Win Tickets to Wizard World New Orleans!

Do you want to go to the 2017 Wizard World New Orleans? Of course you do! The guest line-up is enough to make any geek drool, their vendors are fabulous, and the cosplay is always on point! Who wouldn't want to spend three days running amok in this geeky Wonderland??? (Clickity click here to check out some of my previous Wizard World coverage, in case you're not already sold.)

So what's in store for this year? Only a mega list of guests that has given me serious palpitations!! You might think that Nichelle Nichols (one of my personal heroes) and Carrie Fischer would be enough to make anyone swoon, but they weren't done there. Check out this impressive guest list:

·         David Duchovny - X FIles’ “Fox Mulder” (Appearing Saturday only)

·         Carrie Fisher* - Star Wars “Princess Leia”

·         Stephen Amell - Arrow (Appearing Sunday only)

·         Steve Yeun - Walking Dead

·         Christopher Lloyd *- Back to the Future

·         Tom Felton* - Harry Potter Franchise

·         Tom WIlson (“Biff) - Back to the Future

·         Michael Rooker - The Walking Dead and Guardians of the Galaxy

·         Michael Cudlitz - The Walking Dead

·         WWE Superstars Batista (Dave Bautista) (“Dax the Destroyer” from blockbuster “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise) (Appearing Saturday) and Finn Balor (Appearing Sunday)

·         Mitch Pileggi - X Files

·         Nichelle Nichols  - Star Trek *Appearing all three days

·         Jewel Staite* - Serenity, Firefly

·         David Ramsey* - Arrow and Dexter

·         Sean Gunn - Guardians of the Galaxy, Gilmore Girls

·         Ray Park - Star Wars: Episode 1, X Men

·         Peter Mayhew - Star Wars IV, V  

·         Theo Rossi* - Luke Cage, Sons of Anarchy

·         Ryan Hurst* - Sons of Anarchy

·         Max Thieriot - "Bates Motel"

·         Nestor Carbonell - "Bates Motel"

·         James Marsters - “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”

·         Joonas Suotamo - Star Wars: The Force Awakens

·         Robert Englund* - A Nightmare on Elm Street

·         Steven Yeun* - "The Walking Dead"

·         Jason David Frank - "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers"

·         Sam Jones - The Flash, Ted

·         Chris 51 - (Epic Ink)

·         Kato Kaelin -

·         Montel Williams -

·         PLUS THE MOST TALENTED AND NATIONALLY KNOWN COMIC ARTISTS AND WRITERS ON THE PLANET

*Appearing Sat/Sun

Everyone else all three days unless otherwise noted.

If that's not enough, there will be parties, Q&A sessions, cosplay tutorials, panels, contests, and a ton of vendors to tempt your wallet! Who loves ya, baby? That's right, I do!

So, how does this work, you may be asking? Simple! Follow the link below, choose a painless entry method, and you're done! You can even enter more than once to increase your chances! A winner will be chosen at random from all the entries, and will receive an email with the good news. I'll be choosing the winner on the 24th, so you have plenty of time to enter!

Now, what are you waiting for? Gogogo and shareshareshare the love!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Never Underestimate the Power of Humor

So, there was recently an election that didn't exactly turn out the way most of us thought it would (to put it lightly). There have been a laundry list of reactions to the election of Donald Trump to the highest office in the Country, from anger to confusion to apathy to full blown depression. It's that last one I want to address today. We all know that there are several groups of people who are now fearing for their personal safety during the Trump Times, and most of that fear is being expressed through outrage and protests and articles not unlike this one. There are those, however, who are reacting in a much more quiet, but no less intense way: deep, soul-sucking depression and hopelessness. If you are one of these people, or know someone who might be, please know that I am worried about you. There has been a rise in suicides since Election Day, especially among the LGBTQ+ community (a community that already has some of the highest suicide rates in the Country), and I could not sit by without addressing this sensitive and nuanced subject. Thankfully, I am not alone. The following essay was sent to me from someone who wanted to share their very personal story in the hopes of reaching someone who could use a little hope right now:

The She-Geeks Loot Crate Dream Crate

Recently the Loot Crate team contacted She-Geeks to ask me to participate in their Dream Crate project. Essentially, I (and several other bloggers) write about what would be in my perfect Loot Crate box one month. In case you're somehow unfamiliar, Loot Crate is a monthly subscription service that sends a themed box full of geeky loot to your door every month for a fee. The overall value of all the items in the box is significantly more than you pay for the service, so as long as you like what you're getting it's an incredible deal for fans.

