Category: Misc

Geek Out Challenge – Day 28

Our Day 28 topic for the Geek Out Challenge finds us discussing our favorite movie soundtracks. A good soundtrack can add an extra sense of tension or emotional resonance when accompanying a movie, with some movies being memorable mostly for their soundtrack. For this challenge question I’m referring primarily to original score as part of a movie’s soundtrack versus a compilation of songs played alongside the movie, something like Forrest Gump which spans decades and features a large assortment of popular songs or pretty much any Quentin Tarantino movie’s eclectic array of songs kinda seems like cheating. Here’s my completely unique and original pick, here we go….

Favorite movie soundtrack? – Star Wars

And here we are….yet another post where I talk about Star Wars(surprised, huh?). With honorable mentions being most any Disney movie from The Little Mermaid and on through the 90’s, I still find it hard to come up with movie soundtracks without immediately thinking “Star Wars!”. One of the most identifiable musical scores in movie history, the Main Title march that plays over the opening crawl is instantly identifiable even if you’ve never watched any of the Star Wars movies(such humans DO exist, I know several of them). Other highlights of the soundtrack include Binary Sunset, which plays as Luke views the setting of the twin suns on his home planet of Tatooine, or the heroic Throne Room that plays at the end of Star Wars – A New Hope as Han and Luke(but not Chewbacca, wookies are second-class citizens I guess?) receive medals for their victory in destroying the Death Star. And of course, I can’t go without mentioning the Cantina Theme that famously plays as Luke and Obi-Wan enter the Mos Eisley Cantina; it’s also the current ringtone on my phone 😉

For the sake of brevity I will refer solely to the soundtrack of the original Star Wars, though EVERY Star Wars movie has a great soundtrack. Other tracks from Star Wars movies that I also love would be the Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back which is used as Darth Vader’s theme, featuring a very Wagnerian heavy brass section as well as Duel of the Fates from Episode I: The Phantom Menace, quite possibly the best thing the movie had going for it…

I could write an entire blog post just on music from the Star Wars movies that I love; composer John Williams has orchestrated some of the greatest and most beloved musical scores in movie history, from Star Wars and Jurassic Park to the Indiana Jones and Harry Potter movies. John Williams’ scores are so great, he only needed TWO NOTES to make Jaws absolutely terrifying! Other movie composers that always provide wonderful music would be Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman, but now I’m getting off topic and starting to ramble. In short, my favorite movie soundtrack – Star Wars

I apologize for getting this out a bit later than I intended, but plan on wrapping up our Geek Out Challenge right on schedule! What’s your favorite movie soundtrack? How about your favorite movie composer? Let me know in the comments below and we’ll see you tomorrow!

Geek Out Challenge – Day 27

It is Day 27 of the Geek Out Challenge true believers, and our topic du jour is superheroes! Whether being exposed to gamma rays, taken super soldier serums, or simply able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, superheroes have permeated our culture and everyday lives much like that of the gods and monsters of Greek or Egyptian mythology. The majority of our best known superheroes began in comic books, but as of the last couple decades these characters have become better known from the movies and tv shows based on the source material and are still some of our most beloved characters.

Favorite superhero?

My choice of favorite superhero would have to be either Batman or Spider-Man, not real unique choices, but have been a significant part of my life nonetheless. If I had to decide one JUST one I would probably lean towards Spider-Man. A superhero’s alter ego(i.e. Peter Parker or Bruce Wayen) is what gives a character any level of depth and establishes a connection between the reader/viewer and the character. Peter Parker resonates with many people in how he is just another geeky teenager before being bitten by a radioactive spider; he has the same worries and insecurities as anyone, gaining his spider-powers along the way only adds to the responsibilities piled upon him. I have always been drawn to how Peter Parker has such a strong desire to help others and do the right thing, even though he initially feels responsibility for no one other than himself. We all know the origin story – Peter’s Uncle Ben is murdered by the very same person he witnessed robbing the wrestling promoter who had just cheated him some money, pushing Peter to devote his life to using his powers to help others – “With great power, comes great responsibility”.

Peter Parker has always been interesting in how life beats him down routinely, but still never gives up and is constantly striving to be better. I’ve always found this aspect to be inspirational as he demonstrates an incredible amount of determination, responsibility and overall faith in the good of humanity, the kind of things I don’t always feel I personally have in great supply…

That’s all for now, who’s your favorite superhero? Let me know in the comments below. There’s only a few days of the Geek Out Challenge left, let’s keep the momentum going!

Excelsior!

Geek Out Challenge – Day 26

If you’re anything like me, Disney movies have played a huge part of your childhood and beyond, so for today’s Geek Out Challenge question we are discussing our favorite Disney movies. I grew up during the Disney renaissance of the 90’s beginning with The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast going into the Pixar era through today, where both Star Wars and Marvel movies are under the Disney umbrella.

Favorite Disney movie?

The Lion King

Most likely the Disney movie I watched the most as a kid; I was 8 when The Lion King was released in theaters and remember my parents finally bringing my brother, cousin, and I to go see it. I was obsessed with this movie and remember having everything Lion King at home, from toys and coloring books to pajamas and bed sheets. I had the cassette tape of the soundtrack that I would play on a little radio beside my bed at night and remember the instrumental track “…To Die For” (played during the wildebeast stampede in the movie) scaring the hell out of me. Of course, I played the Lion King game on Sega Genesis nearly every day too! While the story of the movie has been dismissed as simply “Hamlet with animals”, the movie is a classic with memorable characters that I still enjoy watching. I have not yet watched the live-action(well…kinda) remake that was released earlier this summer, but plan on doing so soon.

