Month: April 2022

COVID-19 tracked me down and kicked my arse

On By somegeektoldme@gmail.comIn Science

This is a special blog for today, because I usually post sometime on a Monday; and as you are all very capable of following the Gregorian calendar, today is Wednesday.

The reason I am posting today, is because I want to talk about COVID-19. Why? Because after two years of avoiding it like…um…the plague, COVID-19 finally tracked me down and kicked my arse.

I’ll be honest with you, in my utter arrogance, I thought I would avoid it. I told myself, that if I kept washing and sanitising my hands regularly, wearing a face mask in public, and following government guidelines, I would be sweet as. What an idiot.

Currently, the COVID-19 Omicron variant is still ripping it’s way through New Zealand, like Cookie Monster at a birthday party. At the time of writing this blog, 18% of the entire population of New Zealand, has been infected with COVID-19.

I’m thinking about it now, and catching COVID-19 was inevitable for me; just as Winter follows Autumn, or the Joker escaping Arkham Asylum. It was always going to happen.

Image by Spencer Davis from Pixabay

Now as disappointed as I was for actually contracting the virus in the first place, I do feel fortunate for one reason. During my time of being infected, I was suffering from headaches, constant coughing, insomnia, nose bleeds, sneezing, tiredness and a sore throat.

My wife has seen first hand, what kind of damage Man Flu can have on me; but at COVID-19’s peak, she said that I looked, spoke, and walked like a zombie. COVID-19 kicked my arse.

I feel grateful though, because of all of the symptoms I suffered from, things could have been worse for me. I could have been hospitalised or died from it; but I didn’t and it’s down to one reason: vaccinations. As a country, we are sitting at a vaccine rate of 96%, and I was lucky enough to be double vaccinated, as well as receiving the booster.

I have no doubt that the vaccine protected me, from developing even greater and more dangerous symptoms. However I know millions of people around the world are still without their first dose.

I don’t know how to solve that problem, but one thing I can do, is once again thank every single person involved in the research, design, development, testing, manufacturing, and distribution, of the various COVID-19 vaccinations being used on this planet.

I love science. Always have, always will.

Thanks for reading, please look after yourselves and your families, wash your hands, and I’ll see you next Monday.

Happy One Year Anniversary Being On Twitter

On By somegeektoldme@gmail.comIn Social Media

I want to talk about Twitter. Why? Last week, I celebrated one year of posting on Twitter. I know, I know, thank you, thank you. Now why did I join Twitter in the first place?

That’s a very boring question, so I’ll give a very boring answer. In my total naivety or hubris, 1 I thought I could attract lots of people from the blog to Twitter, and vice versa. Wow, I have learnt that Twitter is tough. Like a school bully that steals your lunch every day, tough.

So after one year, and over 540 tweets later, what have I discovered about being on Twitter? These are my top 15 discoveries.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

WARNING, there are spoilers, so read at your own caution.

1.) It’s very easy to fall into a rabbit hole of toxic waste containing disinformation.

2.) Reading someone else’s tweet thinking, “That was funny, I wish I had thought of it.”

3.) Before you realise it, you’re living in an echo chamber, reading about everything you believe is to be true.

4.) It’s fascinating looking at other people’s positive and negative responses, over the same piece of news.

5.) Someone liking or retweeting a tweet of mine, is strangely quite satisfying.

6.) Gaining a new follower, then losing them, less than 24 hours later, because you’re not what they thought you were.

7.) Playing a game with my wife, by reading out a tweet, and getting her to guess whom the tweet is about, or written by.

8.) It’s very easy to offend someone on Twitter, but I suppose that’s the point?!

9.) I probably spend far too much time writing tweets, when I could be sleeping.

10.) Never leave your Twitter page open, when your children are conscious.

11.) It’s a fine line between gaslighting and being a troll.

12.) Responding to tweets about hate, stupidity, and ignorance with humour, is far better than going into beast mode.

13.) There are some truly creative people in the world.

14.) Sometimes I’ll read a tweet and think, “Damn it, I never thought of it like that.”

15.) I am very grateful for every single person that follows me. That’s so sad!!!

If you are on Twitter and curious, I have the totally unoriginal name of Some Geek Told Me; if you are interested in following. I’m getting used to Twitter, but it’s taken some time to do it!

