What do you do when you realize you are Wesley Crusher?

I want to preempt this by saying I mean absolutely no ill will or bad sentiment by my use of the moniker Wesley Crusher. In fact in my sense of using that name is that of awareness almost as a Buddhist would call a … awakening. Stay tuned dear reader; I will make sense of this I promise, just bear with me.

I love listening to audio books on my commute to work. I usually stay away from self-help or motivational type books. I tend to prefer fiction. I love the court room drama, cops on the edge, men of action types that seem to get laid at least once per story. I tend to stay away from the self-help or motivational type books usually because they tend to hit home on some reason why I am not the person I should be. Besides all that I have and always will be a geek, been born that way I am afraid. So when I came across the audiobook Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton, I downloaded and put it on the standby on the IPod until I finished with the 2 Jack Reacher novels in front of it. Sure I also downloaded a history book called the Hacker Crackdown that almost jumped in front of Wheaton’s book, but I figured I would give Wil a chapter to interest me and if he didn’t grab my attention then at least I gave him shot. I owed it to the guy because what can I say he lived the dream and got to pilot the starship f*cking Enterprise, being a geeky kid of the 80s, there couldn’t have been a cooler job in the world. Anyway, Wheaton over the years has had a tendency to get a bad rap for his work on Star Trek, which is kinda sad, as he puts in his book is mainly due to writing and directing off the show that were beyond his control. However, true form to trollers on the internet they have a tendency to lay blame on the face in front of them. Kinda like yelling at the ticket counter person at an airport for a plane delay beyond their control, they just unfortunately have the unluckiness of being the only person there to take the abuse much like Wheaton.

So my awareness moment came at listening to Wheaton’s revelation on how he had pursued acting jobs for most of his life because that was his profession. As I listened to the book I understood his transformations to become a writer. He took some time before he realized he had chosen the wrong profession and as a result caused many moments of unhappiness in his life. However, not being ungrateful he understood the significance of the acting opportunities he has had and appreciates the moments that “didn’t suck.” In short, I connected with Just a Geek on a level I didn’t anticipate and for that I am grateful to Wheaton as I realized that I am very much like Wesley Crusher.

I am a geek, in the 80s have had my experience with being into Dungeons and Dragons, comic books, and of course, got my exposure to computers. Computers were enough of hobby that I decided to make a career of it. In most cases I love the analytical thought involved in fixing computers, servers, and networks. Upon resolving difficult problems I had a sense of real accomplishment at fixing or setting up something that no one else in my company had done before. I was a God … in my mind at least. Over the course of my career, I eventually ascended into an IT Supervisory role. This became less of an analytical troubleshooting role but more of a project manager or master chess player, having to figure out which piece (technician) to move at what time. At first this was a new challenge but ultimately further away from the analytical and technical that I was familiar with and my reasons for being in the industry. I have seen those around me that are at lower levels have the technical training opportunities that I once enjoyed and I am thrilled to see them succeed and take on challenges that I did not have. I am now in an area where I don’t get the challenge of work that I once felt and often wonder why I am doing it.

Wheaton describes that he continued to seek out acting opportunities because that is what he was used to, that was his chosen career path. Much like me I am seeking IT Management roles within my organization because that is the next level and what I believe is expected of me. Wheaton eventually came to the conclusion that he was happier writing and while he remembers Wesley Crusher fondly and the memories of working in that arena he discovered his path was that of writing. After listening and assimilating Wil’s candid exposure to his thoughts, I have concluded that much like him I am not doing what I should be and perhaps pursuing a promotion isn’t what I need to be concentrating on. I am Wesley Crusher not knowing that I don’t want to be until now, this should spark future ramblings on this blog as I attempt to find my creative voice.

Not being stupid I will continue with my day job but I am pretty sure I can find passion at writing and if it leads to something bigger and better, then I will have a serious decision about jumping off the bridge (pun intended watch Stand by Me if you didn’t catch that).

Thank you Uncle Willie and if you ever read this, you were awesome in Big Bang Theory.

The Cost of War

War is expensive. I just finished reading Civil War. Not the trade paperbacks, but the whole kit and caboodle, the whole enchilada, the actual comic book issues. Yes, I know that happened like 2 years ago, but what can I say I let myself get side tracked with little things like work and family, nothing as important as reading comics. Now, you have an idea why it hasn't taken me so long to post this blog entry. For the uninitiated, Marvel launched a mega event that crossed over to so many of their individual titles, the basis is that the there is a major incident in which the misuse of some super powered heroes directly relates to the death of a lot of innocent people. Being modern times like they are it is all caught on TV, so the public demands the government do something to monitor those that would put on a cape and mask. In response the super hero registration act comes about in which all people with super powers are required to register with the government. They also are required to become de facto government employees and be trained and work at the will of the government. Civil war erupts amongst the super heroes and villains with everyone picking a side as to be pro or anti registration.

