How About That Local Sports Team?

This weekend, I was able to attend a rather unusual meet-up (well, unusual for me). I was surrounded by excited, costumed fans of all ages. People were decked out in everything from simple t-shirts to full body paint and wigs. It was a bit intimidating.

Bitter rivals UVA and VT prepare to throw down.

Of course, I've been attending football games since I was a kid, so I was prepared for this sort of thing. Since I started cheering exclusively for the SEC-based LSU, I haven't been to many games. I'd forgotten how much we geeks might have in common with the jocks who haunted our past.

One question has been bothering me since I wrote the article on geeks vs. nerds:
What does a geek do that a sports fan doesn't?

At first, I tried to argue that a geek has a harder time finding people who enjoy his particular niche passions. With the internet, that argument is moot. If you're on the correct side of the digital divide, you can find people who like what you like.

I was still reluctant to include sports fans into our fold. "But, but, they hate geeks!" I thought (of course, not all sports fans hate geeks, but I was reaching for any differentiating qualities). Then, I remembered the first time I drew a line in the sand and decided that I was a Star WARS fan, not a Trekkie. Geek in-fighting breeds some of the nastiest flame wars I've ever seen.

So, barring a more exclusive definition, I caved. I think sports fans can be geeks, or even nerds if they're the stats-loving type. After all, I'd felt the surge of jock-like elitism when I realized I was one of only three geeks at a Superbowl party who knew "how to score victory points." I grew up on UVA football games at Scott Stadium.

Which brings me to my Saturday adventure. I got to fit twenty years of rebellion into a three-hour football game. I've known since I was old enough to yell that the proper response to "Let's go" is "Wahoos." I can't sing a bar of Auld Lang Syne, but I know all the words to The Good Ole Song. I am so solidly a legacy that I had to get in to UVA just to prove to my friends and family that I was choosing not to attend of my own free will.

By the end of the shutout, precious
few UVA fans remained.

This Saturday, in the heart of Charlottesville, I threw on a maroon jersey, walked through a few hisses and jeers, to root for UVA's main rival: Virginia Tech. The football gods saw this defection and smiled upon it, granting VT a crushing shut out of 38-0.

I wonder if we could whip up a geeks guide to sporting events. For example, when invited to a game, try to fly casual and blend in. Being in the midst of slightly inebriated, rabid fans is not the time to fly your hipster flag and loudly proclaim that sports are merely society's way of mitigating and legalizing aggression (or severely inebriated fans, as may be the case if you find yourself in Wahoo territory on senior fifth day). Another tip: Pick a team and stick with it, hell or high water, until the end of the game.

Post your opinions in the comments. Are sports fans geeky? Any other tips for geeks trying to survive a football-heavy holiday with a non-geek family? The UVA/VT rivalry is a bit Virginia-centric, but what are some good games to catch in the District? And are there any other LSU fans this far northeast?

UMD Students Break Man-Powered Flight Record

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

I... don't know why they did this (well other than "there's a mountain over there, so I'm gonna climb it"), but it's very awesome.  I kinda wish they got it to the point where they could get a higher level of lift and sort of fly around with it.  Regardless, this device granted them the record longest flight of a human-powered helicopter.


It's always good to see a local group of geeks getting together to create something fantastic. Ok, so we have no proof they are geeks, but they at least deserve geek props for this. Congratulations to UMD's Clark School Engineering for their accomplishment.


What have you done recently? :)

Students from the University of Maryland's Clark School of Engineering are now in the record books for the longest flight of a human-powered helicopter.

The human-powered chopper was airborne for about 12 seconds and took about 50 people to actually build the giant contraption.

The actual flight was back in July, but it took time for authorities from the National Aeronautical Association to confirm it was indeed a world record. 

via NBC Washington

This Week in Geek 2011/11/27

A showcase of this week's finest geek and geek related activities for the week. Mark your calendars.

A clean canvas seems to scream
"Use me." (via Chris Palmer)

Longer Term

• Art - ArtJamz - Washington, DC - November 30 & December 1 - 6:30 PM
• For $65 you can get all-you-can-drink beer, wine, and vitamin water (if you’re into that sort of thing), you also get great music and a 22x28 canvas to do with what you will. Head over, and boldly create awesome paintings.
• Craft/Making - Washington Craft Show 2011 - Washington, DC - December 2nd through 4th - 10:00ish AM
• Do your loved ones really need another gift card? Support local crafters and pick up some unique gifts at the Craft Show. (Or do what I plan to do and stock up on crafty goods for yourself.)

