Thanksgeeking Part 2

Part 2 of the things I'm grateful for this Thanksgeeking begins now!

Fandoms are great and tons of fun but there's something even better. Something that brings together all the fandoms and nerds from across the world: Comic Cons! I am SO incredibly grateful for Comic Cons and especially that I am finally able to attend one. 

I LOVE being able to be around my own kind and geekout without getting weird looks. Riding public transportation is also made more exciting by the costume-clad attendees. Meeting my celebrity crushes and idols are, or course, another huge advantage of cons. Attending San Diego Comic Con is amongst the top 3 on my Bucket List.

Cosplay is possibly the greatest thing since Halloween. I don't know how people survived before cosplay.

I'm sorry about this. I realized too late that I forgot to save my Part 2 post so instead of a nicely thought out post about my fav fandoms, geek gadgets, and such, I'm just gonna throw it all at the page and see what sticks. In other words, I'll very briefly mention a few of my fandoms and move on. I will be talking about each of them more in the future so don't worry. 

These are in no particular order:

Harry Potter

The Boy Who Lived

Charmed

Sister witches that kicked butt while looking good.

One of them even married a literal angel. Lucky.

Star Wars

If you haven't heard of Star Wars then you're from another planet. If you don't like Star Wars, you are also from another planet.

Star Trek

I'm not gonna start the "which is better" battle today.

I grew up watching these dudes on VHS. For you youngens that's a type of recording device that stores videos, an ancient ancestor of the DVD.

The Vampire Diaries

Can you say "yum"?!

The Originals

More please!

 Dominion

 My favorite new show.

Thank you Syfy channel!

Ouch! Even I felt that!

Nice butt, Gabriel.

Creepy baby sculpture!

Some of my favorite Superheros:

Iron Man

No one could play him better than Robert Downey Jr.

I don't know where Robert ends and Tony Stark begins.

Superman

The one, the only, Christopher Reeves.

The modern Superman is cool but no one can bet the original.

 The Avengers

Joss Whedon, you brilliant man.

Thus concludes my short, fast, and to the point edition of What I'm Thankful for this Thanksgeeking.

Check out Part 1 here.

 

Happy Birthday, Ian Somerhalder!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to Ian!

Happy Birthday to you!

Today, December 8th, Ian Somerhalder, the sexiest vampire/environmentalist in existence is turning 36! On behalf of all your fans I want to wish you a very happy birthday and hope it's filled with love, laughs, and lots of cake!

In case any of my readers have been living under a rock for the past 6 years and have no idea who Ian is, let me enlighten you. Ian is a star of the hugely popular show on the CW called The Vampire Diaries. He plays the bad boy hottie, Damon, and brother to the "good" vamp, Stefan. 

He's also part of the fully vampire version of the Twilight love triangle. The Stefan/Elena/Damon triangle is way better to watch than the Edward/Bella/Jacob one, that's for sure.

Seasons 1-5 are currently on Netflix. New episodes air on Thursdays.


Ian started his career in modeling and we can all see why. Wow. Just wow.


He got his big break in Lost but was killed off.

Never having seen Lost (yes, yes, I know I'm the only one in the world to not have seen it), I didn't know about Ian until watching The Vampire Diaries. To say I was intrigued would be an understatement. I immediately became obsessesed with the show and binge-watched all 4 seasons on Netflix in one weekend. Then I re-watched them all another two times.

You may be asking yourself, why only 4 seasons? There are 6! Yes, they are currently in their 6th season but I did not start watching until season 5 was airing (so not on Netflix yet). I heard about the show when it first came out but purposely did NOT watch becasue I knew I'd become obsessed. I LOVE vampires. My plan worked pretty well too until my sister made me watch part of season 4 with her. I got so sucked in that I immediatly went home and got on Netflix. Anyway, back to Ian....

You might think that this hardcore killer of all things sweet and/or fluffy would be a monster but, just like Damon, Ian has a soft side. In fact, Ian loves all things fluffy. I've lost count but he has somewhere around 2 horses, 4 dogs and 3 cats. I sure hope he doesn't have any allergies! (I've only got one dog and I have to take two allergy medications and run an air purifier all day.) 

Ian's love for the four legged creatures and this big blue planet inspired him to start the Ian Somerhalder Foundation.

