Games make you better

This seems a much better way to summarize my PAX experiences:

 

• Jane McGonigal’s keynote about how games make you better, teaching us such wonderful games as Chicken Soccer Bowling

Pretty awesome slide

• Jerry’s reaction to “Irn Bru”, a Scottish beverage given as a gift
• Getting free candy from some other guy wearing a Doctor Who scarf since I was wearing mine
• Catching Jane McGonigal to sign her book literally as she was walking out for the airport
• Wanting to kill the 30 people in front of us in the line during Action Castle since they couldn’t handle killing the damn guard
• Sitting through the boring part of the Naughty Dog panel to see Nolan North doing improv during voice recording for Uncharted 3 and getting a free t-shirt and coupon for DLC
• Witnessing the theatrically epic Protomen for the first time
• Almost accidentally stealing a $50 hard drive from JoCo when they sent me away before my credit card cleared (Don’t worry, they called me back when I was waiting for Paul & Storm.  JoCo: “I’m afraid I’m going to have to take you into custody.”)
• Learning to play Last Night on Earth, a cool board game about a zombie attack
• Jerry yelling “Michael!” when he started drawing the female version of the Dickwolf at a fan’s request
• Replacing the normal Jenga tower that was to be round 3 of the Omegathon with huge blocks so the tower was about 3 feet tall when first built.

"What is this? These are Omeganauts! They need OMEGA-BLOCKS!"

• Video Game Orchestra’s awesome performance, and the main guitarist starting to play “Freebird” when someone yelled (don’t worry, only played the opening riff)
• Paul of Paul & Storm screwing up during “Nun Fight” and asking for 3500 people to boo him
• JoCo starting to play “Jesse’s Girl” during his encore when someone yelled it, and Paul & Storm sprinting onstage to help him sing it
• Seeing JoCo play “Mr. Fancy Pants” for the first time live with his crazy recording machine
• Cheering JoCo as he drank water, so he invented a tagline for it “Water: Have you had it?”
• Actually getting to play on the same side of the screen as my boyfriend during our Dungeon Delve
• Playing several board and card games I have played before, but enjoying teaching them to new people
• And finally, the awesome Gabe & Tycho cosplayers: (Jerry’s comment about them was that “Gabe’s hair is supposed to be impossible, but she did it!”)

 

Television, television

A few months ago, my boyfriend, Rob, and I were forced to come up with a system with regards to television.  We each simply had too many shows that the other had not seen, which we found unacceptable.  We agreed to watch one season of one of his shows, and then one season of mine, alternating until we ran out of seasons.  This is not likely to happen for some time.  He plans to show me all of Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, Dead Like Me, and Fringe.  I am working on showing him Doctor Who, Community, Buffy, and Angel.  It’s going to take awhile.

This presents me with the opportunity, though, of addressing my favorite geek television shows.  And so they are as follows:

Firefly

I could not begin this list with anything else.  Yes, it took me a long time to actually getting around to watching this show about three years ago.  Most of the reason for that is the pilot episode being an hour and a half was always daunting.  My thought process was always, “Well, I could start watching Firefly…but I don’t feel like sitting down to watch a full movie right now.”  Finally my friend Nick forced me through it.  And I am so glad he did.  It is a truly spectacular show that I (along with everyone else who has seen it) wish had never been cancelled.  Even though it is thought of as a “nerd” show that takes place on a spaceship, it really isn’t.  Once you’ve seen it, you realize it could take place anywhere.  Joss Whedon just decided to put it in space.  If you have not had the pleasure, take a little bit of time to check this show out.  It’s only 14 episodes, plus the movie Serenity, and it is well worth it.

Doctor Who

I’ve talked about it on here before, so I’ll keep this brief.  This show is incredible.  It has wonderfully written characters and storylines, as well as keeping a balance between fun comedy and intense drama.  It’s very easy to drop into, as most episodes are fairly self-contained.  One of my favorite things about it is that it can very easily switch between a futuristic alien spaceship and a period piece in Shakespeare’s London.  Ah, the beauty of time travel.

The Big Bang Theory

I’m still trying to figure out why people who aren’t nerds like this show so much.  My friends and I at school loved it because we know real people like all the characters.  And obviously we love the jokes about physics, engineering, video games, and scientists.  It’s a fun show if you’re a nerd because they actually get it right.  Most movies and shows portray nerdy scientists to the extreme stereotypes.  This show does that, too, but they take the time to make accurate physics and comic book jokes, which is very refreshing when you’re a socially-functional geek like me.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel

Okay, I know there are a lot of people who strongly dislike these shows along with the die-hard fans.  So I will start by saying I don’t care.  I don’t care when it’s campy, or the dialogue is unrealistically witty, or the plot gets ridiculously convoluted.  It is an enjoyable show with engaging characters that I fell in love with.  Yes, season 4 was a bit of a stumble with that whole Riley mess, but it had some incredible episodes (including “Hush,” which had only 5 or 10 minutes of dialogue in the whole episode).  And yes, the last two seasons of Buffy got incredibly ludicrous with some of the plot points, but I love it.

For now, that’s it.  I also love other shows that I wouldn’t consider “nerdy,” like How I Met Your Mother and Community.  I would have included Lost in the list, but that show started losing it after Season 2, in my opinion.  Can I just put seasons 1 and 2 on the list?  Because they’re great.

So far I’m enjoying Stargate SG-1 and Battlestar Galactica, but since I’m only a season into each one, I cannot conclusively give an opinion, as they could both go the Lost route and change my mind.  Oh, and no joke, I cannot watch BSG without thinking of Jim making fun of Dwight on The Office.

The Return

I promise I’m working on a full post right now.  I made myself make a list of things to write about so I can get back into this, at least for a while.  In the meantime, check out this awesome blog I found:

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com

It’s absolutely hysterical and I love the illustrations.  In particular, I would recommend this post, this one, and this one.  Really anything in that “Best of” column on the right side.  And if you enjoy those, many of her other posts are just as awesome.

I’ll post again in the next few days, promise.