Monday

• Consumerist Culture - CyberMonday - Everywhere - All Day and even sooner!
• Check my list from Black Friday for suggestions for online shopping.

Saturday

• Music - Gamer Symphony Orchestra - UMD - 2:00 PM
• The University of Maryland is putting on their big fall concert with pieces from Metal Gear Solid, Pokemon, Civilization V, Shadow of the Colossus, and others. Check out MP3s of their past concerts (including Oregon Trail dysentery deaths).
• Music - Hello the Future at HacDC - Washington, DC - 8:00 PM
• This looks like an open event, but you may want to call before heading over. With Hello the Future, the Nerdfighters and more, the event looks like quite the party.

If you're going to run around on a broom and pretend to fly, may as well
be surrounded by friends. (via Sheila Thomson)

Sunday

• Geek Sports - Muggle Quidditch Match - Washington, DC - 2:00 PM
• It’s every ounce as magical as you think it is.
• Video Games - Barcraft - Washington, DC - 11:00 AM
• If you haven’t checked out Barcraft yet, and you’re a StarCraft addict, now is the time. We’ve come down to the finals. Beer, Excitement, and Geekery at the Public Bar
• Entertainment - Indoor Lasertag Games and Adventure: Battle of the Professionals - Springfield, VA - 11:45 AM
• Who doesn’t love laser tag? Laser tag is so badass. Enjoy a “2-level arena, a gothic landscape of alleyways, mazes, turrets and passageways.” Complete with special effects, show up and revel in the adrenaline.

Quick note: The Nerdist Podcast Live has a new date: January 6. The 9:30 Club will be honoring tickets from the postponed event.

An exciting week! Get to it! Other weekly reoccurring events are listed on our website (such as Rocky, CCG tournaments, crazy themed happy hours). For more information, check out the calendars at DC Geeks.

Quick Flickr Announcement

As promised, the AnimeUSA 2011 photos are up on Flickr! That's all. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

-Aine

AnimeUSA 2011

As a moderately experienced congoer, it’s easy to tell that AnimeUSA really gets why people come to cons: buy cool stuff, watch cool stuff, and meet cool people. It picks up on those great aspects of a convention and does them really, really well. Maybe I’m biased because as a congoer, I cut my teeth on AnimeUSA and Katsucon. As a conchair for Madicon, I got a lot of advice from their staff. However, I hadn’t been to AnimeUSA since 2007 or so, and I was glad to see they’ve only gotten better since.

From top to bottom: Tabletop/CCG Games,
Maid Cafe, Registration, Dealers and Artists' Alley
(The last two are down the escalators).

This year was different because it was my first time attending a con with a press pass. I wasn’t sure exactly what that entailed, but I packed up my camera, gently elbowed my way up to Con Ops, got the “I’m just covering her break, take your badge” orientation speech, and I was on my way.

I may not have used my press badge to the fullest extent, because I enjoyed the con the way I always enjoy cons: I people watched, but this time I took awesomely high res photos of them as well. On Friday night, that meant that I wound up in the concert having done inadequate research on the genre (as I mentioned in my mid-con post), because that’s where the crowd was headed. Being in the press pit meant that I was directly in-between the energetic crowd and Blood on stage.

Is that a child dressed in a Robin Halloween costume?

I didn’t see many panels, but I did slip into the end of a rather low-key, small panel: Convention Horror Stories. I thought I had bad stories, but the slide show covered an Otakon about a decade ago where all of the city was covered in potentially toxic fumes. I wrapped my Friday night commiserating with fellow attendees about the most drastic cons-gone-wrong.

Saturday, I had intended to attend more events, but there were just too many good costumes to stop taking pictures.

ゴスロリ So pretty.

Beyond the cosplay, I could go on about the expansive vendor room, the beautiful fan art, and the myriad video rooms, but that isn’t what makes this convention unique. Between Deviant Art, Amazon, and fansubbing sites, you could cobble together a rough understanding of those aspects of the event. For me though, the community has always set the tone for good conventions (it’s why I’m willing to drag myself down to Williamsburg every January for Marscon).

