[TV] Star Trek Voyager: Season 3

When it comes to long-running TV shows, there are a lot of jokes, stereotypes and assumptions when it comes to how things progress. The first season tends to be full of promise although a tad undercooked. The second season suddenly expands in weird directions in an effort to make the characters more substantial. And so on.

The third season can be rather hit or miss for people. For example, Lost got so much better in its third season after nearly killing itself in the second season. For Star Trek: The Next Generation, many felt the show truly found itself by the time its third season came around. To some extent, perhaps the same can be said about this series as well.

The opinions for this show were terribly mixed. Some felt the show was a really bad concept and it was floundering around for its first two seasons. Others found the concept of being so far away from the comforts of the Federation rather exciting and new and thus felt it was more fulfilling. I think it really depends on what got you into the show in the first place to make a better assessment of things.

[Books] Digital Sources For Classic Titles

In line with Banned Books Week 2010, I thought it might be good to think more about the spirit of the event. After all, Banned Books Week is a celebration of our freedom to read and our right to retain access to any and all books we may so desire.

And thus it's certainly relevant to look for alternative sources when your local library gives in to the whims of conservative minds. Or perhaps you simply don't have access to the title due to location, geography or whatever physical limitation that may get in the way of things. Books don't just get around on their own after all - in that regard we're still dependent on the financially-motivated decisions of book distributors, store owners and other such constraints on the system.

A good example us our own local book market, which is severely limited by what books seem to be most popular, the limited budget of our government-sponsored libraries and other such petty items. Copyright law gets horribly complex as you get around the world. Still, digitized books are certainly a novel way of getting around such constraints and we should certainly look at supporting these ventures.

[Books] The Catcher In The Rye

In line with this year's Banned Books Week, I figured it would be appropriate to review a title from the 2009 list of Most Challenged Books. While I haven't read some of the newer ones, at the very least I have read this one, particularly because it was required in school.

That's one of the key things that tend to drive books to become challenged by more conservative or narrow-minded parents - since the books become required reading, it's the only time they draw the attention of everyone. Had these books not been noticed in such a manner, perhaps they would have avoided such persecution, or whatever you want to call this. In fact, the Office of Intellectual Freedom has determined that at least 46 out of the Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century (as per Radcliffe Publishing Course) have been challenged repeatedly over the years. Shows what some people know.

I didn't exactly love every single book I was required to read in school, especially back in elementary and high school. However this one certainly stood out and I have to admit that I don't regret reading it at all now. It's definitely the kind of book that resonates on several levels with teenagers around the world and I can go as far as saying you're missing a significant part of your life should you fail to get a chance to read it.

[Movies] Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)

I have already addressed the challenges of the video game to movie market and the usual stigma that comes with such projects. Video game movies are a horribly mixed bag in terms of how the end product looks but tend to skew towards the really bad part of the quality spectrum in terms of how they are received. It's a weird unspoken rule of Hollywood it seems - like we're perpetually damned to suffer through really, really bad adaptations of video games. Like really, really, REALLY bad ones.

I've also discussed the Hollywood trope about sequels being pretty bad too. And the quality of the franchise seems to degenerate at an exponential rate as additional sequels are created to curse audiences around the world. Or at least that's how it seems things go for the most part and it's a wonder why studio executives still think such movies are a good idea.

Now this movie is sadly both based on a video game and a sequel in a long-running franchise, and not a very good one at that. Sure, we all appreciate decent tough chick fighting movies here and there but this franchise has been a unique display of the love of one man (or director) for wife (and star in this case). That's all well and good for them, but the end result tends to learn towards the not-to-good side of things.

[TV] Queer As Folk (US) - Season 1

In the past, homosexuality was a subject that was largely taboo for television. You could have characters that you'd strongly imply to be gay but without openly declare it. Or you could reduce their function to that of rodeo clowns - unusual comic relief in soap operas and sitcoms. It wasn't much of a function, but we had to take what we could, right? Long story short - people just weren't ready to take gay characters seriously, what more open discuss gay stories, issues and themes in popular television.

