#244: Geekdom, Part I

Podcasts Galactic Watercooler
#14

That hair style made me wish I had “Chuck” hair from 17 to 25 years old :wink:

On FF7, that game was one of those unbelievable moment in my Vidéo Game “career”. When I’ve played that game I was not speaking english and had to buy an English to French dictionary and I was translating the story as I went.

On the Aeris, the fact that she died die (as opposed to “comic book die”) made that scene even more powerful. That made the advent children movie even better. The scene where Cloud “hallucinate” her made me all sad.
Now I’m gonna have to play that game again.

#15

Sounds like you might be thinking of Drawing on the right Side of the Brain. Mrs. Amberite has gifted it to a couple friends who were looking to start drawing, and the upside down bit rings a bell, but there’s likely other books that mention it.

http://www.drawright.com/

#16

That may be it. The title sounds right. The cover would have changed since I last saw it.

Regardless, if it has those kinds of exercises, it’s worth your time. Get that.

#17

The crew discussed cooperative gaming on single player RPGs. I used to do this in college because I can’t used a controller, so I’ve never owned a console. Still, some console games pique my interests. One was FF7 before it was released on the PC. I’d go to a friend’s room in college and watched him and another friend take turn playing.

I missed the Aerith part, but they told me about it. They didn’t use walk throughs or strategy guides, so they actually restarted the game hoping they could prevent her death by making different choices until they heard by word of mouth there was no way around it.

I had a third friend tell me in a sad voice, “But, I have 10 Phoenix Downs…” when he wondered why he couldn’t just revive Aerith. People were really attached to her and her death remains probably the top ten, or maybe even top 5, biggest gaming surprises ever. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a reaction from grown men over a video game character since.

I’m echoing Nightwing on Final Fantasy Advent Children. But, I’ll say any and every fan should watch the extended edition called Final Fantasy Advent Children Complete. Please note that Complete is an extended edition of the Special Edition. It’s 26 extra minutes versus 23 extra minutes. Trust me, you want Complete.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385700/alternateversions

A special edition called ‘Advent Children Complete’ was released on June 2, 2009, and adds 26 minutes to its runtime.

#18

[LEFT]This ironic interjection was brought to you by the letters G, W, C and the number 69. IYKWIM.[/LEFT]

#19

(:

#20

These have been on the forums before, but here they are again.

//youtu.be/24kO4xZZ7dI

//youtu.be/qQmvkvgMs6Q

And the awesomeness that is George Takei.

//youtu.be/UACK93xF-FE

#21

One of my favorite geek moments in recent memory happened a couple of years ago and is particularly relevant to BSG. I often go to the local bookstores, grab a graphic novel or gaming book, buy a coffee at the cafe and just chill and read. One evening, there was a sewing or knitting circle of women in the cafe area. They appeared to be in their late twenties or early thirties and they were just knitting and chatting. At first glance, I would have called them young housewives.

After a few minutes of sitting nearby and reading my book, I caught enough snippets to realize they were talking about Battlestar Galactica. Not Grey’s Anatomy. Not Dancing with the Stars. It was the moment when I realized, we’re not the outcasts anymore. Geekdom has been steadily becoming mainstream. It’s a wonderful time to be a geek.

#22

First: I want to tell you one of my favorite childhood memories. I had a friend named Anton who had a Super Nintendo (I had a Sega Genesis. Sonic Rules). On his birthday, he got Final Fantasy III (Japan’s VI). I remember staying all weekend at his house as we played the crap out of that game, fully invested in the story.

With that said, I want to say that I have felt alone for the longest time because I. Have grown up loving movies with a passion rivaled by few. I have never closeted my love because I never thought it an issue. It was only after high school was I told that I was weird for loving movies older than I am (and ones that required reading, too). I also love sci-fi/books, video games, and can recite Star Wars and Harry Potter chapter and verse.