Even if you buy swag from them online, without going to a con, you wouldn’t get to run up to that webcomic artist you’ve been following for years and fangirl/boy all over them. You wouldn’t get to pack way more friends into a hotel room than may be strictly legal. And you can’t convince that timid, and slightly tipsy, newb friend to head into a 4am panel with a slideshow full of tentacles so that they’ll stop naively saying “I’ve seen enough hentai to know where this is going.” At a con, I once won an argument of “animated stuff is for kids” with a midnight showing of Elfen Lied (Yeah, I play to win).

Everyone at the con was surprisingly outgoing and friendly. Beyond just being kind, the attendees were pretty damn stylish. I’m still combing through the photos, and working on combining them into a Flickr set. The open balconies meant that I could just position myself two floors up and zoom in on any costumes passing through the arch below. Three cheers for whoever put those “I consent to being photographed” clickwrap-ish agreements on the attendee badges.

The two things I found at AnimeUSA that I hadn’t seen elsewhere: video games and maids. Now, every con has video games. The game room at AnimeUSA looked like serious business. The LAN had about twenty computers, but what made it stand out was that the room was ringed with full-sized arcade games. DDR in particular is always impressive to watch. Then the second unique part of the con caught my eye from across the atrium as I left the video games room: Maid cafe.

Every good stalker photo needs foliage.

With my creeper lens I could see a bit of what was going on in the bustling maid cafe. I usually have enough trouble finding good food in a con hotel, but having it served by adorable maids who trade photos for tips? Extra awesome. I decided to stop creeping and catch a legit picture or two from inside the cafe. (If you’re interested, the Otaku Journalist blog has far more coverage of the maids).

AnimeUSA was a wonderful con. Mark your November 2012 Google calender notifications. You can also follow them on Twitter. Don’t forget to check out Lauren Orsini’s website for related posts and otaku-style geekiness.

This Week in Geek 2011/11/20

Quick note: Posting a bit late this Sunday because my weekend was consumed by the awesomeness of Anime USA. I'll have a post about it later in the week so if you're checking out DC Geeks to find my photos of your awesome costume, they should be up by Thursday.

A showcase of this week's finest geek and geek related activities for the week. Mark your calendars.

Fibonacci: The reason there's a math lecture
with every nautilus. (via Jitze Couperus)

Wednesday

• Holiday - Fibonacci Day - Especially around 5:08 
• I love the Fibonacci sequence. Not because of some love of music or math or art or shells, and certainly not because I read some Dan Brown airplane book and saw the eyes of God or some nonsense. But because for years of classes, I had something to jot down in the margins of my notes that was more interesting than filling in a black square for every 5 minutes that passed.

Thursday

• Holiday - Thanksgiving - at omnomnomnom tired now.
• If you're lucky enough to be hosting the big day, here are 10 Ways to Geek Up Your Thanksgiving (Confuse parents, but delight nephews and nieces). Cook that turkey like a fire hazard bawse geek. I recommend Googling or crowdsourcing your "I'm thankful for" speech to maximize effectiveness, because you know your cousin's going to steal whatever speech Lifehacker writes up.

"It is traditional, when loading wire trolleys, to put the most fragile
items at the bottom." - Pratchett, Reaper Man (via Kevin Spencer)

Friday

• Anti-Holiday - Black Friday - starts at 10:00PM Thursday night.
  For those of you who will be boarding up your windows, pulling the shades and curling up with the warm glow of your monitors against the horrors of Black Friday: Here's a quick link round up of some sites to check for deals. Although keep in mind many of these sites may be saving the best for "Cyber Monday."
• Black Friday has a Twitter account, stay updated @blackfriday.
• GameStop's weekly ad is here.
• Best Buy, for when you want to be able to pick up something more than just used Gameboy games.
• Newegg helps you keep your machine fast enough to play all those games.
• For generic gifts for non-geeks, there's always Walmart and Target. (Keep it classy.)
• Skip the bath supplies, stock up on Nerf siege weaponry at Toys R Us (or ponies *cough*).
  Be warned: these Hasbro sites have auto-playing videos. Your boss will be within earshot for the MLP theme song.
• Amazon has a head start. I think their Black Friday sales started a week ago.
• There's always that other non-Amazon way of getting your books.
• Make tells me that RadioShack has awesome DIY supplies.
• I'm not sure if ThinkGeek, Shirt Woot, or Alienware have Black Friday sales.
• Activism - Buy Nothing Day - Anywhere there isn't a Black Friday sale.
• Before you even pull the credit cards out of your wallets, consider checking out Adbuster's Buy Nothing Day campaign page. For those unfamiliar, Adbusters is the group that originally inspired Occupy Wall Street. Buy Nothing Day has been pushing back against the manipulation of Black Friday for 20 years. You may want to consider waiting a day or so before rushing in to dump money on things, especially since sales aren't always real. Besides, isn't there that huge Minecraft project you've been meaning to build?