With the advent of more mature television programming thanks to premium cable channels like HBO, writers were no longer limited to the rigid rules around network television programming. The pay-TV market provided a new venue for showcasing creativity and telling different stories - those that may be considered a tad more controversial in most circles.

A lot of queer friends of mine all share the knowledge of this show in our history, and the same can be said for a lot of people. This show practically changed lives in the sense that it gave a lot of young gay men and women something to use as a loose guide to this kind of life, a model to either accept or reject. In a country that touts Catholicism like a cape left and right, it's not like models for LGBT living are readily found, especially in the Philippines of 10 years ago. This show gave us our first glimpse of what gay culture could be like.

[Events] Banned Books Week 2010

Welcome to Banned Books Week!
Every year, the American Library Association (ALA) takes a week in the year to celebrate our freedom to read pretty much whatever we want. Of course this hasn't stopped people from trying to get books out of public libraries because of content that they find objectionable and thus this little even came to be. Still, thanks to the ALA, we all get to get together to celebrate the wonder of books and how even the fundamentals of what are thought to be internet-only principles of freedom of information truly started with books.

This year's Banned Books Week runs from Setember 25 - October 2, although I can't seem to find any official local events related to the week. Sure, it may not be an international event (yet?), but we seem to copy almost everything else from the US, so why not a meaningful even like this, right?

When it comes to Banned Books week, the ALA provides a lot of resources for you book fiends to explore. Sure, you can start with the short list of Banned & Challenged Books from 2009-2010, or maybe even just the Top 10 Challenged Books of 2009. for a look at just what people have been fussing about.

Thus in the spirit of this week, I'll do my best to post reviews related to some of these banned and challenged books and continuing to spread the work that creative works should remain free - the act of censorship or policing context is best left to the individual!

And as stated on the Banned Books Week website - Free people read feely.

[Movies] Xanadu (1980)

It's hard to pinpoint precisely what made the 80's such a memorable period of time. I was pretty young at the time and naturally a lot of my memories centered around the classic cartoons of the time and of course the Transformers. But even as I grew up, there are all those other echoes of the 80's that we've all picked up and look at with fond amusement such as Sony Walkmans, huge shoulder pads and aerosol hairspray.

The general consensus though is that the 80's were BAD no matter how you look at it. But at the same time, they were so bad, it was already good. Or does that even make sense? It was a period of time that really helped better define the market for campiness since in hindsight it looks so over-the-top ridiculous that it's hard to believe that it really happened.

And this movie is definitely a major part of that legacy - a show so strange and so bad that it certainly helped kick off the decade along with setting the tone for the colorful and perhaps traumatic years to follow. Plus the transitions were so RADICAL!

[Theater] Xanadu (Atlantis Productions)

Hairspray really did something for the musical theater industry when you think about it. It started as a campy 80's movie that had rather moderate success during its initial run. Then it became a hit Broadway musical in 2002 and pretty much turns things on its head. Come 2007, a movie based on the musical was released, thus having things come full circle in a manner of speaking.

This has led to a wide variety of movie-to-musical adaptations like Shrek or to some degree Monty Python's Spamalot and even Legally Blonde. While a there are certainly some gems amongst such translations, naturally not all of them are proving to be as fun and successful as some others. But whether we like it or not, it's something that's here to stay and it can't be as bad as the movie remake trend that's making waves on the West Coast.

So naturally this kind of adaption thinking would eventually lead to more comedic efforts going all the way to self-parody. I feel this particular musical is a great example of that being a musical based on an 80's movie that performed poorly at the box office but remained a cult classic. Then they threw in a bunch of Olivia Newton-John's other songs (ala Mamma Mia!) and tied them all together into one creative work.

[Technology] Don't You Miss Phone Cards?

