Friday Nerd Round-Up: Ren Faires, Forecasts and NaNoWriMo

This is a different kind of a nerd round-up this week, mainly because none of my nerdiness currently revolves around a TV show. The Man and I have been chilling out with a lot of Burn Notice this week because it’s more cerebral than emotional, and with only a week to go till Wedding Day 2012, less drama is a good thing. Not that we’re having a terribly stressful time of it – just that it’s nice to go, “Neat, look at what Michael Westin did!” for 45 minutes instead of going, “Everything dramatic is happening and characters are crying and now I am too OMG!!!1!!1!”

Just as an example.

So let’s talk about what I *am* nerding out about:

Renaissance Festivals/Faires

Kansas has a lot of fall-time festivals, crammed in quickly between “Holy fuck, it’s hot” and “This wind and ice make me want to die.” Irish festivals, apple festivals, Oktoberfests and – my personal favorite – the Renaissance Festival.

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We have a BAD ASS festival, in my opinion, and I’ve gone almost every fall since I was a kid. They have dedicated faire grounds with all sorts of shops and stages and food stalls, tucked into a tree-tastic valley, and once the leaves start falling, it feels like a frickin’ fairie land. They get some fabulous shows (my current favorites are the Washing Well Wenches), and the festival performers work their asses off rehearsing and getting together costumes. I mean, it’s intensive. I went to a few recruitment sessions once to see if I wanted to participate, and we’re talking every fabric and costume style has to be approved as period-appropriate before it hits the grounds. Seriously.

But their hard work pays off in spades. I could live there all year.

Forecasts

I’m a weather nerd. When I was a kid, I actually got a little kit as a present that had tools to measure wind speed/direction, temperature, barometric pressure, etc. I memorized the types of clouds and what they meant (and then promptly forgot them, so don’t ask me now). I watched Twister a lot (Action!Weather Geeks!). Point is: I still loooooooove to know what’s going on with the weather. Daily, weekly, hourly, doesn’t matter. I look through my Weather.com dashboard several times a day.

Currently, this is what I see:

 

What’s that you say, Gus?

NaNoWriMo

This falls under both nerdy and crazy, to be honest. Despite the fact that I will be getting a late start, I’ve signed up for National Novel Writing Month. I had a big writing-goals talk with The Man the other night, and he helped me cement my plan for the next couple of months. See, I got this project going on with Brenda Drake, which is awesome, but I have some of my own projects as well, of course. I’ve been pondering over the best way to revise PECULIAR DARK and have come to the conclusion that the best way to get a handle on it is to write the second book. And then to write BIG BEN.

Bottom line: I need to rock out some fast first drafts, so I’m stepping up to the NaNo block. I’m all signed up here.

Who else is doing NaNo? Go add me to your Buddies so we can cheer each other on (I mean, outside of Twitter, of course)!

The Nerd Round-Up: Band Geekery, #TheVampireDiaries and Natalie Portman

I went to a small-town high school. My graduating class had less than 100 people, which meant that there were just too few students running around to get pigeonholed into one “type.” In fact, I did pretty much everything except sports. I was an academic geek, a theater geek, a journalism geek and…wait for it…a choir and band geek.

I was in the elite choir and sang in a barbershop group, and I still love, love, love acapella harmonies. Seriously, I just have a little fangirl wiggins. Which is why I of course feel a desperate need to go see the movie Pitch Perfect that opened today. Yeah, it’s pretty much Bring It On with vocal riffs instead of high kicks, but DUDE. I’m so in. Plus, Rebel Wilson! Love her!

