It’s March. That means that I am no longer committed to “leave the house every day” like I was in February. And yet, have I stayed home all day yet? NO.

Yesterday I needed to go to the bank.

Today I needed to go back to the bank because the first time I was at the bank I forgot to get quarters for laundry.

Tomorrow is the GeekPortland party! (Yay! Exciting! Honestly!)

Sunday… I don’t know what is happening on Sunday but I bet something turns up.

I can tell you that I am exhausted. I can tell you that I’m kind of burnt out on dealing with the weather and the elements. I can tell you that I actively loathe my rain boots now.

I can also tell you that staying at home is starting to feel like a cop out instead of just what I do. I can tell you that I’ve had more conversations and met more people and done more fun things in the last month than I had done in the previous year…COMBINED. I can tell you that there has been a shift from “what should I watch on Netflix tonight?” to “Who can I invite out and what should we do?”  I’m actively seeking out people now.  I’m calmer when I’m out amongst the people. I mean, I’m still me, so I’m still a spaz and a half, but it feels less high strung/stressed out and more just joyful and happy.

I like these changes.

But! I also like that I still feel quite happy to hang out by myself with the cat, some yarn and Netflix. I like that I don’t get itchy if I spend the evening at home catching up on bookkeeping work (like I plan to do tonight).

I’m not yet completely comfortable with the idea of bringing people home–I have yet to say “hey come hang out at my place” but I feel like I could. I’m guessing that will be easier after I get my own place and don’t feel like I’m simply existing in a giant storage unit of stuff that’s waiting to go to a new home.

So! As I said in my vlog yesterday, I think that my theme for this month is just going to be to Get Stuff Done. I want to move. I want to get some projects (that I’ve had rolling around in my head for MONTHS) off the ground. So while I am not about to hermit myself I do want to make the time I spend working more productive. So in a way, I’m having another “get off my ass” month–just in terms of productivity instead of in terms of…literally.

At the beginning of February I decided to challenge myself to get out of the house–even if it was just a quick walk around the block–every day of the month.

Today I can tell you that: I did it!

I have gotten up and out every single day this month.  I’m really glad that I included the caveat of “even if it’s just a quick walk” because it saved my bacon yesterday when the weather was so bad it drove me back inside before I’d gotten halfway to the train. Still though: left the house! Go me!

I am going to celebrate this victory in a big way tomorrow…..by staying inside all day.

Just Because I Can!

I am going to say something that sounds kind of douchey.  I just wanted to say that up front so that you know that I know that what I am about to say is douchey. Are you ready for the douchey thing I am about to say? Here it is:

One of the best things that has come out of the last year or so is the significant expansion of my social life amoeba.  It wasn’t so long ago that the majority of my time was spent alone, with only a cat to talk to and now–well, now there is a plethora of friends out there for…well, whatever I might need…like blog post ideas.

I was chatting online with my friend Rich (who does not have a blog or vlog to link to. Sad face) and begged him for a blog post idea. He responded with six suggestions all within a few seconds.

I blinked at the list for a second and, well, I never met a challenge that I didn’t enjoy. So instead of picking one idea and expounding upon it, I have decided–as a creative writing exercise–to pack as many of the ideas into as few sentences as possible. You know, just for funsies.

So. Just for you, Rich:

When dealing with people who vigorously support anti-intellectualism (you know, like the people who insist that one of the major events of The Revolutionary War was actually about telling the British that they couldn’t take our guns?) it is often difficult to avoid pummeling them about the face with a musical instrument. Thankfully ukelele etiquette dictates that you shouldn’t use such a beautiful instrument for such nefarious means–which is one of the secrets of the British Royal Navy that nobody ever really talks about. Instead of getting violent, it’s better to take a deep breath and walk away because, really–why argue with those who can’t be reasoned with when you could be doing something fun, like building fractal art with legos?

Wow, that was like a Mad-Lib but inside out!

That was kind of fun!

Reach into a bag of cat food and then think “Hey, I just reached in here without even looking. There could be a big fat spider in here and I’d never know until it crawled on to my hand.”

You’re welcome.

What are you doing with your Friday night?

The best experiences are usually the ones you don’t expect.

