This gif is from the io9 recap

Guys, do you watch True Blood?

I’ll be completely honest. I do not. I didn’t watch last season, and I probably won’t watch this season either.

It’s a shame. I loved the first three seasons, but the whole series has gone off the rails into crazytown–and they’ve been crazytown residents for awhile now.

HOWEVER!!!!! There is a silver lining to this cloud of True Blood insanity, and that silver lining is the True Blood recap series on io9.com.

Meredith Woerner has earned my forever-love for penning some of the funniest, most ridiculously entertaining recaps that I have ever read. Last season’s recaps were filled with fun, whimsy, and shameless adoration for Christopher Meloni, and I’m seriously IN LOVE with the Pro/Con format that she (brilliantly) empolys. I fully anticipate that these recaps will delight me for many weeks to come.

The first recap for the current True Blood season is here.

And here is a giant list of a BUNCH of the ones from last season, if you have time to kill and want to spray whatever you’re drinking all over your computer.

These are all pics from their website gallery, since my pics turned out horribly

This weekend Javi (the boyfriend <3) and I hit up an extremely awesome bar in Chicago: the HQ Beercade!

Located in the Lakeview/Lincoln Park area, the HQ Beercade is a bar featuring a HUGE selection of old school arcade games, as well as a number of pinball machines. Bonus? They’re all FREE TO PLAY.

Yep, I said it. F-R-E-E!!!!

Top Left: Dig Dug Top Right: Javi defending the earth from aliens
Bottom: Unicorn Galaxy’s sweet label

The bar was pretty packed when Javi and I got there  (around 10:30 on Friday night), and we jumped right into the fray. We ordered some delicious Hazed and Confused beer and milled around, looking for an open game.

The first one available was DigDug, which we both proved to be horrendous at.  Then we played some kind of space invasion game called Gorf while we waited for our turn on Mortal Kombat. (My button smashing skills proved to be too much for Javi’s calculated moves–I DESTROYED him!)  Our second round of beer included Unicorn Galaxy IPA (for me) and Meantime’s Barely Wine (for Javi).  I’ve gotta say–that Barley Wine was delicious! Definitely the best drink of the evening.

We ended the night with several rounds of Space Invaders.

As far as bars go, I have to say this was one of my most enjoyable bar experiences in Chicago! I love it when a bar has some kind of entertainment to offer beyond drinking (pool, darts, etc etc) and the vintage games at the Beercade really make it a destination. Not to mention their INSANE list of canned and draft beers!

We will definitely be going back.

FREE! It’s my second favorite 4 letter F-word!

So I would be remiss if I didn’t offer you a sweet blog giveaway at some point. And that point is NOW.

I don’t have much to give, honestly, aside from the silly little DIY projects I make on occasion. So I’m offering this little Wanderlust shadowbox art that I made.

It’s a 6×6 inch shadow box fame. The lovely old map that I used for the background is removable, so you could replace it with a different picture if you’d like. The frame color is more teal than the pictures suggest.

You’re wondering how to enter now, right? Of COURSE you are!

Well, for starters, you’ll need to be age 18 or older, and you must live in the US.

CLICK HERE to go to my entry form!

OR use the form on my Facebook page!

This Giveaway ends at midnight on June 20th, and the contest winner will be announced on June 21st!

Please share this with friends and on Pinterest by pinning the shadowbox image above!

Good luck everyone!

Today may I present: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers!

I really like Lake Bell, who wrote, directed, and stars in this comedy. Additionally, if I wasn’t already in love with my boyfriend, I would probably be stalking Demetri Martin because he’s basically nerd-girl catnip to me.

To sum up: awesome lady-written script + great cast of wonderful comedians = awesomeness. Can’t wait to see this movie!

The Williams clan does the Tower of Terror. How does YOUR family ride rides?

Geeks, particularly superhero and comic book geeks, have a love affair with origin stories. How did the hero become the hero? What prompted her to start her never-ending fight for justice?