I want this as a door hanger for when I go to cons. (via Luigi Rosa)

Saturday

• Event - Scavenger Hunt of the Smithsonians - Washington, DC - 11:30AM-4:30PM
• Show up, split up into (randomly assigned?) teams with lists of items to retrieve, pictures to take, or answers to get. So none of that "oh I'll just look it up on Google" nonsense. Are you the best at museums? Now's the chance to prove it. Bonus: All attendees will get free admission to a TTD party.
• Movie - Redditors Meetup to Watch the Muppets - Washington, DC - 6:00PM
• Reddit is awesome. The Muppets are awesome. Ok Go is awesome, although I'm not sure if they're in the movie. For those of you who are Redditors, there is a DC Geeks Reddit. Enjoy the usual gifs of Kermit freaking out.
• Music - Jonathan Coulton and They Might Be Giants - Washington, DC - 8:00PM
• Edit: I had to rush back in and add this event. The 9:30 Club has JoCo and TMBG this weekend. [Lots of excited swearing removed.] I saw this event coming up and had assumed it was sold out by now, but it doesn't appear to be. To use a Neil Gaiman-ism: I am mind-crogglingly excited!

An exciting week! Get to it! Other weekly reoccurring events are listed on our website (such as Rocky, CCG tournaments, crazy themed happy hours). For more information, check out the calendars at DC Geeks.

Anime USA Mid-Con Report

Today was so exciting. I got a new camera. It takes pretty pictures.

D'awwww

Yup, I'm updating at 2:00AM so I can show you my kitty cats. End of post. Job well done.

The real reason I'm excited about my camera is that it came just in time for me to take it to Anime USA. Day one of the con is still up and running over in Arlington. Items are on the schedule straight through 8:30AM, when tomorrow's events pick up. Registration is open tomorrow from 9:00AM to 8:00PM.

Taking time to be loyal to my own fandom, I headed straight for the My Little Brony panel. I was a bit sad at first that it wasn't a meet-up, but the barely contained excitement quickly devolved from panel to discussion format. Attendees took turns telling stories about converting haters to the herd and we ended by singing "Winter Wrap Up." And you know what? There were more than 70 attendees packed to standing room only, and almost all of them male. Take that, heteronormativity!

I did my usual con meandering (i.e. trying in vain to learn my way around) as I waited for the Blood concert to start. After an evening of rooms without cell reception, fellow DC Geek Roberto managed to find me, presumably by dowsing or some newly emerged mutant ability. We slipped in to the press photography pit just as the pre-concert announcements were wrapping up.

So, I have a confession: I'd never heard of Blood. I thought, "I remember what J-pop sounds like. That's what these guys are, right? J-pop?" So with my shiny press pass (Thank you, Lauren Orsini!) I steadied my camera and played around with the focus.

"Oh! No one's sitting in front of that low speaker there! What a perfect place to take close ups. I wonder why no one........"

I couldn't hear the band start playing, but I noticed that my pants legs were flapping around wildly. Thankfully, the speaker was turned down to just below the setting that would have ripped off clothing. Sadly without a flash, and between the headbanging and strobe lights, only a few photos came out.

I'm considering today a camera test run.

Tomorrow kicks off the big events of the weekend: the Pirate vs. Ninja dance off, the Masquerade, the AMV contest, and My Little Parody: YouTube is Magic. If you weren't booked up this weekend, you should be now. I'll keep the top hat with the DC Geeks logo on because it makes me look taller. Oh, and because it makes me easier to find. Come say hi.

