The Origin Story:
I’ve always considered myself a geek. I rep that erryday! I’ve been a bibliophile since my childhood inception of literacy and devour ALL types of literature, including comics. I share my love of videogames, comics and superhero enthusiasm with my nephew. I flung him headfirst into the world of fantasy and geek culture as soon as he was of the age of understanding and we both have not looked back. This has had some consequences... Some good: having a partner to Nintendo DS chat with (although RIP to our beloved Nintendogs who have been neglected for Years at this point!) and some… not so great: my nephew’s grades slowly declining while his skylander xp continues to climb and level up (and guess who gets the blame -_-) The thing is I love reading. I don’t discriminate in my love for literature. I share the same adoration for Langston Hughes's poetry, as I do for Keats and Shakespeare, Hosseini and Greg Pak’s Storm. It’s all reading to me, and I love it all, so I guess I assumed the boy would as well. I thought wrong. His love for reading has unfortunately tapered off past Minecraft manuals, so we’re working on finding a happy median… hopefully soon! (There are a lot of games I myself want to buy and play with him, which cannot happen when he is grounded -_-) However happy days are here again! At least until the end of August when school returns. Yes, now we are steeped in video and pc games and the joy of summer cinema! What a time to be a nerd :D I gotta tell you a love for reading is not the only place my nephew and I differ in practices and opinions. As I try to school this kid into the way of the nerd he has been schooling me as well in shaking off some of my counterproductive and negative fan-STANning ways.
Case in point: The new TMNT
So I’m an 80s baby and a 90s child. Yes, I am part of the greatest generation. (LOL I can Hear the clicking of keys as the death threats pour in, calm down people! You’re just jealous you didn’t have a Popple or get to eat dunkaroos!) Anyhoot, when the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was being made, Oh I was Hating! No amount of hate-o-rade could quench my bitter, crotchety thirst! My nephew was stoked! He couldn’t wait for it to come out, so I had to show him the error of his ways and began to rain on his parade. I made him watch MY Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with the Correct origin story! This child refused to acknowledge the greatness of The Secret of the Ooze… I gently wept bitter tears as I began to write him out of my will… He was so enthusiastic though, I couldn’t deny him, so I took him to see the new version of the movie. And as I grimaced in horror at the weirdness of their cgi animated faces, I looked over and saw a father sleeping next to his own enraptured kid and I had to laugh. WTF is wrong with me trying to rain on this kid’s parade? I saw a clear picture of my own father, chiding us that grown ass men dressed in rubber turtle suits, wielding nunchucks and katana blades was ridiculous! Bless his heart though, he brought my siblings and I to all 3 of those magnificent movies, no matter how dumb and creepy he found it all.
There is an aspect of nerd culture and geekdom that I dread my nephew’s exposure to. The cynical, rude, trolling and trampling part of snobbing and nerd-cred checking and general hating on people fling so freely in our world. Something I am at times guilty of, but don’t want my precious nephew to experience. Even if he is wrong about being on Team Iron Man for the upcoming Civil War saga (that is another blog post and you all better pray for me during this trial of testing). It’s all a part of life, I suppose. He has to build up tough skin to survive the interweb. These epiphanies and glimpses at geek life through the pure and expectant eyes of my young nephew have changed my world-nerd view and I’m trying to be less of a jerk and cynic. I’m trying not to completely trounce a movie before I actually watch it (except for that new Pan movie EFF that problematic piece o trash) and regain my childlike wonder at getting to see my imagination come to life on a huge movie screen right before my very eyes! Another great moment I got to share with the kid is the new Jurassic movie. I relished showing him the original (an all time favorite and cinematic staple for me :) He laughed when I explained how those animatronics had me believing maybe just maybe there might be a real life baby brachiosaurus on some lot somewhere in Hollywood… or in our beloved hills out on Kuuloa where some of the films were shot here in Hawaii. How Awesome would that have been?! (I will say if you’re going to take a 10 year old to see Jurassic World it has a bit o blood and gore up in that piece, so be warned) I enjoy debating him and considering a bunch of random comic themed scenarios and don’t ever want to dampen his zeal and curiosity and creativity. So I've decided I can either wallow in the past glory days of my mind’s perceived superiority- or enjoy the hopeful positivity of this new generation of nerdom and all it’s possibilities! I choose the fun one! (although my hate game so strong; it’s a habit I’m still trying to break so excuse the occasional snark, it’s my native tongue) So nerd/geek culture is once again a place of magic and wonder for me. It’s a good thing. I’ll occasionally be posting about some of my Aunty/nephew adventures on this site. Hope you enjoy :)
Candi is an overly involved Aunty and a connoisseur of the Finer things in life… Nintendo, 2 ply toilet paper, carbs and ALL of the literature! She is far too emotionally attached to fictional characters and loves television, video games, film and fan-girling. You can usually find her being a hot damn mess on twitter @candiland808