Since I am the protagonist of own tale, and since Father’s day is coming up, I’d like to share my personal Geek Origin story. It starts with my parents, Pam and Bruce.

Here they are, being naturally awesome, which is their usual state of being.

Left: Mom and Dad posing at comic con in 2011 Top: The whole family together at my Uncles’ wedding Bottom: My mom fends off a zombie at the Chicago Wizard Con, 2012

They are high school sweethearts who married at the ages of 20 and 21, respectively. I was soon to follow. While pregnant with me, my mom spent a lot of time watching Thunder Cats. (She likes to refer to herself as a “Thunder Cats Ho”). I’m confident that her cartoon-watching affected my gestation in a postive manner.

My earliest geek-related memories involve books and video games. Both of my parents read to me and my little sister CONSTANTLY. Bedtime stories included old poetry (my Mom’s choice), Doctor Seuss, Where the Wild Things Are, James the Jaguar, and (my personal favorite) the Dungeons and Dragons Fiend Folio, which was my dad’s.

In fact, I currently have this book in my apartment. When I went to my parents’ house to take it, my dad even (adorably!) remembered some of my favorite monsters from childhood!

At some point during this young period in my life, I also become enthralled with Greek mythology (Possibly thanks to my parents’ love of the original Clash of the Titans movie). Greek myths–and especially Pegasus–were soon my first geek obsession. I collected pegasus figurines for years, and I have a near-unhealthy knowledge of Greek mythlogy, which helped me immensely when I became an English Major.

We also watched a lot of nerdy movies. The animated versions of The Hobbit, The Return of the King, and The Last Unicorn were big favorites, along with more popular movies like Space Jam.

Kaitlin's Prospective Careers (Kindergarten-3rd grade)
- Pirate
- Artist
- Basketball player
- Pegasus-riding super hero

I can also remember my parents having super nintendo Tetris play-offs in the basement of our first house, and my dad teaching me to play Super Mario. One of my best childhood memories was the day my dad came home and surprised us with a Nintendo 64!

The Force is strong with this family…

When Star Wars:The Phantom Menace came out in theaters, my dad was so excited that he pulled me and my sister out of school early so we could go see it on opening day. I was in the 4th grade, about the same age my dad had been when A New Hope was first released.

4th grade was also the age I met one of my best friends, Michelle, discovered Pokemon (both the game and the cards), and really got interested in Sailor Moon, thanks to the awesome comic book store in our town.

My dad is a HUGE comic book nerd. He’s been going to the same comic book store for most of my life and is friends with the store owner, Greg. My dad did a great job of encouraging my and my sister’s love of comics. We fastidiously collected the full-sized Sailor Moon manga comics, and as we got a bit older, followed the Buffy comics on and off again. When we drew pictures, Greg would post them on the wall of the comic book store for all to see.

My sister and I even went as Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon for Halloween once. Unfortunately, no photos remain from that fateful night, but I do remember my mom being nervous to let us out of the house because we looked like crazy, jailbait streetwalkers in our cobbled-together costumes. And even worse, no one knew who we were supposed to be!

Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Middle School really sucked for me, but it was a definitive period in my Geek life because I had a group of super nerdy friends (and a wonderfully nerdy sister) to share my interests with. My friend Michelle was so obsessed with Star Wars that I’m convinced her knowledge is nearly encyclopedic. My friend Sarah, who literally looks like an elf, was a LOTR and fantasy fanatic. She and I started a LOTR fanfic at the age of 14 and continued it for an epic THREE YEARS. We never did finish our story, since our 17 year old selves had outgrown the characters our 14 year old selves had created, but the fanfic did inspire of a love of writing that I have never outgrown.

