That should be the epitaph of my life. :(

So.....

Everything was going OK. The mop didn't work. Mostly because the orange bit at the top started crumbling apart, and the more I tried to glue it the more it crumbled until it was more glue than orange bit. Looked really really bad.

I was like oh well. I will just deal with it. I got the rest of it done. I adjusted the gloves so the white stripes were less wrinkly.

Then this happened:

You see, I live with a family who has a 5 month old puppy. I very chewy, rambunctious puppy. She is a love, but she has had a predeliction towards my foam for a while now.

Up until now if I said no and put it up, she would leave it.

But this time...

She has grown enough that she can now just grab things off my desk. I love that puppy, but damn girl. She also chewed up the belt stuff. This made everything I have been working so hard on this week all moot. I no longer had a cosplay. The mop and the accessories is what makes it VCD Janitor, as opposed to a random construction worker or janitor. This happened the NIGHT BEFORE the con. :/

After I was done crying in the corner, I considered what I could do. Because I already paid for this con, I was damn well still going to go.

I still have my Aoifa stuff. Sort of. I have lost 45 pounds since I made her, so her bodice no longer works. You can read about that build by going to October 2017 in the archives. There are several posts about it. I was going to link one, but I can't decide which one as all of them apply. I think I also have them all tagged Cosplay as well.

Anyway...So Aoifa's breastplate is waaaay too big now. The fabric bits are all in tatters. All that works really is the front bit and the horned circlet.

So looking at it, I decided if I had something to cover the back like a cloak, I could just tie the breastplate on directly around the back. It now wraps several inches into the back when tied that way.

So I needed fabric or something. And I would need a skirt and shoes. So I talked to a friend, who generously drove with me to Goodwill. There I found a furry vest with a giant collar, a tweed curtain, huge ass earrings, and a couple of pairs of knee length boots.

Photo vomit:

I first cut the collar off the vest. I included part of the body so I had a foundation. Then I cut the curtain to length. It was already finished on all the edges and was the perfect width.

I....am not proud of the next step, but it was a desperate situation. I then hot glued the curtain to the foundation bit I left on the collar. It worked waaaay better than I thought it would. I like the cloak. I think eventually I will sew it firmly.

These were earrings. Huge ass earrings. I removed the earring part, which was just french hooks held on by a jump ring, and attached 2 safety pins with black chain maille rings.

Then I painted them with some oil based paint pens I had. Obviously they didn't work well, as most of it chipped off quickly. And the safety pins were shite. They were in a $5 sewing kit, and they kept bending and popping open. They did look good though. I think I will try to find some more permanent enamel paint for these and better broach clasps.

Boots!! So I have to wear footwear that supports my ankles. I have joint hypermobility syndrome, and my ankles and hips are the 2 most effected sets of joints. I found this out when I started randomly face planting and spraining shoulders and wrists over and over again. According to the rheumatologist, this is permanent. It is a consequence of this degenerative condition. No more going barefoot, me. :( That means I have to find footwear that 1. fits my short, wide feet and 2. will go around my disproportionatly shaped calves. Up till now the best I could do is ill fitting ankle length construction boots. But these.....ah these...HEAVEN! They are comfortable. They fit my odd shaped feet. They have enough support for my ankles. And they have the two stretch panels in the back so they fit my calves!! And they are SOOOOOO comfortable. And they take 2 seconds to get on and off. I long ago gave up the idea of the quick on/off process of the footware. I wore these all day around the con yesterday, and they were still so confortable I didn't want to take them off. No rubbing spots. No too tight spots. They supported my ankles enough I could still walk without faceplanting after hours of cement walking. If nothing else, this is the best possible outcome of this frustrating situation. I ended up with footwear I CAN WEAR. Sigh. And they were $5. And hardly worn. I AM SO HAPPY I COULD CRY.

Ahem...

So I had a long black skirt with slits up the sides, so I decided that would work with this outfit. And the horns were still serviceable. So VOILA!! New iteration of Aoifa!

By the end of the day, tired cosplayer was tired. We did a photoshoot out in the sun. My chest is soooo sunburned right now. Fortunately I had on sunscreen, so it doesn't hurt. And it will go away soon and be blaringly pale again in no time. (I do not tan. And yes, I burn THROUGH sunscreen.)

So overall I am kind of impressed with how it turned out. For pulling it out of my ass last minute.

