Why did I choose the name Uber Geek for my blog you may ask yourselves? Why indeed. I've had several nicknames over the years pertaining to my extensive memory and recall of useless geek trivia. I've been tagged The Machine by some I've worked with, Emperor of Geeks by my stepson and also Uber Geek by old college friends. I thought Uber Geek was the silliest and picked that. In retrospect l probably should not have gone with something that sounds rather boastful and pretentious. I don't profess to be the ultimate geek who possesses an all encompassing knowledge of every facet of geekdom. There are holes in my mind just like, Commander Sinclair's. I'm not a gamer either even though I have a Steam account and have worked in the industry as a designer. I know very little about Anime/Manga too which would shock many a geek or nerd, so like everyone else on this planet, still much to learn have I.
My wife has been encouraging me to do this for some time now and I've always resisted. She keeps on insisting that my insights on the subjects that I love are intriguing, informative, sometimes humorous, but most of all very passionate and that passion is evident to those who are willing to read or listen to my views on such topics. I think she over sells my abilities to be fair, but that's love for you; having said that, her faith in me is much appreciated and very encouraging. It's quite a wonderful feeling having that special someone in your life who thinks so highly of your skills and abilities. I guess time will ultimately tell me if my words can reach out to complete strangers and have some form of an impact on them. This could be an exercise in futility. This might end up being my online journal with no feedback at all. A record of me typing away at a computer and publishing what I've processed from my synaptic firings. Then again, spending a little time on this and sticking with it may yield some surprising results down the line.
I do have many years of accumulated specialist knowledge dedicated to the varied movie and television worlds of science fiction, horror,fantasy and comic books. What stopped me from stepping out of the curtain and onto the stage of blogging earlier? Well, I visit a lot of websites and forums that cover all these subjects on a daily basis. There are so many of them now I've lost count. New ones are popping into existence constantly thanks to easy access to blogging sites and the free services to create your own. All things geeky and nerdy have become hugely hip and popular during this past decade; what was once considered a peripheral interest for people who felt socially awkward, disenfranchised and removed from the norms of society has now been embraced by the masses. It's finally being given the respect it deserves and is no longer considered easy fodder for jokes. It's mainstream entertainment and big business these days. A multitude of companies make millions of dollars a year from exploiting every one's enthusiasm and ever growing appetites for more of it. It's like 'The Stuff', once everyone has had a taste of it, we can never have enough of it.
In the early days of the internet there were very few places in the digital realm a geek or nerd take your pick could go to find his fix of science fiction, horror, fantasy and comic book news. We read magazines like Starburst, Starlog, Fangoria, Cinefex, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Cinefantastique and Femme Fatales. These magazines were highly sought after and treated like pieces of precious treasure to geeks during the dark times and once they were gone from the newsagents shelves we were compelled to search the pages of the ones we had in our collections to buy up back copies or make the decision to place an order for a regular subscription. The market for these kinds of topical, monthly, glossy covered booklets opened up entirely due to the rise of successful science fiction, horror and fantasy television shows and films so in a very short space of time those other titles were accompanied by many more mags like TV Zone, Shivers, SFX, etc and even conventional film monthlies like Empire, and Total Magazine made more and more room within their pages to cover this subject matter.
This was a time without social media, online groups, and fast Internet speed to comfortably watch up and coming movie and television trailers. I think Ain't It Cool News with it's location reports, reviews and chat backs and Superhero Hype with it's bulletin boards were probably two of the first pioneers of this medium which set an example for others to follow. They were the first ones I found and frequented while surfing the World Wide Web via Alta Vista, Alta...what? Back then, Ain't It Cool News creator, Harry Knowles was a respected fanboy critic, but move forward through the years to now and his legion of followers have dwindled and he often receives hate messages on a regular basis. I'm not sure if the over abundance of online content has made consumers more picky to which website to be more loyal to or if there is a direct correlation between that and the way they seem so ungrateful and rude when posting comments and interacting with other users. One thing is certain in my mind there has been a shift in geek attitudes over the years and everyone seems to have encountered a keyboard warrior at one point or another.
With all this mind, I felt I would be yet another voice in an already noisy crowded arena of people who share their vastly differing opinions on these topics with other like minded online entities. There are also some excellent writers out there and in the back of my mind I thought to myself why try and compete with them. After viewing several blogs I came to the realization that I don't have to be the worlds greatest writer to post a blog about my thoughts on the subject matter that I live and breathe. So with this in mind I have finally created this blog as a place to compile all of my science fiction, horror, fantasy and comic book film & TV reviews that I've written over the years and hidden away. I hope some people will stumble upon them in this vast sea of data and find them constructive, interesting and reasonably illuminating. Along with these editorial and retrospective pieces I will also try to add new reviews when time allows. The intention of this blog is to widen my reviewing categories to include detailed break downs of comics, collectible toys and themed mystery boxes. I will now take this moment to thank my lovely wife for her perseverance and patience on this matter and guiding me on this journey.
