This post is a response to Five Fandom Friday, a thing started by the Female Geek Bloggers community where we write about the top five of a given thing on a different theme each Friday. This week's theme is nerdiest things!
I've done a number of nerdy things throughout my life. "Nerdy" and "geeky" have always been part of my identity, so it's hard to distinguish sometimes what is from what isn't "nerdy." For example, I remember creating my own newspaper when I was about ten, out of articles I'd collected on multiple subjects, mostly from encyclopedias and magazines. Would that be considered "nerdy"? Maybe by some people. Did I think so at the time? Nah.
In my adult life, I've done a number of things that may or may not be considered nerdy. Here are my top five:
1) I went to grad school for psychology. In-depth studies, long nights, no sleep, few fun outings, working for free, an external hard drive full of research for my doctoral dissertation, and a heap of stress, along with a few health problems, all in the name of pursuing higher education and being able to do what I love doing at the end of it. If that's not nerdy, I don't know what is.
2) Cosplay. Not only do I try my best to attend Comic Con each year, but I love getting into cosplay for it! Not only did I get into cosplay, but I created it myself from scratch. Multiple times, for SDCC. It has been a creative outlet and is usually a cathartic, although sometimes frustrating, journey throughout; from gathering materials, finding patterns that are close to what I wanted to make, putting it all together, trying it on for fit over and over, and finally wearing it. Aside from all that, it is a lot of fun to be spotted by others who are part of the same community or who are cosplaying a character from the same works. The nerdiest cosplays I have done have been Ciel Phantomhive from Black Butler (three times) and Aradia Megido from Homestuck (twice).
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| This is Aradia Megido. Yes, I wore gray makeup :P |
3) Read all the books in a series I'd just discovered. Reading is one of my favorite activities, and I'll sometimes try to promote reading among others I know by introducing them to Free Comic Book Day or books that I think they'll like. Back in November 2011 I discovered the Legend of Drizzt series by R.A. Salvatore. He started the series in the 1980's, and there were about 27 or so books published by that time. By December I was on the sixth book. Within a few months, I'd read the rest of those 27ish books and was waiting for the upcoming one. When I was done with those I read the short stories.
4) This ties into #3; I wrote my longest blog post on the psychology of my favorite character from the Legend of Drizzt series, Artemis Entreri. So far, that is the longest post I have written, the most time-consuming, and one of the ones I've been the most meticulous with.
5) Writing books in my free time. I don't get a lot of free time, but when I do, I like to write. Sure, I am not the best writer. I went to grad school for psychology, not literature. But I've always liked stories. So I have a few unfinished books saved on my computer. Maybe one day I'll finish them and self-publish, as I don't think they'll be good enough to attract an actual publishing company!
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| Me, fangirling really hard but still trying to be a proper lady. You never know who you'll meet at SDCC! ^_^ |
I absolutely love the last picture! Even more so since I'm a huge Firefly fan (who isn't?). Now I'm jealous!
ReplyDeleteWriting is such a good hobby. I used to do that a lot, but I find I don't have much energy for it when I have to write much for my studies. I hope you keep doing it; practice will only make you better. :)
I was SO excited! I told him I loved him in Firefly and he just said thank you, then I made him laugh but I don't remember what I said. And thank you for your encouragement! I know what you mean about not having enough time. It was like that for me too when I was in grad school. I stopped reading and writing for fun. I hope you find time to do it again! :)
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