Phoenix Ultimate Geek Smackdown bringing the geek-heat to Phoenix Comicon!

Phoenix Ultimate Geek SmackdownI love trying out new and ridiculous ideas. It’s one of my many weaknesses. So three years ago when local movie programming goddess Andrea Beesley (aka The Midnite Move Mamacita!) asked if I wanted to run a track at Phoenix Comicon together, how could I say no?

The original idea was to try and find a very versatile geek. Someone who just wasn’t a comic book savant, but could also argue horror, gaming, anime, or anything else that came up. Not only argue it, but argue (or BS) either side! We didn’t want someone who just wore one pair of fandom underoos, but someone who had the entire set.

Thus was born the Phoenix Ultimate Geek Smackdown! Sixteen geeks enter the brackets and are eliminated in a series of debates on the silliest arguments we can come up with. Previous questions included:

  • Who is the better billionaire, Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark?
  • Which is the better time machine, the DeLorean or the TARDIS?
  • Who has bigger daddy issues, Batman or Luke Skywalker?

You get the idea. Some of these questions nearly started fistfights.

PUGS 2012 Recap

Richard Mansfield - Phoenix's Ultimate Geek 2012Last year the Phoenix Ultimate Geek Smackdown was rather spectacular, and Richard Mansfield ahniliated the competition to take home both the Box of Goodies and the Trophy of Awesome.

We moved to a much bigger room, had local geekologist Jonathan Simon from Lightning Octopus join the team, and had a packed house for the Finals. Phoenix Comicon even asked us to put together some lightning PUGS sessions in the grand ballroom between some of the big sessions (like that Shatner fellow, and the cast of Eureka), which was fun but ate up a giant chunk of Saturday.

And lest you think calling it a Trophy of Awesome is an exaggeration, it featured an action figure of Frodo riding a tiger, a Stormtrooper bobblehead atop an AT-AT, Rorschach, Pinhead, and yellow roses all around. Truly a masterpiece of geekery if every such a thing existed.

Geek Smackdown returns to Phoenix Comicon 2013

We’re back again this year as a Signature Event for Phoenix Comicon, and we’re on of the Phoenix New Times’ 10 Must-See Events At Phoenix Comicon this year! We also have it on good authority that Richard will return this year to defend his title, and if you’ve never seen this guy launch into full Geektastic BS mode before, you’re in for a treat!

Qualifiers: Thursday, May 23rd, 8:00pm in Convention Center room 121 (Facebook event)

Finals: Friday, May 23rd, 7:30pm in Convention Center room 121 (Facebook event)

You can read more about the Phoenix Ultimate Geek Smackdown on the PCC site, or follow PUGS on Facebook.

PUGS is a blast to watch (audience participation is encouraged!) and we have some doozy questions lined up. If you’re going to Phoenix Comicon stop in and see who will be crowned the new Phoenix Ultimate Geek!

And if you’re in Phoenix and not going to Comicon, I question your geek credentials anyway. Begone!

Star Trek’s descent into marketing spam darkness

Star Trek: Into Darkness

Spam Trek: Into Darkness

I was a Star Trek fan when Shatner was the only Captain the Enterprise had ever known, so it’s sad for me to say I’m so disgusted with Star Trek right now I’ve lost all interest in seeing the new movie.

The first problem was the lack of a new story. I liked the 2009 reboot overall and took some of the changes to “Star Trek history” (aka canon) as part of what J.J. Abrams needed to do to tell his own stories. So when I learned that Into Darkness was still borrowing from the original series and the original movies I was a little disappointed, but not fatally.

The second problem was this esurance ad. There have been product tie ins before, but this one somehow felt like all pretense of connection to the spirit of the original show had been abandoned. The original Star Trek was radical for promoting racial equality and peace, and the new movies were radical for their low, low insurance rates? A little more disappointed, but still I hadn’t given up.

What killed it for me is their spam marketing campaign. Star Trek: Into Darkness launched a promotion push called Are You The 1701, with the relevant hashtag #IAmThe1701. I signed up for the promotion because I thought it might be interesting, and I’m always curious to see how different companies run promotional campaigns.