Sadly it is not the last iteration ever. The boob parts partially tore away from the base part. The grommets are pretty much toast. So I just need to reinforce the rest of the boob parts, attach them to a different breastplate, and figure out a better way of attaching it to my body.

Well....I don't have a whole lot to post about. I have been busy and sick and tired and allerging. I have not completed the video yet, nor have I had time to do any real shooting. My computer had issues yesterday. It crashed 3 times, the 3rd time I had to recover it. I am glad I set restore points and backup images. It has been teetering for months now. About once a week it crashes and tells me it can't recognize the BIOS. Well, duh...mainly that is because it does not have a BIOS. It's firmware, as it is for most 64 bit machines, is EFI. If I open the computer in safe mode, then restart it from safe mode, it has been able to fix tiself. I am not really sure "fix" is the word I want to use here. This is a refurbished laptop. I am sure someone probably flashed a BIOS machine with an EFI, and now the workarounds to make that work are crumbling down. When I go to the system window, it says I have a BIOS installed. I have been in the firmware...it is most definitely not BIOS, it is EFI. Computers is usually my job. I know how to tell. What I don't know is why the discrepentcy. Even if it was flashed with EFI, Windows should read it as an EFI, not a BIOS. And yup...people who thought EFI and BIOS were the same thing...they are very different. A BIOS uses a master boot record table to tell your computer how to load the OS. EFI uses a GPT table to tell your computer how to load the OS. If it is looking for a MBR table, and it ia an EFI firmware, it will not find it and think it can't load. Because it is getting the wrong instructions. Probably more than you wanted to know, but this is my blog and I wanted to impart my knowledge. :P

Anyway...so after months of this happening, yesterday it finally crashed enough times in a row that I had to recover it, which is not a good thing. As I am unsure how to fix the workaround, I can't really fix this permanently. As I am worried about my cmputer quitting completely on me, I hesitate to use it for anything heavy duty, like filming.

I bit the bullet and decided I needed to replace this mess. I don't have a lot of money, as I am still unemployed, but I have been socking a little bit away every month so I can have deposit money for when I get a job and am ready to get my own place again. Through my school I get a discount on Dells, and Dell is currently in addition running a back to school discount. I was able to find a gaming laptop with all the bells and whistles I want and need for $750. I checked the Dell site not logged into the school's portal or using the student discount. It would have cost me $1000. So I decided that it was worth it to make sure I have a laptop I can use for school, and something I can use afterward. If I wait until I have a job, which may be after I am done with school, I would have to pay the full price for it. And I wouldn't have something to use when this one finally is unrecoverable. It will have a dedicated graphics card, 12GB of RAM, and 1 TB of storage. And the processor is good enough I can up it to 32GB of RAM if I want to later. So when that arrives I will do some more filming, and post it up here. But it will have to wait now until that is possible. I don't dare kill this thing before I have something else to do school with. And the new laptop probably will work with Dragonframe. Extra bonus. So why do I feel so guilty about spending money on it? :P

I also have been writing and perfecting some songs, which I intend to record and put up on Soundcloud when I get the new computer. I will link them in my music tab. I am excited to play music at Orycon again this year. Last year I was newly laid off and trying to figure out how  to make ends meet and how to get schooling. This year I am still unemployed, but living in town so I don't have to worry about where to stay. I was already planning on going...bought my membership a few months ago. This will just be the icing on the cake. I love doing panels too. We'll see if they allow me to do any. I put in to do a few at Anglicon too. We'll see if they want me. I am not a Seattlite, and don't know any of the concom, so probably not. But I thought I would throw my hat in there anyway.

Ok...back to homework and research paper. Will post back here when I have more to report.

 So due to exciting circumnstances I have the opportunity to go to Anglicon in Seattle in a few weeks. I am really excited about getting away from home for a few days. Most days I don't leave the house, because I don't have a reason to. I can do my job search from my computer. Most places I am applying to have online resume systems in place. I don't need a ton of groceries, so once a week shopping is sufficient. Last week, I did not leave my house from Tuesday till Sunday. That seems pathetic. Well, I did go into the yard to take pictures. The bees were busy in the mint flowers, so I took the opportunity to practice using the telephoto lens. It is a Canon 75mm-300mm. Not the most expensive, but not bad. It is taking me a while to get used to it, and remember all the settings. My goal is to eventually try to get good pictures of the moon with it. That will have to be somewhere other than at home though, as usually I can't see the moon from my house due to trees and/or houses. But still, I didn't really leave my yard to take the pics. I posted my pictures up on Flickr. I also took the camera with me to the Fair on Sunday. I didn't get a whole lot of good ones, though. I need to learn how to change the settings correctly to get indoor flourescent and outdoor shots. If you want to take a look they are all posted HERE. I made an album of the fair pics. They are all so mushy. I need to figure out why so I can fix it. So many of my pictures are mushy. I may need to invest in a photoshop class.

