What would Starbuck do.

I've found myself in the sad position of writing a blog on a Saturday night. I've been working all day and do not have the energy to go out. Or so I keep telling myself. I think the truth is that I want to stay in and watch my newly acquired boxset of Firefly (£9 in Cash Converters by the way, WIN).

The reason I'm working so hard (most of the time) is so I can save up to travel next year. I'm looking to go around the world which means raising a minimum of 6 grand if I plan on getting where I want to go. I'm so uber excited it is unbelievable. I feel like I've been waiting to do this since I was 16. I love exploring places and reading about them or looking at pictures is just not the same. I think that it's a sentiment held by many a sci-fi fan. We want to escape humdrum life and see something greater. There has to be more than just day to day life because what would the point be otherwise? And while I would ideally want to go into space I don't think my budget quite stretches that far. So I will go out and explore our own world.

And so I finally come to the reason for the title of this post. I like to think of myself as an explorer but I think really I love the things that I know too. So when I'm not feeling particularly brave, or there's something I have to do that I know I won't like or is a bit scary, I think to myself 'What would Starbuck do?' This can also be replaced with Janeway or Carter. Because these are the awesome female role models that I grew up with. Well Starbuck and Carter came later but they still hold a lot of influence. Janeway in particular inspired me from a very young age and my parents will even admit (actually they'd readily tell people about it to embarrass me when I was younger) that Kate Mulgrew's character was the one role model that I came back to time and again as I got older.

Sci-fi is full of strong female characters that girls could learn a lot from. They cut it alongside the men and are something to aspire towards. Not the big-boobed, fame-obsessed, shallow girls that seem to be occupying most people's minds at the moment. This is one of my big problems with TV at the moment. Great shows with real characters that are intelligent and could truly inspire young people are being cut for shows about people with boring lives that offer nothing in the way of inspiration to young people. If we spend so much time watching TV in our lives then at least a portion of it should be responsible.

I heard a very scary statistic a little while ago; 1 in 3 teenage girls in the UK now aspire to be topless models. I kid you not. 1 in 3. So you see why we need more Janeways, Carters and Starbucks on our screens. Female role models who use their intellects to get ahead. Who aren't afraid to do things and promote science to a generation of young girls. But this is coming from the girl who spent most of her high school life hiding the fact that she was a MASSIVE Trekkie...

That turned into a bit of a rant, but frak it: next time you're scared to confront someone or do something, just think "What would Starbuck/Carter/Janeway do?" Or whoever you're role model is. Because science fiction is full of them and they're not perfect but they're a hell of a lot better than the real life ones we're faced with now.

Now, where did I put that box set....

Films and junk.

So I wanted to write a post about some of my favourite films as I haven't done that yet.

I think my all time favourite would be Contact. I discovered Contact the film before I read Carl Sagan's book. I think I prefer the book now but I still love the film. As before, it's one of the things I remember watching when I was quite young and just being absolutely enthralled by. Not only is the final scene on the beach one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen (I actually have a drawing of it by my desk), the ethos behind the film and the book is incredibly powerful. It has taught me to question everything and not to take it for granted. And furthermore that you should you stand up for what you believe in, whatever it may be. There are great chunks of the book that are changed to fit into a film format but I think that Sagan's ideas are still there. We cannot stop looking out to the stars even when money is tight. I'm a very strong believer in the fact that if we ever find other intelligent life in the galaxy then it will unite the world in a way we have never seen before. Religions will tumble but also they will adapt. People will have to reevaluate their lives and their beliefs, but this is something that we should be doing on a regular basis anyway. Sagan saw this as a key point in humanity, it takes faith in each other but we would be ok. And as the film says, if there isn't any life out there, it would be an awful big waste of space.

Ok, let's forget the heaviness for a bit! Inception, I think, is just an awesome film. For someone to come up with a storyline that is that convoluted and complex astounds me. No wonder it took Nolan 10 years to get it onto film.

Other favourite films of mine include, Serenity (obviously), any Star Trek (apart from Nemesis and Generations maybe), V for Vendetta (the novel is also awesome) and Iron Man. Oh and Avatar just for the SFX.

Think I'm out now! I can talk about films all day (and all night) but I haven't got the best taste, I like a bit of everything really and I'm not really fussed what other people think (as it should be with anything). I'm off to write the next chapter of my fanfic, there's a bit of work to do, the last chapter wasn't the best...

Nathan Fillion and other bits and bobs.

Managed to finally catch up with the Guild, how did I live before it was in my life? I'm not even a gamer (at all) and I think it's amazing. And Nathan Fillion just turned up in the latest episode which made me squeel like a small child on Christmas. I've seen him in a few things lately (Super, Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog) and just keep falling more in love with him. Of course I was a fan from Firefly and Serenity but he sings, he's funny what more could you want?