I took this project pretty seriously. I know several people who have gotten Loot Crate before and ended up dropping it due to disinterest. If I'm going to create a box, I wanted to make sure that it was one people could get excited over. I wanted the reaction to my Dream Crate to be, "If I opened that box one month I would die a thousand happy deaths." So, with a firm goal in mind, I set out to do a little research. I asked subscribers in my social circle what they liked and what they didn't like about Loot Crate. General consensus was that a t-shirt was an essential inclusion, Funko POP figures were a great value, and keeping things as functional as they are awesome is a great way to keep them from being stuffed on a dusty shelf somewhere. With these things in mind, plus the basic structure of a typical Loot Crate box, I set out to create my Dream Crate:

The #PokeMonument is Now #PokeGone

Just two weeks ago, a Pokemon statue mysteriously appeared in the middle of a derelict fountain in Coliseum Square Park in New Orleans with only the words #Pokemonument carved into the base as a clue to its origins/meaning. As of just before midnight tonight, all that's left of the defiant, and sometimes controversial, Pikachu statue is the base structure with a new hashtag (#Pokegone), and a QR code embedded in the structure. I was notified by a source (who, along with the artists themselves, wishes to remain anonymous) that the guerrilla art piece had been "updated" and given a link to a website explaining the statue's sudden disappearance (that same website is where the QR code on what's left of the statue will take you). According to the website, you now have the opportunity to potentially own the statue itself and help repair the defunct fountains in Coliseum Square (some of which haven't been operational for decades). Here is their statement:

Hijab Wearing Cosplayer Proves She's Worthy of Cap's Shield

Cosplay: Hijabi Hooligan Cosplay Photo by: Transwarp Photography

By now, you've likely seen this photo of cosplayer Dania Khalil of Hijabi Hooligan Cosplay (I could not love that name more, by the way) as Captain America. I'd be surprised if you haven't since her photo has been shared far and wide from the She-Geeks Facebook page to Gizmodo to Fashionably Geek, she basically exploded overnight!

Now, Khalil is no newcomer to cosplay. She's got several great cosplays in her costume arsenal (my favorites are her Lady Loki and Assassins Creed), but her Captain America is what's getting all the attention. As of this morning, she's just proven just how appropriate all this attention is.

Right now, being a Muslim in America is difficult with hatred, ignorance, and outright bigotry running wild, but Khalil's patriotic cosplay has cut right through all of that to bring out the best in us as fans. Since her photo started making the geek rounds, she's received a ton of wonderful messages and comments from fans, and apparently plenty of offers to send her actual cash to help get her a more professional shield to compliment the quality of the rest of her outfit. She's received so many offers that she had to address them publicly, and how she is choosing to handle all of the attention she's getting proves that she absolutely deserves to carry that iconic shield:

"Hey everyone! Many of you have offered to donate to GoFundMe to get me a better Cap shield, but I think I have a better cause for your money to go towards. I set up this campaign to aid Syria, as they desperately need our help at the minute. I'm sure many of you are aware of the atrocities being committed in Syria and the hardships the people there are facing. Stories like that of the 12 year old girl who tried to take her own life to give her family one less mouth to feed have rocked the world and brought tears to my eyes many a time.
If you could all spare as little as £1/$1 and share the link with your friends and family, I would be forever grateful.
Thank you all for the love you've shown me- now let's show those in need that same love. <3"

In true Captain America fashion, she is diverting this attention away from herself and on to others in need. Seriously, this woman is just a shining example of the best in all of us. If you'd like to spread the good around, you can find her GoFundMe page here. I think it's safe to say that we could all use a a few more people like her in the world.

Keep making us proud, Dania!!

