Sorry I haven't posted in a while, school, cars, randomstuffthatisn'twork, and things like that got in the way. I honestly wasn't sure when I was going to blog again until three of my five classes were cancelled for today. It's like fall break a week early.
This time I'm going to talk about what I promised to talk about in my very first post: geeky stuff. Surrounded by a ton of normal college students I appreciate geekiness even more than usual. I'm also learning to appreciate different variations of it. Sadly few people are self-professing geeks so I have to get to know seemingly normal people and then dig out their nerdishness hiding underneath. (Man, spellcheck really hates me today...) The different combinations of Doctor Who fans who also love superheroes, Lord of the Rings fanatics who have a passion for Star Wars, Trekkies who are patiently waiting for the next Sherlock and all the rest are hard to keep track of. In general it's just easier to remember which fandoms a person hates.
But there's another kind of geek/nerd combination which will be very pertinent in about 20 days on November 1st. That would be my author friends. November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) when tons of my literary-minded friends spend their days and nights pounding on keyboards to reach their word quota for the day. I'm extremely jealous of the people who have time to do this, it almost makes me want to try it on top of my homework.
This story writing usually goes along with one of my favorite traits in an individual; an active imagination. These are the people who can spend three hour car rides staring out the window without being bored. They're also the people with whom I can have whole chat conversations while pretending to be fictional characters. If you've never tried it I suggest finding your geekiest friend and giving it a go.
I'm incredibly thankful for my ability to make up stories in my head. It isn't just the way I survived car trips before I could drive, it's also how I go to sleep at night and how I entertain myself when all I have with me is a notebook. Being able to easily pretend to be a fictional character is how I learned to act and extremely handy when just plain old Apples to Apples gets boring.
But I have to admit that there have been times when I worried that my fictional worlds possessed too much of my self. I mean, I could tell you the plot, major and minor characters and their background of the Lord of the Rings before I even read it, meaning when I was 8. I can do the same thing for Narnia, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who and others in addition to being able to tell you the actors who have portrayed the characters. (And the filmography of the actors. And the directors, costume designers and composers...) You get the idea. Add to that the entire world I've created for the stories I write and you have a large portion of my brain, that's probably equal to many years of Bible Quizzing.
Moderation (despite this comic) is what makes the difference between an awesome geek and an ill-adjusted, socially awkward geek who can't survive without a fictional world. Self control makes all the difference, including the decision of whether to start in on a fandom in the first place. You'll notice that none of my lists include any video games. Originally this was a parental decision but even now I'd rather not start in with them. I know my own competitive nature and I can see how video games would pull me in and leave me obsessed.
Despite these dangers included in all fiction and fantasy here is another reason I'm thankful for them:
"If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."
This entrance into a fantasy world is a way of learning to be apart from the world. I've never been exactly of the world, I don't think the word "normal" has ever once been applicable to my way of life. But visibly being a Christian and visibly being a geek both set you apart from the world in extreme ways. Sometimes toning down the geek is a good idea, especially if you're trying to witness to the general population. But it also opens up opportunities some Christians don't have. Have you ever had a discussion about the Christian themes in the Avengers? What about a Church book group reading the Lord of the Rings? Suddenly there's a whole new realm of witnessing ideas.