Last night I dragged my friend out to Incubator (the Incubator?) at Someday Lounge.  We are both friends of The Doubleclicks who, along with The Broadsides from PDX Yar, were in the lineup for the night and, well, we are supportive friends.  My friend, though, is…….let’s just call him Pirate Averse and I? Well, my brain tends to Statler and Waldorf things that….deserve Statler and Waldorfing. I do it in my head but my face gives me away…which makes me dangerous at “My ARTZ, lemme show you them!” kind of events. Still, I promised to be on my best behavior and to act as a human shield to keep the pirates away from my friend and off we went.

And?

It was so much better than I could have hoped.  I knew Angela, Aubrey and their buds would kill it, they always do.  I did not expect to genuinely appreciate so many other performers. We sat back on the couch and listened to ambient music played by Tickle Fight. We watched some beginner Tap Dancers tap their groove thangs to a few bars from The Future’s So Bright.  We watched a few scenes from a play.

Obviously Angela and Aubrey were my favorite part of the show, but my second favorite was a guy named Tommy Twimble who did some Vaudeville comedy for us. Twice. And was ah-mazing. He was impossible to look away from. His timing, the jokes he chose to show (he didn’t talk much), the way he just threw himself into it–I do not remember the last time I have laughed so hard. This is the link to his promo video!

One of the things I’m loving the most about this whole “get outta the house more every day” experiment is the way it kind of forces me to find new things to do and new experiences to have.

Oh and I got to practice my “Human Shield” skills. As far as human shields go, I think I might have a natural aptitude for this kind of work!

We all have our things.

One of my best friends on the planet writes Horror and Fantasy stories.

Another one of my best friends carries a big ol’ torch for classic literature.

I’m into Internet Geekery.

A new friend has been a working illustrator for years and is very passionate about comics.

This blog post is his fault.

Earlier tonight my friend Indy (he designed an 8-bit tarot deck, how cool is that?) (NOT an affiliate link bee tee dub) and I were talking online and the talk turned to how quickly some of the cons we both love sell out now (compared to when they started out). I had been talking about wanting to experience more cons than PAX but not really minding if I missed out on SDCC.  PAX, I told him, is where my people are (when they aren’t leaving me behind to go on super awesome cruises) (not that I’m at all bitter about the lack of funds and its impact on my ability to have that kind of fun).

That’s when I noticed the time and begged him for a blog post idea.

He said “Why are our fandoms so important to us?”

Good show, Indy. Give me a huge topic with minutes to spare in which to write it.  Awesome. But! I asked!  And, well…. Challenge Accepted.

If I had to sum it up in two sentences they would go something like this: Our fandoms are so important to us because they help us feel less alone.  We all have those things that we love and it’s only natural to seek out other people who love them too.

I was thinking about this on Friday when I was at a concert at the Mt. Tabor theater. The theater had graciously allowed some nerd-centric artists to perform before their “big” guys of the night went on. Timing was tight, sets were limited and we all laughed about how one of the best things about being a nerd is being able to go out, catch three bands and be home before ten. My favorite part of the night, though, was discovering the new (to me) people. Just when I start to think I’ve got my own peculiar little fandom figured out, I get hit with something that makes me realize that this world I live in is so much bigger than I will ever be able to understand. You might think that would make feel overwhelmed or maybe even discouraged. It doesn’t. It makes me feel excited.

On Friday night I watched my friends, The Doubleclicks, do their awesome Nerd-folk thing and then turn the stage over to Adam WarRock, a nerdcore artist. The only other exposure I’ve had to nerdcore (which is not a type of nerd porn, shut up you pervs) has been watching Mc Frontalot be awesome at PAX.  I wasn’t quite prepared for the physical reaction I had to the music. Hip Hop is cool and all, but being there in person–feeling that bass pump up through your feet and cause tingles on your skin–I got it.  It’s an experience that I want to have again, to be sure–but not just because of the electricity.

After Adam’s set, Kirby Krackle took over and rocked out for a while. This was old school, play your own instruments, sing without auto-tune, rock music. About superheroes.  And again: the bass thumping up, the static in my ears– I’m not afraid to admit it to you guys, I got a little fluttery. There may or may not have been some downloading going on when I got home, is all I’m saying.

The music was awesome but, like it is every time I go to one of these things, it wasn’t my favorite part.

My favorite part was just being out with my people, doing our thing and not giving a rip what anybody thought of us. There is joy there–pure unadulterated joy–the kind of joy that only comes from knowing that even if it’s just for a single moment, you aren’t just accepted for who you are, you are embraced because of it.

There are going to be skeptics out there who are going to point out all of the trolls and haters who seem to sit around waiting to give someone a hard time for loving what they love or for the way they express that love. And to them I say, very eloquently: “pffft.” Let them bitch. For every one of those jerks, there are fifty more who are looking for you just as hard as you are looking for them.

