When Did Geek Become Cool?

I'm serious. When did it happen?

When I was in high school, the cool kids didn't play video games. Well, not the games I was playing. The jocks had their Madden NFL, NBA 2kwhatever, and the girls...wait. The cool girls didn't play video games. Ever. They were the ones in the hall griping about "My boyfriend just wants to sit and play games with his friends, and I want him to take me shopping. Blah blah." Oh, and don't get me started about the entire physics class that blamed me for them all getting Cs on a test. I wrote two formulas for linear velocity of something traveling in a circle. Both are correct. One is for if you have the time of a SINGLE, FULL rotation, the other if you have the time for a partial rotation or for multiple rotations. But, I digress.

Now, it's almost like geek is chic. An etsy search for "geek" done as I write this resulted in 24,226 results. The same kind of search for "nerd", 6,615. Wow. I can also walk up to a random stranger and ask them "What is Halo?" and get a response of "A video game" from at least 3 of every 10. And that's if I'm wearing my street, non-geeky clothes. Shoes, jeans, basic or decent looking shirt. Nothing that screams "I play video games!"

OK, I get it. It's cool to be seen around town in those geek chic sunglasses, or sporting a Star Trek shirt. And I know everyone uses emoticons now, not just those of us who spent most of our high school careers sequestered in the computer room, hiding from the sun behind a CRT monitor and a forum handle. And I understand that if I say to you "I can has?", if you're under the age of 30, you probably know it's a lolcat thing. But, somewhere along the line, we went from having the video games section crammed in a spot at Target and Wal-Mart somewhere between the music/movies and the edge of the universe to Target having an Assassin's Creed II t-shirt as the third item (top row, center) when you click "Men's Apparel" and go to Graphic Tees.

Great Weekend, Crappy Morning

So, here I am, procrastinating at work like I'm so good at. Also, I'm realizing what a great weekend I had.

Durok had a Saturday off that isn't an all-day gaming extravaganza, so I sent him off the the Foodmachine tournament. See, Foodmachine does two things: gaming and raising money and donations to feed the hungry. We raised 758 cans in donations from both people who played in the tourney and people who didn't. Durok was a good boy and donated 96 cans all on his own. 758 cans will go a long way in feeding the hungry, I think. A long way.

I also needed Durok out of the apartment so I could work on cleaning, especially since the new Roommate had a friend coming by to help with the cleaning. Girl took control. She walked in, got changed, nabbed cleaner and sponges, and immediately started work on the bathroom. 15-20 minutes later, and it was done, with even the trash can being spotless.. I started slowly but surely working my way from the entryway to the fireplace, cleaning the living room and sorting everything that got in my way.

MACE is Awesome*!

*and sucks at the same time, explanation to follow.

MACE is awesome, so much so that it took me 5 attempts not to spell awesome with a capital "A" in this sentence. Being my first con, I'm confident that I'm a little biased. Just a little. Roundup of things I did at MACE:

• Ran a bunch of Warmachine demos. YAY! I love running demos. It's especially fun when I am demoing for someone who knows only that the game exists, involves minis and dice, and is kinda-sorta steampunk. There were a handful of people who I demoed for who were excited about the game, and wanted to purchase an army of their own. *claps* I love when that happens. It seemed like I was on a permanent happy-high for two days of demos. OK, well, until I almost passed out at the wheel Friday, and until I realized Durok got sick Saturday. But, the rest of the weekend was GREAT!
• Met the famous PG_Devilsquid. He kept me laughing all weekend. And gave me a backrub. I vote the Gunbunnies keep him, no matter how far away he goes. I'll bribe him with cupcakes and cookies and pumpkin bread if I have to.

Privateer Press Forum Search, Boolean Operators, and a Workaround Option

So, I love Privateer Press (PP). No surprise. Great customer service. Great company to volunteer for. Great merchandise. There is, however, one thing I would change: the search functionality on their forums.

At present, each of the multi-keyword searches done on the PP forums behaves as an "or search" as I like to call them. This means "apple orange carrot" produces results containing "apple" or "orange" or "carrot". Not all three. If PP would turn on boolean operators for searching, it would be so nice.

A quick explanations of boolean operators and logic for the programming-impaired follows the cut.

Warmachine and the Wedding

Warmachine (and Hordes!)

We had an awesome tourney this weekend, thanks to Game Theory and one PG_bjorkgnu. One of the local guys dressed up as "very epic Sorsha". Dude can walk in heels! He won (deservedly so) the $25 gift Game Theory gift card for best costume.

Standings wise, I failed as usual, losing all of my games. 2 of my 3 opponents won mini-achievements, though, so I guess I'm lucky for them. On a similar note, my first opponent won the tourney, my second opponent came in second (he had one scenario point, everyone else had none), and my third opponent came in just ahead of me. They were good, fun games all, though, and that's the important part.

Also, on the hobby side of things, I have a laundry list of models I need to mod/assemble/paint. I'm almost done with the first item on the list, Epic Thagrosh. Some small detail work, my typical protective coating, and a quick gloss on the snow base, and he'll be complete. Then I can start modding my Bane Knights. I love what those boys can do, but HATE assembling them. *grumblegrumble*

Last, (but not least by any means!) I have to finish up some terrain for MACE, where the Gunbunnies will be making an appearance in full force. I will be doing 12 hours of demos on Saturday, and attending the fun on both Friday and Saturday. Durok (aka the fiancé) and I also need to book our hotel room.


Wedding
So, now the wedding is just under 7 months out (209 days, but who's counting?). I still have a laundry list of things to do and pay for. The invitations have been chosen, but we need to finalize wording and order them. Our newsletter for family and the bridal party is nearly complete (I need to find our slip of paper for the tux rental goup code, then it can get printed and go out). I'm debating whether or not to send out save the date cards at this point as the invites are going out in February since hotels have to be reserved by the end of March. I also need to set up my first dress fitting appointment, as I have received my dress and shoes. They're both perfect! The shoes are adorable in light blue!

I'm making progress on the cake topper. The cake topper, itself, is going to be two hand-sculpted models, inspired by World of Warcraft (through which we met): Durok's Tauren Druid in Moonkin form proposing to my Undead Warlock in a black dress. I have the moonkin almost ready to be baked, and I want to measure him to be sure he is the appropriate size first. The ringbox is ready for the oven, but I haven't started on the 'lock. I figure I'll get the proportions correct on the moonkin, then sculpt the 'lock at the appropriate height/size based on his measurements.

With an luck, all these laundry list items will be complete in a fairly timely way. I hope.