The next few days should rightfully be called “Geek Week” in Ottawa, having gotten underway with a big kaboom – worthy of Marvin the Martian himself – with Free Comic Book Day.
What really impresses me most about Free Comic Book Day is the range of selection; there are comic books available for the geeklets in training, and comic books for their parents. You want to know the secret to silencing a carload of kids with properly diagnosed ADHD without resorting to duct tape or putting a stamp on their foreheads and threatening to mail them home? Give them some comic books. Even DS10, who is never without something to say or begging to listen to Hot 89.9 when out in the car, was blissfully engrossed in his Garfield comic pages. Just like his mama, once upon a time.
I even found a nice collared golf shirt with an embroidered TARDIS on it for DS15.5. (He is adamant that I put the .5 in there, since I have told him innumerable times that, number one: he has to stop telling people he is 16 because he has a few months yet before he legally turns 16; and number two, I am still too young to have a son who is anywhere near his mid-teens. But I digress.) He liked it, so I bought it. The ease of that transaction makes up for all of the times I have ever gone grocery shopping with my children and the conversation wanders off and stumbles face first into something like this:
Me (Mom): “I know you are sick of sliced bologna. What would you like me to buy for your lunches instead?”
Kid (could be DD or DS15.5): “I dunno.”
Me: “What do you mean, you don’t know? You know enough that you don’t want bologna, and before us this very day is a rack, nay a smorgasbord, of other choices. Chicken, turkey, ham, salami, mac and cheese loaf. What of those do you want instead of bologna?”
Kid: “I dunno.”
Me (on the verge of exasperation, even though I have heard that sarcasm is not an appropriate child-rearing tool): “Well, in the interests of speeding this up, or worse, me choosing for you – which could see you having a sandwich made from tongue or liverwurst instead of something that actually tastes like it came off an animal – could you please tell me where to buy “I dunno”? Does Farm Boy carry it? What about the Independent Grocer?”
Kid: “Mom! I said I dunno!”
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to your future.
So anyway, back to the topic of Ottawa Geek Week. Next weekend is the second annual Ottawa ComicCon. It seems entirely fitting and just that a week in the lives of geeks doing whatever it is that geeks do – be it cosplay, or gathering to play Nerd Poker – is bracketed on one side by Free Comic Book Day and on the other by ComicCon. We are very excited about ComicCon, and for myself, getting the chance to have my picture taken with Wil Wheaton and LeVar Burton. And Billy Dee. And the 1966 Batmobile. I am equally intrigued by a creative writing workshop called “Steam Engines to Warp Drives: Writing Science Fiction.” SF&F isn’t a genre I’ve tried my hand at since I myself was roughly 10 years of age, but it seems more natural to me than Chick Lit or Mommy/Stroller Shopaholicism, so we’ll see how that goes.
But the pièce de résistance, my friends, is the Army of Daleks that has begun mobilizing in preparation for showing Ottawans a thing or two about the consequences of disobedience. Perhaps they think they can be influencers where the Borg clearly failed? Only time and their appearance at ComicCon will tell. You should also check out the panel discussion creatively titled “Dalek Building 101,” on which my sister is a participant. I also hear that Dalek Soufflé, the newest member of the Canadian contingent, will be ready to go to join with her fearsome brethren, along with her Slaves. But you’ll have to go to ComicCon to check them out!
How do you plan on getting your geek on this week? Tell me in the comments! YOU WILL OBEY, OR BE EXTERMINATED!
