If you only knew the POWER of the Geek Side...

Okay, I'm a geek.

Yeah. I like comics. I spent a lot of years playing role-playing games like Champions. I'm the editor of an online Champions fanzine. I write super-hero fiction on the internet. I like sci-fi and fantasy. I play the occasional computer or console game. I read Star Wars novels and other such works that you can't--if you have the least inkling of self-respect--read on an airplane. All these things are true.

And not EVERYone knows this side of me.

Hence, the reason why I have two blogs.

When I first established my web site, michaeloconnell.com, I wanted it to be all about me and my life, and about the things I enjoy, and I wanted to be able to share it with the world. Unfortunately, I realized that, leading this double-life that I do, that I couldn't share ALL of it if everyone I knew (and people I didn't know) were going to be seeing it. It's a choice. Some people might say this is being dishonest and lying about who are are. Those people are probably married already. Me, I'm single, and have learned, like many guys, how having to deal with this kind of lifestyle is regarded by the ladies. We all, of the geek variety, had to learn this truth in high school. And then you move on and you get into a relationship, and you have things happen like happened to me with my ex. Once I finally got around to telling her the truth about my role-playing past, she let me know, bluntly, that if she'd known about that when we first met, we probably never would have gotten together. Wish I could say she was the rare exception. I've seen it many times. I remember a girl I worked with telling me how she came into the living room and found her husband watching BATMAN (imagine!). And she proudly told me how she told him, "Fine. You can either stay in here and watch BATMAN (you had to be there to really appreciate the level of disgust in her voice at the word), or you can come to bed with me. Your choice."

It's a fact we live with. There's no quicker way to get someone to build an immediate negative impression about you than to reveal your geekness. If you're going to tell someone you like to read comics, you might as well tell them you worship Satan and have confused sexual feelings about goats. NOT always, of course. And a lot of guys will speak up at this point and say that they're very "out there" about their interests and don't care what people think, and they've had a good experience with the whole thing. Good for them. Thumbs-up for the self-confidence. Though I do generally find that these guys are either 1) not too aware of what people say behind their back, 2) are already in a long-term relationship or 3) are really good looking so they can get away with it. Me? I'm already starting off with a wheelchair in the equation, so really...why jack the odds up even further?

There are people you share your geek side with and people you don't. You share it with people who...well, frankly, have imaginations. The more mainstream folks in your life? You're taking your chances. The more intuitive geeks know this. The ones who actually bathe and are able to function in regular society, in other words. Certain others just truly don't care, and wear their hobbies on their sleeves, even without being the smelly, Members-Only-jacket-wearing variety. Again, that's awesome for them. Those guys, though, can be a problem for others they know who aren't so "out". Classic example. My roommate at the time, someone who I gamed with, had a date over at our apartment. I was chatting with them, trying to make him look good, hooking a brother up. As we sat out on our patio, I spotted another friend of ours, an artist, walking up with his art folio. Oh, God. All my internal alarms went off, because I knew what was coming. He was involved with our role-playing game and was doing some character art for us. He was also 1) married, and 2) a rugged individualist who had no qualms speaking out about his nerd side. Danger, Will Robinson.

I tried to head him off and answered the front door, but he enthusiastically blew right past me and headed out to the patio, portfolio in hand. He got introduced to the lady in question, and then, with little to no pause, whipped out the art to show my roommate, and politely explained to the girl (as not to leave her in the dark) that we all played a super-hero role-playing game. My roommate was pretty much in stunned silence. I was squirming in sympathetic horror for him. And if memory serves, there was no second date with this girl.

It's just a fact of life when you're single and you live in the world that we do and you're a fan of the fantastical. You want to get along with the "normal" world, you've got to keep your geek side on the low-low. Sad, but true. I've been around long enough to understand this. If you want to just be who you are and deal with the consequences, I respect the choice. You're a braver man than I. Me, I prefer to keep my two lives separate. Even though most people already know I'm a comic writer, which gives me a little extra edge. It's still not quite edge enough. There's a hell of a valley between "writes a comic strip about modern relationships" and "sits around a table with a bunch of guys and pretends to be a super-hero".

So, when I started a blog off my web page, I also realized that didn't allow me an outlet to talk about the nerdier stuff if everyone I knew was going to be reading. So I decided to start up this one to address that, one that I would share with a few, but not all. Here, I'll talk about comics and gaming and the like. There? The other stuff. The general audiences stuff. This blog, conversely, will be rated "G"...for "Geek".

And so the geeking begins. Welcome to it. Klingon costumes are optional.