NEW SITE!

Geek My Life is moving!

In my continuing quest to build my own place on the Internet, I have decided to self-host my blog and get a domain name.  Now I'll be able to make my own layouts and install awesome widgets and lots of other techie things that make my little geek heart all a-flutter.

What this means for you is that I need all of you to do me a favor, if you like my writing or me (or both, hopefully) enough to do so:

Follow Geek My Life at its new location - http://www.geekmylife.net.

That's it.  You go to that address, type your email into the "Subscribe" area on the right side of the screen under the picture, and you're done.  You'll continue to get email updates just like you do now (or don't, if you only follow my blog via Blogger feed).  Alternatively, if you are already on Wordpress.com or .org, you can log into your account before you visit my site, and choose to follow me that way via the little "Follow" button on the bottom corner of the site.

PLEASE NOTE!

I will start posting on my new site starting tomorrow.  Though I'll keep this Blogger site up for a while yet, I will NOT be posting new content here, nor will I be approving comments.  Everything must go through geekmylife.net!  Also, note that if you go to geekmylife.COM, you're in the wrong place - the guy hasn't updated in over two years, and I know I'm not always consistent at updating but I'm better than that. :)

I look forward to seeing you there!

My Thoughts on Lucasfilm/Disney Merger

I got on Twitter today to announce something that I thought was pretty important, and immediately my feed was flooded with news that Disney had bought out Lucasfilm for over $4 billion.

Suddenly my announcement wasn't that dire anymore.

Brain = exploded.

My first reaction was to say, "What the hell?  Really?!  Does Disney really need the money/power/renown/whatever else from Lucasfilm?  This is so... weird."  I took as calm a breath I possibly could and decided to just see other peoples' reactions.  I am eternally grateful that I did - it's surprising what we all could learn about ourselves if we just decided to be offensive instead of defensive (though the majority of the Internet doesn't function like this... ever).

Geek-lee-tist's new shirt for a new era!*

What I quickly noticed was that most people were excited about the prospect of Disney directing future Lucasfilm endeavors, especially the officially announced Star Wars 7.  These people pointed out that since Disney took over Pixar and Marvel, for example, nothing but high-quality products have been released from those companies.

Many people were also glad that Lucas was backing out of the company and retiring, and honestly I agree that he probably did more harm to Star Wars franchise the last several years than some fans want to admit.  Did you feel the same way?  Let me know in the comments below or via Twitter!

Of course, there were the other people who thought that Lucasfilm and all future Star Wars creations would be tainted with the evil that is known as Disney, but honestly I had to ultimately side with the fans who think that this combination of two of the greatest entertainment companies in the world will result in positive direction for all involved.  And maybe it's just me having lived through the crappy prequels during my lifetime instead of the iconic originals, but I'd love for my future kids to experience new (not re-released!) Star Wars films during their and my lifetime!

Then again...

I don't want to say I'm not hesitant at all, though.  Of course I'm cautious about how Disney will handle the characters, themes, stories, etc. we've all grown to love.  I don't think I'd be a true Star Wars fan if I wasn't at least 1% unsure.  But as with most things, I tend to keep space available in my mind and future for the opposite of what I've prepared for.  Should Disney fail to meet expectations, it will be difficult to deal with, but at least I've not pushed the possibility out of my mind entirely and risked suffering a geek heart attack.

Really, this blog post is my meager attempt at summarizing my reaction to the buy-out news.  I have not said everything about this topic that I was thinking during the span of several hours today, and I am positive I will have more thoughts on this in the days to come.  I will do my very best to write these as they come to me (which I have more time for now, because of my announcement that never happened, which will happen at some point...).

Until then, what were your reactions to this news?  Share your thoughts below or on Twitter!

* The shirt in my post can be bought from the Geek-lee-tist site.

Costume Shop Ad Says Halloween Is the Only Time of Year to Dress Up

As I was driving to my friend's apartment today for our work-out date, an ad interrupted my music to bring me nothing but bilge.  And by bilge, I don't mean that the content wasn't worth the listen; in fact, I was glad to hear it was for a local costume shop discussing what it could offer shoppers for Halloween.  So what was bilge-y about the ad?

Because it started out by claiming Halloween was the only time of year you could dress up to be someone else.

Um... excuse me?  Where do I even begin?

Confession & Revamp

You know when you've been lazy or stupid or something else ridiculous entirely and you are eventually forced to grudgingly or shamefully confess that to people around you?

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's my confession time.

What did you do this time, Bree?