Cotton End village, Bedfordshire SG101194 by fotdmike via Flickr.

On my way home today, I suddenly got hit by this wave of nostalgia...about phone cards. You know what I mean right? The more common ones were those prepaid calling cards that came with a set amount of cash in it that you could use for phone calls at phone booths. Then there were the alternate versions that allowed you to make calls from home but these calls were charged to your landline telephone bill. It was amazingly convenient and it eliminated the need to carry around all those different kinds of coins to ensure you could make calls when needed.

Of course these days everyone carries around mobile telephones and that's become the choice way of communicating on the go. Yes, I have one too of course and it has been years since I last had to use a phone card to make calls from a phone booth. In fact, the last time that I actually tried making a phone call from a phone booth was probably before I got a mobile phone of my own.


Public Phone 2000 by msmail via Flickr.

Pay phones still exist, sure, but let's face it - they're on the same sad track as the landline telephone itself. The convenience of mobility is something that's hard to ignore these days and people just end up going that way. And so fewer and fewer people are relying on traditional telephones and it's very rare when you need to use a pay phone.

There was something that just felt so cool and futuristic about phone cards that it felt pretty surreal at the time. For a school-going kid, it felt like you had your own credit card of sorts, even though your credit was only good for phone cards. Now of course just chip-embedded cards are commonplace and a similar variant of the original technology is now used for mobile phone SIM cards and even those credit card with the chips that no longer require actual swiping.

So this is just my little homage to the phone card - goodbye old friend! You helped make sure that I got home every day, even when the school bus left me behind.

[Books] StarCraft: Speed of Darkness

My recent adventures into the world of StarCraft novels has been rather mixed. I love the first book and felt insulted by the second one. But I was committed to completing my reading of the StarCraft Anthology no matter what and so I kept moving forward.

I think the key to success in expanded media titles such as this is to be able to contribute meaningfully to the mythos. If you just try to recreate a battle or dictate actions like a sports commentator, it just won't work. You need to either feature new aspects of the back story in further detail or you can examine a part of the background material and sort of blow that up and wow us with insight and details.

The first book managed to slip between the cracks of the existing story, which was pretty cool. The second book was very meh and just felt like someone trying to narrate game stage with three players competing. This next book is a great example of looking at the different aspects of the StarCraft universe and trying to explain how it works by looking at the mechanisms behind things. And I'm not referring to machines.

[Movies] Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

There are days when my brain just needs a rest and I end up watching some pretty silly things. It seems that I've been in that kind of a mood for a while now and I've been sticking to very, very simple things to keep myself occupied. Good examples would be me watching episodes of Ru Paul's Drag U and catching the local staging of Xanadu over the weekend.

So here and there I end up wandering into some pretty shallow comedies, or at least that's what they claim to be. The art of excellent comedic dialog and witty banter is a bit lost on the writers of today. Comedy movies these days tend to stick to the kind of humor that involves gross-out situations or lots and lots of slapstick. I think some of the silent movies in the past had more comedic lines than some of the movies that manage to make a name for themselves today.

The time travel element kind of gave me a sliver of hope that the movie might be a tad smarter than most of its genre. However, I think I may have given it too much credit or something along those lines.

[Technicolor Musings] It's Not A Crime To Be In A Relationship

Scanned Photos - Gay Pride Parades and Festivals by PB-PSBear via Flickr.

When you go around the LGBT section of the blogosphere, you're bound to encounter a wide variety of blogs that talk about different aspects of queer life. Some like to focus on fashion. Others just post lots of photos of hot models and other celebrities. Others still focus on LGBT political issues or just trying to pitch in their ideas for furthering the gay rights cause.

But a significant number of blogs (regardless of primary genre), tend to focus on their singledom, whether for good for for ill. And it's a weird thing that seems to have become an almost major part of gay culture at times - how much we tend to rant and rave about how cruel life is, the unfortunate fortune of being single for long periods of time and a whole bunch of other things. In fact it's become quite the major driving force in a lot of gay writing, it seems - how so many people either bemoan being single or swear that they've resigned themselves to being single for the rest of their lives, always enjoying and celebrating the wild lifestyle of the man always on the move.