This is why our fandoms are so important.  It isn’t about the thing we’re fanning.  The companionship is what matters. That’s why people sit online waiting to hit “buy” when they see that tickets to SDCC, PAX, World Horror, Orycon, or whatever have gone on sale. It’s why they spend years working on applications to study classical literature at Oxford. It’s why they spend hours in forums. It’s why they show up on rain-soaked, traffic-borked nights to listen to music that they could have easily heard in warm and dry homes.It’s why they sport team logos and buy tickets to watch various sports (yeah, I wanted the sports thing to be more eloquent too but I don’t know sports like I know other things).

We all have our things. And for every. single. thing. we love, there are hundreds of other people who love it too.

Fandoms prove this.

That’s why they’re important.

So there.

So you know how I’m always doing that thing where I get all excited about a nerd thing that I just went to but I’m not ready to talk about it yet so I just tell you it was awesome and I’ll talk about it soon because I still need time to think about it and process it and also because somehow it got to be nearly 11:30 at night so I need to get my blog post up by the time the day is over so I just write a little something like this to keep you tided…tid….interested until Monday when I plan to go into it in depth even though we both know it will be more like Wednesday because my Mondays are always really full and I run out of time there too so I just type and type and hope you don’t mind that I’m rambling just to fill up space?

I’m so doing it again.

You still like me though, right?

There are some books that you read through in one sitting. You get them, open them and just tear through them because you just can’t help yourself. You want to read it all at once right then. Candy books.

John Green’s books are not those books. With a John Green book you go slowly. You read every word carefully because every word has weight. You limit yourself to a few pages, maybe a chapter at a time. You pace yourself. You pace yourself because you never want the book to end. You want to stay in those pages with those people and when the book ends, so do they. Even when the words make you burst into tears and fling the book across the room because you cannot bear what is happening within them…you go slowly. You savor. [Pick your favorite food] books.

It took me a while to get to The Fault in Our Stars. It didn’t get delivered on the day it was supposed to but a couple of days late. Then I was busy. Then I was distracted. Then I went to Nerdfighteria for an afternoon, listened to the excerpt (with the spoilers carefully removed) and went home and started reading the book.  I finished it a couple of weeks ago but haven’t written about it until now because I needed time to process.

I’m not going to go into details because I hate spoilers more than I hate…hmmm. Maybe Spoilers are at the top of the list.

But whatever. Read this book.

Having read John’s other books I was prepared for something insightful and chock full o’ meaning and heart string tuggy. I wasn’t prepared for heart string yanky. But it did. It yanked on my heartstrings so hard it felt like my heart was breaking…but in a beautiful way–the kind of way that makes you hope you can have it broken like that over and over again.

I’m still figuring out how I feel about the story as a whole.

John has said that this book took him a decade to write. I can understand why.  As a reader it has stuck with me. I can only imagine how heavy it must have been to carry it around as the person responsible for translating it to the page.

You can check it out at your local library or at any book retailer (but it feels better to buy from the Indie booksellers).

Read it! Read it NAOOOOW!

Being social is time consuming, yo. But it’s time consuming in the very best way.

I am officially phoning in this blog post because it is late and I want to get it published on time.  BUT! As I do with my vlog, when I miss a day or phone something in, I get punished. SO. I think I’ll try the same rule here.

So for my punishment I think what I’ll do is let YOU GUYS pick the topic of my blog post for… let’s say a week from Friday, to give you guys time to toss in suggestions and to give me time to write it.  I’ll take suggestions via the contact form through Sunday night, list everything in Monday’s post and then you can vote on which one you want most and then whichever one is winning by Wednesday I’ll write about for Friday.

I thought about just having everybody comment publicly but this seems like a little bit more fun and is more work for me and what are punishments, if not work?

So have at it.

It’s the day that got away.

So many awesome things happened that I can’t yet talk about. Which means that now I know what it’s like to be on THIS side of that kind of blog post. I wish I could say that it feels worse than it does but….no. It feels pretty good.

There were talks with friends and yummy beverages and fun cafes and FANTASTIC IDEAS and lots and lots and LOTS of laughing.

Oh and I got nothing of real consequence done in terms of profitability but in this moment I do not so much care.

This was not the blog post I thought I’d be writing today but you know… I’m not sad about that either. The deep stuff fares best in the middle of the week anyway.