Nergeekiness ~ Raise Your Geek Flag

According to his goodmenproject.com bio, a tweep I follow (and follows TCA!), Alexander Yarde @thatalexyarde, is "... a husband and father living in New Jersey. In earlier times, you could find Alex in New York City teaching outdoor education to the great kids from Erasmus High School in Brooklyn." He is also, a geek, who was interviewed and featured on an episode on Geek Cast Live on April 5, 2014.  I listened to this podcast yesterday afternoon.  It was interesting and funny, not to mention pleasantly geeky in content [1:20:12 long].

The first 15 minutes they chatter a bit, talking about hash tags this and that, laughing, silliness - funsies!  Alex then proceeds to talk about the Good Men Project.  Have you heard of it?  If not, basically, from a blurb directly from their website's "About Us" page:

"Our community is smart, compassionate, curious, and open-minded; they strive to be good fathers and husbands, citizens and friends, to lead by example at home and in the workplace, and to understand their role in a changing world. The Good Men Project is a place where that happens."

Alex says:

"We're the only large scale conversation about progressive men's masculinity in the world, currently, and we look at masculinity through the lens of technology, parenting, sports, ethics, politics, arts and entertainment, marriage, sex relationships, social justice and humor."  [Listen at 15:03-15:25]

Alex explains Good Men Project in his own words and how he contributes as a writer/contributor.  He also talks about being a geek:

"Anything that smart people obsess about and are passionate about, qualifies as being a geek and I guess that's being human too."

"You geek out about stuff that makes you happy."

Awesome stuff.  Seriously. Oh, and I'm not here to review the podcast, I just want to share with everyone a great find (if you haven't already found it!) in podcasts. And shout out to Alex - 'Sup! ;) - cause he's totally awesome.

Fun take aways from this podcast:

• The Good Men Project is always looking for submissions, looking for people to write, editors, any ideas - it's open door!
• People at Comic Cons are awesome.  Cause, Geeks.
• "...just stand up to your principles and be loyal to your friends and family." (from Nick Offerman's appearance on Conan O'Brien watch at 2:47-2:50)
•  Captain America 3 & Superman vs. Batman were scheduled to be released during the same week.  BUT, Warner Bros. decided to move Superman vs. Batman to later due to a Wonder Woman stand alone film and put it out same week as Captain America 3.  (Which, I personally will be going to see WW first!)
• Being a geek is wanting to, is being passionate about something to the point that you want everyone else to be as into it as you are because you wanna share that joy. [Listen at 25:33-25:45]
• Read a column posted April 3rd by Alex: New Jersey Gets the Horn & the Finger at the Zombie Apocalypse  (See where your state ranks - his ranks last to survive the Z Apocalypse! Hawaii ranks pretty low, but Florida even lower - dafuq?!)
• Death Wish Coffee (On Twitter: @DeathWishCoffee ) - The world's strongest coffee apparently.  I want to try this coffee.  I don't have a death wish, but @GeekCastRy swears by it's potency and really great taste.  Therefore, I'm going to use their secret pass code 'geekcast' to get a 15% discount off my purchase!
• Operation Supply Drop (On Twitter: @OPSupplyDrop ) - Operation Supply Drop (OSD) is a military gaming 501(c)(3) charity designed to build video game filled care packages for soldiers (America and Her Allies) both deployed forward to combat zones as well as those recovering in military hospitals. 

And last but not least, "What are you geeking on this week?"  The geeks close out their weekly podcast by going around asking what they're geeking on this week. So, in honor of their tradition, I wanted to share what I'm geeking on this week... A new book!  One that is totally and completely geeky, nerdy, nergeeky... UBER EXCITED TO READ!!

"Geek Wisdom The Sacred Teachings of Nerd Culture"

Edited by Stephen H. Segal

In the "Dedication", the first sentence reads, 'This book is dedicated to everyone who's ever said one of these things out loud during conversation.'  Chapter I is titled: 'MY NAME IS INIGO MONTOYA'  That is all I need to say.  And #donkeyballs !!! only because I say that sometimes when I'm extremely excited.

Check out Alex Yarde's post on this podcast on goodmenproject.com

Check out the Fantastic Five Geeks of Geek Cast Live at geekharder.com

Follow them on Twitter too!
@GeekCastBass
@GeekCastJoe
@GeekCastRy
@GeekGurlJo
@GeekGurlLes

Emotional Wave ~ Renewed Motivation

It has been quite some time since I blogged, hasn’t it?  I was somewhat avoiding blogging to be honest.  Why?  Negativity.  I had so much internal negativity, I didn’t want to expose any of you, or spread it.  Know what I mean?  I started blogging as an outlet for working through my thoughts and feelings.  I didn’t have much negativity then.  It was more feeling lost, hopeless, hopeful, aimless thoughts, new adventures or muddling through emotions.  When extrication happened in October (new readers, reference the “In All Seriousness” page before continuing to read), the ball started rolling in December with the few legal aspects of this whole freakin’ debacle.  However, only in the past couple of weeks the heat turned up and all hell broke loose in the ‘emotional bearing’ arena.  Needless to say, I found myself withdrawing from posting or tweeting and having to face down real life drama and circumstances.

