In which Becky and Andrew talk about the joys and horrors of being expecting parents. Andrew is certain that he is going to drop the child, and Becky is equally certain it will be Andrew’s fault. The couple take an honest look at what they hope life will be like and how little they actually know.
Show Notes:
It’s that time of year again. Out with the old and in with the new year’s resolutions. Tracy and I are going to take a couple minutes to review how we did on our resolutions this year, and make some new ones for this year. Continue reading
Filed under Andrew Hales, Geek Life, Tracy Gronewold
Hey, everyone! Like many of you, we here at Therefore I Geek each have a list of New Year’s resolutions, some geeky, and some not. We thought that we would share them with you as a way of saying farewell to 2013, and looking ahead to 2014.
Andrew
Read More – I haven’t been reading as much as I would like and it’s my own fault. I tend to put the TV on for noise and do other things at times when I could be reading. It’s time to take on the Reading List of Doom and hopefully make it a little smaller.
Catch up on select TV shows – While I want to watch less TV, I would also like to focus that TV watching so I can catch up on several shows that I have never seen. This includes, but is not limited to Doctor Who, Breaking Bad, Lost and maybe (a very tentative maybe) Battlestar Galactica.
Lose more weight – Some of you may remember my Fit 4 Con posts and my attempts to lose weight before NYCC this past year. While not a resounding success, I did lose some weight and I’d like to keep going. Now that the holidays and their endless supply of treats are coming to an end, I’m in a pretty good place to keep going. I now have a rowing machine with which to torture myself, so I think I’m set.
Be more social – We are constantly advocating for geeks to be more social and while I have gotten much better about this than I use to be, there is still plenty of room for improvement. It does me no good to tell you guys to do something that I don’t do myself.
Tracy
My first resolution is to learn to swim properly. I’ve tried some beginner classes, but instructors want to focus on treading water, which I cannot seem to grasp. I can float and doggy paddle, so I won’t drown, but there is entirely too much splashing and it takes too long to get anywhere. This year I want to take on the pool and learn to swim correctly.
Secondly, I want to spend some time researching and reading Cloak & Dagger. This fun comic duo has always interested me, but I’ve been more enthralled with Beast and the Scarlet Witch in the last couple of years. It is time to branch out to a series that I don’t know much about.
Like Andrew, I also need to up my book count this year. It’s a big undertaking, but my goal is to read fifty two books in fifty two weeks. I remember reading far more than this as a child, but I have gotten out of the habit, and become involved in reading more online or for school. Books that qualify can be anything other than comic books (although I am willing to include full graphic novels).
Lastly, and perhaps my most difficult and most important resolution, I want to graduate in 2014. I’ve been working on my degree for almost three years. Because of careful planning, hard work, and some blind luck, I may be able to graduate a semester early, and I really want to do this. It will take focus and even more hard work, but I believe I’m up to the task.
So those are our lists. We cannot wait to see what 2014 holds both for us and the blog. Are you making resolutions? Share them with us in the comments.
Filed under Andrew Hales, Geek Life, Tracy Gronewold
Like all people, we here at Therefore I Geek have heroes, but because we’re geeks many of those heroes are also geeks. With this in mind, we’re kicking off a new, reoccurring series featuring people in geek culture that we think you should know about, or at least know better and we’ve decided to start with Brian K. Vaughan.
Brian K. Vaughan got involved in comics as student at NYU in the late 90’s through a program at Marvel called the Stan-hattan Project, which gave students in NYU’s Dramatic Writing department a chance for practical experience. Vaughan started off with a few fill issues for several series, which included Cable and Wolverine, before moving over to DC where he helped re-launch Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing of course is known as a legacy title through which many of comic’s biggest names—such as Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and Mark Millar—have come. When this particular Swamp Thing series didn’t last very long, Vaughan made his way back to Marvel for a Cyclops mini-series.
When Marvel decided to launch a new imprint, Vaughan wrote two series, one featuring Mystique and a second called Runaways which starred a new team of heroes who were the children of Marvel’s supervillains. Following a successful run, Vaughan left Runaways and was succeeded by none other than Joss Whedon.
Prior to the release of Runaways, Vaughan started a creator-owned series at Vertigo called Y: The Last Man. This is hailed as Vaughan’s best work and with good reason. It is the story of Yorick Brown and his monkey trying to survive in a world in which a mysterious event has left them the only two living males on the planet. It is a masterpiece of comics, lasting sixty issues before coming to a wonderful conclusion. Frequently Y: The Last Man is recommended to new comic readers as it exemplifies the art form.
A man and his monkey.
In 2004, around the middle of Y: The Last Man, Vaughan started a second major, creator-owned series: Ex Machina. Where Y focused on a near future sci-fi story, Ex Machina mixed superheroes and politics, with the main character being a former superhero who has been elected mayor of New York City. If there was any doubt that Vaughan was a master of comics, Ex Machina removed it by the end of issue one. Only three years after Sept. 11, Vaughan left us breathless (with what?) and set the tone for the Ex Machina in one page.
This gives me chills every time I see it.
Writing as good as Vaughan’s doesn’t go unnoticed outside comics for long. Toward the end of Ex Machina, Vaughan began to write for the TV show Lost. Many comic fans sadly believed he would never return once he’d seen the bright lights of Hollywood. Thankfully those doubters were wrong, and in 2012 Vaughan made a triumphant return to comics with Saga. The best thing I can say about Saga is that if you aren’t reading it, you should be and if you are, read it again. It’s that good. While Vaughan has made his comeback to comics, he hasn’t left Hollywood completely as he is also performing writing and executive producer duties for Under the Dome, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.
If you still have questions, it might be Brian K. Vaughan’s fault.
Vaughan is a masterful storyteller in both comics and television and has worked on some of the most defining series of the last decade in both mediums. It’s this kind of contribution that makes Brian K. Vaughan a Geek to Know. Stay tuned to see who our next Geek to Know will be.
Filed under Andrew Hales, Geek Life, Geeks You Should Know
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