Kaitlin's Prospective Careers (4th grade - 8th Grade)
- Egyptologist/ Mummy specialist
- Ventriloquist/ Magician
- Comic book artist (LOL)
- Writer

Left: Me (at 18) and my sister Erin at King’s Cross in London   Top: Me (20) and Michelle on her wedding day  Bottom: Me (16) and Sarah in NYC

Finally Owning the Geekage

I felt the need to keep my nerdy ways under wraps for a long time. I got teased a lot in middle school for number of reasons (such as the fact that I was TINY and under-developed), and I didn’t need to add fuel to that fire by broadcasting my love of Pokemon and Sailor Moon or my talents for Mario Kart. I don’t remember that much of middle school anymore. I spent the majority of those years hiding behind just about any book I could get my hands on: Tamora Pierce, Tabitha Lee, Garth Nix, Jane Austen, Tolkein, all the Harry Potter books that had been published at the time, etc etc.

I still read these all the time!

I wasn’t particularly cool in high school either (surprise, surpise!), but I did Drama Club and took part in a special audition-only class where we wrote a mini musical. Eventually my body grew enough that I could stop wearing clothes from the children’s department.

By the time I hit college, I had reached my “caring what other people think” limit, and I broke free. I dressed up in crazy Halloween costumes, read what I wanted, got my nose pierced, and was genuinely enthusiastic about the things I liked.

Kaitlin's Prospective Careers (High school - Now)
- Writer
- Social Media Marketer
- Professional blogging person
- Lottery Winner
- Wil Wheaton (Seriously. Can I just BE Wil Wheaton?)

Now, at 25, I’m pretty much the person I’ll be for the rest of my life. I’ve got a wonderful geeky family, awesome friends, and an amazing boyfriend who I frequently challenge to intense Pokemon Stadium battles. We talk a lot of smack.

Top L: Me and Javi at Wizard Con   Top R: Me and my Dad (doing Dr. Evil) in Costa Rica            Bottom L: Me and my sis as zombies in the Run for Your Lives race in Indianapilis                   Bottom R: My badass sister posing with Felicia Day

If I could go back and give my younger self some advice, I’d tell her not to worry so much. I’d tell her that things get better, that eventually her boobs do grow in (yay college!), and that she WILL grow taller than 5 feet. And I’d also tell her not to be so ashamed for loving all the nerdy stuff, because eventually she’ll be one of the many geek sirens on the web, singing her nerd song for all to hear.

Mostly, I’d just tell her to not be afraid to be herself.

Hey guys! Remember when I found that paranormal romance book with the same name as my blog?

I promised you a review and I aim to deliver!

Before I start though, here’s a minor Disclaimer:

I’m not really a romance-reader. I’ve read an absurd number of books in my life, and there are many genres that I greatly enjoy, but romance really hasn’t been one of them. It’s not that I don’t LIKE romances, per se. I just get a little tired of their formulaic nature. Of the romances I have read in the past, they’ve all been paranormal. I read Soulless last Christmas when I received it as a gift, and I’ve read the majority of the Sookie Stackhouse novels.  And also one very strange Handsome-Highlander-is-accidentally-transported-into-modern-times-and-sexes-hot-young-historian type book. Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to disclaim is that some of my complaints about Zombies for Breakfast might actually be more about the general recipe of the average romance novel. But I might not know that, since I’m not so familiar with them.

[End Disclaimer]

Okay, moving onward!

My overall impression of Zombies for Breakfast, by Rebecca L Boschee…..was pretty good! I thought her style of writing was really entertaining and thouroughly descriptive. The story was cute, if a bit hoaky, and it was fairly predictable. But–it was also very original. The zombies were less like traditional zombies and more like age-less, non-decomposed vampires that required 8 or so hours of sleep in a small, dark space or their limbs start to detatch and decompose.

Things I disliked about the book:

• It was a first person narrative, so even though Payson, the main character, had an interesting voice and personality, she was never really described. I had no idea what she looked like.
• The love bond between her and her zombie paramour basically appears out of thin air. There’s no real reason for them to bond–they just meet and instantly desire eachother. (Is that more of a Romance novel trope? I don’t know. I’m not a fan of it though. It’s too easy.)
• While there were some steamy and heavily described make out sessions, once the characters FINALLY consummate their relationship, there’s no description AT ALL! I felt cheated. Aren’t the sex scenes half of the appeal for romance novels?
• There were some random loose ends, character-wise. Such as the zombie paramour’s living brother. He didn’t really seem to fufill much purpose as a secondary villain. Didn’t seem all that necessary.

