Blonde Tickler has a boyfriend (!)

My wife learned it today from Blonde Tickler's mother: she has a boyfriend. I was expecting it to happen, sooner or later, but not so early. Not so long ago, she thought boys were gross. Anyway, here are the news I learned:

-The boyfriend looks a bit like her and is apparently quite geeky.
-Brunette Tickler is feeling abandoned.
-Blonde Tickler is finding it hard at school: she is being teased by other pupils who call her fat (she is a bit chubby), so I guess she finds comforting that a boy finds her attractive.
-We are not supposed to know. In fact only her mother is officially in the known.

Not sure what to think of it now. I am sad for Brunette Tickler as she must feel really alone. At 12, I find it very early for Blonde Tickler to have a boyfriend. Although he seems nice from what we have been told. But is it just me or are things happening way too fast?

The Lord of Shadow Keep

During my last time in Montreal, I gave myself a few nostalgic and geeky gifts: some medieval fantasy gamebooks, like the ones I used to buy with my pocket money when I was a child. I used to get through as many of them as I could and it is my love for them that got me into Dungeons & Dragons. Among the books I bought in Montreal was The Lord of Shadow Keep by Oliver Johnson. As a child I had always wanted to read it, because of the gorgeously sinister cover picture. I've seen a more recent cover on Amazon, quite nice, but too adult. This one is classic. The book is part of the Golden Dragon series. I don't know for the original English, but in the French book there is an introduction saying that you are the titular Golden Dragon, a seasoned adventurer who gained a great reputation through many great deeds... although nobody in the books ever refer to you by that surname or even mentions this reputation you have. And the books are independent from each other. In fact, they are so independent from each other that you seem to have a completely different background in every one of them.

In The Lord of Shadow Keep, you are a member of the elite Imperial Guard of King Valafor of Lalassa. After the king gets cursed by an ageing spell and the kingdom is taken over through witchcraft by Arkayn Darkrobe, the Lord of the Shadow Keep from the title, you set out to right wrongs and save the once prosperous and happy kingdom and free its sovereign from the curse. Simple, classic stuff, a bit naive maybe but enjoyable all the same. And the motivation for your character is merely that, a motivation, so you can start the adventure and engross yourself in the atmosphere. Because Oliver Johnson is great at writing good atmosphere and making you feel like you are living it. So until my next game of D&Dr, I have this to keep me entertained.

Un calembour atroce forestier

Il me vient en tête parfois, l'un des nombreux calembours atroces que l'on a proférés durant nos parties de D&Dr. C'est vraiment geeky et par conséquent vraiment mauvais. Enfin bref, on passait dans une forêt quand l'un des joueurs a dit ceci: "Forêt y aller."

Je sais, je sais, vous avez l'impression que votre cervelle se fait brûler à la cire chaude. Ou un truc du genre.

Dangerous Hills

I must have a geek fever: I am in the mood these days to revisit another Fighting Fantasy Gamebook, actually a whole saga: the Sorcery! series, where you play either a magician or a warrior and where you need to recapture a magical artifact from an evil archmage through the course of four books. I first read The Shamutanti Hills when I was 10. It is the only book of the whole series I read, actually. I was attracted by the picture of the manticore on the front cover. It looked devilish and very menacing and was contrasting nicely with the bucolic background.
 
In French the book was titled "Les collines maléfiques" (i.e. The Evil Hills). In fact, the hills were not really evil. Yes, they were full of dangers, but there was also plenty of little villages that were friendly and your character was not lost for ages in dark dungeons, mazes or say a sinister forest. As a setting, the Shamutanti Hills were full of character and the book in itself was more of a medieval fantasy travelogue with a few self-contained adventures and some interesting encounters with locals. Oh and there was a manticore to fight near the end of the journey. It influenced us enough in later years when we started playing Dungeons & Dragons: one of the most important monsters we fought in our first adventure was a manticore.

The Monstrous Manual online

This is a great moment for the geek and nostalgic in me: I found online the complete Monstrous Manual of the 2nd edition of Dungeons & Dragons. I am not 100% certain of the website is 100% legal, but as this edition has been discontinued for some time, I don't think there is any harm in its existence. My brothers and I never had the full Monstrous Manual, not in one volume, as it used to be sold (see the left-hand side image). We had various volumes of the Monstrous Compendium. TSR made us spend a good bit of money on these ones. That was before the internet, when you now can find pretty much everything of the old stuff online. Going through the entries, it reminds me the good old days when we could play every weekend. And of the many stories we could invented with various monsters, sometimes on a whim. Now I play D&Dr once a year, at Christmas. But reading these entries, it allows me to revisit these old memories and daydream about what we could do with these monsters, many used, some never really exploited to their full potential.