And so I thought it would be nice to add a different perspective to the queer blogosphere. Yes, someone could say that I'm one of the "luckier" ones since I've been fortunate enough to be in one relationship or another for more or less the past 8 years or so. And I suppose that gives me a decent enough perspective to use that as a base to write about all this.

[Movies] Let The Right One In / Låt den rätte komma in (2008)

I'm generally a fan of foreign films - call that the gay movie snob in me or something. And I know, we shouldn't lump all non-US movies together as foreign since they're strong films in their own right covering a lot of different traditional movie genres.

Of all genres though, I'm pretty bad at horror / thriller movies (and I've discussed this on this blog before). My partner knows this despite the fact that he's majorly into horror movies and all things generally scary. It's an odd juxtoposition of interests but we've both promised to keep an open mind when it comes to things that we introduce to one another. He watches Star Trek with me. I watched The Descent with him. And so on.

But given all the geek raves I've heard about this movie, I definitely wanted to take the time to see it. Naturally Tobie acted as my big enabler and helped make this happen and made sure that his hand (or arm) was available in case things got too tense for me.

[TV] Star Trek Voyager: Season 2

In the continuing Star Trek education of my partner (yes, this is an actual goal), I had settled on Voyager as my path of least resistance to get into Trek. While not necessarily the best Star Trek series, I always feel it had a nice way of covering all the basics of the Star Trek universe while still introducing its unique spin to things.

The only challenge to using Voyager as an entry point into the series is the fact that the first three seasons (more or less) weren't necessarily the strongest of them all, ultimately depending on who you ask. I'm a stickler for starting at the very beginning in order to get the full experience, and that comes with both the good and the bad.

Thankfully (1) my partner loves me and (2) he's a decent enough sport to endure the seemingly endless Voyager marathon I've been subjecting him to. But every rough patch still has its diamonds in the rough and that kind of thinking definitely applies to this season.

[Transformers] Classics / Universe / Generations Love

Classics Astrotrain and Starscream

I had stopped seriously acquiring Transformers after the last vestiges of the G1 line died out. Sure, like many other Transformers fans I dabbled in the Action Masters just for the heck of it and I got all excited about the repainted Generation 2 releases. I tried my luck with a few Beast Wars toys (which actually weren't that bad) and I even took a taste of the Armada line (complete with senseless Minicons. That was well and good and all but I never really got excited about Transformers all through the years.

A few of you might have gone for the movie toys, but the overall styling always seemed too messy to me. As much as I know they were meant to be somehow more organic, it just felt wrong to me and thus somehow now like Transformers at all. While I did invest money into getting the ROTF Bludgeon, I still ended up spending more on those crazy Transformers Animated toys instead.

Then in 2007 I finally came across a few of the Transformers Classics toys and fell in love all over again.

But just looking at the toys, can you blame me?

[Comics] The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Volume 2

If something works, then don't break it right? That's sort of the Hollywood philosophy these days that drives sequels upon sequels along with remakes and reimaginations, more or less. And it makes me sick to my stomach to consider the fact that this remake trend and general death of continuing creativity isn't going to end very soon.

But there are cases that when we clamor for more, we just might get exactly what we wanted. Not a cheap addition to a franchise. It's not a lame ass pale imitation of the original. No, sometimes we get an honest to god item of value that really makes the geeky world all the more enriched and definitely better.

I definitely think this is one of the better examples of the latter and not the former. It definitely helped that things deeply involved the classical worlds of science fiction from the Victorian era. Plus it all came together so well in a manner that didn't at all feel forced.