While I could find a few dudes who game, no one appeared to have seen or want to see Seven Samurai or The Day the Earth Stood Still. No one appeared to read anything by Herbert or Bradbury. No one seemed to enjoy FFVII except gaming mags and Funcoland employees.

I found GWC by accident and I caught the bug when I realized that there are others who enjoy what I enjoy and yet have something to say. It was like listening to friends (yeah, I said it!). This community has in the last year made my life a lot less lonely at a time I needed friends.

So thank you Chuck. Thank you Audra. Thank you Sean. And the biggest thank you for everybody on the forums who have made me feel welcome and I only hope my graditude is shown in the friendship I show to you.

Although more people need to play Fallout. It’s an RPG Halo!

#23

Sephiroth is such a prick. Yeah, the only two console games Iplay are either the latest Final Fantasy (started with FF7 on a PS1) and Gran Turismo. I remember playing FF7 and damn if this scene wasn’t the most gut wrenching thing that would happen.

#24

Hey, great 'cast.

I love listening to George when he co-host on the Stern show. He rolls along with the gay jokes and even makes his own (It was more funny when Artie was there.) The thing I like about him is he knows how to have a joke about it and have a good time and doesn’t get offended by jokes, but when someone is being a dickhead and is saying stuff with hate behind it he has every right to get offended and good for him. (Like when Artie crossed the line & he gave him a dressing down)

Also, here are 2 more great trailers:

//youtu.be/U2k-vIQ1xKw

//youtu.be/oH2wJyFGl74

Oh, and Sean, did you get those pics I sent you of Haydn?

#25

Sucker Punch: Dragons, chicks, modern weaponry, and helicopters…ALSO, prop fighters/bombers AND Dirigibles.

I’ll be in my bunk.

On another note…a guy gets his head on TWO different Captain America posters in the photoshop challenge and he doesn’t even get a podcast mention? DENIED! What’s a guy gotta do to compete with an Ewok, Shepard Book, and the Predator head?

~Shooter Out

#26

Since we’re going on about geekery, I have to admit that when I was doing my A-levels (Chemistry, Physics, Biology) then later doing a degree in Aerospace Engineering (All fueled by Space:Above and beyond, star trek,etc), we used to go to a place in london called the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

http://www.rigb.org/registrationControl?action=home

Sean - If you register and then search for Carl Sagan, you can watch the Christmas lectures of him from 1977-1978. I’ve been to those lectures and it is SOOOO amazing.

When I was younger, our kid entry into science was Johnny Ball (he had electronic kits, chemistry sets), did you guys have a US equivalent. I keep seeing John Adam sets all over amazon.
You really do learn alot, and every christmas in the UK (or at least they used to), they show the lectures on TV…Very inspirational.

I have to say that Space was my big thing when I was younger, loved it…Not to sure how I feel that I don’t do it for a job, I think I like it better that it’s an interest rather than getting burnt out on it.

DRAWING - I’m actually pretty good at drawing people if they pose, I remember shocking myself that I actually produced a pretty damn good drawing of someone posing in art class when I was younger, my heel is that when it comes to head proportions, I can never get it right, I always end up like the guy from beetlejuice.

FF7 - Seeing that again with the music really brings back the memories, I have to say that I was a bit apprehensive with Dragon age Lialana as she seems to fit that helpless girl. FF7 is also my benchmark for good story telling. Don’t tell me you didn’t feel chills the first time you saw the dragon come out from behind the moon or casting Knights of the Round. I might have to go back and play FF8 onwards. It was this game that made me a Sony boy. I wish that FFX and onwards were worth it.

Other geekery, I used to pretend that my toy hammer (with skipping rope tied to it) was Thor’s hammer and my frisbee was Captain America’s shield.

I have to thank my dad as he’s the one that got me into sci-fi with his ringworld books, and watching the old classics such as War of the worlds, and even watching stuff like Land of the Giants, Lost in space,etc.

I’ve always been proud of my geek status and I don’t think I’ve been made to hide away because of what I like, I guess i ignored the people that didn’t like it and hung around the people that did.