Define "Geek"

A few weeks back, I had the strangest conversation I’ve had all year. I was talking to an acquaintance, and sadly, I can’t remember the original topic of conversation because it was eclipsed by the following weirdness: He stops me mid-sentence, tilts his head to the side, squints at me and says, in a quiet, conspiratorial voice, “I bet you... you know... you’re... the type of person... who’s probably seen all the Star Treks.”

My face keeps getting stuck
like this. Guess mom was right.

A moment later, when the language centers in my brain regained function, I replied “Yes, I’m a geek. It’s ok, you can call us ‘geeks’ now. We’re taking it back. I’m not offended.” Any further discussion was cut short when I realized the more urgent problem: He didn’t know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek. (And he was patient enough to listen to the explanation. The odds of a polite non-geek like that are like 3720 to 1!)

The question of how to define geek (especially as distinct from nerds and dorks) keeps coming up in conversation. The over-simplified diagram of geek/dweeb/dork/nerd has never worked for me. Mostly because anyone who calls another human being a “dweeb” should be apprehended. They are a time traveler. They are either from the future and poorly informed about modern linguistics, or from 1987.

The scratches are from a Silicon Valley Fight Club,
but Mitchell doesn't want to break the first rule.

I try to let people self-identify, but I default to “geek.” It’s just easier. I do understand the defensiveness, though. We’ve all got those geek-related emotional scars. When I was in high school, being labeled a geek meant that “normal” people considered you to be one bad day away from turning into a mass murderer. If you knew too much about computers, played a few too many video games, or wore a black trenchcoat, you were one rumor away from the police confiscating your computer and your “Satanic” gaming books. “Geek,” “nerd,” or “dork” - the specific name didn’t matter, it was the malice behind it. When I first got to college, I was worried about outing people as nerds or offending them. But I fell in with a surprisingly socially adept group of geeks, and over the years my hypervigilance faded. Since then I've started using these generalizations:

• Geeks are defined by their obsessions, or how they spend their free time (brewing geeks, gaming geeks, SCA geeks, 40k geeks, anime geeks, fandoms, makers/tinkerers, etc).
• Nerds are defined by their careers or academic interests (history nerds, chemists, physicists, math nerds, code monkeys, typography nerds, etc.)
• Dorks are... I don’t know. I generally reserve this for good-naturedly teasing someone if I’m in their specific fandom. I suppose it could be based on their level of social awkwardness, but I think I’ll avoid throwing any stones in that particular glass house.

Basically, if you can “geek out” over something you love that isn’t a particularly common interest, it’s geeky. I like that guideline because it doesn’t assume that there’s some list of great works that you have to know, or some skill that you have to possess. It’s not just programmers who play Zelda and own comic books, and we’re certainly not basement-dwelling mouthbreathers. It’s about passions and the subcultures that crop up around them.

Case in point: my search for geeky images found photos of beer,
Pokemon, Scrabble, and bacon before dice. "The times..." (via Joneses)

I’d love to hear how you all define geeks, nerds, et al. Let me know in the comments. Oh, and if you’re like me and remembering the Dark Times of being a geek makes you start drafting rants, searching for a place online to post them. Suddenly, there’s that involuntary muscle tightness that creeps from your jaw and quickly grows into a migraine? If that happens, watch this at your earliest convenience: Wil Wheaton’s 2010 PAX East Keynote. It’s much cheaper than therapy.

This Week in Geek 2011/11/13

None of us is as cruel as Quidam? Wait, that
doesn't sound right. (via Thinkanonymous).

A showcase of this week's finest geek and geek related activities for the week. Mark your calendars.
Longer term

• Performance - Cirque Du Soleil: QUIDAM - Washington, DC - Wednesday to Sunday
• “Quidam: a nameless passer-by, a solitary figure lingering on a street corner, a person rushing past and swallowed by the crowd.” sounds a bit like the guy above. Cirque du Soleil’s official YouTube channel has a playlist devoted to Quidam. Check it out this weekend at the Verizon Center.
• Convention - Anime USA - Arlington, VA - Friday through Sunday
• I’m already psyching up for Anime USA. I helped moderate their larp a few years ago and haven’t had the chance to go back since. I’m headed that way this weekend, so grab your best cosplay and find me with my top hat and camera! (I’ll try to tuck a DC Geeks logo into the hat band).
• Convention - Minecon - Las Vegas, NV - Friday through Saturday
• Totally sold out. I’m tempted to snag some Minecraft merch to compensate... or I’ll just wander around Anime USA in a green shirt hissing at passersby.