As for the band geekery…well, I don’t play an instrument, so technically I was never in band. I was, however, in colorguard (translation: a flag girl), and it always felt like we were much more with the band than we were with the other “spirit squads” (i.e., cheerleading and drill team). I still love a sweet marching band drum cadence and a great halftime show at college and high school football games. Which is why Ohio University’s Marching 110 is right up my alley:

All of this is bringing back some fierce high school memories. I’m actually feeling the urge to write a YA contemporary with zero magical or futuristic shit going on…

On another note…
If you haven’t seen it mentioned once or twice or eleventy times in my Twitter feed, The Man and I finally started watching, The Vampire Diaries, and I’m completely caught up in it. I’ll be honest – I was pretty doubtful when they first announced the show. I read the books back in the day, and I thought (a) there’s no way to make a whole show about a few books whose entirely plotline was an overstretched love triangle; and (b) I’m not really down with The-CW-Does-Twilight.

And then I watched it:

And I was all:

I was wrong. I admit this now. This show is soapy, supernatural crack, and I love it. I think I’m going to do a whole post next week about what I’m learning from them about writing, so I’m going to save my gushing for then, but seriously. Go watch it.

And to wrap things up…
Here’s Natalie Portman rapping on SNL. Because I like to remember this video exists and giggle over it. Oh, Natalie. Way to be awesome.

Question for the week: What was your high school geekery?

The New Who: In Which I Have a Lot to Say About One Image

For the record: I have not seen “Asylum of the Daleks.” The Man and I don’t have cable – we just do everything through Netflix, so unless we resort to less-than-legal methods, it’ll be awhile before I get to see season 7.

However, I’ve of course been paying attention to the hype and promotion building up to the premiere over Labor Day weekend, and there’s something that’s been bothering me. Every time I saw it, I felt a little squicky, but I thought, “Oh, you’re just being silly.” The more I think about it and see some of the reactions coming in, though, the stronger I feel about saying my piece.

I’m talking about this image right here:

Disclaimer: Ten is my Doctor. And coming off the AWESOMENESS that was Donna, the Ponds have not been my favorite companions. I’m ready for them to move on and see what comes next. And while Eleven will never be my Doctor, I do kind of like what Matt Smith does with the character.

My problem with the image above is wrapped up a lot with my feelings toward the changes in the show since Russell T. Davies left and Moffat took over as showrunner. Moffat wrote some of the most brilliant episode under Davies’ reign – of course he seemed like a natural choice to take over for season 5. However, unchecked, his storytelling abilities are starting to cannibalize themselves. He has evolved the show from its origins to a sexy, blockbuster-ish series where everything is HUGE and people RUN AWAY FROM EXPLOSIONS IN SLOW MOTION.

I mean – seriously. Look at that photo up there. I mean, it’s cool and everything, but…that’s not the Doctor I know. That’s nothing of the Doctor Who I love.

And that right there? That’s not a companion worth giving a damn about.

Being carried from the wreckage like a Fainty McFainterson. Swooning in the Doctor’s arms. That tells you everything you need to know about how Moffat has been writing his primary female in the show for the past few years.

Let’s do a quick comparison by taking a look at Davies’ three companions.

• Rose: Whether you like her or not, woman took charge. Season 1? She became the TARDIS. Season 2, she risked herself alongside the Doctor to save the world. Then she crawled her way back across space and time to get to his side and stood against a Dalek invasion.
• Martha: I’m not even a huge Martha fan, but this woman is badass. She grew from doctor-running-away-with-a-crush to a soldier who took charge of her own life. She crossed a ravaged and occupied planet on foot for a year to save the Doctor’s ass and everyone else’s, too.
• Donna: Oh, Donna. My favorite. She always felt not quite good enough, but more than any of the others, she was the heart that kept the Doctor grounded. More clever than she knew, always softer than she let on. When the shit hit the fan, she absorbed Time Lordiness and moved planets alongside her best friend.