The #Pokemonument Seen 'Round the World

**UPDATE 8/2/16 12am: I am getting reports that the information I received this afternoon may have been incorrect. There are people reporting that the person I spoke with is NOT affiliated with the artists as he claimed. I am trying to get further information and confirm reports. I have been told by a source claiming Willhem's story is untrue, that those involved have confronted him about taking credit for their work, to no avail. They are currently remaining anonymous to avoid any potential legal action against them for installing the guerrilla art, and are debating releasing a statement about it in the future. I will continue to update this article as new information is confirmed. **

***UPDATE 8/3/16 9:45am: It appears that not everyone is a fan of the #Pokemonument. Instagram user, April Dee (punchy_saucebox), posted a video of a woman attacking the statue with a baseball bat late Monday night. According to a Facebook post by Dee, the unidentified woman came over to the statue Monday night and began questioning the people who happened to be there taking photos. She claimed to be a part of the Coliseum Square Association and began demanding to know "who voted to put up "this fucking piece of shit."" When Dee explained the origins of the statue, specifically that it was not voted on and just showed up overnight, the woman went to her home across the street, retrieved a baseball bat, and immediately began attacking the statue in an attempt to bring it down. When another neighbor intervened, the woman halted her attack and returned home. As of this morning, the defiant Pikachu remains intact and in place. Who knows for how long though?

Some woman beating the heck outta the Pikachu statue. Some people. #Pikachustatue #wtf #NOLAPokemon #Terpsichore #ColiseumSquare #nola #neworleans #leavepikaalone #PokemonGo #HeStillOk #pokemonument

A video posted by April Dee (@punchy_saucebox) on Aug 1, 2016 at 8:20pm PDT

****UPDATE 8/5/16 12:25pm: In more 'We Can't Have Nice Things' news, a reader has informed me that the  #Pokemonument was vandalized again sometime last night; this time with red spray paint and some very unkind words. No word if this is another attempt at bringing the statue down from the same woman who attacked it with the baseball bat a few days earlier. The reader stated that a neighbor had already kindly covered the vandalism with some gold paint they happened to have on hand by the morning, but the statue just isn't the same now.

--Original Article Below--

Ever since Pokemon GO released in the first week of July, it's taken the world by storm. It's everywhere, and just about everyone seems to be playing the highly addictive game. I'm level 22 myself, proudly Team Mystic, and might love my Snorlax a little too much (her name is Gertrude and she is the best ever). This beautiful work of art seems to have captured our hearts just as quickly as the game itself, despite (or maybe because of) it's mysterious origins.


At around 4am Saturday night seven Artistic Guerrilla Nerds (as I've decided to call them) hefted this over-sized, angry Pikachu into a defunct fountain in Coliseum Square Park in New Orleans. He went surprisingly unnoticed until late last night/early this morning when he started popping up on everyone's newsfeeds, Twitter feeds, and news sites far and wide. The biggest question on everyone's mind: Where the hell did it come from?! Well, my darlings, being a New Orleans resident I couldn't resist investigating for myself, and I happened upon not only the statue itself but one of the people who helped get him where he is today.

This gentleman, Willhem, is apparently one of the team of people who brought the adorable, little rat to his current residence (at least, until the City decides to remove it) and was kind enough to give me some insight to the statue and what we can expect in the future.

The group responsible for the statue are keeping pretty secret, going only by the name of the hashtag they gave themselves, #Pokemonument, but Willhem was able to give me some info about the statue itself: It took a total of 7 people to heft the two to three hundred pound statue into the fountain. It's technically 2 pieces, the base and the Pikachu itself, but it was brought out to the park as a single piece to cut down on time since they had to erect it under cover of darkness. The base is made of coated two by fours, and the body is made of loose chicken wire throughout coated in a mixture of fiberglass and cobalt repeatedly layered to give it that smooth, aged bronze look and the process of creating the statue took about 7 weeks to complete.

Willhem was pretty reluctant to give much more than the technical details about the statue itself, but I was able to get out of him that they honestly didn't think their project would be getting as much attention as it has, or that it would still be standing come Monday evening. The most exciting tidbit he let slip, however, is that "this is the first of many, but [he couldn't] say whether they'll be here or elsewhere", and that there is an "impending story that people will understand within a week or so."