It started out poorly with emails to win passess to screenings I couldn’t attend (I don’t live in Los Angeles), then got worse as the emails began coming in daily. After about a week I’d had enough and tried to Unsubscribe.

Nope. The Unsubscribe link at the bottom of the emails doesn’t work. It says I’m not on their list so they can’t remove me, yet the emails keep coming. Then I tried replying to the email directly, but it bounced back from an unmonitoried address. Since Paramount continues to send me email I don’t want, and have tried to stop, they are technically spamming me.

I was getting mad but I thought maybe someone else involved might be able to help. I tweeted @StarTrek and @StarTrekMovie asking for assistance. Nothing. They don’t care, and/or don’t appear to do any listening. Paramount’s only interest is pushing as many people to their theaters and car insurance tie ins as possible.

Fans? They can boldly get lost.

Digital marketing campaigns are designed to get people excited about a product or event, but if you do them poorly they can have just the opposite effect. If my reaction seems overkill, remember that for the past nearly two weeks the bulk of Star Trek mentions I’ve seen were a source of increasing frustration. Even something you like can get annoying in a big hurry if the business contacts you excessively with offers you can’t use, doesn’t give you any way to make them stop, and ignores you if you ask for help.

Paramount, I am sure that Star Trek: Into Darkness will makes gobs of money for you at the box office without my support, even with your rehashed story ideas, discount insurance, and spammy, incompetent promotion. But as a life-long fan that you’ve managed to annoy so thoroughly that for the first time my life I’m avoiding something with the name “Star Trek”, let me just say: Screw you.

Why I still love Ignite Phoenix

Image (cc) Sheila Dee on Flickr

Image (cc) Sheila Dee on Flickr

When Ignite Phoenix started several years ago the goal was to create a venue for people to share ideas and topics they loved. There are now a lot more events and groups in the Valley that encourage people to share in different ways, and Ignite Phoenix has evolved. There are still two aspects of it, though, that are incredibly important to me, and why I keep investing time in this crazy thing.

Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary

We rarely share the things we truly love with each other. We talk about work, politics, and the weather, but what about the things we obsess over until the wee hours of the morning when we know we should be in bed? People think nobody wants to hear their weird passion, and that’s just plain wrong.

When someone gets past the things they like, and past the things they love, and into the things that really consume them, we all want to hear it. We connect with that energy. When people share their passions they start waving their hands around, they talk faster, and they lean in. And we see that and lean in ourselves to listen. There are many stages for professionals and luminaries to share their ideas from the top down – Ignite is a stage where we can share them with each other.

Encouraging Serendipity

Ignite Phoenix brings people together in unplanned ways. We don’t have enough happy chaos in our lives. We go to the same places, same jobs, same social events, with the same people. Our lives have patterns. The range of topics at Ignite means someone may come because they are curious about storm chasing, but leave blown away by 3D printing. Or vice versa. You will meet people you have never heard of, doing things you never knew existed. Ignite Phoenix doesn’t have an agenda other than to bring people together in unusual ways.

When I hear people have started a new hobby, changed careers, launched a business, or made new friends because of something that happened at Ignite Phoenix, it’s because that little bit of chaos and serendipity entered their lives.

Pure Selfishness

I love ideas and hearing people talk about what drives them. I love it when experienced speakers get nervous because for once they’re talking about something really important to them. I love it when people who are scared stiff still walk out on that stage because they want to tell people their message. I love it when people tell me months (even years) later that they did something they never would have otherwise done if not for their Ignite talk.

I love it when I find myself looking at my friends, myself, and community around me in a new way because of something I learned from presenters and their topics. I love it all.

If you’ve never been to Ignite Phoenix, you should come. If you have an idea you want to submit, you should do that.

But whatever else, figure out what your own passion is and tell people about it.

What if you forgot everyone you ever knew?

Morning Fog Emerging From Trees by A Guy Taking Pictures

Morning Fog Emerging From Trees by A Guy Taking Pictures

What if you could no longer remember your past? Would you still be you?