I could make an entire list just of Disney movies that I loved as a kid(and STILL do), but The Lion King would have to be my favorite. What’s your favorite Disney movie? Let me know in the comments below. Counting down our last week of the Geek Out Challenge, see you tomorrow and Hakuna Matata…

Geek Out Challenge – Day 25

YouTube has been monumental in its ability to bring together fans and creators of varying communities around the world, so it’s only fitting uur Day 25 Challenge of the Geek Out Challenge is sharing some of our favorite geeky YouTubers. There’s many different Youtube channels that I’ll spend time watching over any given week, with most of them being related to gaming in some capacity, while others may be vlogs, history, or a combination of things. Here’s a list of some of my favorites…

Favorite geeky YouTuber?

Cinnemassacre

Gaming Historian

Erin Plays

KickThePj

As I mentioned, most of the YouTube channels I watch a primarily gaming related, with others involving history, or food; you know…all my favorite things 🙂 What are some of your favorite geeky YouTubers? Let me know in the comments below. Like and subscribe! See you tomorrow…

Geek Out Challenge – Day 24

As we enter Day 24 of the Geek Out Challenge, our focus now shifts to things that we would love to improve within the geek community. Yesterday’s topic was about things that we love about the community, so we will be examining the other side of that.

Something you want to improve about the geek community?

For all the things I love about the geek community, there is still room for improvement. One of the biggest discussions is concerning toxic behavior within the community and what can be done about it, another issue that seems never to be far away when discussing the toxicity of certain communities is that of gatekeeping. Even if you haven’t experienced it yourself, you have more than likely been around this type of behavior. There are the individuals out there that love to downplay your level of interest or fandom, whether it be music, movies, video games, etc. there seems to be someone who will have whatever stupid reasons to discredit you as a “real” fan; as if you need to meet some arbitrary level of “geek cred” before you’re able to display any degree of interest. An example of this within the gaming community is someone who plays video games, but is told by others that they aren’t a “real gamer” because they only play <insert genre> games or ” I bet they haven’t even played <game>”. You CAN be a gamer without ever playing a Dark Souls game, or spending less that 500 hours playing an online game; and yes, you can still be a gamer if you spend most of your time playing nothing but Fortnite. I tend to get a bit irritated seeing this type of gatekeeping, elitist, b.s. from others that are so concerned with how someone else enjoys a particular fandom or game series. There are issues in the larger community that are significant such as toxicity as it pertains most of the time to one’s race, gender, or sexual orientation. Another issue that I think is interesting and may decide to write about in the future is the topic of accessibility in gaming. I generally try to stay positive focus on thing that I love about video games, but there are many things out there within the gaming community(and geek community in general) that need improvement with much of this simply falling under “Don’t be an asshole!”.

What are some things that you would like to see improved within the geek community? Let me know in the comments below. Be good to each other, see you tomorrow…

Geek Out Challenge – Day 23

Discussing things we love about the geek community is our Day 23 topic for the Geek Out Challenge. Whether it be groups on Facebook, Discord, or our wonderful community here on WordPress, there’s plenty of things that make for a great experience in celebrating all of our interests and obsessions.

Something you love about the geek community?

What I love about the geeky community is the feeling of camaraderie and support amongst everyone, there’s no sense of “factions” within the community. It’s not the Harry Potter fans in one corner and the Doctor Who fans in another, everyone is welcome; there’s a feeling of acceptance and excitement that bonds everyone together. Another example of this would be a local Discord server for Pokemon Go players that I joined a while back; I had been playing Pokemon Go for a while and had met a few people around town once they introduced the raid bosses into the game. A few people suggested that I join the local Discord server and could organize times and places to meet up with others to fight the raid bosses, list nearby sightings, or simply discuss our collection. Using Discord was a bit of a learning curve, but once I got the hang of it, I’m really thankful for the wonderful Pokemon community we have locally. I guess I could simply condense all this down to meeting someone and it being like “Hey! you play Pokemon Go? Me too!” or my being primarily a console gamer and you’re mostly a PC gamer, “That’s cool! What kind of games do you like to play?”. One of my favorite things about the geeky community is the enthusiasm and support from others regardless of which particular fandom you belong to and if only this was as pervasive through the rest of the internet…

What’s something that you love about the geeky community? Let me know in the comments below or you can check out Megan at A Geeky Girl’s blog site for more details if you’d like to join in the last week of fun in the Geek Out Challenge. Until next time…

Geek Out Challenge – Day 22

Day 22 of the Geek Out Challenge! Our geeky challenge question posed by Megan for today is….

Favorite fandom quote?


It was very, very difficult to decide what would be my favorite quote. I knew it would most likely come from either Doctor Who or Harry Potter. The above quote is from of my favorites from Peter Capaldi during his last moments as the Doctor. Peter Capaldi had many great speeches during his three seasons as the Doctor, but it was in his final moments before regenerating that he imparted these words of inspiration to everyone watching. A message of kindness over cruelty(and pears?) and love is always wisest path. This is one of the more memorable quotes of Peter Capaldi’s turn as the Doctor. Other favorites of mine would also be from Matt Smith or David Tennant’s “wobbly wobbly timey wimey….stuff”.

What are your some of your favorite fandom quotes? Let me know in the comments below. Until tomorrow….