(Skip down to the next violet section if you just want more current info on me, rather than my full geek back-story.)
I've been a geek as long as I can remember, stealing my first stepdad's Dungeons & Dragons manuals as early as second grade initially because I loved the art--especially in the Monster Manual--but not much later beginning to read what I could understand of them as well. My first short story was titled "Griffon Land" after seeing the beasts in the MM, but even that was actually written after improvising and playing one night at a friend's house. Had we been adults, or maybe even teens, and if it hadn't been early 1991, what we 'played' would probably have been called LARPing. We were kids, though, so it was okay. ^_~
I've been a geek as long as I can remember, stealing my first stepdad's Dungeons & Dragons manuals as early as second grade initially because I loved the art--especially in the Monster Manual--but not much later beginning to read what I could understand of them as well. My first short story was titled "Griffon Land" after seeing the beasts in the MM, but even that was actually written after improvising and playing one night at a friend's house. Had we been adults, or maybe even teens, and if it hadn't been early 1991, what we 'played' would probably have been called LARPing. We were kids, though, so it was okay. ^_~
I finally came into my geekdom properly in about sixth grade. My mom had just remarried, and my then-new/still-current stepfather is awesome. He also had the sense to buy just enough of his new, preteen stepdaughter's love without spoiling her (too terribly). He had his old Atari (I think it was the 5200, but I don't remember well), NES, and Coleco Adam, all with games, in addition to buying me a replacement for my lost SNES, so while most of them were ancient in 1994, I was still awash in games. He started me on Final Fantasy entirely by accident--he had the original game on NES but the cart barely worked, so he bought the first SNES title he happened to see in a store, Mystic Quest. While I know now that MQ can barely be called FF, that didn't stop me from loving it. When presented randomly in Best Buy a few months later with "you can buy one game, Donkey Kong Country or Final Fantasy III" I was actually extremely responsible for my age: I asked which one was cheaper. I'd rented DKC before and knew I liked it, but we didn't have cable partly because I got games bought for me. Seeing the words "Final Fantasy" though... once I was told the games were the same price, my decision was made.
After fully and totally absorbing myself into the unnamed world of (then) FFIII for about five months, summer break came. I was bored, so my stepdad handed me one of his old copies of the Star Wars movie novelizations. I'd resisted reading these in the past just because I've always preferred fantasy to science fiction, but it was summer, I was bored, so I took them. Let's just say it didn't take me long to pick up on how many ripoffs FF had from the series. I even recognized Biggs as Vicks, in spite of the name being wrong in the original translation of FFIII. I devoured the books, then the movies, and even to this day I get a small giggle when I see a SW reference in a FF game and am slightly disappointed when I see a missed opportunity for such references.
While there were other games (mostly other JRPGs) and fantasy novels (mostly by David Eddings), that "phase" of FF & SW geekdom has waned just a bit, but even now it's still there. Through middle and high school I absorbed every Final Fantasy game, every Star Wars extended universe novel, and then some. Star Wars is technically, ultimately what led me to Brian even--my first job was at the movie theater he worked as an assistant manager at, and I was hired to work at least part of the time in Amidala costume makeup for the Episode One premiere--and even though he doesn't care for SW that much, Final Fantasy VIII was what eventually gave us the excuse to start talking as friends, so I have both fandoms to thank, in a way, for leading me to my decidedly less-geeky husband. He tolerates my obsessions, though, including my newest and still-current obsession with Dragon Age.
Dragon Age, however, is something I'm not going to talk about on this page. If you've gotten as far as this blog itself, you have links to and probably already follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, and/or Google+ and are already subjected to my weekly & sometimes daily Dragon Age commentary.
(Stop skipping and start reading if you were just looking for a more current about-me.)
Well then, now that we've got pretty much my entire geek history published for posterity, what's left to me? I love computers, the Internet, and online communities in general (much to Brian's dismay at times). The three trips to Seattle for the Penny Arcade Expo are probably the best vacations I've ever taken, equally due to the city itself, and the games & the people at PAX. I've always followed the cosplay-themed blog posts about all the conventions I know of, but when a friend was selected as an Omeganaut in 2007, PAX became personal. I made sure to go the next year, and then again every other year since. From the PAX forums I came to Twitter, where I probably hold some sort of dubious title for most active PAXer in the "little" Twitter Shitter clique. I don't pretend to be the most followed or most interesting, because I'm far from it; I just post. A lot. A lot-a lot. As of July 2011 I'm coming up on 45k posts and I've been on Twitter for almost exactly three years, if that says anything. Make sure you keep that in mind if you send me a follow request, because you will be seeing me babble all over your stream constantly if you do.
Other than all that? I'm a pretty open book. I don't make posts about Brian terribly often on this blog unless it's something hugely awesome, unbelievable, or hilarious just because he's more private than I am and this page is public, but I do vent and otherwise share at times on Twitter since I manually approve all my followers there. If there's something you want to know, ask. Even better, use the link to my Formspring page to ask it so I can share the answer with everyone in most cases. I might not answer, but I probably will, so there's no harm in trying.
Overall, when I'm being bitchy or negative on any site, don't take me too seriously unless it's very clear that I'm being deadly serious, especially if it's before lunchtime on the East coast. I've never been much of a morning person.