[Movies] The September Issue (2009)

When The Devil Wears Prada came out, I think a majority of the queer population came out to see it, whether or not they had read the book or were actually into fashion. I for sure am not part of the target demographic of that particular movie, but then again I still went to see it and enjoyed it for more than just the amazing performance of Meryl Streep.

It had been long discussed that the book's titular boss from hell was based on infamous Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, although she's never acknowledged any similarities between her and the book / movie character. When asked about the book, she was quoted by The New York Times - "I always enjoy a great piece of fiction. I haven't decided whether I am going to read it or not."

Classic.

This feature documentary on the workings behind Vogue was bound to generate interest after the success of the book and the movie. There's a natural curiosity into what goes on behind the scenes about the world's premiere fashion magazine and the woman who makes everything possible.

[Pink Scene] O Bar Malate

O Bar Malate With Friends

When I started venturing out into the "gay scene", for lack of a better term, Malate was always at the center of things. Like most people, my gay life sort of began with the big bars like Bed and the now defunct Government in Makati, and that sort of worked out in the beginning.

After years of Bed near-exclusivity, my current partner managed to introduce me to new places to hang out like Butterfly Bar in Quezon City and of course O Bar in Malate. I've already posted a review of their Ortigas branch, so I figured it would make sense to post one of their original location in Malate. Besides, we're still in that weird period of Bed being temporarily closed while the recover from the fire a few months back and I'm sure we all need to broaden our queer horizons.

[Movies] G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987)

In the late 80's, it suddenly became a brilliant idea to create feature-length movies based on popular animated cartoons of the time. Thus we got memorable classics like Transformers: The Movie and stranger additions to movie history such as My Little Pony: The Movie. The mixed box office success resulted in this becoming a direct-to-video release as opposed to a theatrical one, but it still has its place in 80's culture.

While I never was overly into G.I. Joe as a kid, I know a lot of other kids were. Sure, they had some pretty cool vehicles and I doubt we'll never get tired of seeing characters like the Baroness cackle and laugh while ripping off yet another perfectly-fitting mask. Or the million and one variations on snake-themed vehicles and weapons of mass destruction. And don't forget the Dreadnoks who are like the ultimate redneck thugs with power saws and laser weapons!

So that, together with a 95-episode animated series, helped propel this show to become a movie, even if it never made it to the theaters.

[TV] The Day Of The Triffids (2009)

More and more, I find myself admiring British television for taking bolder steps in terms of promoting science fiction and fantasy. While US network television is often quick to pull the plug on budding science fiction shows that fail to demonstrate record-breaking viewers right out of the gate, it seems over in the UK, they're getting more and more shows and TV movies of the geekier variety.

This goes way beyond Doctor Who (although it probably starts somewhere there). We have continuing shows like Being Human and Misfits and new ventures here and there like this one. It's hard to puzzle out precisely why us geeks are getting more liberties over there as compared to the US, but I'm definitely not going to look a gift horse in the mouth anytime soon. For as long as this trend continues on, I'm definitely going to milk this cow for all it's worth.

And then there's Eddie Izzard!

[Transformers] Takara Welcome to 2010 Unicron

The true Transformer lover knows that were owe a lot to a Japanese toy company called Takara. Established in 1955, the company has been making novel toys over the years while keeping their company motto in mind - "Playing is culture." Sure, they weren't originally Transformers when they first came out - we have the US toy company Hasbro to thank for that.

While Hasbro has gone on to fame and fortune by waving around the Transformers banner, Takara remains to be the original creator and Hasbro is their their Transformers distributor. Well, among other things.

In recent years, Takara has been re-releasing some of the original Generation 1 Transformers as part of their Encore line. I've been able to acquire a few classics such as a re-release of Soundwave (together with Laserbeak) and the first Japanese release of Sky Lynx (and he still walks!) And I'm still lusting over the Encore Omega Supreme, mainly because I still feel bad that I lost mine as a kid.

But as much as I'm happy to own these, there's one new Transformer re-release that I'm dying to have.