It seems we'll all have to follow #Pokemonument to find out exactly what the story will be, and where the other monuments will show up. (Other NOLA parks? In other cities? Will they all be Pikachu or could there be a Snorlax in our future? Come on, Willhem, you're killing me!!) Until the group reveals more, New Orleans residents and visitors can find the very first Pikachu statue on Terpsichore St near Camp St in the park in the Lower Garden District; but, you might want to hurry before the powers that be decide they've had all the Pokemon fun they can handle and have it forcibly removed. Personally I think, whenever that happens, if we don't immediately start a #FreePikachu movement we never deserved him in the first place.



Oh, and for those wondering, Willhem and most of the rest of the mysterious #Pokemonument crew are appropriately Team Mystic.

Awesomly Accessible Cosplay at Wizard World

Wizard World New Orleans was this past weekend, and I had a blast running amok and snapping photos like an idiot. I saw cosplayers of all ages, more TARDISes (TARDI?) than should be allowed to converge in one place (what with the dangers of paradox and all), and watched the cast of Captain America be sorted into their Harry Potter Hogwarts houses. It was a busy weekend. My full write-up will be done soon, but I had to take a moment to showcase the truly amazing accessible cosplay I found while at Wizard World. These cosplayers are the embodiment of the concept that cosplay is for everyone, and they were absolutely the highlight of my weekend. Behold the power of creativity and sass!

Nerd Culture is Not a Contest

Recently a friend tagged me in a Facebook post requesting the opinions of female nerds on the "place of women in geek culture today" and I may have gone on a wee rant. While I don't think the person/people who posed the question meant anything by it other than to gain some knowledge, the phrasing sparked an unexpected reaction from me. The "place" for women in geek culture (or any culture for that matter) is the same today as it has always been: Wherever the hell we want. There is no more a "place" for women than there is a specific "place" for men in geek culture. This is another example of women being categorized as different, specifically in a way that men simply wouldn't be. This is what perpetuates the notion that women have to prove their worth as nerds. This is what perpetuates the notion that women fit into a specific box to be judged. There is no specific "place" for women in geek culture, because we are complete humans with differing personalities, ideals, interests, and goals in life. Just like men.

We all know about gatekeeping by now, right? It's the notion that a female nerd can, at any moment, be quizzed about her fandom in order to determine her legitimacy as a nerd. It's absurd. It's insulting. It's embarrassing to the entire nerd culture. Every time a woman is grilled about her level of knowledge or dedication to her fandom, or is attacked/threatened for daring to voice her opinion about a fandom (or worse, demands to be treated with respect) nerds as a whole start to look like a bunch of whiny trolls who never learned how to share their toys. It's embarrassing. What's worse is that this behavior is not exclusive to male nerds.

Women have been taught since we were children that we will be judged by others for our every move, and that we should judge others as well. Those lessons may not have been taught in so many words, but they exist all the same. This behavior tends to be even worse among women in stereo-typically male dominated cultures like geeks and sports fans. We judge each other, and build up our cred by tearing down others. We proudly proclaim that we're "not like other girls" as though that's an accomplishment (or even makes sense). We judge other women for showing too much skin, or not showing enough. We proclaim loudly what we do that makes us "real" gamers and geeks instead of the dreaded "fake geek girl." The problem with this, of course, is that there is no magic formula that creates a female geek. There is no specific level of geekery we have to achieve, no ratio of clothing to skin we must maintain in order to unlock the Geek Girl Achievement. 

We need to accept each other for who we are, regardless of how we came upon our fandoms or how revealing our cosplays are. It doesn't matter if your boyfriend introduced you to Star Wars, or if you've been playing with lightsabers since you were 3; what matters is that you love Star Wars and I do too and we should totally talk about our hopes and fears for Luke's role in The Force Awakens. It doesn't matter if you play Halo or Candy Crush, if you have only watched the current Doctor Who or if you grew up with Tom Baker, if you have devoured every word of Tolkien or have only seen the movies; we're all fans. Period. None of us has any right to judge the legitimacy of anyone else's level of geek. Fandom isn't a contest, and the sooner we stop treating it that way, the sooner we can go back to arguing over real issues like whether we need a Miles Morales Spider-Man movie more than another Peter Parker one*.