Now let’s take a look at our wilting flower up there. Amy has:

• Remembered the Doctor
• Had a baby that’s a ridiculous vixen stereotype
• Squabbled with her husband

In all fairness to Moffat, let’s take a look at his other lady – his “strong woman” River Song, who has:

• Sexually harassed and nagged at the Doctor in a sex-kitten-as-wife role
• Become what the Doctor said she was just because the Doctor said it
• Ruined the whole world so that the Doctor had to clean it up
• Generally degraded in intelligence and natural confidence since we met her character in season 4

Now I must ask myself, which of those groups of women would I want my little sister looking up to? The Well-Rounded Women’s Club who consistently stand alongside the Doctor and help him save the world? Or Sex Kittens Anonymous who have to be carried from the chaos and are mainly valued for how they look in a miniskirt?

Seriously.

Look, Who is Who. I’m going to keep watching and hoping (probably in vain) that Moffat turns around and makes new companion Clara a strong, layered character (and not just his definition of strong, which seems to only consist of “is sassy”). But I do miss the focus and humanity of the past seasons and regret a bit what it’s becoming.

That image? It’s a very accurate depiction of the new Who. It’s just not quite my Who.

Friday Nerd Round-Up

Happy Friday, everyone! We’ve got a little bit of everything in the nerd round-up for this week – a little bit of TV, a little bit of books, a little bit of movies.

TV: TEEN WOLF
The Man and I are several episodes into the first season, and it’s pretty fun, really. It helps that the chemistry of the primary actors is so natural that it overcomes the over-the-top music that tends to wrap up every episode. But my favorite character, hands-down, is Stiles. He’s like the Norm of this show. Every time he shows up, we go, “STILES!” Dylan O’Brien kills it in every scene, nails the comedic timing, and manages to hit the downbeats just as spot-on.

Keep up the good work, O’Brien!

BOOKS: WHAT I’M READING AND WHAT I WANT TO READ NEXT

Sometime between the long work hours and wedding planning and showers and revisions and my project with Brenda, I’m managing to get some reading in. I’m loving Trisha Leigh’s Whispers in Autumn. The world-building is just fantastic – all pleasantly creepy in how beginning-of-Edward-Scissorhands the town is.

I just found out about this one today, but I think it sounds amazing. Desert fantasy worlds and trickster gods? Yes, please!

MOVIES: PERIOD ROMANCE AND ’80S PROPAGANDA
The Man and I watched a lot of movies on Monday afternoon after all our visiting relatives vacated the house. If you were on Twitter, you probably saw me live-tweeting my reactions to Red Dawn and Logan’s Run. I freaking love ’80s movies. So much glorious cheese!

On Tuesday, I worked from home and I turned on the miniseries North & South and got all caught up in the drama and history and sexiness of Richard Armitage. That man can put on a serious smolder, and I have been officially diagnosed with Richard Armitage Smolder Disorder (RASD). There is no cure.

I don’t write romance because I’m kind of terrible at it. I’ve tried, but every romance-y thing I write sounds like stuff that any old asshole could put together, so I leave it for the many other authors who are much better than I. When it comes to reading or watching romance, I’m particular about contemporary stuff, but period romance? Hell yes. Give me some Austen or Bronte or – in this case – Gaskell. I am all about it.

Allow me to demonstrate by providing a video of the last five minutes of North & South – both the Armitage sexiness and the swoonworthy romance:

 

TO END IT: NOM NOM NOM NOM BABIES
Yeah, you read that right.

 

Question for this lovely Friday: What’s your stance on romance? Love it? Hate it? Qualify it? Take it to the comments!

Let’s Deem This the Nerd Round-Up, Shall We?

So I talk a lot about writing here and it tends to be the general focus on the blog. Which…y’know…neat and all, but I really have a lot of other things that distract me beyond writing so I figure I might start sharing some of those shiny items on a (hopefully) weekly basis. And I’ve deemed it the Nerd Round-up. Because of reasons.

In this case, we are decidedly embracing John Scalzi’s definition of nerd/geek wherein it’s not about How Well You Know the Right Sort of Nerd Things^TM and more about being passionate about things and then delighting in sharing them.

When a hipster sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say “Oh, crap, now the wrong people like the thing I love.” When a geek sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say “ZOMG YOU LOVE WHAT I LOVE COME WITH ME AND LET US LOVE IT TOGETHER.”

