On SDCC

This past weekend was San Diego's Comic Con International 2013.  For those of you who don't know, I typically celebrate this event by eating junk food on my couch and watching G4 for live coverage and news updates.  I could not do that this year because I was in the process of moving out.

Comic Con brings a very specific image to some people's minds: awkward, poorly-socialized comic book nerds in a convention center.  But over the years, SDCC has turned into something very different.  Yes, there are still people there for precisely that reason (I'm looking at you, Wil Wheaton and Steve Zaragoza), but SDCC has also become the major event for news in movies, television, art, comics, fantasy, science fiction, gaming, and more.  It's full of celebrities, cosplayers (people who dress up as their favorite characters from games, books, movies, shows, etc), panels (like the one that pre-showed the first episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), and other activities.

For at least the second time, they've run the Walking Dead Escape, an obstacle course where people run to escape the zombie hordes.  This isn't the old Comic Con...it's far too big and popular (and, might I add, expensive) to really even compare to most other cons or old school comic con.

Any time anybody wants to get me a press badge, you're more than welcome to.

Geekily yours,
Rachel Leigh

On 'Murica and Bosons

Happy Independence Day, darling readers!  The day we celebrate our independence from the British by drinking, eating hamburgers, and shooting off explosives.  America...f*** yeah!  (If you don't know what that's from, get the internet).

It is also MOTHERLOVING HIGGS BOSON DAY.  Do you know what that means?

No?  Let me explain.  You know how things around you have, like, mass?  That thing that makes them heavy and also tangible?  My chemistry teachers always described it as the amount of "stuff" in an object.

Well, in order for things to have mass, modern particle physics says that elementary particles (those little subatomic things that MAKE UP atoms, like quarks (up, down, strange, charm, top, bottom!)) need the Higgs mechanism, which is the process which gives those awesome little particles mass.  And in order to explain the Higgs mechanism, they needed the Higgs Boson, which has never been discovered.  (Hence the punchline, "If you don't allow Higgs Boson Particles, how do you have mass?!" (Yes, the interrobang was necessary.  I think the joke involves something about a pastor.  Ohwell, the punchline's the only relevant bit anyway.))

Until, you know, today, or well, yesterday in Switzerland at this point (you suck, time zones), when the awesome guys playing around with that terrifying supercollider known as the LHC at CERN found a new particle which they are more than 99% certain is the God Particle itself, the Higgs Boson.

Like...the answer to why things have mass and therefore, yknow, exist.  Was discovered.  We think.  And for that, you get a HAPPY MOTHERLOVIN' HIGGS BOSON DAY.

Particle physicists and nerds of the world, I suggest we celebrate this holiday by drinking and setting off explosives.  Hamburgers optional.

Wishing you and yours a happy day,
Rachel Leigh

On CG Bloodshed, Beating Up Hookers, and My Obsession with GLaDOS

Confession:

I have always loved video games, but I am terrible at them. Seriously. I think the only game I’ve ever been good at is Mario Party, and that game is about 85% chance. The only game I have ever beaten is Pokemon Yellow and I swear to god if anyone ever accidentally overwrites my game and I have to start over at the beginning I might cry because dammit I worked hard for that.

My favorite game, like any good video game nerd, has always been Ocarina of Time. But don’t let that fool you into believing that I have ever beaten Ocarina of Time. Are you kidding? People who are actually good at video games have a hard time beating the Water Temple. I just kind of sit there the entire game and pathetically whimper trying to play Epona’s Song until someone takes the controller away from me and saves me from my misery.

And what about FPS? I grew up getting shot to death playing Goldeneye 007 with my older brother. I try and play Halo and I end up running in circles because I can barely operate the controls, let alone actually kill somebody.

That has never changed my obsession with games though. I have always loved to watch people play video games, and I have always loved a game with good graphics, a good plot, or copious amounts of CG-bloodshed. The red death screen in an FPS is a guilty pleasure. Also, for some reason I’m obsessed with the countdown to respawn in Halo. Another favorite has always been Grand Theft Auto. I don’t really know why except that maybe I secretly wish I lived a life that involved stealing cars and beating up prostitutes. The world may never know.

I always felt like a bit of a fraud, because I am a professed video game dork. I love them. But because I’m so bad, if it weren’t for the YouTube “Let’s Play” community or growing up with a much more video-game-talented brother, I wouldn’t even know half these games existed. Is it possible to be a nerd for something you’re terrible at?

Also, I may be obsessed with "Still Alive" and "Want You Gone" from the respective endscreens of Portal and Portal 2. Just sayin'.

Geeking out,
Rachel Leigh