Anyway, I’m there every day for my 7 am (NZ Time) tweet, because, you know, it keeps me off the streets dealing comics in back alleys. Thanks for reading, and I’ll actually see you in two days, for a rare Wednesday blog post.

1 Please take your pick.

Geek Fashion: Socks Edition

On By somegeektoldme@gmail.comIn Fashion

I want to talk about fashion again. Why? Currently in the Southern Hemisphere, we are nearly at the middle of Autumn. We are slowly trading in our shorts and skirts, for trousers and long dresses, because of how crazy Autumn can be here. 4°C in the morning, 20°C at lunch time, and 10°C in the evening. You almost need to walk around with a portable wardrobe, because of the weather changes.

Autumn does give you the chance to reassess your sock situation. You can’t spend all your time walking about in jandals anymore, unless you want your toes to turn blue, then black. That being the case, you need to start wearing a lot more socks.

I love socks. Seriously, I love them. This has led me to examine my sock collection, because every good geek needs a good pair of socks. So may I present for your reading pleasure, another fashion blog that nobody has asked for, written by a simple geeky father, with some outstanding fashion sense.

Image by Lena Helfinger from Pixabay

Socks for a Geek

Active wear socks

For some extremely stupid and illogical reason, I like the term active wear. You don’t actually need to be active to wear active wear, just wearing them is enough. So why do I have some fantastic ankle length socks? The answer is so amazing and completely not boring, that it requires two parts.

The first part is that I wear these bad boys to work, and if I’m being honest, I wear these types of socks a lot. They’re snug, affordable and can come in different colours, like white, black or grey. I know, it’s mental isn’t it?

Also, I’m such a geeky bad arse, that I wear these socks as mismatched pairs. I could be walking about wearing a black sock with blue stripes on one foot, but a white sock with red stripes on the other. And because my trousers hide the socks, nobody knows; except when I wear shorts to work, so then it looks like UMC2 had dressed me. The universe has not broken down over the insanity of me wearing mismatched socks. Yet.

I need to point something out as well. I enjoy running, though a better way to describe is that I suffer running. Though to be fair, running is a strong word, it’s more like moving my legs slightly faster than walking.

As a geek, it’s extremely important to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle, which I generally fail at. However, the silver lining in this terrible looking Nimbostratus cloud, is that my active wear socks are perfect for running. I even run with mismatched socks, because as Aerosmith said, I’m all about Livin’ on the edge.

Sadly I do seem to wear through these socks quickly. I could lie and say it’s because I’m so fast; but it’s more to do that I’m constantly washing them, and the fact I purchase the cheapest option, because I have to save money in order to buy more books about things that are not real. I’m such a stable genius.

Social socks

I’m a self diagnosed loud introvert. This means that the rare times I’m actually at a social event, like a meeting; professional developmental course; party; or with my extended family; I’m going to be reserved.

The Mandalorian collection

However, once someone starts discussing an interesting topic with me, well…my excitement levels will slowly start rising. Then you’re going to have to find a way to shut me up. This is because during these awkward social interactions, I’ll be wearing my social socks to boost my confidence and promote pop culture.

2/3 of the Batman collection

These socks include:

  • Hotdogs
  • Fries
  • Milkshakes
  • Turtles
  • Spider-Man
  • All Blacks
  • 3 x pairs of Batman socks (I don’t have enough of these)
  • 2 x pairs of Mandalorian socks
  • Superman with a small cape on the back
  • and finally, the pièce de résistance, my toe socks
1/3 of the Batman collection, along with the Turtle collection

The majority of these socks have been gifts to me of one type or another, but the toe socks I purchased for myself. I think that even if Morgoth, the First Enemy, had to choose between the Silmarils and toe socks; or Darkseid, choosing between the Anti-Life Equation and toe socks, they would both buckle and choose toe socks.

2/3 of my Fast Food collection

If I go to the cinema, I may wear one Batman sock, along with one Spider-Man sock. My wife calls me hopeless, when this happens; but she doesn’t understand the amount of time and dedication it takes to have this level of geek commitment.

This is the Clark and Peter collection

I also smile secretly, whenever I get to talk to anybody, while I’m wearing the Superman socks. During the conversation, I’m usually distracted with the concept that the person in front of me, has no idea I’m wearing socks with capes on them. I am so hard core, even Chuck Norris would be taking a wide berth of me.