Things I really enjoyed about the book:

• Payson is a pharmascist, but her true passion is natural and herbal medicine. I thought the details given for herbal cures and the overall idea that the herbal meds could really help the zombies was original and great.
• Payson’s zombie roommate and best friend, Eileen, is the most FLESHED OUT (see what I did there? hehe) and entertaining character. She’s really the heart of the whole book.
• The whole idea that a special embalming process can create ageless, perfect zombie people is fun, strange, and interesting
• Zombies doing weed brownies = highly entertaining
• The fact that the book ends without solving the traditional Twilight-like predicament of one character staying the same forever while the other grows old

All in all, Zombies for Breakfast is a fun, light read. It took me a few chapters to really get into it, but once the ball got rolling, I finished the book quite quickly. I think the book did my blog title justice! After all, my blog was on the interwebz quite awhile before this book was published. ;)

I found this awesome tutorial on Pinterest and decided I should give it a whirl.  The DIY tutorial pic is on the left, and my version is on the right. The whole project took MAYBE 30 minutes, including the time I spent allowing the paint to dry.

The full tutorial picture is available here.

I found this image on Pinterest along with the caption “Disney Happily Ever Afters”, and I’m curious: Does anyone else find it a little…disturbing?

I just feel like there’s so much more to life than marriage and babies. No offense to married folks. Or babies. Those are both things I definitely want in my future.

However, my opinion is that wifedom and baby-makin shouldn’t be the end-all be-all of every heroine’s happily ever after. Or anyone’s normal life for that matter.

In Beauty and the Beast, Belle sings, “I want much more than this provincial life,” and I’ve always found that very relatable. Who doesn’t want “adventure in the great wide somewhere”? And why do those adventures have to end at an altar? Or with a child? Sometimes the most exciting adventures happen when the whole family participates (The Incredibles, anyone?). And sometimes women choose not to have children. Or aren’t capable of it.

It’s taken me a long time, personally, to reconcile the fact that your life doesn’t have to follow a specific time line. My parents were 21 and 22 when I was born, and as a kid I expected my life to follow the same pattern. I used to say that I wanted to have children by the time I was 25. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *stops for breath* AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA hahahahahaahahaha!)

Now that I am 25, and living happily with my boyfriend, I’m actually in no rush to get to the altar. The ceremony and the rings and stuff…that’s awesome. I look forward to it. But really, I’m super happy with my life the way it is. I get to hang out with my best friend EVERY DAY. We cook meals together and lay on the couch watching Arrested Development. We go on adventures. I’m more interested in actually living my life than in upholding superfluous time limits that society has set for me. I get to create my own wibbley wobbly time line. And I get to cherish the time I have with my boyfriend, and the fun we have, without all those kid-having responsibilities. We can worry about that later.

Not all of the Disney movies end with actual marriages. Is it so inconceivable to the think Shang and Mulan might go off and have years of adventures and successful military careers before deciding to settle down? Can a happily ever after be achieved without marriage and children?

I’d also like to point out that Pocahontas and John Smith don’t end up together, so no kids for them. But whatevs. I’m just being nitpicky.

I know the artist was just trying to convey what they thought to be the logical next step in each story. And the drawings are quite sweet and heartwarming. I’m just curious why someone would want to end every Disney Story in this way.

Honestly, I’m using this picture as a jumping-off point to start an honest discussion. What do you think? Are there better ways to convey ‘Happily Ever After’? And is this message the kind of message we want to be teaching young girls?

And if we’re talking TRUE happily ever afters, then I much prefer this other version:

Today may I present: Grammar! (And also Pirates of the Caribbean)