[Comics] Kick-Ass

There's a very large universe of comic books that I have yet to have the chance to read. My partner, who is a major comic book fan, has been keeping me busy with a heck of a large number of titles that I have to read as "assignments" of sorts and it's been a nicely enjoyable experience thus far.

This title was sort of on the assigned reading list, but naturally I was prompted to read it because of the recent movie, that we both enjoyed a lot. And as much as the movie was pretty violent and somewhat jarring at times, the comic was even better!

As much as violence in media tends to be a somewhat touchy subject amongst more conservative advocates, I still feel it works within appropriate mediums or with sufficient controls in place. The answer is NOT about censoring the worst bits out of a movie in order to give it a wider-reaching movie rating (I'm talking to you freaks at the MTRCB!) but about sufficient controls so that people who can handle the content can gain access and no one else. Comic books tend to be a gray area in this regard since I've yet to encounter comic book stores that limit what titles they can sell to minors, but I trust the clerks and their better judgement in terms of what can and can't be sold to younger audiences.

And the rest of us get to enjoy the results.

[Movies] Despicable Me (2010)

In the CGI movie market, the big guns remain to be Pixar and DreamWorks Animation. A few others have taken a stab at entering this particular movie market, with mixed if not limited success. And as much as I love the products that come out from both studios, I'm never entirely opposed to new players entering the market. Seriously, I was one of the people who enjoyed Hoodwinked!

A big reason why I still like these movies is that the writers tend to do a pretty stellar job of writing good comedy. Sure, the animation medium does allow for more liberties in terms of sight gags and what you can have the characters do, but it takes a skilled group of writers to figure out how to best utilize the medium to full effect. And of course a fairly visionary director knowing how to put all those diverse elements together.

I suppose this is what keeps me as a kid at heart. I'll always be able to derive pleasure and enjoyment from watching most cartoons. It just really helps when the writers are similarly spirited and thus they make sure that not just the young in age enjoy the movie.

[Technicolor Musings] Growing Up Gay With Kylie

Image via WikipediaI don't remember precisely when I fell in love with the music and artistry of Kylie Minogue, but it definitely coincided with my realizations about my sexuality. Sure, I'm familiar with her old songs from before that time, but only as tunes that sounded nice but nothing I particularly wanted to listen to more closely. To put things in context though, I wasn't into any of the more popular forms of music prior to high school. All I knew was classical pieces and lots and lots of Broadway musicals.

With the release of her latest album (and her second music video), I find myself thinking back to my on again, off again relationship with her music. She has sort of been a companion to me over the course of my homosexual awakening, my first relationship and so on and so forth. Every gay man has to have his diva after all. Some still fiercely defend Britney (hello Chris Crocker!) while newer generations have come to worship Lady GaGa. While I'll always have the utmost respect and appreciation for Madonna, it's only with Kylie that I can firmly say that I love with all my heart.

So for this week's Technicolor Musings post, I thought it might be fun and of course most timely to revisit my experience of growing up with the wonderful music of Kylie Minogue.

[Movies] Transformers: The Movie (1986)

Image via WikipediaWhen I started the Geeky Guide, I decided that I'd do my best to review every single movie, book and TV show that I'd work my way through starting from that point. Over the years, I'd like to think I've done a decent job of this, but the challenge of a "going forward" system is that I don't always get to go back and review things that I had seen longer before the Geeky Guide existed.

Sometimes I just get caught up in the rush of all the geeky things that my partner and I get to involve ourselves with, that I end up missing opportunities to revisit classics of my youth (or daresay my childhood). And then I get these "slow" days when no recent movies immediately come to mind and so I start digging through my past to find something to write about.

So I have to admit that it was a surprise to me that I had yet to post a formal review for this movie despite how much I proclaim that I'm a Transformers G1 fan (till all are won!). It's weird to think that not only is this movie now over 20 years old, but even the setting of the movie is already in our past.

