A Little Introduction...

As far back as I can remember, I have always loved to write. I was scribbling in journals, creating comic books, (featuring the ever intrepid adventures of "snow cats" with super powers that usually ended with heroes and villains shaking hands and discussing their disagreements over a plate of cookies) or even practicing my handwriting by creating endless lists of things I wanted from the JCPenney's Holiday Toy Catalog (to this day I'm still enticed by that thick, glossy book full of colorful pictures). Now, at the age of 27, my writing has matured greatly, (heroes and villains are now dining on bruschetta and fine wine) and I enjoy writing about the things I am passionate about. Those things consist of music, movies, video games, art, books, and all things geeky. My parents were Star Trek and 13th Floor Elevators fans, (if you like psychedelic sixties garage rock, you MUST check'em out) and I was doomed to a life of geekery from the day I laid my eyes upon my first book of dinosaurs (Stegosaurus rules!) While middle school and high school were pretty awful environments for a geek in the 90s, (I wore my X-Files t-shirt to school every Friday...which, as I'm sure you can imagine, resulted in enormous popularity) college life has been quite different, and I've been able to be proud of the things that make me geeky, such as the fact that no one has been able to beat me on Guitar Hero or Rock Band. (Any takers?) With the arrival of films such as The Dark Knight and the new Star Trek reboot, as well as the triumph of geeks all over popular culture, (Judd Apatow, J.J. Abrams, Sarah Silverman...the list goes on.) it is my firm belief that geek is now the new chic.

That is essentially the basis for my project for this course. While I am currently in the Scientific and Medical Writing specialty in the TPC program at Ferris State University, my true passion has always been for journalism and creative writing. I love science too, and can make a pretty good living off of it. The only problem is that my brain is constantly bursting and overflowing with all of my geeky knowledge and news, from all corners of geek culture, and I feel the need to report on it, not only so that I can get my brain to just settle down already, (brain needs to go sit in the corner! Giving people lists of obscure films they must see while at parties is not a good social skill! Bad brain!) but also to further promote geeks and geek culture. For countless years we've been the butt of boneheaded jokes, while we all end up growing up to build spaceships and computers so the people who teased us have cooler lives. Now is the time to finally take our rightful place at the top of the social ladder. As Andrew said at the TPC picnic, "Finally, I get to sit at the popular table!"

Since I am a voracious blog reader, (I am subscribed to at least fifty) I am extremely eager to report all of this geektastic stuff on my own blog; this is something I have wanted to do for a very, very long time. School has always gotten in the way; as I'm sure we will all learn, hosting and managing your own blog requires a large commitment. Now that I can use this class as a reason to finally dedicate myself to creating and managing a blog of geekery, I feel good about spending time on research and reporting, instead of feeling guilty for using my valuable time for something that is low on the list of priorities in my life. My hope, even dream, would be to manage a blog full time, such as Gabe on one of my favorite blogs, http://www.videogum.com. I would be able to earn money for writing and reporting on things I love, as well as through advertising. While this is a long-term goal, in the short-term I would like to be able to learn how to effectively write and report for the internet, as well as learning about copyright laws, widgets, layouts, and other blogging rules and techniques.

This isn't the first time I've had a blog. My first blog is linked on this page, at http://www.leahsendlessmoviemarathon.blogspot.com/ There, I stuck strictly to movie reviews, but after a time, I had to quit writing there as well, (my last entry was in May 2009) as school and other commitments had to take precedence. While I enjoyed it, I was dismayed after having little to no readership. As a result, the writing on that blog is a little rusty and not very edited. Hopefully, I will be able to learn how to promote a blog, and have it come up in search engines, in order to get people to actually READ the blog.

Currently, my new website is at http://hellozombie.net , and it is set to launch on Thursday. So if you are interested, please bookmark it and check it out! Of course, I will be posting an announcement on this blog as well after I officially launch it. In the meantime, feel free to add me on facebook! I'm looking forward to working with all of you!

Oh, and yes, that is a picture of me with a squid-hat. Don't act like you don't want one for yourself. :)