(*The answer is: If you push the Captain Marvel movie back one. more. time. I will find you, and I will end you. That being said, Morales deserves a movie of his very own.)

I'm Giving Away Passes to Wizard World!

Do you want to go to the 2016 Wizard World New Orleans? Of course you do! The guest line-up is enough to make any geek drool, their vendors are fabulous, and the cosplay is always on point! Who wouldn't want to spend three days running amok in this geeky Wonderland??? (Clickity click here to check out some of my Wizard World coverage from last year, in case you're not already sold.)

Well, if you haven't picked up your weekend pass yet, you're sadly out of luck. They've SOLD OUT already!! We hadn't even crossed the threshold into December before the weekend passes for this January convention were all gone. All except for a select few that Wizard World is letting me GIVE AWAY to ONE lucky reader!! Who's here for you when all hope is gone? That's right, I am! I'll never abandon you, and I love you for more than just your gorgeous looks.

So, how does this work, you may be asking? Simple! Follow the link below, choose a painless entry method, and you're done! You can even enter more than once to increase your chances! A winner will be chosen at random from all the entries, and will receive an email with the good news. I'll be choosing the winner on the 20th, so you'll know the results just in tome for the holidays!

Now, what are you waiting for? Gogogo and shareshareshare the love!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is Casting, but You Have to be Hot

Wanna be an extra in Guardians of the Galaxy 2?? Well, if you've got lady parts, I hope you're a model:

According to the casting call that took the internet by storm today, the only opportunities for women to be cast as alien extras require them to be "Beautiful/Model Aliens ... very attractive, physically fit, slender, or thin..." and you'd better show up in form-fitting clothes. Oh, and make sure you don't bother bringing your fat friend with you because they don't want to clutter up the place with children and "others that are not one of the types above." 

Men-folk, on the other hand, only need to be basically human shaped for a shot at a role. They even have their very own category for "Character Aliens" specifically looking for non-model types. It's hard enough for women who aren't build like models to land a role as a human, now it's clear that we're not even worthy to grace the screen as imaginary alien races. Don't get me wrong, this is nothing new, but it's disheartening at best to continue to see these kinds of ridiculous double standards persisting, especially for films based in nerd culture (a traditional bastion for women and girls who never fit the cheerleader archetype).

Could we please move on and recognize that it's ok for people to be people shaped?!

**EDIT**

According to director James Gunn via Twitter this is just the first of many casting calls, and the scenes being shot are specific to model types. So, it looks like there is still hope for us yet:

Art, Music, and a 42ft Wookie on Fire? Welcome to Ignition!

 
The International Krewe of Chewbacchus (a delightfully nerdy Mardi Gras parade crew and registered religious entity) recently held a benefit event fit for a Wookie. As a satirical space cult, the IKOC exemplifies the idea of 'go big or go home' and prides itself on being a bastion of all-inclusive revelry, and their nerdy Burning Man style festival, Ignition: Chewburnitall, was no exception.

Doctor Who 'The Girl Who Died' Review

*This review is cross-posted to the Krewe du Who blog*

As always, DO NOT READ unless you're caught up on Series 9 of Doctor Who! As River would say: *spoilers*

Doctor Who 'Before the Flood' Review

*This review is cross-posted to the Krewe du Who blog*

As always, DO NOT READ unless you're caught up on Series 9 of Doctor Who! As River would say: *spoilers*

CONtraflow 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.

I spent a fun filled weekend of cosplay, panels, and shenanigans at CONtraflow SciFi! This is quickly becoming one of my favorite stops on the convention circuit. It's a small convention focused on science, science fiction/fantasy, and literacy. From gaming and panels to music performances and room party competitions, there's a little something for everyone at CONtraflow; and, the welcoming, family-type feel of this small con makes it a favorite among attendees.

