythBusters do a Q&A session as well as a session from the folks at Nerd for a Living about doing just that; how to get into nerdy creative fields like costume design, movie makeup and effects, comic writing/illustrating, etc. I have appreciated the work they do for a little while now so it was cool to be able to check this panel out.

After all that, I packed up and got to bed so I could head out the next morning for my flight back to the East Coast. It was an awesome trip and experience that I did not expect to have so soon in my life. I'll try to capture more of my in depth thoughts in a future post, but I just wanted to share some of the cool highlights from the trip with you all. If you haven't gone before, I hope you get the opportunity to do so at some point. It's an amazing experience to behold, and will definitely be memorable for you for your own awesomely geeky reasons.

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Recap of #SDCC15 "Geeks in Higher Ed" Panel

"College should be more like Comic Con..."

I had the distinct pleasure to attend the fifth annual geekEd panel at San Diego Comic Con this year. I've seen similar presentations that have been done by some of these professionals at ACPA, but this was an excellent showing by this group and featured many professionals I have never heard speak before.

The panel was moderated by Brian MacDonald and consisted of Brian Arao, Alfred Day, Michelle Kittel, Patricia Nguyen, Liz Krulder, and Emily Sandoval. It was really great to especially hear from Liz about her experience as a student at Fresno State University who worked on developing their first "Geek Week" type event for their campus. All of the panelists came from different institutions and organizations, which itself brought a diversity of perspectives. The panelists also had very different backgrounds and outlooks on what made engaging the nerd/geek community so important and how the mediums of comics, video games, and entertainment can be used to start important discussions of current events.

A few of the big, actionable takeaways I had were about making the college environment a place where students (and staff) feel safe to be themselves and be unabashedly into whatever they love. This could mean allowing for geeky decorations in your office, encouraging and celebrating clubs of all sorts for students to find their niche, and making being smart cool. So much bullying and unfortunate discouragement happens before students get to college, but we can make our campuses a welcoming place for all so that in this pivotal time for students to find themselves, they can figure out who that really is without any of the baggage they picked up beforehand.

I've created a resource page for the folks that presented, which will be continually evolving to include new books, videos, and articles that are relevant, as well as contact info to connect with some of the awesome geeky professionals out there doing good work in this space.

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Movie Review Monthly: June 2015

Welcome to this monthly wrap up of my weekly movie reviews!

This month had a wide array of movies available to stream instantly via Netflix. This month had just a few movies, mostly comedies and an enlightening documentary . Each week I hope to bring you a fresh new review of a great movie in the Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime streaming library. Recommendations are always welcomed!

• Pump
• Nick Offerman: American Ham
• It's a Disaster

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Mass Effect & Living With Our Choices

Mass Effect is probably my favorite video game series of all time. While many others come very close, Mass Effect has everything for me. It's an engaging, thought-provoking sci-fi action role-playing game where your choices matter. Characters live and die, planets are saved or left to ruin, and you personally benefit or sacrifice based on the decisions you make. With the fourth iteration in the franchise, Mass Effect: Andromeda, officially announced, I thought it proper to look back on the current trilogy and talk about making choices.

What I love about the Mass Effect series is how the choices you make starting in the first game carry over into each of the subsequent entries. Not a lot of other games do this. It heightens the stakes and forces you as the player to make tough choices. Just like in life, we have to make our choices and live with them, moving forward despite what we may have done before. It can be impossible to fully know what the ramifications of our choices will be so you have to do what seems best at the time and work with what you have in the future.

It can be paralyzing for people when faced with tough decisions. We can never really know what the "right" choice is, but we can make the most informed choices we can, and make them so that we can justify whatever we decided to do. We shouldn't make choices that we'd regret or that we don't fully believe in, or at the very least, can put forth reasoning for why we did what we did, perhaps being obligated to by work or family. As long as you feel they are valid reasons and you don't feel like you're being coerced or there is a large gap between your values and the values of whoever you're making your decision on behalf of, you can move forward with a clear conscience.

In Mass Effect, you can usually take a lot of time to choose your own path, but in real life, we have to make a lot of choices quickly, so we aren't afforded the luxury of infinite contemplation. The game taught me to go with my instincts, go with my heart, and to not overly obsess over what I should or could have done. I have to just do what I think is right at the time and learn from any mistakes I make along the way. I think those are some pretty valuable takeaways we can all use.

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Summer Movie Musings: Inside Out

I had the pleasure of finally seeing Inside Out in theaters this past week. It's been one I knew I wanted to see for a while now, even before it's release and positive buzz. The concept really intrigued me from the first teaser I saw and I was definitely not disappointed by the final product. It is a unique, fun, cute, and insightful film about emotions and growing up, which is something that is universally poignant.

The premise of movie follows a young girl, Riley, as she moves to San Francisco from her beloved Midwest home with her parents, and the struggles that come with that transition. We see the emotions play out inside her head throughout the story, which is obviously where a lot of the fun and heart comes from. The movie does a really good job setting up how the concept works with the different major emotions; anger, fear, joy, disgust, and sadness (as seen above from left to right). We see how memories are made, stored, and forgotten within the film's setup, which is very entertaining yet also very in depth and spot on. I'm not an expert on emotions and what not, but from what I understand (and have heard elsewhere) Inside Out takes the premise seriously and gets a lot of the science right.