Anyway, my point was that now I get to take a train up to Seattle and hang out with my fellow nerds for a few days. I am taking my camera and my uke, though I don't expect there to be any music there, per se. I have social anxiety, and I find it easier to deal with constructively if I have the uke in my hand. It grounds me....reminds me I am not stuck where I am, and if I need to I can step outside and noodle until I am calm again. And Anglicon is British fandom themed, so my Who songs and Red Dwarf will be totally appropriate. So now I am getting ready for con. What will I wear? Will I try cosplaying? I have been contemplating painting my cane with space scenes and Tardis's. I don't know if I will do that. I may try. I am not exactly sure how one would accomplish that. I am not an artist. Am thinking maybe paint it solid black and flick white paint on it to represent stars. Maybe use a sponge and some dark blue on it. Then I have to try to freehand Tardis. Hmm....There may be an easier way. I will have to think about it some more. I am putting puppet building on hold for the week. I need to get away from the heavy glue smell anyway. I did get some more tubing, so I may try assembling more bodies. Though a lot of my time will be taken up getting ready for the con. I wish I was able to do these when I was in high school. I think I would have been a lot better off knowing I have options. That I am not a loner wierdo. That there are others who think like me. What I did after high school may have changed a bit.

Anyway, there is a long rambly update. I really am excited to get out and away. I am excited to be with fellow nerds. I am excited to destress for a bit.

It has been such a busy week. I have been working on animating. I plan on sharinf pictures and thoughts on the process, but right now I am SO tired and need desperately to nap. I will post when I have more energy.

I will, however, take the time to share with you my new video. It is not great, but it isn't bad. I ran out of time to do proper audio dialog and sound mixing, so I went with the silent movie approach.

Also reworked my second animation ever. It is pretty bad. There was a lot more to it, but I cut it down for your sanity and mine. It was part of a series of animations I did about the Tardis taking time to have adventures without the Doctor. The sound is a little off, but I will fix it later.

So there ya go. Will talk about animating next post.

So the creative bug had been biting me pretty hard lately. I really want to do some cool stuff, though I know a lot of it I just will need to learn how to do and it will be crap. I made a list of everything I want to do, and looking at it (it is pretty long) I think I am going to need to make a plan if I am ever going to get any of it done.

Warning: LONG post! Lots of bullshit! A bunch of pics! Feel free to read or skip as appropriate.

First thing, I have been working on a new stop mo. My camera has pretty much crapped out on me, so I am going to have to figure out how to do it without the camera. I have my iPad. I have figured out how to get pics from my iPad to my computer. I have found a few camera control apps for the iPad, though nothing that lets me control the focus the way I want. Also I need to anchor that sucker down somehow so it doesn't look like my characters are in an earthquake all the time.

So I have designed a frame thing that is made of PVC piping and foam insulation tape. I had planned on cutting the PVC with my hacksaw and mitre box. The box is missing. I packed them together, because I usually do not use either one by themselves. One of these days I will either go get another one or find a friend who has power tools to help me cut them at a 45 degree angle and cut a slot in the top for the foam insulation and a place to rest the iPad. Then I will drill a 1/4inch hole in the bottom for mounting to the tripod platform. Project number one. :)

So last weekend I helped a friend move. As per usual she wanted to get rid of stuff, and as per usual I accommodated her and took it off her hands. The first thing was this awesome globe thing that lights up.

Now I have to figure out how to costume this bad boy. I can't sew, and I have other sewing projects I want to do. So I will need to find a place to find South Korean looking jackets and grey slacks. And of course the mask. I HAVE to take a shot at making a mask of that face. I have no mask making experience. I do have liquid latex. I have been looking online and if I do it in 3 pieces I may actually be able to pull it off. One piece for the face, another piece for the tentacles, and a final piece for the head. I am currently researching the cost of latex foam. I also need to get myself a few styrofoam heads to use as bases. I think I would make a thin latex mask for the face, a molded latex foam for the head, then attach the tentacles to a large mesh frame that attaches to the mask. that will make it easier to breath. It would also be awesome if I can find a cheap voice modulator.