If you’re looking to invest in some new socks, give in to your geek side, and locate the baddest pair of geek socks you can find. You won’t regard it.

This brings us to the end of another action packed blog, written by a man in a daily battle with his dog, over ownership of a pillow.

Anyway, thanks for reading, I really do appreciate it. Remember stay safe, wash your hands, catch your cough, and I’ll see you next week.

Rethinking some Children’s Pop Culture Names

On By somegeektoldme@gmail.comIn Children, Comics, Literature, Movies, Television

I want to talk about children’s names. Why? This is because selecting a child’s name is supposed to be a meaningful process, but sometimes it feels like it’s one of the most difficult things a parent can do. I thought my wife and I would get divorced, over our inability to compromise on UMC2’s name!

Both UMC1 and UMC2 have pop cultures names, but they are not mainstream names. It would only take a geek to identify their names and the meanings behind them.

Now this blog is not an original idea. My wife saw something similar on social media, about non-geeks giving children extremely cool sounding names from pop culture, but the parents not understanding the background of the names.

I liked the idea so much, that I put it to a vote to all of the staff at Some Geek Told Me, and I received 100% support for this, to create my own list.

As a parent, you could name your child after anything; like a traditional name from your family, or your favourite singer or sportsperson. Maybe it’s a name you have heard from pop culture that you quite like, but have no understanding about where it’s from.

Could you imagine yourself as a parent saying, “Luke, please wash your hands,“ or “Where are your shoes, Shuri?” That works, right?

But, what about, “Iago, please wash you hands,” or “Where are your shoes, Cruella?” Does it work now? No, no it doesn’t. Not for a child, at least. Or an adult I guess.

Below you will find some truly awesome sounding names from across pop culture. The issue is that these names will be from characters that have not made the wisest of choices. This will be because of two reasons; 1.) Characters that have very wobbly moral compasses, so they have made some very shitty decisions, or 2.) Characters that have betrayed their values, beliefs, country, family or friends, for vengeance, money, or power.

My humble apologies if there are real people with these names out there. It’s not to cause offense to anybody, I’m just trying to get some parents to rethink their choices, because you’re upsetting the geek community. And that is dangerous….just kidding, no, it’s not. We’re harmless, apart from trivia nights, where we conquer all whom stand before us. Pity the fools.

Alright, let’s do it in alphabetically order, because I can’t think of a better way!

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Anakin Aoyama Atomica Baelish Barriss Belloq Bellwether Bertholdt Black Adam Briony Brutus Caliban Cersei Claudius Cruella Cypher Daenerys Davros Demona Don John Dooku Ephialtes Fredo Gambit Ghirra Gin Goneril Gothel Hamlet Hans Iago Judas Kaede Kisma Kylo Loki Lotso Macbeth Madhouse Maeglin Meleoron Melkor Miek Mondego Morgoth Namor Nedry O’Brien O’Dim Obadiah Othello Palpatine Pettigrew Pong Prosset Reiner Roose Saruman Sauron Scar Severus Sinestro Smeagol Squard Starscream Stinky Pete Tandro Terra The Master Tyrion Valeris Vegeta Vizsla Volemort Vulko Walder Waller Waternoose Zuko

If you’re thinking of selecting a name from this list for your future child, please reconsider. Seriously, please rethink it. Don’t be a hipster; just trust a geek when I say: Your child will not thank you for it, nor will the geek community. Stay away from these names, like the Bog of Eternal Stench!

Did you recognise any names on the list? Do you think I missed some out? Please let me know your thoughts.

That’s another blog down, and a whole week to think of a new topic to rant about. Thanks for reading, wash your hands, and I’ll see you next week!

Reviewing my wife’s favourite musical: Les Misérables 

On By somegeektoldme@gmail.comIn Movies, Music4 Comments

I want to talk about my wife. Why? Among many things that she likes, which include Lego computer games, painting, Harry Potter, and stealing blankets from her cold husband, she also likes musicals. To say she is a fan of musicals, would not do that statement any sort of justice. She is a geek in her own right, but her love of musicals takes it to another level.

Now I do need to address the misleading title for this blog post; my wife has two favourite musicals: Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera. So for the sake of getting sleep this week, I’m only going to look at Les Misérables, so the Phantom will have to wait his turn.