Don't you just hate it when the future becomes the past?

[TV] The Phantom (2009)

I'm not sure how this particular TV movie stayed under the radar for me for so long, but it did. When I did finally get around to acquiring a copy, I wasn't all excited to see it. Let's face it - this TV miniseries manage to debut months ago with little fanfare and eventually little attention in the media sphere. Either that means the movie is so avant garde that people are still trying to figure it out , or it's just not as good as everyone had hoped and they decided to keep mum about it.

And a TV miniseries about a 1930's pulp comic book hero is a bit of a tricky subject for a revival / reimagination. I mean, it's not like I have anything against the Phantom as a character - I just don't quite understand the need to revisit his story and play around with his origins. It would have made more sense if there was some recent fan petition for its return to the screen but I don't recall anything of that nature in recent months.

Still, every show / movie deserves a chance to be watched in its entirety in order to be evaluated, right? And who knows, some reimaginations may not have made sense from a fan context, but became wild successes like Battlestar Galactica.

[Personal] Happy Wheelie Day!!!

ME GRIMLOCK GREETS PUNY HUMAN!

My partner and I have been together for over 16 months now and what feels like more than a decade of shared geekery. It seems silly to celebrate monthsaries or anything of that nature at this point, but Wheelie Day has always a lot more than just marking the passage of time.

Wheelie Day commemorates the day we realized we really loved one another and despite how strange it seemed to feel that way, it was the truth. Since then, we've found that it's possible to love one another even more than how we felt in the beginning, which seems somehow contrary to how things go typically go in relationships, queer or otherwise.

Well, the pizza has just arrived and we're about to attack our ever favorite Dear Darla together with some Charlie Chan Chicken Pasta from Yellow Cab. It's the little things that help us reminder how much we love one another more and more with every passing day.

I love you Tobie Abad!

[Technicolor Musings] Getting Dragged Out Of The Closet

I normally save my Technicolor Musings posts for Sundays, but today marks the first theorgy blogging event. It seems theorgy is meant as an opportunity for local pink bloggers to write about a particular topic, similar to Blog Action Day and other such organized blogging events around the web.

And yes, your Geeky Guide is very much gay - and highly proudly so. And the topic for this first theorgy is all about coming out, which ironically is something I didn't quite officially do - at least not by choice. That makes it a bit more interesting and I've always been one to support the local LGBT blogging community.

So pull up a comfy seat, and put on some good mood music - this may take a while, should you be interested to hear the tale..

[Geeky Guide] Four Years Of Determined Geekery!

Mi Colección de Transformers (10-Abr-2009) by mdverde via Flickr.

Today marks the fourth year of The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything. It's a tad hard to believe (at least for me), but it's true. Four years ago, I started this Blogger-hosted blog since I just wanted to see what Google had done with the application after they had announced Blogger Beta (now Blogger in Draft) and all that good stuff. And the rest is history.

Since then, I've managed to work out a more regular blogging schedule, organize the topics better and round out the entries more with diverse topics. Now I've made sure to discuss movies, TV shows, books, games, the web, relevant news, theater plays, musicals, toys and of course items of LGBT interest.

After four years, I have over 1,500 entries, nearly 700 comments, a modest 52,000 visits with nearly 70,000 page views. Thankfully, more than 47% of you use alternative browsers like Firefox and more than 98% of you are happily on broadband in all its diverse forms. And for the curious, I've just managed to get over $52.00 in AdSense revenue, which isn't much but which is also hardly the goal of this blog. I continue writing because I like sharing things that I'm passionate about and it's more important to me that the articles are worth reading rather than me focusing on SEO too much or tailoring articles to advertisers' whims.

Thanks for continuing to support the Geeky Guide all these years and I do hope that I'll continue to provide everyone with interesting and relevant content for geeks and non-geeks alike. And always, I look forward to hearing more from you in comments, IMs and emails.

Now Transform and Roll Out!