The food you love, the hobbies you enjoy, the job you have, and all the other parts of your life were partially shaped by other people you met and knew through your life. What if all of those people and what they meant to you were gone?

In this fascinating and haunting articleAmnesia and the Self That Remains When Memory Is Lost, Daniel Levitin talks with Tom, a man suffering retrograde amnesia as a result of an inoperable brain tumor. Nearing the end of his life, is Tom the same person Daniel knew from back in college?

Whether you prefer chocolate ice cream or vanilla, action movies or comedies, is part of the story, but the ability to know those preferences through accumulated memory is what defines you as a person.

Tom doesn’t remember Daniel when he arrives, but asks patient questions about how they know each other, and what they meant to each other. Tom is a man who knows he has a past, knows he cannot remember it, and is curiously exploring it in the time he has left.

“Please forgive me for asking this, but I do this with everybody. Could you tell me your name again and how it is that I know you?” – Tom

This isn’t the tired TV trope of someone getting knocked on the head and getting amnesia for the next hour. The strands of Tom’s life are completely and permanently gone for him. As he asks the people he meets how they know each other, he understands the complexity of the question. He understands that these people helped make him who he is, sitting here now, even if he can’t recall what brought them together.

“There’s often this . . . gray area, I guess you’d call it, in human relationships, isn’t there? We meet people, we see them every day, we say hello, but we don’t really know them. We say they’re our friends, but really, you can’t be friends with the hundreds of people you meet, can you? It’s enough that we had a shared history together. We were in the same places for a time. We were part of each other’s fabric.” – Tom

The people we encounter, whether friends or lovers or casual conversationalists in line at the coffee shop, all help shape you in both little and large ways. You are who you are partially because of the people you meet along the way, and even if one day their names and faces are forgotten, you will always carry them with you.

The holy, the broken, the powerful Hallelujah

Leonard Cohen Vector Tribute by Vectorportal

Leonard Cohen Vector Tribute by Vectorportal

I find the greatest beauty in things that hold different meanings to different people. Things that speak to our shared human experience, but yet contain something unique for each person.

In 1984 Leonard Cohen released Hallelujah. Little came of it until John Cale did a cover, giving his own interpretation. John’s version led in turn to Jeff Buckley creating the probably most famous cover of the song. When Buckley died a few years later his cover became a classic, even making Rolling Stone’s list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time at #264.

That was just the beginning. In the 19 years since then the song has been covered by artists from every genre, each giving it their own shape. Covers on YouTube have millions of views, and now many more than Rolling Stone consider Hallelujah one of the greatest songs.

Why?

The minor fall, the major lift

I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?

For many people the song is a modern hymn, full of religious hope and reverence. It is a praise to God and all His mystery, majesty, and love. Allison Crowe’s version flows with her belief, even changing one of the lyrics from “holy dove” to “Holy Ghost”.

And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Others took it the other direction, making a highly sexual song about love, lust, and consummation. Buckley described his version of the song as a “hallelujah to the orgasm.” Cohen’s original version appears in the movie Watchmen during a very NSFW sex scene where the two characters are freeing themselves through their passions.

There’s a blaze of light in every word
It doesn’t matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

And in the middle of these interpretations is an exaltation of the sheer aching joy of being alive. Of all the wonder and heartbreak and hope over just how fragile and precious life is as we try to find our way within it.

hal·le·lu·jah – An expression of worship or rejoicing

Hallelujah is all these things. It becomes something different for each artist who performs it, and means something different to each person who hears it. It’s an incredible song, and an incredible piece of art.

I’ve made a Hallelujah YouTube playlist of some of the different covers I mention here if you want to compare them side by side. You may also want to check out The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of “Hallelujah”, which explores the history and many strange tales surrounding the song.

I’ll close with one of my favorite versions. I love it because it brings several artists together where you can see each of their different voices and approaches blending into one, beautiful arrangement. The casual set juxtaposed with the soaring song just makes it all the more powerful.

Whether you see a God in it or not, the desire to rejoice remains.