As the website says, it's mission "aims to empower, educate, and collaborate with people and projects to positively impact the planet and its creatures". They are currently working on an animal sanctuary which is pretty awesome. But don't think they only care about the "big" things. Ian knows every life, animal or human, is precious so ISF is offering finanical help for emergency animal care. This grant program helps organizations and us regular folk afford medical procedures for our furry friends that would otherwise be too expensive for us, leaving the animals without vital care.

aims to empower, educate and collaborate with people and projects to positively impact the planet and its creatures. - See more at: http://www.isfoundation.com/about-foundation#sthash.5KYZcmm0.dpuf

aims to empower, educate and collaborate with people and projects to positively impact the planet and its creatures. - See more at: http://www.isfoundation.com/about-foundation#sthash.5KYZcmm0.dpuf

Now at this point you are probably thinking "This guy is perfect. I really want to get him something for his birthday!" Well, have no fear! Ian has taken care of that. If you desire to send Ian a birthday present, he asks that you text "Thursday" to 80077. This will make a one-time $10 donation to ISF. This way you can send birthday greetings while doing some good. Everyone wins!

There are many more things I could say about this talented actor and caring man but you'd be reading all day. So I'll just say this, please check out ISF and do your part in helping to keep this planet and all its creatures happy and healthy.

Happy Birthday, Ian! We look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with you!

Thanksgeeking Part 1

It being November and less than two weeks until Thanksgiving I thought it appropriate that this post feature a holiday I have dubbed THANKSGEEKING. Yes it might be a bit cheesy but that's how I roll. 

Thankgeeking is about everything geek that we are thankful for. The good times, the bad times, the magic and thrills. It's about everything geek we couldn't live without.

For starters we have this. Its awesomeness can not be explained in words.

That is followed closely by this image of Captain Reynolds and Rupert Giles. Aw, aren't they cute?

 
If you can't tell where this is going, let me show you.

I am thankful, so VERY thankful, for the brilliance that is Joss Whedon. When he dies, his brain should be bronzed and put on display for the world to Marvel at. See what I did there. ;)    And can I just say, no one writes crazy folk like Joss.

Joss has brought us: 
Firefly
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Angel
The Avengers movies
Agents of Shield
Dr Horrible Sing-a-Long Blog
Much Ado About Nothing and many more wonders

Here's another awesomeness crossover: Barney Stintson and Captain Reynolds come together as Dr Horrible and Captain Hammer. I honestly don't know how they fit so much awesome in one film.

FIREFLY. It may have only lasted 14 episodes but it was 14 episodes of pure genius that was miraculously followed by a full length film named after the best smuggling ship in the verse, SERENITY. There is also a video game in the works!







I am thankful for Nathan Fillion. Oh Captain my Captain! He is hilarious, kind, generous (check out his yearly birthday Charity Water fundraiser) and did I mention ruggedly handsome? By the way, he was my Captain before he was your Castle. He's a geek that all geeks are jealous of. Add on mounds of talent and you've got a Geek God.

On a more personal note, Nathan Fillion's work in Firefly, particularly Shindig, has helped me through the pain and general crappyness of dealing with cancer. Laughter really is the best medicine.....that is unless your drugged up on prescription meds cause those things are freakin' awesome.

Now this one is an oldie but a goody - Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis. SG1 is my favorite but thanks to the genius and hilarity of Dr Rodney McKay, Stargate Atlantis is a close second. (Don't don't even waste your time with Stargate Universe. It doesn't even deserve the Stargate name.)




 












Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a terrific show I saw for the first time a couple months ago (expect for a few select Spike eps). I don't know why it took me so long before I watched it. Love it. I binge watched all seven seasons in about 4 days. After recouping some of the sleep I lost from my Buffython, I watched it all again. Hehe. I'm such a dork.

 

I will definitely be watching Pangs this Thanksgeeking. (Season 4 Episode 8) Such a perfect twist on a Thanksgiving themed episode. (I love that they left the arrow in the doll.)

Not only am I thankful that great show exists but I'm also thankful for it introducing me to two of my now favorite actors, Anthony Stewart Head (Giles) and James Marsters (Spike). To say that Anthony Head is a talented actor would be an understatement. Oh and did I mention that he can sing? Yes, really sing. Not one of those crappy "I'm a actor who thinks I can sing" things. 

I couldn't get a good video of Anthony singing "Behind Blue Eyes" on Buffy but I did find this other one of him singing on Buffy. For a recent and equally good version of "Behind Blue Eyes" check out Anthony's new album Staring at the Sun. (I just noticed that the videos are not appearing when viewing this page from a mobile device. I don't know why but I will try to get that fixed.)

 

Speaking of Anthony Head, if you haven't seen it, which is probable since it's kind of a lesser known film, watch Repo: The Genetic Opera. It's a horror musical. I know it sounds like a weird mix but it is SO good. There is a wide variety of music and it just works. And don't let "horror" scare you away. When I first heard about it I was hesitant because I do not like horror, gore or anything scary. This was nothing like I expected. It is definitely not for younger audiences but it is a very creative film. You won't be able to get the songs out of your head!


Thus ends Part 1 of What I'm Thankful For this Thanksgeeking.


Check out Part 2 here.