SIS/MI6

I have sometimes geeky moments... This post is about one of them, which might bring me embarrassment. Because I am a James Bond fan and a Sandbaggers fan, and a Queen & Country fan, I have developed an interest about real life SIS, more commonly known as MI6. And I sometimes visit the organization's official website. Is that embarrassing? I find it fascinating, especially how unglamorous it presents itself. I blogged about MI6 before, I was thinking about writing more about it. I actually love the way the promotional videos picture SIS as this very open governmental organization, picturing its spies as competent civil servants, with fancy animation that gives it a modern, borderline funky side. There is even a page about C, with a short biography and a welcoming message from him. And we are talking about British secret services here. John Sawers does look and sound like a somewhat mild mannered civil servant. All these little details, the sober and undramatic tone, I find it surreal and oh so very interesting. As an immigrant, I browsed many governmental websites, mainly the Home Office's. But I never had fun browsing them. The website SIS, on the other hand, I just find so darn cool.

Lead figures and sharing memories

Here is another episode of my last time in Québec, I hope nobody minds. During the time of my stay in my parents' house in Chicoutimi, my godson and his family came see us for a Sunday roast. As the roast beef was cooking (for it was what we were having), his sister went to my bedroom's desk do her homework and my godson asked for some colour crayons to colour a drawing he had made. We couldn't find crayons, but looking everywhere we found some old toys and games in a cupboard, including these lead figures of Dungeons & Dragons stock characters and The Lord of the Rings. Back during my geeky teenage, we were using them as... Well, as nothing really. We just had them on display during the games, or on the mantelpiece, for fun. I had started buying them to my bros as Christmas presents, first trying to find figures resembling their characters, then more stuff to expand the collection. They really got into it. It served no purpose but to look nice, like some visual aid to build some kind of atmosphere.

And when I found them, in a box above an old, old, old puzzle box my parents must have given me when I was four, my godson got fascinated by them. He found them "super cool". Which is his expression for lots of things he gets into: Viking mythology, Harrods' figures of British guards, a book on whales he sees on the shelves, etc. But those figures, they were coolness made lead. He asked me one by one what they were, we took them all out of their box and placed them on the puzzle's box and I had to explain what each one was: this is a wizard, this is a ranger, this is a priest, this is a druid, this is a knight with a morningstar as a weapon, this is an ogre mage, this is a blue dragon (which blows lightnings, as any D&Dr gamer knows), this is a lich, this is a griffon, and so on. Of course, I also had to explain what the character or the monster could do and find the owner of every limb and weapon that had been broken. When it was all done, he asked if we should move everything back in the box. I said I would do it later, because I wanted to take a picture of the improvised display. His father told me that my godson is hyperactive, but when he gets his mind into something he remains quiet and focused. It is very true, as I could witness it then. I wonder if he will one day follow his geeky godfather and one day play Dungeons & Dragons. In any case, I am very glad he finds lead figures so darn cool.

Waterdeep

This is an anecdotal and utterly geeky post (be warned), but it is also in a way a post meant to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the region I am from. I mostly write about it in French, I thought I would do it in English too. You can see at your right a picture of Chicoutimi, the city I am from. It is now a borough of Ville de Saguenay, but this is a stupid, stupid, stupid rename. For any practical purpose, Saguenay is, in fact... Chicoutimi. As my readership knows already, Chicoutimi means "where the water is deep" in Montagnais. Freely translated into English, it could be Waterdeep, which is the name of a city in the Forgotten Realms setting of Dungeons & Dragons. I never liked Forgotten Realms. I prefer settings created by the players and DM. But as a player, I always thought this was an amusing coincidence. As you can see on the picture, Chicoutimi does not look one bit like a medieval or pseudo-medieval city, but it does have deep water.

Vanity Cards (from The Big Bang Theory)

I don't know exactly how it happened, but I became a fan, a casual one but still, of The Big Bang Theory. First time I saw it, or was conscious of it, was last year in Ottawa when I visit my brother. I guess I am a geek/nerd at heart, so I was bound to recognize myself in the show and it's popular culture references. I know they show products logo at the end of every episode, vanity cards I never have the time to read. I was happy to discover them at this website. I am sure every fan of the show knew this already, but I am glad I found them all the same.

Question existentielle (171)

Je regardais The Big Bang Theory plus tôt ce matin et il m'est venu une question existentielle:

-À votre connaissance, quel est l'objet le plus geeky qu'un adulte peut posséder?

The Background of James Bond

I recently rediscovered the official website of the movie Casino Royale. Apart from the usual promotional stuff, there is a lengthy backstory of James Bond, written in the form of reports to MI6, which is an updated yet strongly inspired by his literary one. Back in 2006, when I was eagerly waiting for the movie to be released, I had as much fun listening those to these reports than watching the trailers. A lot of effort has been made in the modernized James Bond biography. Of course, since then Skyfall explored Bond's past, but it is Casino Royale that started it. I love the biography as it gives dimension to the character. Action heroes seldom have dimension, and while James Bond was developed in Fleming's works, it rarely showed on screen. Things are different since Daniel Craig took the role. But anyway, this was my geek moment of the week, finding this still available. Listen to it/have a look at it and tell me what you think.

