Silver Phoenix Homestead: On the other hand...

...I'm also a geek.

As is The Viking.

I've been a geek as long as I can remember. A nerd, too. Mom and Dad say I taught myself to read at 18 months. I have had my nose in a book every single day since then. I didn't play with dolls...I played with dinosaurs.

I always made good grades all throughout school, only As and Bs from grade school through college with one C in a math class...okay, maybe I'm not THAT nerdy.

And no, I am not a "hot" nerd girl. I was when I was in college, but no longer. I'm hot to my husband, and that's all that matters.

(Psssst...boys...very few real nerd/geek girls are as hot as Felicia Day. Just FYI.)

Don't we all just wanna LARP her queen...
(from Supernatural)

Yes, that's TWO Supernatural references so far in this blog. Told you I was a geek.

I can readily blame my geekiness on my dad, The Croatian. The Croatian went to see Star Wars (the REAL Star Wars, mind you, not this Episodes I - III crap) during the first week it was open with my uncle, then the two of them dragged my mother to go see the film again the next day. (And she loved it too, God bless her.)

He made us watch Star Wars when we were kids AND listen to the soundtrack on vinyl (yes, children, a RECORD, an LP; mega-old school). He also made us watch the Indiana Jones films. He made me read The Hobbit and watch the original Star Trek when it was on reruns. When Star Trek: The Next Generation was announced to start in September of 1987, we all sat down to watch the very first episode as a family, and I continued to watch the show with my dad whenever possible.

Through all of this, he fueled a monster of geek and nerdiness. And I'm glad he did.

I was born in the 70s, when all that Dungeons & Dragons stuff became hype and cheesy sci-fi films were blasting across the screen. So geek was being a fan of dragons and unicorns, space exploration, reading a lot of fantasy novels, watching He-Man and She-Ra and ThunderCats, playing with the ORIGINAL My Little Ponies and Transformers.

The 80s created more geekdom when the age of at-home gaming systems arose. My brother had an original Nintendo Entertainment System, complete with the included gun and a copy of Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt.

Ah, the pixelated memories...

In 1989, we saw a geek story come to life on the big screen--Batman, by Tim Burton. While Superman had of course been on the big screen before Batman, I believe that the film Batman started a true geek movement in mainstream moviegoing. Thereafter, the 90s saw an epic television series known as The X-Files, which I think truly began the change from TV being mostly sitcoms and real-life dramas to exploring fringe science and more unusual subject matter. These films and TV shows started getting recognition for their quality storylines and superb actors...and suddenly, geek was A-list material.

Love ya, Scully.

Nowadays, it's mainstream and hip to be a geek. It wasn't that way when I was a kid. I didn't necessarily hide it, but it certainly was a niche group to be a part of. While my friends and I didn't play D&D or LARP, we did have Star Trek: TNG parties, complete with costumes. We also had movie marathons with the Indiana Jones films or Star Wars films (Episodes IV - VI, of course), all played on our VHS player.

Sorry, Beta: YOU LOSE.

I once watched an interview with Bruce Campbell, my favorite B-list actor of all time (he's on My List--more about that later), and he talked about how B-list has become A-list. Of course, I can't find the video now, and I can't even remember who was interviewing him. But he talked about how a movie about a man who dresses up like a bat and plays vigilante is truly a B-list movie. A movie about a boy with mysterious powers to manipulate the world around him and grows up to study this power and fight with a sword made out of light is a B-list movie. He explained how all these B-list movies are now A-list movies and are lauded by critics and awards shows alike. It wasn't so 20 to 30 years ago.

Well hell-LO Mr. Fancy Pants.

In my humble opinion, it is really great to see the geek/nerd world getting strong recognition. I truly believe that the geek/nerd world has now become empowering to intelligent minds everywhere. Superheroes, alien conspiracies, supernatural hunters, apocalyptic futures: these worlds actually explore science and spirituality that isn't explored in other genres, and it boosts kids and adults alike to actually learn more about not only the world around them, but also about themselves. It also gives us permission to embrace things that we are socially taught to suppress. Just because

And quite frankly, some of the people who have truly changed the world...