About 2 months ago I got my hands on the Road to Civil War - 12 issues, all of the Civil War cross over titles - 107 issues, and 84 issues of the Initiative. The Initiative is the name given the titles that are post Civil War as things get shaken up and the Marvel Universe is quite a bit different than before. I think I missed some of these, but I read the majority that interested me.

All of these titles and events happened over 2 years ago and there is not much to say to add any new insight for my comic friends that have not already been discussed. I will assume by this time you know the highlights and if you were going to read them you would have already. So, yes Captain America was killed at the end. Peter Parker came out publicly and announced to the world he was Spider-man. Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, became Director of SHIELD. Yes, all of these topics have been bounced around from message board and blogs for over 2 years, nothing new to say about all that. At least now I have the trivial knowledge of what events transpired during the course of Civil War. Like whom does Speedball from New Warriors become post Civil War? Penance and now I understand why, if you want to know more than I suggest you start picking up some issues and get reading.

There is an interesting angle on this topic that I thought of while I was reading my "collection" of books and it was spawned by my wife’s comment about catching me with my nose in comics lately ..."You know this is really starting to affect our relationship." She of course may have been somewhat joking, but my thoughts wondered what are the actual costs of Civil War, both hard and soft costs. So let me take a stab at it from a financial perspective.

The total comic book issues that I mentioned earlier totals 203 total comic books. Without going back and looking up each one I am going to take a liberty here and say they cost $2.99 per issue which is the recommended retail price printed on the ones that I took the liberty of rechecking for the benefit of this blog entry. Assume you live the great Sunshine state and sales tax is 6% that puts you at $3.17 per issue. So the cost of the collection that I mentioned above would put you out the door with a grand total of $643.39. To keep this simple I will not try to compute any price involved in bagging and boarding each one, like I am sure you would.

I said a little something about soft costs, well to read each one dear reader will take you something that you do not always have an abundance of ... that being your time. In an attempt to assign a value to your time, let’s stick with Florida where the minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. I clocked myself (believe it or not) into how long it took me to read through a standard size comic book (22 pages excluding advertisements and no time to ogle over the cover art) and I averaged about 15 minutes per book. With calculating reading 4 comics per hour, I figured a time commitment of 50 hours and 45 minutes is roughly what it would take you to get through the entire collection. Back in Florida if you were on the clock, besides having an awesome job of being able to read comics all day and get paid for it, you would earn $367.94 for the time commitment of reading the entire glory that is Civil War. Grand total of actual cost of buying each issue and soft cost of your time is $1,011.33. So, yes, war is expensive.

In my case the actual costs could also end up including lawyer fees, alimony, and getting an apartment with an extra room to store my boxes of comic books. I love you, honey.

My next blog entry will be about how I am now a convert to the church of Mark Millar, you sir are a god among comic book writers.

Welcome to Father Nerd

“People call me Wolverine. I’m the best there is at what I do, and what I do is ...”

This is the slogan that starts almost every Wolverine comic book. It typically would end with “and what I do is not very nice.” The untamed haired Weapon X Canadian has become quite a popular mainstay in modern pop culture. I am adopting a slogan that will become my blog mantra. To be like Logan I have to state this mantra at the onset of every adventure that I start. The question will then become what does a mild mannered father of 3 that spends way too much time reading comic books have that could possibly classified as an adventure? Well, dear reader you are currently peeping it right now, I need a mantra worthy of being ever present as an introduction to me and my musings as Father Nerd.

First draft. “People call me Father Nerd. I have a witty opinion about comic books and pop culture, and I am not afraid to express it.”

Okay, nobody calls me Father Nerd. I adopted the moniker with help from a fellow blogger, as the first version was Nerd Dad. I need to keep expressing my fatherhood status as it is the most important and rewarding job I have. “Educating” my children is on the forefront of my agenda. My two oldest children are well versed in retaining which hero/villain belongs to which publisher. Batman? DC. Spider-man? Marvel. Hulk? Marvel. Superman? DC. Big names like that, you think, sure pretty easy. But my kids know some of the obscure ones also. That whole homework thing can wait, kids, what can you tell me about Killer Croc? I am obviously on the ball with assimilating my children into the world known as nerd-dom.

How about this for my blog’s theme, mantra, reason for being? “I am Father Nerd. My knowledge of comic books will be used to alter the minds of the youth that I have influence over. I have a witty opinion about comic books and pop culture, and I am not afraid to express it.”