The real meaning of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Greetings

Thanks by Puzzler4879 Mostly Off (Mourning Loss)

On this Thanksgiving Day I am sadly reminded how few people seem to know the real reason we celebrate Thanksgiving.

It started in the mid 1980s, after a small show called Bosom Buddies went off the air. This quirky little show depicted two men in New York, down on their luck, masquerading as women to hide in an all female apartment complex. Through the assorted hijinks and hilarity, they discovered truths about women, about friendship, and about themselves. One of the stars on the show especially touched our nation with his wisdom and talent: Tom Hanks.

Thus it began one November that a family, grateful to Tom Hanks, invited him over for dinner. Tom graciously accepted, but word spread and the next year he was besieged by a dozen invitations. The year after that, hundreds. He couldn’t attend them all, so families began spreading the spirit of Tom Hanks to each other by giving each other turkeys with Tom Hank’s face on them. Being the perfect blend of white meat and dark meat, versatile yet satisfying, the turkey seemed like the perfect metaphor for Tom. Then as people ate the bird they felt that they were taking a little bit of Tom Hanks into them.

As the 80′s progressed, and Tom Hanks was in such groundbreaking features “Mazes and Monsters”, “Splash”, and “The Man With One Red Shoe”, his legend grew. And as often happens, legends fade into obscurity with the retelling to each generation. People kept many of the traditions, but lost touch with the meaning. Even the name – “Tom Hanks Giving Day” was shortened to just THanksGiving Day.

But I encourage you to return to the warm, generous, affable everyman roots of this day. Gather your family around, pop in a DVD of “Turner and Hooch” or “Joe Versus the Volcano”, and think deeply about Tom Hanks as you nibble a juicy drumstick.

(Very) Uncensored Thoughts About the Prius

You may have thought you were done hearing me talk about the Prius, but there is one last thing I need to share. And I think you may find it more enjoyable than any of my other posts.

See, while I was doing the Prius Challenge I took video of a bunch of people sharing their thoughts about the Prius. I either showed them my Prius, or got them to talk about their own.

What I realized is that the Prius is unique. If I went in and bleeped out the name of the car, you could tell exactly what these people were really talking about…

Why people love the Prius

If you’ve ever been wondering if you should buy a Prius, if you would enjoy the ride, or if you would like how it handles, this should help:

After that, if you still don’t know then I suggest you either talk to a nearby Toyota Dealer… or maybe your therapist.

And many thanks to the many people who shared their love of Prius with me!

Pontifications from a Phoenix Prius Pimper

Now that my participation in the two month Prius Challenge is at an end, I thought I’d capture some of my thoughts about the whole endeavor. It was very educational, and not just about the car.

Free can be a tough sell

2012 Prius Challenge

2012 Prius Challenge

When they approached me about participating, I was a bit confused. I don’t normally talk about cars, and haven’t done any major product evaluations of any kind. I was honestly puzzled how my name came up at all. But after noodling on it for a bit I signed up for two main reasons:

The first was selfish – it was a fun idea, I already liked the Prius, and I wanted to check out the new models. My wife’s main car has been a Prius for five years, and she loves it. We were in the market for a new car and thought this would really beat a simple test drive. Plus I’m fascinated at how social promotions like this work (i.e. never as planned), and I love meeting new people, so it really seemed like an entertaining time.

The second reason was more altruistic (sort of). Since this was an entirely local promotion I thought it would be a great chance for someone I know to win a free car. There were no strings to this program, no hoops to jump through, and you didn’t have to flood your own channel with Toyota Prius info to enter. Just a click and few pictures and you would have a really good chance to win. And I would really love that winner to be someone I know.

The weird thing was, people wouldn’t enter. I fielded tons of questions asking “what’s the catch,” and they all seemed more dubious when I told them there wasn’t one. I think if you spend enough time online you get a certain level of BS-filter about promotions, and this was triggering it. Even people who trusted me thought I had to be leaving something out. It just seemed… weird.

