Nerdery Week: Day 6

Well, it’s becoming more and more aparent to me that stretching this Nerdery thing out over seven days is proving to be a little difficult. So, I’m going to pull stuff out of thin air and see if it comes up Nerdery.

That’s right. I’m pulling stuff outta the closet.

First off, this is the closet.

It’s just to the right of Fridge Corner and just left of that long shelf where I display a bunch of my nerdery trinkets and what-not. And yes, there are the aforementioned autographed photos of Selma Hayek and Gina Gershon.

Stop laughing.

The closet, like the rest of my designed Nerdery, was one of the things I had in my head and wasn’t sure if it existed. I thought it would be cool to have a closet with frosted glass panels. Why would that matter, you ask? Because then you can do this:

Yeah. Nerdy. I like being able to set the lights to my mood when I’m writing. When I was writing a suspense/murdery-type of story for NaNoWriMo a couple years back, it was REALLY dark material and I set the mood accordingly. All but one of the lights in the nerdery have dimmer switches on them. So, yeah, I can light it like a movie set.

Anyway…

Remember how some folks were saying that my desk was too clean and neat n’ tidy? Well, feast your eyes on this:

And this:

This is not the closet of a neat and organized man. This is the closet of a dude who had no idea how to throw crap out. There’s all kind of garbage in there, including:

– a bunch of electronics chargers
– a laptop that weighs as much as a sedan
– a guitar I never learned to play
– a tripod
– boxes of envelopes for agent queries and their subsequent rejections
– a shredder (not the one that fights mutant turtles)
– a binder with Space Fact inserts stuck into it

You get the idea. So, for laughs, I pulled out a bunch of stuff to see if it’s nerdy enough to qualify for the week. I’m guessing…yeah. It is.

This is a box appropriately labeled ‘FILM STUFF.’ Sadly, it’s not the only one in the house. I’ve got two or three more in the garage and it’s loaded with short films, storyboards, scripts and all kinds of garbage from my film-making days. This one actually has an old ancient Rondo Cinematic 8mm camera in the box.

This potpourri of stuff is: a set list from the May 6, 2005 Tegan & Sara show at The Quest. A Playmobil Firefighter that I just ‘had to have’ and a framed original drawing by Fastner/Larson entitled ‘Sinta.’ I got it at a nerdy Comic Convention (yes, the one where I dressed like Han Solo) and I thought it was cool since I wrote a bunch of twisted Xmas stories. Somehow it’s not appropriate to hang up anywhere. Weird.

Next to that, in the huge ill-fitting frame is a drawing by dude name Teddy Torres-Ruiz drew. He had it up for auction during a March of Dimes fundraiser and I battled some dude to the bitter end to win it. I just love the style and he used to do artist renditions of some of my characters that just brought tears to my eyes. I had to have it. I’m ashamed that I haven’t figured out what to do with it, so in the closet it remains.

When my grandpa died, he left all of his old books to my dad. Since I seem to be the most literate one in my family, my dad thought it best if I take them from him. These things are WAY old and eventually, when the Nerdery shelves are built, I’ll put them up and display them proudly. Crazy thing? There are two storage bins full of them!

It’s crazy to look through the bins and see what sort of things people were into reading back then. While I’m not sure that I’ll ever sit down and read any of them (mostly in fear of wrecking them) I’m fascinated by the titles and subject matter of some of Grandpa’s old books. Check it:

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Grandpa was a big Edgar Rice Burroughs fan. This is just a small selection of the ERB books he had in his collection. Wow. The Monster Men…hmmm, maybe I will have to read that one at some point.

A couple more titles from the boxes. I thought The Speedwell Boy and Their Ice Racer sounded like a heckuva title. Shoot, something with that catchy of a title would even sell today, right? Isn’t that right, Bomba the Jungle Boy? Hey, don’t know Bomba. The dude had a SERIES of books written about him.

One of the coolest things about Grandpa’s books were that each and everyone has his name written in his hand on the front page. I actually found one that looked like it was a gift…FROM A GIRL!!!

Hey, Grandpa…that wasn’t Grandma’s name. Hmm…just think, if Doris and Earle had actually ended up together, I wouldn’t have happened. Crazy when one thinks about it, you know. Ahem…this concludes the introspective portion of Nerdery Week.

The End Is Near! Nerdery Week closes the doors tomorrow! Be there…or you know, catch up whenever, yo.