Any jerk can love a thing. It’s the sharing that makes geekdom awesome.

And we have now started the round-up! Because you really ought to read that article.

How about a follow-up to that with Feminspire.com’s amazing deconstruction and reappropriation of the Idiot Nerd Girl meme. As someone who likes but is not good at playing video games and therefore is not-at-all interested in being both destroyed online as a n00b AND being sexually harrassed while doing it, the whole topic of gender equality, acceptance and not being a fuckwit in the nerd kingdom is one I feel strongly about. I found this article via The Mary Sue, which is one of my favorite sites because it’s sassy and nerdy and great at being accepting of however nerd girls want to nerd just play nice in the sandbox etc.

Continuing the topic of women and nerdery and media and all that, remember when I outlined all that I learned from Buffy? Well, now there is scientific justification for why you should marathon the crap out of it. The Atlantic had an article covering a university study that looked at positive female role models in the media and demonstrated that we benefit from watching strong, powerful women in our media. OMG YOU GUISE TOTAL SHOCKER! Look, on the one hand, I’m glad that people are paying attention to this kind of thing and racking up some solid evidence that strong, layered women are a boon, not a detriment, to stories. I also kind of wish we lived in a society where a study such as this wouldn’t be necessary because it would such a “DUH! OF COURSE THEY ARE!” conclusion. Instead, we get “legitimate rape.”

Other things making me smile this week:

The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Inner Light,” which I just rewatched last night and was struck again by how sad/beautiful it is. YouTuber funfastonelover made an awesome music video compilation for it.

Oh, Patrick Stewart. I have loved you for so very, very long.

Gawker has a video with hands-down some of the best Olympic commentary you’ve ever heard. I’ve watched it multiple times for a good giggle.

I’m wearing my new Battlestar: Galactica t-shirt from TeeFury.com today. I tried to take a photo of me with it on, but it’s very awkward to try to do at work without scaring my office mates, so I’ll just show you their picture:

I’m busy. Very busy. Less than two months till The Man and I get hitched, and we’re having a big shower weekend with a bunch of family, so I won’t be online that much. In my spare time, I’m working on a super-awesome, top-secret project with Brenda Drake, and it turns out we work off one another really well. Which is extremely helpful for said project. I’ve got an editing job to fill in the gaps, and after that, I’ll have revisions on PD that The Man and I are slowly plotting.

And it’s almost fall! Yay fall! C’mon cool, cool weather and Octoberfest beers and pumpkin-y baked goods!

This got kind of lengthy. I’m chatty today. But it’s your turn now, folks, because I have a question: What are you nerdy about?

something lovely in the haunting

I’ve been thinking about depressing stories. The Man and I have finished season 4 of Doctor Who, and for me, it was heart-breaking all over again. After already having to watch The Doctor say goodbye to all of his companions in “Journey’s End,” Russell T. Davies and David Tennant combine their talents in “The End of Time” to produce a Tenth Doctor finale that just rips me up. I actually carried it around with me for a few days like a little chest-weight. It felt like loss.

Sometimes stories are like that, and I don’t feel like I’m alone in that sentiment. Sometimes they just affect you that deeply – they haunt you. I certainly can think of a handful beyond Tennant’s end on Who:’

• Book six of Harry Potter
• The movie version of Return of the King
• Ptolemy’s Gate
• Avatar: The Last Airbender
• Battlestar: Galactica

Some of these don’t even necessarily have sad endings. Avatar‘s ending is quite happy. But part of me finds them depressing because they’re an end (or they at least contain a big ending). In some fashion, when those stories above are over, they’re just over, and I have to let go. Every time I reread or rewatch, I have to let go all over again, and I desperately don’t want to because I loved those characters or that world or all of it and I don’t want to leave them. It’s bittersweet to start those stories over again because I dread the end. There will always be that grief when I turn the last page or the screen goes black.