Dix-neuf ans plus tard

"Il y avait une très belle photo, datant de l'après-guerre, qui était comme toutes les belles photos une image vide, avec presque rien dessus et tout au-dehors."

Je cite une autre fois Arvida, en fait je cite exactement la même phrase qu'il y a quelques temps. J'y repense parce que je viens de revoir une photo de mes frères, mes voisins de l'époque et moi datant d'il y a dix-neuf ans. Je crois qu'elle a été prise à Val-Jalbert, lors d'un voyage dont j'ai déjà parlé. On était dans le bois à Val-Jalbert, donc, en rang d'onion, on fixait tous les cinq la caméra, l'image aurait quelque chose de pink floydien, si on n'avait pas tous cet air franchement geekesque. Enfin bref, je me suis regardé et ça m'a frappé: j'ai à peine changé. Je veux dire, j'ai 35 ans, mais je porte toujours le même genre de lunettes, à part une courte période hippie par la suite (de 17 à 18 ans) je porte encore les cheveux courts, je porte le même genre de manteau (j'avais un lacoste à l'époque que j'adorais et ai usé jusqu'à la corde), le même genre de jeans... Je ne porte plus d'espadrilles blanches ou de gilets avec des dessins dessus, c'est tout. J'avais l'impression de regarder un miroir rajeunissant. Ca vous arrive de penser ça en regardant une photo de vous qui date?

Being called "Sir"

It happens every day, but sometimes I notice it more than others. Like that time when I bought my Friday treat.When I used to work in a school, I didn't notice it at all, maybe because of the age difference between me and the pupils. Today I stopped at an open air comic books stand in an open air market and the guy there, only marginally younger than me (I am in my thirties, but not over the first half of my thirties yet), a geek of course, called me "Sir". As in "Can I help you sir?". It struck me: I am not a young man, not a kid, I am a grown up and I get called sir. Sometimes I long for the time when the owner of  La Binerie Mont-Royal called me "young man" every time I was stopping for lunch there. Anyway, the geek did help me, he was quite knowledgeable as geeks in uderpaid jobs usually are. Still, I am just as much a geek as he is, about the same age, yet I look like a sir now.

The French Connection (geeky anecdote)

Last Saturday, I had a craving for junk food (Wimpy) and I was in the mood to watch The French Connection. I watched the movie only once, about ten years ago, but recently I really want to watch it again. Maybe because it is set during Christmastime, because I have been reading on organised crime and it is a movie based on a true story. Anyway, I was in the mood to munch a big bad quaterpound with cheese, chips, Coca Cola while watching a classic movie. So I stopped at the local Blockbuster, looked for the movie in the renting section, the sale section, everywhere, I couldn't find it. I asked one of the staff members if he had it. He was tall and big, looking very geeky, and he was a geek: he actually knew the movie I was referring to. Not only this, he knew it had been released in DVDs and Blue Rays, he had seen it and it was "a fantastic movie". But unfortunately it was not available there.

That said, this little non-event, or frustrating non-event gave me hope in civilisation. That a man in such a low-paid, thankless job knew his movie classics and could talk about them with enthusiasm is definitely a sign that not everything is lost and that those movies will not be forgotten. It also shows that geeks are actually cool, knowledgeable creatures, in spite of their social ineptitude. And I count myself among them, without any shame. It also inspired me to put The French Connection on my Christmas gift list. With any luck I will be watching it on Christmas Day. My Christmas season movies may seem rather strange (you can read more about it here), but I think The French Connection fits the season perfectly. So I have decided to put the trailer here. It is a bit out of sync, but it is still enjoyable.

A great (if a bit geeky) unknown line from my brother

I haven't put a great unknown line on this blog for ages, I thought I would put one here now. My brother is stuck at home because of a broken leg. It might cheer him up that I immortalise a line from him. He put it on Facebook not so long ago. I am no scientist and know zilch about biometrics, but the geek in me liked it a lot nevertheless, and I found it both funny and a defence of intellectual rigour:

"Biometrics is right, if you don't have real data, don't bother submitting your article."

It is true of all research.

I miss academia

It struck me today: I really miss my time at university, either as a postgrad or as a guy working there. I mean really miss it. I miss it because I don't debate literature at all these days, but I also miss the beat of university life. This was most likely my natural element, a time when not only I could go to bed late, but also work and live on purely intellectual (and often useless) concerns. Teaching literature was the best thing I ever did and the most pleasant thing I ever did professionally. But there were also the thrill of getting in the library (I love university libraries), having a beer and a meal after a seminar in the company of reknown academics, or the seminars/lectures I would attend just for kicks, being a total and unapologetic geek.

