Irrelevant But Awesome

I realize it won't be 2011 for a few more hours, but I'm impatient. Happy New Year! May 2011 be both irrelevant and awesome and all of the other words we say to each other as the Ball or Acorn or whatever drops tonight. And as I look back on this past decade, it weaves together so much that I can't even remember it all. Age 11-21 is such a time to recall. I did not know then what lay ahead of me at age 11. I did not know what people I would meet and what was in store in my life. I could not even fathom it. I imagine who I ended up would be a shock to younger me. I certainly am a lot better writer than she was. I certainly have more confidence to be what I am. I'm glad to be done with my troubling adolescence, and to be able to move on with my life from that. In those 10 years I did so much, and met some many people. I learned new ideas and concepts and learned to define myself my own way. I became a nerd and a feminist, and I can't remember life be...

So I just got back from seeing TRON: Legacy with my little sister and let me tell you, it was AWESOME! I've heard about people whining that they spent way too much time with the effects and graphics and didn't put enough into the story. To those people, I would like to say this: Have you even seen the first Tron movie? This new film has 100% more storyline. And it was executed well. Yes, the graphics are brilliant and beautiful and I wish I lived on the Grid, but at least they gave this story some umph. Not gonna lie, I had a bit of a spaz moment when Daft Punk showed up. They were just chillin. It was fantastic. The good: Quorra is hott. And apparently, my lil sis thinks Sam is as well. I want a light cycle. And the action is amped up to the maximum. Kung-fu mixed with breakdancing infused with techno party rave. Also, there are some really awesome direct lines from the first movie that you would only pick up on if you've seen it. Brilliance. The bad: This movie, much lik...

Its been a big year for The Empire Strikes Back . As the movie celebrated it's 30th anniversary this year it's success and legacy has been honored with special screenings, Interviews with cast and crew reminicing, and biggest of all Celebration V taking place in Florida earlier this year. Well Empire is finishing up the year in style by being preserved as part of the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Every year 25 films are selected to be preserved as an innfluential part of American culture. In addition to Empire another George Lucas creation was selected. His early film Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB was also selected. That's this movie which was one of his student films that he would later adapt into his first feature. The complete list of films added to the Registry this year can be found below. Airplane! (1980) All the President's Men (1976) The Bargain (1914) Cry of Jazz (1959) Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (1967) The Empire Strik...

Whenever I think of the Necronomicon I think of Evil Dead, more specifically Evil Dead: The Musical. However, the Book of the Dead, is not just related to that franchise. The horror genre seems to be full of necronomicons. And one such mythos is Lovecraft. I got a copy of The Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H. P. Lovecraft as part of a Secret Santa exchange the blog and a number of our friends did earlier in December. It's a fairly large book, 37 stories of varying length. I've been reading it on and off since then. I've never read Lovecraft before. I am, as most nerds are, aware of Cthulhu mythos. Cthulhu love is pretty hard to miss among the nerds. Enough that I took the effort to wikipedia it a few years back to understand. And I had the fortune to read "A Study in Emerald" by Neil Gaiman which is a strange, wonderful mix between Sherlock Holmes and Lovecraftian mythology in a collection of his short fiction. (Here is a link to the story on G...

Merry Christmas Eve! I justed wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays for today and tomorrow. Fingers crossed for those of us in North Carolina. There's a chance of flurries tomorrow...the first white Christmas most of us have seen. I hope everyone gets some fabulous nerdy presents from their families and friends. I hope everyone's had the chance to give some fabulous nerdy presents to their families and friends. As the only nerd in a non-nerd family Christmas is an interesting time. Having to explain the significance of a t-shirt or other nerdy item can be difficult. Especially when it's a gift they bought me. I got a Doctor Who shirt from Mom and Dad last year. Mom didn't have a clue and Dad only had a vague idea what it meant. But I think it's nice that even though they don't understand, they're still willing to get me what I want. At the moment Mom is giving me a funny look for still watching Syfy's Christmas Eve Next Generation marathon. ...

You know what your getting when you go to a Kevin Smith movie. A lot of talking, minimal action, and usually tons and tons of profanity. It will be a crude comedy but will still more than likely fit nicely into the feel-good section on the shelf. Well not anymore. Kevin Smith's new film Red State got it's first trailer released today and don't let the audio of Smith laughing at the beginning fool you. The rest of this trailer shows a wild departure of anything you would expect from his past works. Funny? No. Intense? Yes. Camera movement? Lots of it. And some guns too. Because it's a teaser trailer there's not a whole lot of plot revealed (read no plot at all) but it sets up the feel of a movie that could be a great horror movie from a previously comedy only director.

Even if you're just an occasional sports/football fan, chances are, you came across this gem over the course of the past few days. But just in case you haven't, here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufkHymQEuqc I've always had an interest with offensive lineman, they're the biggest, clumsiest and most unathletic masses of human imaginable but they're also the smartest men on the field and most crucial to a team's success offensively. I was watching this game with my family and I felt an immense pride for the larger folks (although, I'm not THAT large) and for a brief moment, I felt like even I could have at least a shining moment in the NFL...and then I had another cookie.

