A New Year is Coming; Time to Hate Yourself!

Calvin and Hobbes shaped the majority of my childhood.

Now that the holidays are coming to an end, and the New Year is fast approaching, the yearly onslaught is upon us. Every year, around this time, we are subjected to more and more ads telling us just how unhappy we are and promising that their products will make us complete and healthy members of society. I'm referring, of course, to the tradition of making New Year's Resolutions and the insane amounts of adverts aimed at subtly nudging us into making them by promising to help us actually keep them.

While spending less money, eating better, exercising more, and falling in love (because deciding you're going to fall in love with someone at some point in the next 365 days is a super healthy goal, and not at all one of the fastest ways to prematurely jump into a bad relationship) were among the Top 10 list of resolutions, according to a study by the University of Scranton on Statistics Brain, the #1 New Year's Resolution for 2014 was to lose weight. That's about as disheartening as it is unsurprising. We have been conditioned to hate ourselves, and that is super sad. Here's the thing: You wanna be more healthy? Great! Be more healthy. There, done. You don't need the pressure of media and adverts to make you hate yourself as motivation to change how you look. No one needs that. It's not inspirational, it's cruel. If you really feel like you need to make a New Year's Resolution, resolve to learn to love yourself for who you are, to be more kind, donate more of your time to those in need, to learn something new, or to simply be more thankful for what you have instead of focusing on what you want. This may all sound like a bit of New Age, hippy, after-school special rubbish, but I'm of the opinion that if you're going to bother to make resolutions then you may as well make them count. Personally, I don't think you need to make any resolutions. You can certainly chose to change something about yourself that you're not 100% proud of, but you can do that at any time of year. So, despite all the adverts subtly telling you all of the ways you're not perfect, and how much you should change to meet the standards of other people you'll likely never meet, I leave you with one of the greatest memes ever created. Any time you begin to feel down about yourself, take a look at this fantastic piece of motivational support, crack a smile, and go on about your day, you brilliant, sexy beast, you!

Super Great

Holiday Break Is In Full Swing!

Happy Holidays from She-Geeks!!

No real post this week as the holidays have drained me, but I'd like to wish all of my readers a very Happy Holidays!! Whatever you celebrate (even if it's nothing at all), I hope you all enjoy this festive time of year in your own, geeky way!!

This was the geekiest Yule greeting I could find :( The Solstice needs some more geek love!

 

Geek-O-Nomicon Happened, and I Was There

Unlike San Diego, Atlanta, or even New York, New Orleans isn't known for a particular convention, but the Gulf Coast is home to several conventions held throughout the year. It's my goal, here at She-Geeks, to showcase those smaller (but no less enthusiastic) conventions. If there is a convention in or around the Gulf Coast that you'd like to see me cover, please send the convention details to eris.shegeeks@gmail.com.

This was the first year for Geek-O-Nomicon, a community based convention out of Biloxi, Mississippi, and from all accounts it seems to have hit the ground running. For a first year convention, this one had some of the best attendance numbers I've ever seen. There were tons of fan tables, some amazing vendors in the dealer room, lots of artists and authors, and a lot of very happy attendees at this well organized gathering. So, here's my round up of some of the awesome handcrafted merch, lovely and talented cosplay, and Guinness World Record breaking fun I saw at the inaugural Geek-O-Nomicon!

New Video Series Involves Eris Failing at Halo 2

That's right, I suck a first person shooters. Like, I really, really suck at them. Stairs are my nemesis and should I ever actually hit a target, it is unquestionably by accident. I also have anger management issues, so this is not a calm, quiet, sheepish kind of sucking. No, it's loud, vulgar, and sometimes a wee bit abusive. Check out the first of our new video series in which Brian gets me to play Halo 2 for the first time, and almost instantly regrets it. (I highly recommend viewing this on a larger screen than I can embed.) Enjoy!

The abuse is far from over! Next up: I run over Brian with a tank and set some allies on fire. Good times!

Furries are People Too, Mika.

 
There was a terrifying incident on Sunday that sent 19 people to hospitals. As yet unknown individuals attempted to poison a large group of people at a Hyatt hotel in Chicago with chlorine gas in what the media would normally be referring to as a terrorist act (which we may find to be exactly what this was if a motive is ever discovered). This is not, however, how this story is being reported. In the case of MSNBC show Morning Joe, the story was barely able to be reported at all because the hosts of this program were too busy laughing hysterically. Why? Because that large group of people that someone attempted to poison happened to be costumed attendees at a popular furry convention, the MidWest FurFest Convention. Watch as Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, who call themselves professional journalists, laugh themselves off the set while attempting to report a story in which 19 human beings were hospitalized:

If this happened at a bankers convention, there is absolutely no way it would have been reported like this. No, there would be calls for justice and demands for answers from investigators while red-faced reporters emphatically called the perpetrators terrorists and speculated about their motive. But these weren't bankers or doctors or librarian or teachers or sale people, they were furries. They wear strange, fuzzy costumes (some of them even incorporate *gasp* bondage type gear) so, let's just ignore the potentially fatal assault that took place and focus instead on pointing and laughing at the freaks. I mean, if you don't understand them, they're not really people, right? Good job, Morning Joe. You guys have managed to both belittle human lives and disgrace journalism in a less than 2 minute segment. Way to start off the week.

Late Bloomer: 'The Walking Dead' Newbie

*If you're not caught up on The Walking Dead, you probably shouldn't read this*

 
Do you remember when you first started watching The Walking Dead? Remember how you felt about the adaptation from comic to television? Or how you reacted to characters like Shane and Lori and Daryl when you first met them? I do, because I just started watching The Walking Dead a few days ago.

For me, The Walking Dead was one of those shows that you know you should be watching, but you just aren't. Everyone else was raving about it constantly, and losing their collective minds at least once a season on social media, while I quietly sat around hate-watching Bones (or something) instead. I should have been watching. I am a huge fan of the zombie genre, and I've even read (and really loved) the comics, so I should have been part of the foaming-at-the-mouth, raving, Walking Dead lunatics. I can't explain why I didn't watch it; I just didn't. Recently, some of our most beloved friends came into town. They're traveling performers, so we only get to see them once or twice a year depending on their schedule. We went out to dinner with a group of them this past Sunday, and (since we hadn't seen them all year) accepted their offer to join the group for the Walking Dead season finale afterward. So there we were: Eight full grown adults crammed into a cozy RV with three snuggly dogs and a flat screen, and without warning, I was hooked. The next day, I began binge watching The Walking Dead. As I type this, I've just started the third season. So, take a trip down memory lane, and chuckle knowingly at my naivete, as I quickly run down my thoughts about the show before I hit 'play' on the paused episode in front of me: