"...and Now for Something Completely Random"

I don't really have a plan for this week. (Don't worry though I planned this lack of planning last week after realizing that I wanted to do a less structured article.) Join me on my journey through the mind of a geek at 80wpm on a magic carpet made solely of dark roast espresso. I'll skip my normal preamble about what I'm going to be talking about because I don't actually know yet...actually I lied I do have one small thing in mind. It's pretty damn awesome. (Thanks to all the people that let me know about this event, you know who you are.)

So, I don't know if you've heard about the religious fanatics known as the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC). (The website is down at the time of writing or I would link you directly to their insane world view. )These people have, so far, been protesters with signs that attempt to be hateful but instead don't make much sense and give people in general a bad name. Normally I don't write about religion or politics unless I'm forced to by evil professors or people with an opinion who can't stop talking about it. However, what I do talk about (and why I have an author's status as well as unsurpassed regality on this website) is geek culture. Let the relevance commence!

These crazies are protesting ComicCon for religious reasons. I can't quite figure out what it is that God could hate about a gathering of cosplay/fandom nerds but, according to WBC He does. Unfortunately, I can't provide coverage from here in Asheville, NC, but what I can tell you is that the people at ComicCon won their initiative rolls against the WBC and are commencing sneak attack with the WBC's weapon of choice: picket signs. You know what they say: Fight ignorant hate speech on at stick with witty inside jokes on a stick. Protestors at ComicCon I salute you with a thirty second d20 die spin.

On that note, DragonCon is coming up in Atlanta this coming Labor Day weekend (in just over two months for those of you that don't remember what month Labor Day is, you know who you are.) DragonCon is four days of the nerdiest debauchery your mind can comprehend. One can find all kinds of things like: live robot battles, the world's largest group dancing to thriller, a Mad Scientist ball, a Zombie Prom, a party featuring over twenty Princess Leia's in the slave costume. Oh and I forgot to mention a guest list that features people like Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Sean Astin, Morena Baccarin, ckknight, and LeVar Burton. Last year I made the mistake of drinking about a liter and a half of various alcohols in a span of 4 hours; though I did share some with a life size Wookie, three faeries, Aeris Gainsborough, a mad scientist or two and a math professor. I ended up buying shots with some Canadians whom I don't remember, and stealing someone's steampunk goggles. Good Times.

Over the course of the next month I'll be doing some articles on DragonCon oriented topics along with a guest author who still needs to find a red mohair sweater to complete her River Tam costume, a gold violin to finish her Devil costume, and a Harlequin headpiece/red nightgown to complete her Harley Quinn outfit. There is a chance she'll be talking about costuming and photo etiquette, but who really knows at this point...

Starcraft II will inevitably be my undoing. I've purposely had no contact with it during the beta testing times because I know that I'll neglect all the other responsibilities in my life to explore this game. When Starcraft came out I spent a week pretending I had the flu and played through the whole game (...yeah it took me a long time, I was just coming out of playing Monkey Island and hadn't yet grasped the real time aspect of RTS games.) This shiny set of Blizzard-Crack was solely responsible for making me into the gamer that I am today. I wonder if they'll go all the way with this franchise and make a World of Starcraft?

Next week I'll be talking about Stormtroopers in Kilts.