So, I’ve been trying to write this month’s post for DAYS, y’all. The trouble is that my last few posts have been pretty heavy so I am trying hard to keep this one lighter. Politics aren’t helping my brain do something that is completely light. I’m going to try for a compromise.
As is pretty evident after spending approximately 30 seconds in the band’s presence, we’re REALLY nerdy, and each of us have a pile of nerdy, geeky things that we really dig on. I’ll let the guys go into what they’re into right now, both of them are FAR better storytellers than I am, and honestly that’s their story to tell. Me? My nerding is honestly where my ADHD gets pretty out of hand, as I think I touched on in my post about free time.
So what DO I nerd about. I guess the biggest things boil down to I am a sucker for a good story and/or a good mystery. I am a sci-fi/fantasy/anime show fan, be it Star Trek, Star Wars (y’all I just got a LIGHTSABER I’m too excited), Marvelverse, Locke and Key, Inuyasha, Demon Slayer (or Hunter for that matter), or Vox Machina or anything in between. Hand in hand with that is reading, which came first and led to my love of sci-fi. I cut my reading teeth on fairy tales then moved quickly to fantasy stories. CS Lewis, Lloyd Alexander, Tamora Pierce, and later Anne McCaffrey, MZB, Mercedes Lackey, Timothy Zahn, Frank Herbert. My love and nerding about Tolkein surpasses just about everything else on that list to be honest.
Imma get this out of the way: Yes, I’m enjoying the hell out of the Ring of Power series. No, I’m not going to argue about it. Yes, the creators said at the BEGINNING of the whole process that they were not able to stick to the story/book canon in a TV show because that’s a LOT of time to condense into a digestible visual storyline. I’m ok with that.
I’m also a fan of the ‘woowoo’: cryptids, hauntings, aliens, ufonauts, multidimensional reality theory, folklore…I love all of it. Because it boils down to being a good story. Do I believe all of it? My friends, I have seen some Weird Shit ™ in my day, but no. I don’t believe every single story I come across, but what is magic and fringe science and folklore but phenomena that science cannot yet explain. Sorta adjacent to this is a rabid love of the Fatal Frame Japanese horror game franchise. Seriously, go check it out if horror is your jam. Makes Silent Hill look like a Disney ride.
There’s a huge frelling list of other things that I nerd over, TTRPG, board games, historical costuming and clothing creation, cosplay, science stuff in general, cooking, gardening, video gaming, card games, dancing….
And a lot like the free time post, I can hear people go “When the hell do actually DO all of that?!”
So that was a long page to hit the meat of the post, and why my ADHD comes in handy dealing with all the interests it also hands me.
I really rarely do one thing at a time. During ye olde day job I’m always watching something. Lately it’s been the D&D campaign that inspired the “Legend of Vox Machina”, but it’ll be anything from anime episodes to how to makes, to gardening and homesteading blogs.
As an IT engineer sometimes I’m sitting and waiting so I’ll, while working and watching something, I’ll be knitting, crocheting, writing music, mending something…literally anything to keep from staring blindly at the screen. If I’m at a point in ‘making’ projects that I need to really focus on, I’ll research builds for whatever video game I’m playing (currently Diablo 4) or whatever folklore or costume has caught my interest.
If I’m out in the garden or walking doggos, I’ll have a book or a podcast going in my headphones, plus if anything I’m growing has been harvested, that’s being processed and preserved. It’ll go into the day’s meals, will get turned into jams, jellies, or pickles. Veggie scraps will go into the stock bag to make broths, fruit scraps for either vinegars or into the compost bin. And again, all of this happens pretty much at the same time.
Does this always work?
No. Sometimes I forget something is stewing or brewing and it goes bad or burns. I forget the water is on and flood an area I didn’t mean to. I’ll get going on a knitting project and do too many rows or stitches because I got in the zone. I’ll forget appointments because I’m in a REALLY good part of a book. Sometimes I’ve just burnt myself out and can’t do anything, but then there’s a podcast…yeah, I kinda nerd pretty constantly.
That’s the other thing, I’m always up for a new thing to nerd about, so, whatcha all got?!