On the latex mask front, I decided if I am going to do an Ood, I also need to make a Vastra mask.

This is Madame Vastra (picture property of BBC and Doctor Who). She is strong and beautiful and a warrior and everything I wish I could be. She is one of my favorite fictional characters ever. She is married to Jenny, the lady behind her in this picture. If you don't watch any other Doctor Who, it is worth watching the episodes she is in just to bask is this dazzling character. I have been waiting out the last few years of less than stellar storylines and Moffet's version of Psych! and a Doctor who doesn't really feel like the Doctor, but her alone has made this wait worth it. As masks go, this one looks like the most comfortable one to wear for long periods at a time. I would do her Victorian outfits, though. She has some gorgeous black dresses I really want. Though, my next project could conceivably be used for her character.

I also got a green leather coat. It is HUGE. It is very 80's. The shoulder pads are gone, but thiey have left thier mark in the shoulders of this coat. there is enough leather fabric in that coat to make a steampunky vest or two. A vest that would go with the brown leather coat I found last winter. It would also go with the Vastra mask. I also want to sew some aviator pants to use with steampunk.


 

I want this look, pants boots and all. Except I want to make them black. These pants could go with steampunk and Vastra.

I also was given several sets of vampire fangs. So....I can do regular vampire, steampunk vampire, or vampire Silurian (Vastra is a Silurian). OR Vampire Steampunk Silurian! Oh this is going to be awesome. :)

I can't sew worth a damn, so I will have to find someone to supervise.

So the list....

Not in priority order...

1. Latex Ood mask
2. Latex Madame Vastra mask
3. Build a more interactable stop mo set
4.Leather steampunk vest or two, depending
5.iPad frame with foam insulation
6.Button over aviator pants
7.Steampunk goggles
8.Crochet sweater and vests out of mounds of yarn I have laying around
9.Spin the fleece I have sitting around
10.Play with armatures and different materials to decide on puppets for stop mo.
11. Finish all writing projects (web series, 10 minute short, play, novel)
12.Finish filming current stop mo

I once told someone I am never bored. If I had a bajillion dollars, I would have plenty to do. They didn't believe me. :)

So now I have to decide what needs to be done with each of these projects, when I want to have them done by, and what I need in order to finish them. Then I will make a general plan to get them done.

SOooooo......

Working, I suppose. I am so far behind. I wasn't feel great for a while, then I procrastinted, so I most likely won't have anything done for Fandance. I am still going to try, but I am sooooooo far behind. I did not stick to my timetable at all. I also changed ideas midstream. That is a very bad idea. I still want to do my original idea. I have sets built and have done test dequences and stuff. But I wrote a filk to Princess fo the Night by Saxon. It is Doctor Who themed. So now I am leaning toward a music video for that. I want to do both, but reality tells me that both won't be completed in time. I need to stop being so indecisive. So now I am sitting in a pizza place forcing myself to plan and design, after which I will go home and build. And record the song. I ended up needing to take my uke in for a tune up. It wouldn't stay in tune for more than a few chords. Makes it difficult to record a song when your instrument won't stay in tune for the whole song. It is all good now. So I really need to do that today.

I also spent most of the day fueling my bad self with caffiene. Kind of over did it. My brain is kind of all over the place right now. I am hoping food will help drill down my focus a bit so I can get some stuff done.

Ok, I probably should finish eating and do some actual planning before ileave here. At least have a plan for the rest of the day. 

EDIT: So I came home and worked a little bit. I have decided to dress several of my little guy as Doctors. For your edification, as well as my memory of which soldier is to get which costume, here is a labeled picture:

So the next step is to glue magnets to their feet, then figure out how to clothe the little buggers. I made the ones with plumes to Baker, as I can hide with hat and hair, and Matt Smith, for the same reason. I plan to make little glasses for Tennent and go see if I can find teeny, tiny celery for Davison. 

I did not get anything recorded yet, though i did practice for a good long while tonight. My goal is to get it done tomorrow, post it to Soundcloud and then here so you can hear it. I think it is very clever, if I do say so myself. And it is fun. I just have to quit being so picky about how my uke playing sounds. 

So now I need to get to bed, as I haven't been sleeping well and I need to make myself sleep tonight so i can function. 