So I increased my noise level about it, and tried to make it clear how easy it was, and how good the odds were. That didn’t go over so well, and I was told I was being spammy. Normally I have a really good feel for that, so I was surprised. Looking at it objectively, my Prius comments were still a minor part of what I was saying, but subjectively it was such an out of place topic that it stood out.

I backed off and tone things down. People still asked me about it in person, and I gave away tons of info cards on how to enter the contest, but I made sure that Prius entries (other than this one) had the car as only part of the larger post. This worked a lot better, and is what I should have been doing from the start. I just got off track because the “Disbelief Factor” I ran into.

Is the Prius a good car?

I’m still getting asked “what I really think” about the Prius. I’ve been pretty candid, but to put it all in one spot, here’s my take on the Prius models I drove.

Third Generation Prius is a champ

The first Prius I drove was their “classic Prius” model in bright red. It was a great car, and I really enjoyed driving it. It handled solidly, and had a lot more power than I expected. The interior, dashboard, performance, and pretty much everything else was much nicer than the 2007 model we currently own.

We got 50+ mpg driving around Phoenix, and it worked like a champ on our road trip up through Prescott, Sedona, and Flagstaff. Gas mileage on the freeway trip dropped to about 40 mpg, but the Prius is made to do better in the city.

Bottom line, I would honestly recommend this car to someone seriously looking at hybrids or concerned about fuel economy. If we were ready to replace my wife’s Prius (it’s still running great!) we would look at getting a new model. There’s a lot of pretentious posturing and weird hype associated with the Prius, but it really is a solid car. That’s part of why it has sold like it has.

The Prius v wagon – not so much

Halfway through the challenge I switched models so I could see the difference, and the difference was substantial. The Prius v is their station-wagon-like version, and has a lot more room for passengers and cargo. Unfortunately, that’s almost the end of what I can say nice about this vehicle.

If you fold the back seats down, they don’t come close to touching the front seats to make a flat surface. We tried to transport our three dogs in it, and if we braked too hard, ZWOOP!, one of our dogs would tumble down into the footwell in the back seat and have trouble getting up. The car also didn’t seem to have as much power as the regular Prius, and was a lot noiser in acceleration. The dashboard also has all the main gauges, like speed, in the center of the console… not in front of the driver. It’s just weird. Even the stereo in this thing refused to play nice with my iPhone and I finally gave up on the Bluetooth and just used a stereo cable.

After a week with the Prius v I wanted the regular model back. The regular Prius has lots of carrying capacity as it is, so I would send anyone that direction over the Prius v.

Final thoughts on the Prius Challenge

The whole thing was fun, and I’m glad I participated, but it could have been a lot more engaging and effective.

Legal issues and overhead took some of the fun out of what was originally intended (there wasn’t even a “challenge” anymore by the time it started), and I wish entering hadn’t been as tied to Facebook as it was.

The rest of the Prius Challenge team was fantastic, and I’m glad I got to work with them. They all know their kung-fu really well, and watching their different approaches to this project was fascinating.

Kudos to the Valley Toyota Dealers for giving the Prius Challenge a try and putting a car on the line. I wouldn’t have agreed to participate if it was a national promotion, but keeping it local meant people had a much greater chance of winning, and made the whole event more personal. I just wish the Dealers had been more engaged. Not only were we not allowed to mention any of them by name (Seriously!), but even though we were sending people to the dealers to get their picture taken, none of the sales people there knew about the Prius Challenge. I hope they consider trying something like this again, but next time get fully engaged.

The people running the Prius Challenge at Cramer-Krasselt were great to work with, and had a helluva time wrangling the Prius Team, managing the Toyota Dealers, and keeping everything plowing along. They listened to endless silly ideas from me and accommodated everywhere they could. I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of the Prius Challenge.

Now I am Priusless, and am hoping someone locally decides to do a Ferrari Challenge and gives me a call. Until then, I’m waiting for the winner to be drawn for the Prius c. If you entered, good luck!

Geocaching – the 21st century version of Hide and Seek

Geocaching in the Phoenix Desert ParksI love puzzles, games, and gadgets, so back in 2001 when someone told me about a site where people posted hidden “treasures” all over the world for people to find, I had to try it out. I grabbed my kludgy, handheld GPS app, manually loaded up the coordinates of a few caches, and went hunting. It was a blast.