So, what brings me back to blog?  My self-awareness.  I worried that my toxic real life drama and emotional chaos would bring you, my readers, my tweeps, my friends, down.  The friends via Twitter and my blog, who genuinely ask how my well-being is regularly because they've read my blog or we've had heart to heart chats on DM about life in general, cared.  I didn't want to worry anyone.  Always the ‘Protector’.  We protectors end up with the most burden.  We care ‘too much’, therefore, we get hurt the most.  Well, that’s my opinion as I've found this to be true in my experience.  This is what made me snap into a realization – we do this to ourselves.  I am responsible for my thoughts and actions, feelings and reactions.  I need to remember you all are as well.  I am not anyone’s keeper.  You keep yourself in check, and I’ll keep myself in check.  Simple.  My blog is mine.  To express as I feel, not what anyone thinks or feels I should be expressing or if it will affect them.  I lost sight of that back in February when the cyber drama happened then real life wants to throw some shit in the mix too in March.  Boo. Anyway, I’ve shaken the ick off and am back with renewed motivation.

While I was working through the real life muck, I started reading again.  I finished reading “Tuesdays with Morrie” by American Writer Mitch Albom last week.  It's a true story about a dying professor (Morrie) who teaches a student (Mitch) from about twenty years ago, about what's important in life during the last months of his life.  I started reading this book in September last fall.  When the shit hit the fan in October, I was 86% into the book and hadn't picked it up since.  After finishing the book, I kicked myself in the ass and remembered why I blog.  It is part of my self prescribed rehab!

I felt like sharing my afterthoughts, my inner monologue of what I learned by reading this book.   I hope you find this profound in some way to jolt thoughts in your life if you're going through a rough patch, or patches or fields. Hell, endless acres even!

There was an amazing, singular aspect of life from Morrie's perspective, that will forever stay scorched in my being.  It's about learning to allow your emotions to FULLY penetrate in an experience so you can detach from that experience.  What?  Right.  Here's an excerpt from the book that may hopefully help you better understand as Morrie explains to Mitch:

"...detachment doesn't mean you don't let the experience penetrate you.  On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully.  That's how you are able to leave it."

"Take any emotion--love for a woman, or grief for a loved one, or what I'm going through, fear and pain from a deadly illness. If you hold back on the emotions--if you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them--you can never get to being detached, you're too busy being afraid.  You're afraid of the pain, you're afraid of the grief.  You're afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails."

In my real life situation, this helped tremendously.  I have always tried to be 'strong' (in enduring the last twelve years) and 'keeping it together'.  Now, what I needed, was to be strong to let my self unravel.  Feel the anger, shame, sadness, hopelessness, love, hate--EVERY emotion, penetrate me fully.  Not a quarter way.  Not half way. Completely.  Of course though, by doing this, comes a hefty price to pay in the 'coping' of your emotions department, let me tell you.  You must let yourself cry unabashedly, get fired up and explosively pissed, be end of the world sad - unbearably, heart achingly, heartbroken to be exact, feel completely and utterly lost and despaired...basically far beneath rock bottom of your emotional capacity really.  It. Will. Fucking. Suck. Bad...

Chin up, though...the detachment part is worth all that pain searing agony of allowing every single emotion to FULLY penetrate you.  It's like your self, your being, is a colander.  You've strained all the excess bullshit with a pressure washer.  When it's all drained, what's left is what really matters.  The true you.  The cleaned you.  The you that was lost in all that muck.  Thoughts become clearer.  Emotions are renewed.  Motivation has been brought back up to the surface instead of forgotten at the bottom of all that ick.

You may or may not be in a situation that would warrant such an extreme kind of emotional journey, but if you should someday, I highly recommend letting yourself be fully penetrated by all your emotions.  Once you do it, each successive time you have to, it'll come easier.  I know.

This book was deeply inspirational for me.  There were so many other aspects of life Morrie's perspective highlighted.  If you haven't read this book yet, it most definitely should be on your reading list.  One of my favorites, without a doubt.

Thanks for sticking around you guys...xoxo...and yes, another snippet should be upcoming with this new motivation.  *wink wink*