I leave you with a pic of my RPG test set:

Apparently I have a Tumblr account, which I totally forgot about. I tend to do that. Create accounts at the newest shiniest thing on the intertubes then completely forget about them. Also apparently I did some serious pontificating there about creativity, my cowardace about putting my stuff put there, etc. Yeah I know. Weird. Some of those things were actually good and fairly intelligent, if I do say so myself. I came across it while lazily spending the morning in bed googling myself. Don't judge me - you have done it too.

So the one that struck me the most this morning is about how people give criticism, and our general lack of knowledge around how to do it correctly. While creativity rarely happens in a void, bad criticism can shut it down completely. Here is a copy-n-paste of what I said there. Do you agree? Do you think I am being overly harsh, or have I hit the nail on the head?

~In my ongoing to search to find something out there that will help me get over myself and continue creating, I have noticed something interesting.

But first, let me say that my view of the creative process up till now has been you hole up by yourself. You write/photograph/paint/sew/edit, etc, until whatever it is you are creating is polished and good. Then you present it to the world and get your kudos and praise from regular people and stone throwing from the trolls and voila you have success. I love to get feedback and encouragement as I go. My experience has been that when you ask other people for that what you actually get is thier vision of how your project should be. My mother was very fond of molding anything I did until it was no longer the personification of the vision I had for it. It was then her project, and she expected credit for it.

When I decided I wanted to write I started going to writing groups thinking that I would get the encouragement I needed, only to be shot down horribly by members of the group. Any time anyone had a good idea or an engrossing story, instead of encouraging the writer they would pick apart the petty details that didn’t matter. They would shoot each other down with scathing remarks about things like a writer’s choice in clothing for their characters or pick to pieces the choice of titles. I watched them all do this to each other and left in frustration. This was not helpful to anyone nor was it encouraging. It cemented my theory that creativity is a lone animal.

However, as I read more and more about what successful creative people have to say about it the more I am inclined to think that creativity doesn’t happen in a void. Yes, certain things you have to do alone. But it seems that creativity begats creativity. How many artists have said they saw the Mona Lisa or some brilliant art piece and were inspired to go home and do something themselves? How many writers tell about the daily activities that triggered an idea for a story that developed into a book?

And they also had someone, somewhere along the line, who told them they were good and gently steered them in the right direction.

In my opinion most people, even experienced creative types, don’t understand how to critique. Critiquing isn’t about saying “This is bad. I don’t like it. You need to change X,Y and Z.” It is about looking at the beauty that is already there and making little suggestions that will enhance that beauty. It is about putting aside your personal taste and looking at the project for what it is. Not a lot of creative types do that instinctively. We tend to look at a project and begin assessing what we would do if it were our project.

There are people out there who can objectively critique and help. They can look at a piece of art and explain to the artist why the overall design would fit together better if they used a different color, instead of just telling them the color is off. They can read your story and tell you why this paragraph breaks up the continuity of a story. They can look at your movie and explain why that last scene didn’t work with the rest of the story. And most importantly they can express what they like about a project.

We need more people like that. That is what helps creativity to thrive. Though we can’t change how other people do things, we can change ourselves.

We need to step back and think about how we felt when we first started, and explain our critique in a way that is more of a learning experience than a destructive experience. We need to ask ourselves “Is this really a valid criticism, or is this just my personal taste?

This is how we can help each other through those damned walls. If I had people like that to show my work to during the polishing process, I wouldn’t be so disinclined to show anything to anyone ever. That little voice inside that likes to pipe in with “This is shit. Why are you even trying?” would be easier to silence.

Hmm…well, it’s just a theory. I welcome thoughts on the subject.~

So, that said...Thoughts? Agree or disagree? Why?

It seems to be a trend recently for geeks to bash other geeks. I don't think this is something that is new. There has always been an unspoken hierarchy. All geek/nerd subgroup feels they are better than other certain subgroups. Their mantra seems to be "at least we are not as bad as (insert subgroup here)". Lately it seems to have become more and more judgmental. I myself am a female geek. My experience has been different and varied depending on the people I am trying to socialize with. The overall pervasive opinion seems to be suspicion when it comes to female geeks. You are not taken seriously until you prove yourself. You have to be twice as good at things than the guys in order to gain tolerance. I know more people experience this, as is evidenced by Aisha Tyler's need to defend herself for hosting for Ubisoft at E3 this year. She seems to think it is more about an unproven person hosting. I think it is the overall mentality that women, especially beautiful women, are posers and don't play video games, don't participate in geek culture.