I've been avoiding posting on here for two reasons.  First of all, I know I am one very small voice in a once-small but now vast world of online geek blogging, and I have not felt like it was worth putting in my two cents into the Bank of Geekdom.  Call it a lack of confidence in my ability to uniquely articulate and separate my thoughts from the herd.

Second, I haven't posted in a while because I've been focusing on developing my freelance career.  Since I quit my teaching job, I've been figuring how to work for myself and actually make a living off of it.  It's time-consuming and often when I'm done researching about writing I'd rather not sit down to actually write.  Mass Effect or Halo seem like better options for stress-release.

Have any of you ever felt the same?  Comment below and let me know!

So what about this site?

Geek My Life has been instrumental in getting me writing again and consistently interacting with new people and experiences.  I also talked to a few friends (kudos to Erin of Geek Girl, Nerd Boy and Eric of iGeektrooper) who advised me to write what I feel like writing.  As such, I've decided to keep this site going but with some new approaches, starting with a revamp of content.  From hereon out, posts will be related to and organized by one of these topics:

1. Geek Gigs - I've adored conducting interviews with industry professionals in media, tech, entertainment, and gaming.  I'll continue to post any interviews I conduct here (assuming that I am not pitching the interview to a paying market, of course).
2. Nerd Networking - This is a new interest of mine: the geek situations IRL (in real life).  How do you explain to your mom why you want to be a game designer?  Why is it important to note your social media knowledge on a résumé?  I want to address these types of questions in an advice column format.
3. Media Musings - I wanted to do movie and television reviews since high school, but never thought there was a reason to since so many others already do that.  I don't care anymore - I will write my observations here, except I will try to focus on the themes, morals, foreshadowing, etc. that most sites ignore in favor of the "his acting was fantastic" commentary.
4. Geek My Life - I'll still write about all my geek discoveries and experiments, the reason I opened this blog in the first place.  If you find my reactions to new material too much to handle, I apologize in advance but you have been warned.
5. Spotty Speculations - Anything seemingly random will go here, such as my frustration with gender in the geek world, or pictures of awesome stuff I simply can't pass up.  Or whatever.  That's what "spotty" means.  

More interviews (not just with Amy) to come!

I may add more content categories at some point, but I'm not going to push it now.  Additionally, I'm looking into more clean, sleek layouts.  I'm also considering moving the site to Wordpress because I adore the way they utilize both categories and tags.  

Sound good?  Let me know in a comment below, on Twitter, or through my contact page!

Time to Catch Up, GGN Style

So I've been... busy.

Quitting your job would seem like it'd free up more time for you to write, wouldn't it?  So far, that hasn't been the case.  I keep finding lots of house chores, freelance writing decisions, and geek websites to distract me from posting on here.  However, I realized that part of why I've been busy is because I'm writing two articles per week for Geek Girls Network (GGN).  Did I ever reveal that before on this blog?  No?  Shame on me.

As a writing intern for GGN, I get to wax eloquent every Thursday and Friday over anything I get opinionated about in the geek world.  It's a great way to get my raging and raving rants out of my head, and also to meet new people who may or may not agree with me.

In case you haven't been following my articles over there, I've collected all of them for you (this is obviously not a humble brag post), because there's no one link I can send you to over at GGN to see my articles listed on their own.  Feel free to pick and choose, read them all, or disregard, though that last option may make you the unfortunate subject of my next article.

I won't keep posting these on Geek My Life every week; I'm only doing so now because I know some of my followers are email-only friends and family who may not be aware of how to find my articles.  So, yes, you can stop calling me vain.

"Tauriel, Shmauriel: Does 'The Hobbit' NEED a Female Character?" - posted August 2

"Christian Bale: Indisputably Incredible" - posted August 2

"The Next Top Role Model: Ashley Eckstein" - posted August 3

"Xbox Live Clans Are The Devil." - posted August 3

"Megan Fox: Certified Bimbo" - posted August 9

"Cosplay Critics Have Their Own Issues" - posted August 10

"Stop Inviting Me to Klout, or Why Klout Has Crossed a Line" - posted August 16

"Wedding Wares For The Geeky Couple!" - posted August 17

"I Don't Wear Geek, Therefore I Am Not Geek" - posted August 23

"Dream Job: Rooster Teeth FTW!" - posted August 24

"Why I Despise Not Having TV" - posted August 30

"I Love Not Having TV" - posted August 31

"Shadow and Bone: Let's See What Book 2 Brings" - posted September 6

"Who's Really at Fault for the Sexualization of Women in Geek Culture?" - posted September 7

"Felicia Day Gave Me Her Number (In My Dream, and Not Like That)" - posted September 13

"On Occasion, Being a Geek Stresses Me Out" - posted September 14