The Mission. Quest. Thing.

Raise your hand if you’re a nerd!

Raise your hand if anyone has ever tried to make you feel like less of a nerd because you didn’t know about some other aspect of nerding.

Raise your hand if you found it strange and off-putting that instead of letting you enjoy your enthusiasm, someone was trying to make you feel inferior.

Congratulations, if you raised your hand (or, you know, just emotionally raised your hand because you’re on a bus right now and don’t want people to think you’re weird) to any or all of the above questions, this is the blog for you.

The Origins Story

My name is Jessica and I’m a nerd. I can distinctly remember the first time I saw Star Wars.  And I even more distinctly remember going into Kindergarten the next day and trying to explain to a future-cheerleader what a mind-blowing thing I had just experienced. It was impossible to articulate how much my life had just changed and how awesome this movie was. My Mother was a secret Trekkie. My Father read me the Lord of the Rings. I grew up with Harry Potter. I can speak a little Elvish when pestered. I play D&D. But I also have a life.

I grew up with nerdy things, but not exclusively. I didn’t watch a lot of TV back in the day. Still don’t compared to some. I missed a lot. And it never fails that I’ll be out at a con, or a nerdy MeetUp, and someone will bring up some classic piece of the nerd cannon, and all I can do is smile and nod. Or admit, I haven’t seen/read/played/ever even fucking heard of it. I didn’t read my first comic book, or experience my first Joss Whedon creation until I was 20. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

On the bright side, my verbal skills have gone way up since Kindergarten. I now have the words to express the way I feel when something awesome comes along and rocks my world. And the urge to share how excited I am about this cool new stuff, it hasn’t gone away. So this blog is a documentation of an experiment. I’m setting out to give myself the nerd education of a lifetime. I want to track down the things I’ve missed, and I want to share my newfound love for thirty year old movies, and decade old TV shows with you. And I want to hear what you’re reading and seeing and doing that’s rocking your world, be it for the first time, or the thousandth time.

So come one, come all. Bring me your converts, your former sheltered kids, your people who saw the movie first, your fangirls who only started watching Doctor Who because that Doctor guy was cute, your fanboys who’ve never bothered to read the book before now, your casual fans, your hardcore nerds with recommendations galore, your huddled cosplayers yearning to go squee. The only rules are that discovery is awesome and acceptance is key. Science Fiction, fantasy, and enthusiasm are for everyone. Let’s explore them together.