Here's my Raw Thoughts (you get it? the show's called Raw? Raw Thoughts? Anyone? Anyone?) 1. I can't tell you all how hard I laughed at the opening Christmas Carol demonstration with The Miz. Also let me point out that its great that Miz and John Morrison is taking the spotlight and them getting a chance. Also, it frees up all the huge names for the Royal Rumble match, best move the WWE has made since the release of Matt Hardy or letting JBL quit....or letting Batista quit...have I mentioned how much I like the current WWE roster? Also, Merry Christmas 2. I would really enjoy Ric Flair-like storyline where Daniel Bryan respectfully retires William Regal because we all know its going to happen in the near future and the two obviously think a lot of each other...plus the WWE is pretty sure Regal isn't going to bail and show up on TNA. 3. Can we "take care" of the Bella twins? 4. I'm not sure if the segment with Cena and Vickie Guerrero was planned that way b...

So this time of year I can pretty much think of nothing but Christmas lights, snow, and really cool nerdy holiday-related things. I've found and re-found quite a few of those this year, as well as made a few things myself, so I thought I'd share. This first one isn't specifically holiday related, but authentic Buttered Beere sure sounds delicious on a cold winters night. Turns out, Harry Potter's famous favorite drink was actually made with ale and butter back in the 1400s. This post is chock full of interesting historical info too! There's also a great selection of nerdy Christmas songs, my favorite of which include: Why yes, that last one is "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" sung in both Japanese and English by the Japanese cast of Digimon in character. I had downloaded it onto one of our computers long, long ago, and could not resist finding it again. It's so amazingly weird and terrible. "Missle-too" is my favorite part. In honor of the...

Welcome to the first official entry of what will hopefully be the world's most respected wrestling column. Tonight we discuss the main points of this month's pay-per-view, Tables, Ladders and Chairs (affectionately known as TLC). -The Ladder match went as follows: Kofi jumped around impressively, (a)Dolph Ziggler (from now on, he will referred to as Mr. Ziggles) put his body on the line, Jack Swagger just kinda threw people around and Vickie Guerrero is a Sea-Donkey (not all that relevant to the match but I felt it was necessary to point out. WWE seems to have peaked early as this match could easily be the highlight of the night, interesting moves by all three men and an even more interesting ending with Kofi and Swags dropping the title and Ziggles managing to scramble away with it and retaining his championship. -Ooo! A DIVAS TABLE MATCH???? (For the kids playing at home, that would be sarcasm) For anyone really wanting to know what happened in this match, I apologize, I did ...

I didn't plan to update for a few more days, but this has to be shared with other people. http://tattuinardoelasaga.wordpress.com/category/introductory-material/ Did you know that George Lucas based his Star Wars story almost entirely on an mostly-forgotten Old Norse saga? This guy is going through and translating what scholars have of the saga into modern English. :-)

Its always interesting to see what people think about comics in the newspapers. While some comics such as The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbs are beloved by many other comics may have much smaller groups of fan. In fact depending on how wide a comic's circulation is, many people may not know about it at all. For example, I myself had never heard of Over the Hedge before the movie came out because my newspaper didn't cary the strip. One strip that is known by most, regardless of how often they read the "funny papers" is Garfield written by Jim Davis. Some people love it, some despise the strip. Some only think its funny when Garfield is edited out and John changes from a humble pet owner to a paranoid skitsophrenic who wanders around his house talking to himself. (See Garfield minus Garfield for a whole new look at Jon. ) But it turns out that Garfield doesn't need outside help for the strip's story to be about strange mental delusions. In October of 1989, for o...

You should have been expecting this one. It was only a matter of time before I'd bring out racial problems in nerd culture. More specifically this is about the lack of racial diversity in comics and comic movies and how we are failing to fix that problem. Donald Glover of Community and Derrick Comedy fame started an internet campaign to be the new Spiderman a number of months back. Donald Glover is a black man. The role eventually went to an up-and-comer Brit who is white. Here is a lost opportunity for racial diversity in the superhero movie genre. I want to start with this. First, asking for a white character to become another race for the sake of racial diversity is not racist. The other way around, making a non-white character white, is racist. BECAUSE ALL THE OTHER CHARACTERS WILL BE WHITE. This is a non-issue now people. And the flimsiest of excuses I have heard. The race-bending fiasco of the Airbender movie is only one example of a non-western-inspired cultu...

I, Jason, would like to officially congratulate my fellow Awesomites and now UNCG Alumni (that sounds really weird...) for their epic graduation this morning. I know I talked to all three of you at the thing but I wanted to let the world know how truly awesome we are. For those that do not know, Megan, John, Chris, and myself all participated and were honored in UNCG Graduation Commencement ceremony this morning. We are now officially out of college with our Bachelors degrees and heading off on the road to big-kidhood. As terrifying as that may be... Anyways, congrats guys!