The Man says that he felt this way about Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. I can’t attest to that just yet as I haven’t read it (I know, I know – don’t throw things. It’s rude.), but I wonder if I will react the same why. It actually makes me hesitant to jump in and find out.

I feel like this is why it’s hard for a book to hit 5 stars for me when I review them. Because this is my measure: Does the ending, even a happy ending, depress me? Does closing the cover feel like loss?

I’m not sure that even my own stories hit that mark, but it’s what I aim for and what I hope to someday accomplish. I aim to depress someone. Sounds rather terrible, I suppose, but I don’t think I’m the only writer out there who strives for this. Because there’s something lovely in the haunting, something to be praised.

You created a world and/or characters that someone connected with so much that they grieve to leave it.

Damn. That would be amazing.

What stories haunt you even after they end?

My love affair with Doctor Who: Season 3

The Man and I have be rewatching Doctor Who from the beginning in preparation for diving into the Eleventh Doctor episodes that are now available on Netflix, and just last night we finished the third season, which I have a very love/hate relationship with. I mean, the other seasons were easy for me to cuddle and adore, for various reasons, and I often cruised right through without any trouble.

But season 3 is complicated. In my opnion, it’s a very uneven season, and The Doctor and I have our issues from episode to episode. We fight a lot. And because I’m a nerd, I feel like I should blog it all out:

The debilitating lows
The first time I was watching the show all the way through, somewhere in the early-middle of season 3, I drifted off. First it was one “eh” episode and then another, and then there were pig-men and “Daleks in Manhattan” and I felt less and less of a driving need to load it up on my queue when I got home. There was other stuff … Dexter maybe or Dead Like Me or rewatching Buffy or BSG. I had traveled with The Doctor right into the arms of the Devil himself, but a string of mediocrity was breaking his captivating hold.

“Fancy a spin?” he’d say, leaning against the TARDIS controls.

“Um…maybe later,” I’d say.

I adored him, but our relationship had lost it’s luster.

The absolutely soaring highs
Just like he always does, though, The Doctor turned things around. I shouldn’t have doubted him. I should’ve known that, as Martha put it, he’d still be able to surprise me after all this time. For Pete’s sake, David Tennant’s charisma alone should’ve let me soar past the bumpy bits because all I really needed to do was make it to the John Smith episodes.

They are my go-to recommendations for Who-conversion. If that pair of episodes doesn’t suck someone in, even a little bit, then I generally give them up for a lost cause. (And also delete their number from my phone.) Brilliant depiction of what it means to be The Doctor, brilliant and creepy evil aliens, brilliant acting by Tennant … Just overall brilliant.

And after those came “Blink,” which I still can’t watch right before bed.

I was well and truly in love again.

The season’s Big Boss and my enduring adoration of him
I think John Simm as The Master is amazing. I love the whole concept of The Master, of how all these little bits of the season – Bo’s prophecy, the Chameleon Arch, Mr. Saxon, the Lazarus experiment – build up into one monster of a man who takes everything good about The Doctor – his intelligence, his energy, his sense of fun and life – and perverts them into something horrible.

He’s fantastic (pronounced exactly as Christopher Eccleston would say it) and diabolical and a perfect foil for our hero. He deserved a bang-up finale where the Time Lords really duked it mano-y-mano.

*sigh* Which brings me to …

The rather silly finale
It’s not like the Doctor Who team doesn’t know how to make a damn good one. Ninth Doctor and Rose and Captain Jack get a big ol’ steaming glass of glowy TARDIS-tini to set the day right. Tenth Doctor and Rose get a dramatic rift between parallel universes and one of the best Who-vian moments in the form of Cybermen and Daleks shit-talking each other. (“The only thing you are SUPERIOR at is DYING!”) Tenth Doctor and Donna get Bad Wolf, time shifts and THREE FREAKING DOCTORS all at once.