Doctor Who 'Under the Lake' Review

*This review is cross-posted to the Krewe du Who blog*

As always, DO NOT READ unless you're caught up on Series 9 of Doctor Who! As River would say: *spoilers*

This week, The Doctor and his companion find themselves stuck in a contained environment with a small crew and some kind of creepy big bad hell bent on taking them out one by one. Whether it's on Mars, in a stuck submarine, on a planet about to be sucked into a black hole, or under a lake, this is a pretty popular theme for Doctor Who. The situation plays on our fears of being trapped, buried alive, drowning, etc. Essentially, being killed by our very environment. This time, they find themselves in an underwater, nuclear powered, mining facility on top of a submerged military base, with a strange alien ship and (what appear to be) actual ghosts. By the time they arrive, the captain has already been killed and his ghost has joined the ghost of a Tivolian man in a dashing top hat (particularly strange since the Tivolians are decidedly not aggressive by nature). The idea of ghosts has been toyed with on Doctor Who before, but they've always been proved to be something other than actual paranormal specters, so it will be interesting to see if they don't turn out to be some kind of electromagnetic/static projections, or something, instead of the spirits of the dead; especially given that we don't know who/what is in the suspended animation chamber, how the "spirits" are being brought back under its control, that they can only man-handle metal objects, and that the only way the gang has found to stop them is to enter "day" mode in which the electromagnetic locks are diagnosed constantly or by locking them into a Faraday cage (designed to stop the passage of electromagnetic/static influences). If they do turn out to be actual ghosts, it will be a first for Doctor Who.

Another first for the show is Cass (played by Sophie Leigh Stone). She's the first deaf (main) character on the show, and also happens to be a complete badass. She's smart, no-nonsense, and has probably already saved everyone by not allowing her interpreter, Lunn, onto the alien ship (he's now the only character who hasn't read the writing on the wall, making him the only one the ghosts have no use for). Since she took over command of the crew when the captain died, she's consistently kept their best interests in mind, has made the best possible decisions based on the situation at hand, and has succinctly put The Doctor in his place. I'd like more of her, please!

Unfortunately, the sonic shades are back. Chances are good we're going to continue seeing them for a bit whether we want to or not. I will say, that despite how utterly ridiculous they are the shades are at least being used interestingly. They're glasses, so using them as a way to transmit video or to scan seems pretty logical. They seems to be like a pair of Google Glass on steroids. (To be clear, I'm not against changing the sonic screwdriver on principal, I just hate the shades. I'm not a fan of things like Google Glass to begin with, so I doubt they'll ever win me over no matter how well they're written into the story.)
 

Continuing the two-parter trend for this series, the episode ends with Clara, Cass, and Lunn trapped in a flooding base with 3 ghosts locked up in the Faraday Cage while The Doctor, O'Donnell, and Bennet take the TARDIS back in time to before the base town flooded to try and figure out what happened. In true cliffhanger form, Clara and the gang are facing a ghost Doctor just outside the walls, indicating that The Doctor himself somehow died and became a ghost instead of regenerating when he went back in time. As it should, this leaves us with questions as to what the hell just happened, but the biggest (and probably most important) question of all is:

 

Monster-Con 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.

Last weekend I drove for I don't even know how many hours to visit Monster-Con in San Antonio. Not only was this my first time at Monster-Con, it was my first time visiting Texas! I'm not ashamed to say that my expectations for the Lone Star State were a wee bit skewed, and that I was more than a little disappointed that I wasn't immediately met with dancing cowboys and tumbleweeds when I crossed the Louisiana/Texas border. Thankfully, the unconventional convention I was there for more than made up for the lack of stereotypical Texas landscaping. In addition to being a free event, Monster-Con takes place not in hotel conference rooms or a convention center or even a warehouse, but in a shopping mall. Yep, you read that right. The Wonderland of the Americas apparently hosts several events throughout the year in addition to the horror convention, and while it was a bit weird, they managed to make it work much better than I expected.

The Waters of Mars and Philosophy

 
By now, everyone (I hope) has heard that NASA has confirmed the discovery of flowing, liquid water on Mars. These are exciting times, people! Why? We are one step closer to potentially discovering LIFE on another planet! As Bill Nye the Science Guy put it on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, "Wherever we find water on Earth, we find living things," so it stands to reason that finding water on Mars could very well lead to finding life on the Red Planet. Unfortunately, that same panel discussed how few people seem to really care about this ground-breaking discovery despite all of its amazing implications. Ricky Valez perhaps summed up the thoughts of those who are less than impressed with the discovery of water on Mars:

"Why would I be excited about Mars? I'm barely excited about Earth! [...] Trump is first in polls right now! Are you kidding me? Let's defeat ISIS! How about that?"