So for those of you who feel like you haven’t seen any of the movies nominated for Golden Globes, you may be far more interested in the television side of things. And here they are. Best Drama Series 'Mad Men,' AMC 'The Good Wife,' CBS 'Boardwalk Empire,' HBO'The Walking Dead,' AMC 'Dexter,' Showtime The first thing to take away from this list is the fact that The Good Wife is the only show nominated that is not on a cable network. More and more it’s becoming clear that for thought provoking and quality drama your going to have to turn to cable. Best Comedy Series 'Glee,' Fox '30 Rock,' NBC 'The Big Bang Theory,' CBS 'Modern Family,' ABC 'The Big C,' Showtime For the second time Nurse Jackie gets a nomination despite being not at all funny. Not that it’s a bad show, it is just very much a drama. Also where is the alarming absence of Community? The show that should be leading the pack in this category is not...

This is a few weeks old, but given we are 12 days (of Christmas) away from the Doctor Who Christmas Special I felt it was appropriate. And this is the first year we in America can actually watch it (legally) the way we're supposed to. So I'm super excited! Best Christmas present ever! I mean, really, if Craig Ferguson is going to this trouble, it has to be awesome. "It's all about the triumphs of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism." That really should be on a shirt or something. (See I said it would be something happy.)

Ah the Golden Globes. The first sign that award season has begun. The time to look back over the movies of the past year and frantically try and watch them all before the night of the award ceremony. Like every year, the Golden Globes are always the first peak as to what movies and shows will get recognition over the next several months so without further a due, lets take a look at the nominations that we have. BEST PICTURE: DRAMA Black Swan The Fighter Inception The King’s Speech The Social Network All right Black Swan and The Social Network were to be expected with all the positive buzz they have been getting. It’s also nice to see a summer flick like Inception getting the nod. Don’t know what it’s chances of actually winning are but a nomination is a step in the right direction. Surprised that there is no nomination for True Grit but nice selection of movies all in all. BEST PICTURE: COMEDY OR MUSICAL Alice in Wonderland Burlesque The Kids Are All Right Red The T...

Just so you all know, I don't have time to watch "Clone Wars" on tv when the episodes air, and the Star Wars website doesn't post them until a week afterwards so I am perpetually a week behind. It is unfortunate but necessary... Anyways, this past weeks's episode was another Senate episode. While this particular story arc is fascinating in showing the politics behind the war (something nerds like us can appreciate), these episodes with now clones and no Jedi get a bit redundant. Also, this whole jumping around the timeline thing would be confusing if I were just watching the show on television. The one that aired last week (this most recent one) takes place mere days before the episode in the middle of last season where Padme's Rodian Senator friend, Onaconda Farr, is poisoned. I can catch the time jumps because I'm following them with the episode guides (Which can be found here http://starwars.com/archives/index.html?k=t_6a21c8ec-f2fc-406a-aa97-2dd5ae9fd...

So as you might have noticed, our header is full of very varied nerdy things. I thought I'd go through and tell you a little bit about all of them in case you had no idea what some stuff is. From left to right, top to bottom. U.S.S. Enterprise , of course! Quite a lot of us like Star Trek, except for Jason, who takes stock in the "you can't like both Star Wars and Star Trek" idea. Harry Potter Broom . Almost all of us love Harry Potter, I think. We had a big group together for Deathly Hallows Part 1 , which was amazing by the way. Randy Orton ! Chris and Joel especially are big WWE fans. TARDIS Claire and I are huge Dr.Who fans. We're so excited for the Christmas special! The Joker I think is pretty self-explanatory. All of us are comic book/movie nerds in some way shape or form I think. Calvin and Hobbes ...because Calvin and Hobbes are awesome. Perry the Platypus Phineas and Ferb is amazing! If you don't watch it, you're missing out. N64 Controller ...

WARNING! Spoilers for Tangled ahead! I'm a big Disney fan. Like have my own Princess Aurora themed Tumblr Disney fan. So when I started seeing trailers and concept art for Tangled, I was excited. I did enjoy Tangled , really I did. The music was great, Rapunzel and Flynn were both awesome, all the minor characters were hilarious, and the art was beautiful, but there were some looming problems with it that just kind of made me want to punch something. Mother Gothel is evil, and not in just the over-protective sort of way that she lets on to in the trailers, but honest-to-goodness, going to kill people to get Rapunzel's hair sort of evil. My question is why exactly does she have to be? I know that the witch in the original story was evil, but Disney bends over backwards to make these characters have personalities, to add songs to the storyline, and to make the storyline not creepy. So why does she have to remain flat and evil? Basically, I'm just tired of non-biological pa...

Please forgive the late-night, post-getting-home-and-being-bored inspiration that is this post. Also forgive that I have yet to discover how to put a page break in. This is too long and too serious to take up the whole page. Sorry. It's no surprise to anyone that the stereotype of the nerd/geek is male. More specifically a male who is so completely incapable of functioning in society they can't get laid by 'chicks' or make friends with 'normal' people. They thus live with their parents in a state of man-child existence alone with their games/comics/collectibles/porn collection/etc. They spend their lives alone or surrounded by other rejects bullied by the 'functioning' members of the society. Their failure to 'grow up' and attract 'chicks' and their failure to interact with other men is emasculation. They cease to be men if they ever were to begin with. I can see how fighting that stereotype would cause someone to have a chip...