He looks so familiar! Just one of those faces, I guess.
(via Richard Cabrera) 

Today

• Steampunk - Pith Helmet Provisions Studio Open house - Lovettsville, VA - Noon
• As always, I’ve got at least one event that slipped the radar. No time for apologies! Grab your goggles, because this one is worth rushing for. There’s a steampunk studio open house in Lovettsville. What are you waiting for? To the airship!! (The address is on this page, studio five).

Tuesday

• Gaming - International Settlers of Catan Day - Everywhere - All day
• I think I’m the only person I know who doesn’t own a copy of Settlers of Catan, except for maybe my mom. It’s awesome. It’s one of THE boardgames. By the way, there’s still a few days to throw money at the beautiful, wooden, laser-cut Settlers of Catan board Kickstarter page. He’s already 500% funded by people desperate for him to transmute money into additional copies of this game.

Wednesday

• Music - Owl City - Washington, DC - 5:30 PM
• Remember that song that came out about getting 1/10 of a hug from lightning bugs? The one that made us all nostalgic for the Postal Service, but we figured “Damn it, at least Owl City is better than listening to ‘Such Great Heights’ again.” Well, the kid’s performing at the 9:30 club this week. Upbeat, cute, sweet: definitely seems like it’ll be a fun show.

Friday

• Gaming - Area 42 Open Gaming -  Dulles, VA - 7:00 PM
• There’s a $2.00 cost for the meet-up, but Area 42’s giving it back to you in store credit. In stock items are going to be on sale for 10% off (members get 30% off). I honestly think Good Guy Greg might be running this place. They have an online store if you want to browse before the event.

Granted, "Makes joke. Creates meme to
explain." is more of a Socially Awkward
Penguin thing to do...

Saturday

• Comics - Shoff Promotions Comic Book Show - Tyson’s Corner, VA - 10:00 AM
• Tyson’s Corner has a comic convention! Admission is $3, and includes both the baseball/sports card show as well as the comic book show. The event page is here (Is that a gif of Spidey trying to reach a Giants’ helmet?).

Sunday

• Gaming - Barcraft - Washington, DC - 11:00 AM
• Watch people play Starcraft 2 on every screen in the house complete with audio. The promise of “half-price burgers, $5 SC2 drinks, $3 and $4 beer specials, and half-priced wings” make this a great event for all Starcraft enthusiasts.

An exciting week! Get to it! Other weekly reoccurring events are listed on our website (such as Rocky, CCG tournaments, crazy themed happy hours). For more information, check out the calendars at DC Geeks.  

FaerieCon 2011

This weekend, I was able to get out to FaerieCon for most of Saturday. I own a few Alain Viesca prints, but I don't really know a lot about fairies. Turns out, that's not a prerequisite for FaerieCon. The con hits the sweet spot between geek and Pagan, as well as expert and newb.

For the Pagans, the event offered classes on divination and wand-making. For the geeks, there were panels on Fae in Urban Fantasy and author readings. And between the art, the music, the costume contests, and most of the other panels, there was a plethora of entertainment and shopping for both.

A lot of costumes celebrated autumn
as well as the Fair Folk.

I need to geek out in a way that only a former con organizer can: applause for whoever came up with the pricing scheme. Beyond the usual Fri/Sat/Sun day passes, FaerieCon lets you pay for what you'll actually attend. If you want to attend a ball with the good folk and avoid the bad, you could buy only the one masquerade pass. If, like me, you couldn't make the ball, you just paid to get into the exhibition.

The really unique thing about the con was Faerie Academy. Want a singing lesson from the musical guest, Syrah OF QNTAL, or a step-by-step presentation on the creative process from Charles Vess? For a small additional registration fee, you could be in a class of around 30 people at a special workshop or presentation. It seems like their other events offer similar classes.

You know what they say, "A wizard's
staff has a knob on the end."

I had planned to attend a few panels or a performance, but instead I wound up spending six hours in the dealers' rooms. It took me four hours just to see all of the vendors, and that's with me skipping the boring ones. I have another pocketful of business cards to add to my bookmarks list for pretty things - including the happiest Baba Yaga I've ever seen.