I remember during my year in Liverpool attending on a seminar on The Picture of Dorian Gray that didn't even have ten people in it. I popped in out of pure love for Oscar Wilde's novel. I learned little there that I didn't know already, but I was happy to discuss the subject with specialists of the field. I did the same with some history lectures/seminars, which I was formally invited to attend (being a medievalist). I have to confess that I think I preferred the one I attended to just for fun, even though I always find history fascinating.

I haven't done all this since Liverpool in fact, which saddens me. I came close to have a part-time academic job back in 2009, but didn't get it. Money wise I am better off now, and getting the job would have brought a whole deal of little troubles (I would have had to relocate, for one), but there are days I still wish I had got it. I think I was never quite comfortable with teaching in secondary school and below, having to spend time doing discipline and being forced to teach very basic stuff to pupils. But teaching literature, that was something different entirely and I felt like a fish in the water. Oh well, I can still attend seminars for fun if I really want to. I can still play at being an academic.

Nemi

There is one thing I almost miss of the commuting longer commuting I used to do a year ago: I rarely have time to catch the Metro and I don't have time to read Nemi. I don't know why, but I love the comic strip and its main character. I am glad you can find the comic strip online. Still, it is not quite the same as reading it while commuting. She always bring a smile to my face, whatever the day had been or was going to be (and then the days were not often nice).

Nemi is the kind of character I love without knowing exactly why: I am not a goth, I have no goth friends and I am not into heavy metal. That said, I think it is because we share the same opinions on many subjects and we have similar tastes and distastes. There is a lot of embarrassing geekiness in her that is similar to my own. If I was a child, I would be Calvin. If I was a Norwegian girl in her twenties, I would probably be very close to a Nemi. Which is strange, because I rarely identify with female characters, in fiction or in real life.

Compter les heures

Cette photo a été prise à Keswick, je crois que c'était au Pencil Museum. Une des choses que j'aimais de cette ville (ce village?), c'était son originalité. Je sais que j'ai déjà utilisé ce titre pour un autre billet, mais il me faut le réutiliser aujourd'hui. Enfin, je m'ennuie un peu ces temps-ci alors je compte un peu les heures jusqu'à ce que quelque chose d'excitant arrive (ce qui ne saurait tarder, mais je n'en dis pas plus pour établir un certain suspense).

Enfant, il m'arrivait souvent ainsi de m'ennuyer dans le quotidien, que ce soit durant l'année scolaire, quand elle ne finissait plus, ou en vacances, quand elles étaient sur le point de terminer. J'avais inventé avec mes petits frères un "entre-jeu", où l'on jouait les personnages de nos jeux d'enfance (les policiers, les agents secrets, les chasseurs de vampires, etc) alors qu'ils n'étaient pas en train de faire des tâches héroïques. C'était une façon intéressante de donner de la dimension à nos personnages imaginaires, ainsi qu'une vie propre, presque parallèle à la nôtre. On a continué cela jusqu'à l'âge adulte, en un sens, lorsque l'on discutait de notre campagne à Donjons & Dragons ou à Call of Chtulhu. Même maintenant, quand je trouve la journée monotone, j'essaie de trouver des idées pour nos jeux de rôles ou je pense à des histoires que j'espère écrire un jour. Je ne sais pas si ça fait de moi un Don Quichotte ou un geek fini.

Geeks, nerds et autres espèces humaines

Je viens de lire cet article dans Cyberpresse sur les geeks. Une question qui me revient parfois: suis-je un peu geek, voire nerd? Une anecdote à ce sujet: mon petit frère et moi, on regardait nos nombreuses cartes de Donjons et Dragons étalées par terre, avec les différents royaumes, humains, nains ou elfiques, les lieux mystérieux et sacrés inventés, on discutait des lieux et du meilleur endroit pour cacher un artefact (le centre de notre présente campagne) quand il dit, du ton d'un homme qui vient d'avoir une épiphanie: "Guillaume, on est des nerds!"

Je sais qu'il y a une différence entre nerd et geek, mais je n'ai jamais eu l'intention de devenir l'un ou l'autre, pourtant j'en ai certaines caractéristiques: je suis souvent socialement inepte, je m'intéresse à des sujets les geeks/nerds (D&Dr, James Bond, les vieilles séries télé, il fut même un temps où je regardais Star Trek, c'est dire) et je ne suis pas sportif. Ca m'angoisse un peu rien que d'y penser.

Ah oui, la photo a été prise au Bond Museum à Keswick, c'est la reproduction du tank dragon que l'on voit dans Dr No. J'ai traîné ma femme là. J'ai été déçu du musée, mais il est la preuve qu'on peut être un geek fini et en faire une occupation profitable.