So…musicals. I’m not like my wife, because I actually try to avoid musicals; I’m not a huge fan. I mean I did grow up watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, being screened for every public holiday in New Zealand. As I’m writing this, I’m having flashbacks of “Me Ol’ Bamboo” and “The Candyman”.

Before we can dive into Les Misérables, we need to understand why my wife loves it so much. This is her response:

The book I hate. It was too long and complicated.

The soundtrack is great, because it’s perfect for a long car trip, not that you [as in me] will sit and listen to it.

The movie [the 2012 version] was visually cool, but half of the cast couldn’t sing.

My favourite version is the 25th anniversary concert. I could watch that once a week and never get tired of it.

It makes a depressing subject, fun and I’m really good at remembering song lyrics, so it’s a challenge, so I like that aspect of it. A lot of the songs are catchy and memorable.

Image by Jonas Manske from Pixabay

With that in mind, I have never seen Les Misérables, as a live production. I knew it was based on a book, written by the ultra happy, Victor Hugo.

I remember I saw the 1998 movie version at some point, and I liked it. Javert seemed like a jerk, but I enjoyed it anyway. I also realised that they had made the film into a historical drama, but without the singing. Liam Neeson could have kicked more arse in it though.

Fast forward to early 2013, when the new film came out. My girlfriend at the time was my future wife, and she had explained her love of Les Misérables to me, so we agreed to go and see the film.

Now I had heard that this film version of Les Misérables, would not be like the 1998 film, because there would be singing, hence the whole musical aspect. I understood this, so I told myself that I could handle it. “A few songs here and there, mate, you’ll be fine“, I told myself. What an idiot.

So at the cinema, we sat down and my girlfriend was extremely excited, because she had already talked about some of her favourite songs; she was ready. As the film opened, it began with a song, while the prisoners were working. I thought that was common for a musical to open with a song, so I let it pass.

Then Russel Crowe’s Javert, started singing to Hugh Jackman’s Jean Valjean. It was at this point, that my Geek-Sense started tingling. “Why are they singing dialogue?” I asked myself. That’s really odd.

As the film progressed, I found characters singing more dialogue. A lot of dialogue. I was starting to get worried. I suddenly remembered the Billy Connolly joke about opera, with a character singing about going over a hill. I started to get anxious about what I was watching.

I leaned over to my girlfriend, and whispered in her ear, “There seems to be a lot of singing in this movie.” She turned to me, laughed, smiled, and whispered back, “That’s what the whole movie is, it’s all singing.” With that, she turned back to the screen.

I was now at the stage where I was noticing the other members of the audience. People on my left were singing. People on my right were singing. People behind and in front of me, were singing. The whole theatre was singing; whether it was softly or loudly, but they were singing.

I turned back to my girlfriend, and I finally understood. She was singing softly as well. I was surrounded by people singing their favourite songs, and I didn’t know a single word. I was watching a movie where people were singing dialogue. The singing had not stopped, nor would it. For 158 minutes, I was trapped, and it was all my fault.

After accepting my fate, I decided to try and concentrate on the film and block out the singing, which was extremely difficult. However, there was a shining moment for me. Javert confronted Valjean, where they started having a sword/wood fight.

I loved this, because I knew Crowe was going to play Jor-El in Man of Steel, and Jackman was Wolverine. So to me, Jor-El was fighting Wolverine. Because of this, I popped my claws on my left hand, and quietly said, “Snikt.”

My girlfriend saw me waving my set of claws about and quietly asked, “What are you doing?” I gently replied, “Wolverine’s fighting Superman’s Dad”, to which she just rolled her eyes and turned back to the screen.

I’m pleased to report, that I managed to survive the experience. After it had finished, my girlfriend laid out the positive and negative things about the film; apparently the plot flowed quite well, but the actors were terrible singers, in her humble opinion.

This leaves us with the question: what do I think of Les Misérables? I love history, so from that viewpoint, I loved it. It’s a great story, just a bit too much singing for me. I mean, do people really have to sing dialogue? No, no they don’t.

Anyway, my wife loves it, so I guess that’s what counts. Maybe.

If I was a faster typist, I could write more blogs per week, but I’m slower than Uncle Iroh serving and drinking tea, so sorry about that. Thanks for reading, wash your hands, and I’ll see you next week.