This struck a cord with me on several levels. Nye did his best to explain how important an interest in space is by pointing out how we would not be as technologically advanced as we are without the space program to no avail. (Use the interwebs via a computer, or a cell phone, or velcro? Thank the space program for ALL of that.) As a nerd, and a space enthusiast, it hurts my soul to hear people say that they don't care about space exploration. Especially when their reasons are so terrestrial. Here's the thing, stay with me here cause I'm about to get philosophical, one of the main reasons for conflict in our world today (outside of a fight for resources) is the very basic idea of "you're different from me, and I don't like that." At its very base, that's the underlying feeling behind nearly every major conflict we have. From religious differences, to racial differences, to simple language barriers, the issue is our resistance to accept our differences. Which is so trivial and petty considering that we're actually all the same down to molecular level. Nearly all of our differences are a matter of geography. The language you speak is determined by where you were born. The color of your skin is determined by the geographic location of your ancestors (did they live in the sunny Sahara, or the perpetually overcast UK, or a mix of both?). Even the religion you practice is (most often, but of course not always) determined by where you were born and/or where your family hails from.

So, what does this have to do with an interest in space? I'm getting there, I promise.

I live in New Orleans, a city known for the tendency of its inhabitants to spend their entire lives in the neighborhood in which they grew up. It's a beautiful thing to have such a deep love for your city, but it's also easy to fall into the trappings of living in a bubble. When you live in a bubble, it's much too easy to think of your world in terms of the confines of that bubble; to not care about things outside of said bubble. We defend our bubble fiercely, because in many ways it's all we know. We make huge decisions based on the parameters of our bubble, often with little to no regard for the impact those decisions may have on the world outside our bubble. That is why it is so very important for us to work on expanding our bubble. If you think about what's best only for your neighborhood, then the ones around it may start to suffer. That suffering leads to resentment and anger from the surrounding neighborhoods, which in turn leads to resentment and anger from your neighborhood towards those railing against it. Now, even if your bubble expands to cover your city, or state, or even the Country as a whole, there are still billions of people living outside your bubble who also matter and are making decisions that WILL effect you. Whether those decisions are on a human level such as the atrocious conditions in Syria leading to thousands of refugees fleeing into other Countries, or on an environmental level like the amount of carbon in our atmosphere destroying the polar ice caps and raising the sea levels globally, we are all (at some point) going to be affected by the actions of those outside our bubbles. It's not until our bubble encompasses the entire planet that we will be able to truly see how connected we all are, and will be able as a species to make decisions that will benefit us all. Having an interest in space exploration breeds that kind of global thinking. When we look to the stars, we begin to realize how tiny our world is in the grand scheme of things, and how connected we all are as its inhabitants. We all live on this one, tiny, watery rock together. The arbitrary lines we've drawn around our Countries and cities are as meaningless as they are imaginary when we look at the Earth as a whole.

Space exploration is important to our technological advancement, yes. More than that, though, space exploration is exceedingly important to our species' advancement.

Doctor Who 'The Witch's Familiar' Review

*This review is cross-posted to the Krewe du Who blog*

As always, DO NOT READ unless you're caught up on Series 9 of Doctor Who! As River would say: *spoilers*

Doctor Who 'The Magician's Apprentice' Review

*This review is cross-posted to the Krewe du Who blog*

As always, DO NOT READ unless you're caught up on Series 9 of Doctor Who! As River would say: *spoilers*

Dragon Con Happened, and I Was There

Ah, Dragon Con... Spanning four days, five hotels (plus the AmericasMart), and boasting attendance numbers over 70,000, it's one of the World's largest geek conventions. It's also the convention I cut my teeth on way back in the *coughcough1990scoughcough*. Though it's changed a lot over the years, Dragon Con will always hold a special place in my heart. There are tons of people who will never miss a year, and tons more who have Dragon Con on their geeky bucket list (and for good reason). This was the 29th year for Dragon Con, and it did not disappoint.