And Tenth Doctor and Martha and Jack start off well with theirs, too – terrible machines and paradoxes and a year of terror for the whole planet that really shows what horrors a Time Lord can commit when he has no conscience.

But I think the writers must’ve gotten themselves into a bit of a pickle with the storyline because it’s solved rather conveniently by everyone just thinking thinky thoughts that somehow level up The Doctor into Supreme!Glowing!ForceField!Doctor and – bam! – The Master is foiled. Done and done.

It ends strong, with some good final scenes between The Doctor and The Master and a nice exchange between our intrepid heroes, but that middle bit … Oy, that’s just a bit silly.

The redemption of Martha Jones
Look, I’m Doctor/Rose for a romantic pairing – all the way. OTP. Always was. I also adore Doctor/Donna, but as a friendship, brother-sister thing because they are BRILLIANT in that fashion. Beginning season three meant no more Rose, so I was already pretty sad about that when in came Martha. And I hated her. She was just so whiny and petulant most of the time, mooning over The Doctor and stomping around about it like a child. It was irritating. Every now and then she had a cool moment, but most of the time, I wanted to throw things at her head.

And yet, if the writers of the finale did nothing else, they managed to fully redeem Martha Jones for me in the end. By the time she steps away from the TARDIS, on her own volition, a little sad but also strong and confident and in charge of her future, I love her and who they have set her up to be. I almost wish she were sticking around so I could hang out with that Martha.

It’s something I’ve tucked away as a writing lesson, as well. Grow your characters over time – let them be reforged by the experiences you put them through by the end.

And I don’t really know that this entry serves any purpose, really, except that sometimes you need to have a good fandom treatise, and this one is mine. For now anyway.

chef celina tio brought me soup *squee*

Happy Labor Day to the U.S. folks! I have full plans on doing nothing save writing and maybe reading and coffee drinking today in celebration. The Man and I were at the parentals from Friday night through yesterday morning hanging out with my family, grilling out and drinking beer.

My favorite moment I think is when my dad had had a few and decided he wanted a full breakdown on my writing plan – what I was working on, how I was going to go about getting it published, what I was going to work on after the Old Project is complete. It was kind of funny, really, and he can have all the opinions he wants because it’s awesome to see him so relaxed these days – y’know, now that he’s at a job that’s not eating his soul.

Last night, the Man and I celebrated one year together by indulging in our collective food nerdiness and going to Julian, the restaurant that Chef Celina Tio owns. I’ve seen her on The Next Iron Chef and Top Chef Masters so I’ve been dying to go there, and I really wasn’t disappointed.

On Sunday nights, she does what she calls “family dinner,” which means the printed menu is thrown out the window and she cooks whatever she’s feeling like that day. They give you a rundown when you get there of what she’s been sending out, and you decide what three or four courses you want and any modifications you want made. The Man and I went full throttle – all four courses and no changes.

• First course: Spicy Eggplant Soup with Quinoa and Feta Fritter
• Second course: Homemade Fettuccine with Bacon, Green Onions and Mussels
• Third course: Seared Scallops with Creamy Polenta and Mushroom Ragout
• Fourth course: Wild Berry Cobbler with Lemon Creme Freche

YOU GUYS. This is the stuff I drool over when I watch Top Chef but I NEVER get to eat. I wish I had taken pictures – it was SO pretty and so amazing. The second course was my favorite because I will roll around in pasta any damn day of the week. All of it was very seasonal and local and restrained. Nothing over-the-top – just freaking awesome food. I always tasted each of the plate elements separately at first, and then one bite of everything together, and eating them all at once always made for the best flavor combos.

And the restaurant itself was really nice and comfortable and the staff made you feel like you were just hanging out with them at home. Even more amazing? With the family dinner, they say they want to send you home absolutely full, so before dessert, they give you the option to have more of any particular course. So the Man and I got double the pasta course. OMNOMNOM.

If you come to the KC area, it’s definitely worth a stop. Especially if you’re here on a Sunday and are willing to be adventurous about your dinner.