It was called Geocaching, and it is still going strong with over 1.9 million caches worldwide. Now it’s much easier to play than when I got into it, since GPS is built right into our phone and, as the saying goes, “there’s an app for that.”

How Geocaching works

Someone puts together a “cache”, which is generally a container of some sort that has a log book, some info about the cache, and maybe some goodies that people who find the cache can trade for. Catches range in size from shoebox sized (old army ammo canisters are the classic container), down to micro-caches that may be no bigger than a dime.

The person then finds an interesting, publicly accessible place to hide the cache and notes the exact GPS coordinates. Then they go to Geocaching.com and upload the coordinates, the cache name, how difficult it is to find, some hints, and anything else relevant to tracking it down. After that it is available for anyone to go find!

A Morning Hike and Hunt

A few weeks ago I introduced a good friend of mine, Ruth Carter, to this strange little sport. We combined it with a morning hike through a local park, and took my Prius up there to get started. I also took “mini-P”, the matchbox Prius I’ve been carrying around, to visit some of the caches.

Ruth Carter finds a geocache in Dreamy Draw park

We hit the Phoenix Dreamy Draw Park early in the morning, and targeted three caches that would make for a nice hike before it get too hot. We couldn’t find the first one, which drove me bats. I used to be quite good at this, and didn’t want to start out the day with a whiff, but sometimes that’s the way it goes, especially in shifting environments like the desert.

Finally I threw in the towel, and we had much better luck on our next two finds. These were larger ammo cans and once you know what to look for their hiding places are pretty easy to find. We got a bonus on the last cache, the View of UFO Crash Site, which gave a great view of Phoenix as the sun came up.

We finally called it a morning because of the heat. We had a great time, and two out of three ain’t bad.

Give Geocaching a try

It’s incredibly easy to do, and more than likely there are caches within walking distance of your house. They are everywhere!

If you’re in Phoenix, it’s starting to be perfect weather for it. Just enter your zip code to find nearby caches, and download the Geocaching app for your smartphone and get hunting!

Oh… and enter to win that Prius!

If you’re interesting in entering to win the Prius c that the Valley Toyota Dealers are giving away, today (September 30th) is the last day! Just visit PriusChallengeAZ.com and click away!

Happy hunting!

Taking a break from the world today…

View from our cabin porch

View from our cabin porch

There are many different types of vacations. My personality tends to favor the Go Somewhere To Do And See As Much As You Can vacation. On these trips I factor in some time to actually enjoy things, but there’s still a plan in place to make sure we get to the right places at the right time and see everything we wanted to. Even that enjoyment time is in the schedule.

The type of vacation I need more often, and finally got last week, was the Disconnect And Reboot Your Brain vacation.

A disconnection vacation is more about taking a break and realigning yourself than seeing the sights. It’s tougher to do in our world of constant connectivity and working vacations, but I think that makes it even more essential.

It’s when an athlete rests that his body heals and grows stronger. It’s when an instrument takes a pause that you hear notes instead of a screech.

Disconnecting gadgets and habits

This past week I was able to get away almost entirely up to some cabins in Oak Creek Canyon outside of Sedona. We took our Prius v from the Prius Challenge to see how it would handle the rain, hills, and curves in the canyon. It held up like a champ.

I had one previously-scheduled class I had to give via wifi at a coffee shop, but other than that I stayed out of email, and off of Facebook and all those other ridiculous networks. This was easier since we were so deep in the canyon we couldn’t get cell signal even if we wanted to.

I hiked, sat on our patio, read (Cloud Atlas – loving it!), practiced sketching, drank some tasty beer, learned some new software programs for ebooks, ate some great food, wrote for my own neglected book, watched the stars, and smoked a few cigars. (some pics, if you’re interested)

Most importantly, I put some distance between myself and my daily habits, not all of which were good ones. Some of those habits I’ll pick up again, others hopefully not, but I gained a little bit more perspective for the distance.