Get Your Geek On

We're all a little geeky, really, especially as literary and film and TV genres keep bending and blending, and superheros keep taking over local cinemas, more non-geeks are leaning a little bit, um, sideways lately. You know. Geekways.

I've been told I'm only a partial geek. Sometimes my 15-year old son, (who considers himself a truer geek than I), and I discuss superhero things and comic-book things (though my comic knowledge is, admittedly, very limited; in fact- I have trouble remembering that Batman and Superman are DC and every other cool superhero in creation is Marvel... so kind of him to keep reminding me with eyes rolling) and Lord of the Rings and books and movies and computers (well, he discusses computers. I try not to let my eyes glaze over when my brain just stops functioning) and video games (he tells me the ending sometimes, since I'm never going to play games such as "Infamous" on the PS3). We even joke sometimes that we will henceforth measure the children in hobbits, as my children tend to run a little small in stature, but they're still taller than hobbits.

Anyway... this rambly, misguided blog entry is simply an attempt to inform you of some pretty cool geek-related sites out there. In case you didn't know.

First off, www.thinkgeek.com. ThinkGeek is a super-amazing-fantastic place to get lots of cool geeky toys, tshirts and household uniquities. (It's a word! Just not a real one...) I bought this canary light for my one-day home office, to plug in near the light switch... get it? I laughed all the way to the mailbox...

It's a surprisingly lovely little blue nightlight, and I wish I had a good place to plug it in now, where it wouldn't get snapped off by careless shenanigans of my only-moderately-well-supervised children.

ThinkGeek has many great items, including t-shirts that make my heart smile with wanting them, and fun toys and trinkets. AND, even more importantly, their customer service is impeccable. I returned an item and never heard back about my store credit, so I emailed them, and quickly and in a very friendly way, I was sent an email with a gift card for the amount I was due. They are real people, and very good to work with.

 Next up is a great source for fun, goofy, unique gifts for the hard-to-buy for friend, the crazy uncle, or the bacon-lover in your life. Archie McPhee & Co. has funny, unusual items and a lot of surprises, including zombie toys, bacon bandaids and products like these Handerpants, which look like something out of Weird Al Yankovic's 1989 film, "UHF".

Check it out, there are some items that will make you laugh, a few that might make you gag and a bunch that are just begging to be dropped into your sweetheart's Christmas stocking.

Last, but certainly not least, is the awesome second blog of equally awesome blogger Jen Yates, whose Cake Wrecks blog makes me laugh to tears when I'm not covering my mouth in horror. Her other blog, is Epbot, where she writes about very cool things, much of it Steampunk, sci-fi, Disney (after my own heart) and geekish-related. She is funny, entertaining, and very talented. She makes a lot of really neat crafty-type things that I could only wish for the talent, time and creativity to come up with. If you have a moment, check out her blogs. You won't regret it.

 That's all for now. Just some things that have been bumping around in my head. How much geek are you? I'm less than 3/4 geek, but I'm 1 1/2 hobbits tall. I guess that's good enough. :)