Tuesday, February 17, 2015

A Nerd Confessional

Hey there everybody! Old Man Chaos is here with another posting from the Eye of Terror. This one is, I think, a bit unusual, but it is something I'd like to do more frequently (when I have the time, that is). So, away we go...


I am, as my wife says, a Nerd. There. I said it. I am a very large nerd. I have been involved with many nerd activities. Warhammer 40K? That makes me Nerd #1, for sure. But, there's more. I love video games. I have been playing video games since the Atari 2600. I was playing video games before they were "cool" (which did not happen till Playstation One in 1995- before that, people played games, but they weren't widespread or a BIG part of culture till then). I owned so many game systems (NES, SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, Turbografix, and much much more).

Does anyone recognize this one?

As I kid, I saw my world through video games. I loved Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Final Fantasy, Sonic, Castlevania, Mega Man, etc. I was skilled at video games (I had no skills in traditional sports), and they transported me to so many places. Sad, but nerd true, I have video game music on my ipod. To this day, I play games.


Nostalgia for the 8 and 16 bit days aside, I believe the pinnacle for gaming was the XBox 360 and Wii days of the mid 2000s. Those were a great few years to be a gamer- the games that came out then were simply amazing- Mass Effect, Fallout, Bioshock, Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, House of the Dead Overkill... plus xbox arcade and virtual console... wow. I must admit, my gaming has slowed down since I got married, but I do own a Wii U (Mario Kart is just fantastic multi-player fun), and I would like to get an XBox One at some point.


I was also, for a very long time, a comic book addict (I think 40K supplanted it, ultimately)- I got into comics in 1989 when I saw the movie Batman- which inspired me to buy a few Batman books, including the trade of A Death in the Family. I started with Bats, but I went to Spiderman, X-Men, and others. I was going comic book shopping once a week, buying tons of issues.


I was there for the comic book explosion and ultimate implosion in the 90s. I had like a billion X-Force 1 bagged, of course. I was there for Death of Superman, and more importantly for me, Knightfall (still a fav). I was there for Morrison's incredible (and unsurpassed) JLA run (that was in college for me by that point). On the Marvel side, my favs were Age of Apocalypse and Infinity Gauntlet. But, I was also there for the messes, like the Clone Saga and Onslaught.


I stopped in 1999/2000 for the most part, as I simply couldn't keep up with all the crossovers and "events" anymore. Ugh. That killed it for me. I briefly returned in 2005 (Thanks to Bats again, as Batman Begins made me go back), just in time for Grant Morrison start his Batman run (which I never finished), and I picked up Civil War. After that, too many damn crossovers reminded me why I stopped, and so I quit cold turkey. Now, I once in a while buy a trade or something. I recently got the Infinity Gauntlet Omnibus- what a pleasure to read. Of course, I use the Internet to monitor major comic developments (Thor is a woman? Puh-lease- Publicity stunt.), but I don't buy anymore. I do still love comic movies, of course.


Speaking of, my third "Nerd love" is movies. I think film is a powerful medium if used correctly. I don't see every movie. Many would bore me or just be unappealing. The movies that I love are sci-fi. Well-done horror* films. Comic movies. Tarantino (he's his own mixed up genre). My love of movies come from my parents, who loved watching movies in their down time.



Growing up when I did (1980s), my parents exposed me to "classics". Star Wars (saw Jedi in the theater). Star Trek (Trek III being the first Trek I saw in theaters). Alien. The Godfather (my Italian father's Bible). The Black Hole. Jaws. Young Frankenstein. My mother took me to see Ghostbusters and Monster Squad. I also saw older sci-fi, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1950s), War of the Worlds (1950s), Godzilla (the FIRST one, thank you). My mother loved classic horror- I saw Dracula with Legosi, Frankenstein, Invisible Man, all those Universals.


My passion for good movies has continued, almost undiminished. On my own, I "found" other films. For a while I was into seriously into horror- but again, the classics- Texas Chainsaw, Evil Dead, Halloween 1-3 (yes, 3), and Romero's Dead trilogy. I was always into sci-fi, of course- I didn't get to Terminator until I was in high school though. I liked Jurassic Park but didn't love it for some reason. Independence Day- now that was a movie! I also got into action films, like Die Hard. In college, I saw a ton of history-related films- Patton, Dr. Strangelove, The Great Dictator, Saving Private Ryan, etc. In the 2000s, we had a great run- Lord of the Rings (which were a revelation), Nolan's Batman (similarly, a revolution in comic films), solid sci-fi like Children of Men and the War of the Worlds remake.


I have seen many movies with my wife- we do date nights by going out to dinner and a movie. Sometimes we see what she wants (Twilight. Yes- love makes you do strange things). Sometimes its what I want (Watchmen). My wife loves the Marvel films (she loved GotG), so that's great news for me. We see Oscar bait in the winter (like American Hustle, which was excellent). Most recently, we saw American Sniper- a fantastic anti-war film masquerading as a gung-ho war film (idiots on BOTH sides are having knee-jerk reactions without really "seeing" the movie). We are totally looking forward to Avengers 2 this summer, and the new Star Wars, naturally.


So- what was this article, anyways? An exercise in nostalgia? Hoping to just get readers thinking about their own nerd experiences? Putting readers to sleep? Maybe all of the above. This site, Corners of Chaos, will always be Warhammer 40K focused, but I would like to do other things. Perhaps reviews of some of my favorite movies or classic comic stories. So, this was my first step- and I hope that I will be able to do more on this blog... Or just go back to 40K, as my next project beckons to me... Harlequins are certainly tempting me...

Until Next Time...


3 comments:

  1. Being an ATARI 2600 'playa' as well as a computer user when 16K worth of memory was considered cutting edge, I resonate with what you have said on this post. Heck, for a bit of nostalgia I am even playing Rogue Legacy on the PS4 at the moment and loving it.

    As for W40K, I also agree with you on the Harlequins. They look awesome and almost ..... almost make me want to get new stuff from GW again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nostalgia- that was what I loved about the Wii- you could play the new stuff (Galaxy, Twilight Princess) but you could also play all those 8 and 16 bit classics! Awesome stuff. Do you still have your Atari 2600? I no longer do, unfortunately. I find emulations on line when I'm super nostalgic.

      My wife bought me some Harlequins, as a matter of fact. They are fantastic looking models- tons of motion, with lots of details and options (weapons, masks, etc). Sweet models, though I am worried about painting them... I'll have to take special care to do them justice.

      Delete
    2. Sadly I no longer have the ATARI 2600 in my possession. :(
      I haven't really got hooked by any emulations as I was too busy playing those cutting edge PC games that had 16-64k memory. LoL I remember the days of the first 'gaming' computers. I couldn't afford a personal computer back then but my school had a couple of donated Apple II computers and we somehow got a hold of a copy of Karateka and Taipan. So we played games when the teacher left the room after giving us a BASIC programming assignment to finish. Heh heh ... that must be why I never got the skills to be a computer programmer. Sigh ... ^_^

      Delete