Hearing him on the Nerdist podcast talking about his fans made me nearly wet myself. Not good when you're driving to work. I got some very strange looks that day at the traffic lights. Apparently it's not good to shout "the hammer is my penis" at the top of your voice across the street at him. He suggests a tip of the hat and "Captain". I love nerdy in-jokes. Like in Paul. That's a good film. Simon Pegg is a god.

Anyway back to the Nerdist. They had Patrick Stewart on the other day. I just about died. I love him so much it's insane. I saw him in a play in London a couple of years ago and had to be restrained from jumping on the stage. He was so close...

Ramble over. Watch and listen to all the things above. They are gooooood. My flatmate quoted Dr Horrible the other day and I was doubled over laughing for about 5 minutes. It is BRILLIANT. But so is anything by Joss Whedon.

Fan fiction is not for the faint hearted.

So, I started writing my first ever fan fic yesterday. It's for SG1 and has all my favourite things in it, love, laughs and adventure but the fan fic world is a hostile place and going by my quickly diminishing reader stats, something that just maybe I'm not very good at. Anyway my third chapter went up tonight and I'm hoping it will get a better response than the 2nd one which was, in my own opinion, pretty bad. Oh well I have met some nice people who have been willing to lend a hand, yet again proving that the nerd community is very willing and accepting of n00bs like me.

It's very refreshing to meet people who are so open to discussion of things that they love. I also think the added distance between computer screens across the interweb helps. Anonymity is a great leveler. Think that might be stolen from someone. Oh well. Off to bed now and a hope that in the morning I will be a fan fic celebrity with a personal email from one or more SG1 cast members saying how blown away they were by my story writing abilities..... Oops, think I may have dozed off there for a second...

Back again so soon?

I hope this post will be slightly funnier but we'll see, I'm not really known for my wit...

There are some slightly scary realities that I would like to address about becoming a fully-fledged nerd over the last few months. These mostly concern my slightly obsessive personality and a tendency to try and ignore the real world at all costs.

Through Twitter I have come to realise that (mostly) sci-fi actors and famous nerds in general are great and kind people. I mean they must have the patience of saints to stand around and answer all those niggling little questions we have about this episode or that character, no? However, this does cause problems for fangirls like me... The first week I followed Amanda Tapping on Twitter she answered questions on her regular TappingTuesday thing. Well this meant that I spent a very restless night refreshing Twitter (I hadn't discovered text updates) waiting to see if she would answer my question. She didn't. But it was ok, I just thought my question can't have been that good. But two weeks later this happened again. And so started an internal struggle between wanting to be noticed by these actors and not wanting to admit just how sad and fangirly I had become.

My problem seems to be that I'm not quite willing to let myself go completely and scream "look at me for God's sake please notice me!" by bombarding all of these actors with endless questions etc. I love having a little peek into these people's lives on Twitter but for them to actually know I exist would just be amazing. Then the fangirl within me would be satisfied.

Oh dear.... what must they think of us?

At the start.

Trying to find a way to express the undeniable nerd in yourself is hard I've found. Especially if you're a little bit scared of what your friends/family/random strangers might think (like me). So, hopefully an (almost) anonymous blog might help. Even if no-one reads it and it gets lost among all the other dregs of the internet.

I think I've always been a nerd, I don't think it's something you learn or succumb to, I was a nerd from birth. I remember sitting up on a Sunday night to watch Star Trek with my dad and I guess he's the one I have to thank for my adoration of all things sci-fi. I developed an early obsession with all things Buffy, Voyager and Farscape (shocking I know). I loved science and learned things like red-shift at the tender age of 7. Unfortunately, my academic abilities haven't allowed me to follow this but that's another story.

Anyway, when I started secondary school my nerdiness had to be suppressed in order to fit in, something I'm not really proud of but such things are necessary at schools like mine. When I got to university it suddenly started to make a reappearance mainly due to the fact that I learned it's ok to like things that other people don't (shock horror). This really started with Battlestar Galactica and proceeded to Star Trek: Enterprise in swift succession. I discovered that sci-fi had much more to it than just a good story and adventure (the kind I liked when I was younger) but could encompass all the things I'd come to hold as important as I grew up.

As I finished uni I faced 2 months of unemployment and this ended up being filled with Stargate. How did I stop watching this when I was younger? It's AMAZING! And so I was introduced to a world of fan fiction, the Nerdist, The Guild and all manner of nerdy things. A lot of this was through Twitter as well. I also discovered that sci-fi fans and nerds of all kinds tend to be the nicest and most accepting community. It doesn't matter what you like, there are other people out there willing to discuss it with you. So now, 3 months on, I seem to have transformed into someone who is much more at ease with themselves and happier to have an outlet for something I have come to realise is just a part of who I am.

Well, this was supposed to be a little bit funny but has turned into more of a confessional... Next time more fan girl wannabe stuff, such as waiting up for a Twitter reply and the like...