Last week a guy named Joe Peacock expressed his disdain for posers in a very poorly worded, sexist and assumptive article on CNN. I am not going to link to it because I don't want to drive traffic to the article, giving it any kind of validity. As sad as it is, he is just expressing an opinion that is pervasive in the geek male - that female geeks can't possibly be geeks, or nerds, or intelligent, or care about anything beyond being popular and wearing makeup. He uses some of my favorite people to pry a rift between those he perceives as real geeks and those that are posers. That disturbs me a lot. I disturbs me a ton actually. It generates a plethora of disturbance.

John Scalzi has written a very coherent and well thought out response to this on his blog. I agree with him. No one has the right to decide who is and who isn't a geek. That is a label that we each need to decide for ourselves whether or not it fits us. We are potentially alienating some amazing, creative people when we indulge in that behavior. So what if a percentage of people are just there to ride the wave of geek culture popularity? So what if people want to draw attention to themselves by wearing cool/sexy/geeky/well made costumes? Isn't that the reason anyone wears a costume? No one dresses up in blue unitard, red underpants and a cape and expects to blend into the crowd. For some of us, cosplay is about showing our geekdoms literally on our sleeves and connecting with others of the same ilk. It is fun, it is creative. Poser or not, I am constantly impressed by the creative approaches to costuming I see. Seeing those costumes inspires me to do things I may not have tried before, even though I am a geek and have been all my life. It also initiates conversation with people who might know more than I do about my particular geekdom, turning what might have been just an exchange of facts into an actual conversation.

I do not see that as a bad thing.

So what if there are posers out there?  We are currently experiencing an insurgence of geek culture in the mainstream. It is all of a sudden OK to know about every little detail of every Superman comic ever written. It is OK to dress up as your favorite character and paw through a box of toys. It is OK to rave about your favorite Sci-fi show without being scoffed at and being dismissed as "one of those".  People who were closet geeks are now feeling it is safe to come out and be themselves.

I don't see that as a bad thing either.

Any mainstream popularity comes with those that are only involved because it is "THE THING TO DO". That is normal. It is rooted in our Jr High selves' need to be included and part of the cool crowd. So we have a small invasion of these people for a few years. So what? In a few years mainstream will move on to the next "COOL THING" and we will be left to our own devices again.

Only this time, we are better. We are stronger and more creative, because we have picked up some awesome people who needed that nudge to feel ok to be themselves. People who might not have been in contact with geek culture are being creatively sparked in ways they might not have otherwise. They will contribute nothing but good to our geekdoms. They will inspire us to be better. They will become part of the attractive richness that is geek culture.

And in my opinion, that is not a bad thing.

Not that I agree with these naysayer negative nellies, but I think I understand where they are coming from. Geek culture has mainly been made up of social outcasts. Maybe not OUTCAST outcasts, but a lot of us weren't popular due to our geekdoms and we looked to our geekdoms as a safe haven from the ridiculing public. After a day of being lonely and alone, watching others in large groups of friends, or after a day of being teased, jeered at, and molested, THIS was our place. The place with others who liked us and who accepted us as we were. People who recharged the depletion of self worth that comes with dealing with that kind of shit all day. A place to replenish your HP. These posers that people are writing about  with such venom epidomize the very thing we were escaping. They are the personification of all the negative bullshit from which we willingly separated ourselves.

To these guys, this must feel like an invasion. It must feel like these people have not only taken over our schools, our workplaces, our gyms, our recreation centers - now they are trying to muscle into OUR thing. They are trying to take away the one thing that is OURS. They are boys upset at their parents requiring them to let girls into their tree house.

I understand.

I don't agree.

I sincerely hope these guys ( I say guys, as the only issues I have seen are of the male persuasion, but it also includes any gender who acts this way), see thier behavior and understand that it is not OK. I hope they see that they are acting like Middle Schoolers, and they need to grow up and behave like adults. In my experience the best way to get rid of those kind of people is to ignore them. Eventually they will get tired and go play somewhere else. Abusing them on the internet is not going to help your cause. It does not make you look like an intelligent, well adjusted adult. It is perpetuating the stereotype of the cave dwelling man boy in his mother's basement who can't deal with people or real life. Let's face it,  that stereotype has not applied to geekdom universally since - well, EVER. It also will provide fodder for those hater when again geek culture is passe, and the "cool kids" have moved on.

Thanks for letting me get in my two cents.

Acceptance (NOT tolerance) and solidarity for all.