While the movie is not as laugh out loud funny or heart-wrenching (at least for me) as some of the other Pixar movies, I appreciate it for its originality and insight. We could use a bit more empathy in our lives and this movie has a great message about that as well as how to process our own feelings and how to help others process theirs. A great moment in the movie showcases how sometimes we just need to feel our sadness and not just pretend it doesn't exist.

I definitely recommend seeing Inside Out if you get the chance before it is out of theaters. If not, it would absolutely be worth a rental. I'd also love to hear your thoughts if you saw it!

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What I'm Geeking Out About This Week - 07/03/15

Greetings!

Here's what was going on in my world this week:

• Massages

I celebrated my one calendar year work anniversary this past week, and it unintentionally coincided with some self-care I took upon myself. Part of this was getting a professional massage at a local spot, which was sorely needed (see what I did there? Because I was sore...). I always carry my tension in my shoulders and lower back, which isn't helped by hunching over a keyboard most days. I'll definitely have to look into making this a regular thing or maybe even doing yoga on a regular basis. Something would be helpful to ease my tension and keep me loose and nimble.

• Counseling

I went to speak with a counselor this week as well. It is a part of an employee assistance program, where staff can get a few free sessions with local counselors to work out any issues they're having, which is certainly a nice benefit of working at my institution. While I won't go into the details of what I talked about here, just suffice it to say that it is so important in taking care of ourselves to not forget about our mental health. I always value the opportunity to work through things with someone whose job it is to listen and help. Massages are great too, and both are crucial to staying well, physically and emotionally.

• 4th of July

I have the pleasure of coming down to the Greater Boston Area this weekend for the Independence Day celebrations to visit my partner, Jenn. There seems to be no shortage of festivities around here and it is always nice to hang out here and spend quality time with my partner. We're seriously considering moving ourselves down here in the near future so it is always cool to check out the scene here and continue to vet it as somewhere we could settle down and put some roots down. Be sure to check out my Instagram for photos from the weekend!

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Going to #SDCC2015? Come Geek Out With Me!

For any and all going to San Diego Comic Con this year, I'm helping promote and cover a panel consisting of some awesome student affairs colleagues from across the country talking about the geek community within education.

Check out the program page here for more information, but I'll be there snapping photos, taking notes, and will also be at the convention for the rest of the time too, so expect some coverage of my experience (a first for me!) right here the week after the convention.

Hope to see some friendly faces there!

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Reflecting On All the Things I've Done

I have felt at some points in my life that I have had a tragically mundane, ordinary life that hasn't had much good or bad happen in it. It was a depressing thought to consider, especially in my darker moments, but recently, I've taken time to sit down and put my mental energy to work writing down all my "greatest hits" (just like with Charlie Pace in one my favorite television shows of all time, Lost). Moments in my life, big or small, that I'm proud of. They include the places I've traveled, the accomplishments I've achieved, and the small things we should all think of more. Here are some specific examples of what I'm talking about:

• Smiled so much my face hurt
• Presented at a national conference
• Visited Las Vegas, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC
• Gone to a comedy club
• Gave good lives to my pets

Some of these things are concrete experiences in my life that I am happy to have done. Even if they aren't that special to others, they're special to me. Others are things I look back and affirm for myself. People can have regrets, doubts, and think negatively about the experiences in their life, but I challenge myself to think positively. I can never know for certain if I gave a good life for my pets, they can't tell me, but I choose to believe that I did based on the memories I have and the things I did for my two wonderful dogs I had growing up.

I'm keeping a list of experiences I want to partake in before I turn 30 in a few years. I'm making intentional efforts to accomplish them and keep updating my list of "greatest hits". It will help me in my darker moments realize that I have lived a full life and have the ability to take actions to make change my life.

I encourage folks to do something similar to this to keep the positivity flowing in their lives. Things like this or a happiness journal can let us be more mindful of what happens around us each day, and what brings us joy.

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Movie Review Monday: It's a Disaster

Welcome to another awesome edition of Movie Review Monday!

This week's film is the 2012 black comedy It's a Disaster, starring David Cross, Julia Stiles, and America Ferrara. It was directed by Todd Berger.

I have seen this movie on Netflix for a while now and just recently got around to it. I had no idea what to make of it before I started watching, and I will say that I was pleasantly surprised in some ways, and in other ways, I was frustrated.

The movie focuses on a couples' brunch between four different pairs all with their own problems. Cross and Stiles are just getting to know each other, others are long married and struggling to keep it afloat, others are not able to move forward towards marriage, and all of this happens in the backdrop of a massive chemical weapon being unleashed on the city they're in, forcing them to stay inside and work out their respective issues. The premise was intriguing to me, enough so to have me watch the film. The acting in the movie is also good, being very subtle, real, and funny at times. The thing that frustrated me is how petty and mean some of the people are. That started to be a stretch for me. It also takes a weird turn in the end which I did not feel was good or well done for the most part.

This easily could have been a worse movie. It's not bad, but it just seemed to miss the mark for me in the end with all things considered. I feel like it would strike others completely different, with them either loving it or hating it. I can see it's appeal, but it also started to lose me.

You can check out It's a Disaster streaming right now on Netflix.

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