Introductions

I've been tossing the idea of starting a blog like this up at various points in time, and a mild case of boredom at work has convinced me to actually get on it and start up a blog about one of the more pressing issues in the nerd community; what it means to be both a female and a gamer, a nerd that also contains a double-X chromosome. So this blog will be full of my musings and insights on games, books, movies, life as a nerdy girl, and what that even really means.

Being a gamer means being a part of a community, either on or off-line, and it gives the outside world a specific impression of your lifestyle to hear you're a gamer; the assumption being that you live in your mother's basement, you're male, you're overweight and live an overtly sedentary lifestyle. Stereotypes being what they are, a lot of this can be true, but I'm quite comfortable refuting many of them. Mostly of course by the fact that I'm a girl.

Most girls have little interest in the gaming community, the nerd subculture and the geekdom that is traditionally filled with socially awkward mouth-breathers who wouldn't know hygiene if it smacked them in the head with a can of deodorant. But there are always exceptions to this rule.

I've been a geek for pretty much all of my life; my mother introduced me to The Narnia Chronicles at the age of seven, I got my first Nintendo Game Boy at age ten, and stood in line with people twice my age to go see Star Wars Episode I. I lived in England for 12 years, from the ages of 5 to 17, giving me the chance to become a huge geek for all things historical. I'm an obsessive watcher of numerous cult TV shows, a reader of comics, both on and off-line, and a regular player of Dungeons and Dragons, which I learned in the Spring of 2007, my Freshman year of college. I'm a Senior English Major, minoring in History and Classical studies. I'm a (somewhat lapsed) member of the campus chapter of the SCA. I spend the bulk of my free time writing fantasy fiction and drawing my webcomic, Fries With That, which is loosely based on my experiences working in fast food. I also work at a campus library. I'm a big fan of midnight movies, TV show marathons, playing videogames like Pokemon and Diablo II, and hanging out with my equally nerdy friends. I've even managed to pick me up a nerdy boyfriend; John, who I've been seeing for about a year and a half. We met when I was invited to join the D&D campaign he was running in the Fall of 2007. I aspire to be an author and cartoonist, and possibly a Librarian.

So that's a fairly basic introduction to me and my world of nerdiness. As the weeks and days go by I'll blog at random about my experiences in this world and on this here internet, letting anyone who's interested know what it means to me to be a girl in the nerd subculture.

Happy reading!