Although in secondary school, people did know my passion for quantum leap (never missed an episode). I was the expert for a long while :).

#27

I loved the things said about being respectful of other peoples geekdom. Ive been a comicbook and sci fi geek since I could understand what warp factor 5 meant and I have buddies who were into it with me and then they eventually got more into girls and so did I but I never gave up on my geekdom. I think one thing that has made geekdom grow is the internet. Because of the internet you can find a group of people who know who Luke Skywalkers wife is. Or know that Spock never melded with his farther.And with the creation of podcasts fandom has grown to the point where people have been made fans of geeky things because they were able to be introduced to so many good geeky things. Now I have been guilty of the Twilight bashing but i do it to my friends and they bash me for more trek obseession and I think as long as your goal is not to stop someone from loving something that its not really bashing.

#28

Yes, as I think you are correctly saying there is a difference between good natured ribbing between friends and hate bashing. I think you can tease the hell out of folks (esp. friends) if it’s a back and forth thing and be fine - one of my favorite pastimes actually. It’s when there’s hate behind it and you are taking the wind out of someones sails that it becomes uncool.

You and you’re homies obviously understand how that works. I wish more people did, a better time would be had by all. :slight_smile:

#29

Me and my friends have found each other through communities like the one you have here and I think that attracts people who know what it is to have something you love not be popular among other people. Like in my family Im one of the few geeks so they look at me weird sometimes. I do my own comicbook podcast and even though ive been doing it for 2 years now when Im asked about it my own mother doesnt really get it but because she loves me she respects it. It is hard in dating when your partner doesnt get it and you want to talk about what you love and the person your with just doesnt understand you.

#30

I do have a geek story that I think is great. At one of my many jobs over the years I reecived an e-mail from a customer who had a bad motor. He worked at Tenagra Observatory. I immediately caught what I was pretty sure was a reference to “Darmok”, the popular STNG episode where a language is spoken entirely via metaphor. So when I responded to my customer, I told him I was sorry that his motor failed, specifically “Shaka, when the walls fell.” My customer responded very enthusiastically and I was happy that instead of finding geek communities that would catch that, I ran into another person like that “in the wild.” It’s like a geeky thing (an observatory) that had a secret geek password built right into their name, to let other geeks know that they were certainly among friends. Definitely a fond geek meory of mine. And an awesome name for an observatory.

#31

A note ofn twilight bashing: I never liked the series and I gave it the efforet. The first movie was so silly (in my opinion, of course), I started laughing when Edward became sparkley. But then I understood that this wasn’t a movie with me in mind. It was intended for people (most notably young girls) who want a gothic romance with the assurance of safety. It’s fantasy is equivocal to a having a pet dragon without the threat of being eaten (having openly shown love to How to Train Your Dragon, who am I to judge?).

I think the movies (and especially the books) are slow, not very engaging , and really do not allow us to know more about these characters outside of their roles in the story. Because I do not like this series doent make this series any less worthy to be admired by others. I just wish I could see what others do in it (the same feeling I have about Donnie Darko).

As Sean and Chuck talked about being a critic, I really want to say that Anton Ego is right and why Ratatouille was on my best of the decade list. That’s also why in my reviews I try to be more constructive in my remarks like I am talking to the filmmakers myself. But I am guilty of snark when something really offends me (The Passion of the Christ comes to mind).

It really bothers me that there are people who don’t even try to give an educated opinion on the things they scorn. It reminds me of what happened to Monty Python’s Life of Brian where the film was deemed anti-Christian even though Christ was only in one scene outright and implied in another. It pained me seeing sn on-air debate with Cleese and the British Archbishop who never saw the film. Ignorance is smoke: it can change shape in a heartbeat and be deadly in consetrated amounts.

#32

I know that for me there is a ray of sunshine I feel when you connect with someone who is into something that you are into whether its sports,cars,comics,technology,etc.

#33

I love that! Is that your own quote or is it from something? Regardless, I’m putting it into my memory bank.

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