For the entire day, I was content to wander around: running into friends, relaxing in the consuite, window shopping, and people watching. Overall, it was a wonderful, calm day spent being surrounded by beautiful people and things. Of course, I love nearly any event with a wide array of cosplayers and a solid steampunk presence.

"It's so stimulating being your hat."

It seems the Gentry have a much larger subculture behind them than I'd realized. Enough to populate five events across both coasts. The organizers run FaerieWorlds twice a year in Oregon (at Midsummer and Harvest), FaerieCon West in Seattle, and Mythic Faire in Atlanta, which is already pencilled into my con schedule for 2012.

Off the Beaten Path: 5 Cool Places for Geeks in DC

We've heard of a lot of cool places in the Greater DC area through our extensive research into DC events and the DC geek scene.  Here are 5 places that if you are just in town visiting or have lived here for years, you may not have heard of (thus... you should still check them out).  These are mostly metro accessible.  But not exclusively.  This is not your normal list of assorted tourist traps.   This is off the beaten path.

via Mr. T in DC

Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences 

525 E Street NW, Washington, DC

I can't look at the name of this place without thinking the Department of Redundancy Department. Beyond that the items on display at this Museum are full of interesting sciencey facts. They have a whole exhibit dedicated to the recent breakthroughs in the scientific community.  Come on, science is sexy.  This museum features a wide array of hands on and interactive displays that engage your further into some of the cooler aspects of science.  I know we've all been to the Air & Space Museum, but passing on this gem of scientific wonder may be one of the worst decisions of your life.  That and eating that piece of pizza that was left out over night.  You know who you are.

via Jeff Kubina

The Awakening
Fort Washington, MD

This one's pretty simple.  This is a massive statue of a Titan clawing his way out of the earth itself.  It's something you need to see.  I mean need to see badly.  This used to be up in dc, but they moved it out to Fort Washington not too long ago.  He kind of looks like he's in pain right?  I'm in love with large scale art as well as semi mythical pieces.  I can almost imagine this was a frost giant smacked down by Thor.  He does look sort of uncomfortable.  I bet that would also make for a fantastic photoshoot.

While you're out in Fort Washington check out the dueling piano bar, 

Bobby McKey's Dueling Piano Bar. I've had a fun at Bobby McKey's, not a nerd place, but they know some pop songs.  Nothing funnier than watching a few pianists trying to do piano renditions of Backstreet Boys songs.

via CodeHooligans

The Mansion on O

2020 O St NW, Washington, District of Columbia 20036-5912

An interestingly quirky mansion in DC. They boast that there are 100 rooms with 32 hidden rooms.  That's... man that would make for a fantastic game of hide and seek. Part hotel, part restaurant, part club, part musem (all cop).  Really this place is pretty weird.  Not something you would immediately go to with thinking "hey, that looks nerdy."  Honestly, it looks like a rich persons country club at first glance. It's only open Sundays and Mondays to the public. The whole place is decorated like your grandmothers collection if she was on a very special episode of Hoarders and had a house the size of a ship.  I've heard that if you take the brunch and tour there's a prize for who can find the most secret rooms.

One of the other interesting things with the Mansion on O are the accommodation.  I mean look at this list. YOU CAN HAVE A SECRET ROOM BEDROOM!  Or even one that's done up like a boat. I could not resist, if I stayed in that room I'd probably be blaring it night and day.  They would hate me for it.

via NCinDC

Einstein Memorial

2101 Constitution avenue northwest, Washington, DC 20037

This would be a quick visit with an old geek friend of ours.  Not literally.  We never played Dominion together.  Which is a shame, he would probably have been very good. Really this would just be to hang out with this statue.  Seems to be one of the only ones in the states.  Honestly not a bad way to spend an afternoon, checking out a section of dc, and sorta high fiving Einstein.

via ElvertBarnes

Newseum

555 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC

You don't have to be a journalism nerd in order to appreciate the things on display at the Newseum. Most of the biggest moment in American history are covered in these walls. They also have a large amount of interactive exhibits good for little and big nerds. You can even pretend to be a television news reporter.  How cool is that?  I recommend wearing all yellow, dying your hair red, and hanging out with giant antropomorphic turtles.  Just watch out for ninjas.  (How long until the demand for a ninja museum is finally met?  I've been waiting years.  You'd think my letters to the King of the Ninjas are going unread)