The Benefits of Escapism

Sometimes, the world really sucks. It’s beginning to feel like every time we start to heal and move on from one tragedy or disaster, another strikes. Last week I was dealing with flooding in our area, and the persistent threat of tornadoes, but all of that faded into the background with what happened in Orlando.

This is by no means a post rehashing the news, or remarking on the politics now surrounding it. I’m in dire need of a break from it all, just as I’m sure you all are, no matter your personal affiliations. It’s times like these that I really do marvel at the beauty of literature, music, and films to take one’s mind off of things. This is when I’m most in need of all guilty pleasures, no matter how small. Red wine and some cookie dough ice cream while watching Netflix? Yep, I’m there.

One of my personal favorite guilty pleasures is historical romance novels. For a bit of light reading full of lush clothing and descriptive language, it can be interesting enough to keep my attention and absorb me so that I forget the awfulness of the world around me. Plus, it has the benefit of being comfortingly predictable; as a reader, you know exactly where the story is heading. Love will triumph and the hero and heroine will ride off into the sunset together. It’s incredibly reassuring and serves its purpose wonderfully: escapism.

Everyone has their own form of escapism. Literature is a fantastic one, because you can honestly imagine yourself in the shoes of a heroine and lose yourself in a new world that you create in your mind. Geek culture is full of ways to indulge in escapism. Science fiction and fantasy novels can be brilliant, richly detailed escapism. The multitude of geek-central television shows we currently have, whether presently airing or available on Netflix (Firefly, anyone?) are a fantastic source of comfort right now. Plus with all of the great movies coming out this year, there has to be one or another that you can check out in the weeks to come.

Editor: There we go. Firefly, Good, and Evil, all in one image.

I’ve talked before about how I use the phrase “popcorn movie” as a positive phrase because there is something so deliciously wonderful about being able to absorb myself in a film for two hours, whether or not the movie is full of substance. Popcorn movies are perfect for times like these, when all we really want is to munch some popcorn in a dark theatre and “ooo” and “ahhh” over some really cool graphics and Good vs. Evil stories. Especially because popcorn movies, like historical romance novels, give us the sense that good/love can and will win.

So I say make sure to indulge in some escapism this weekend, in whatever awesomely geeky way you want. And then Monday, pick yourself back up and face the world and do your best to emulate the heroes in the fandom you indulged in and try to make sure that good will win, even in our presently sucky world. Whether by speaking out against hate, donating time, money, or blood, writing to your lawmakers or voting, or even reaching out to your friends and family and letting them know you love them. Use your geeky escapism to bolster your spirits and refresh yourself so that you can help tackle the problems we all face.

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Top 5 Ways That a Baby is Like CL4P-TP (Clap-Trap)

Liked CL4P-TP so much that it’s the centerpiece of my Warmachine army.

A while back, and with a younger Geek Baby, I talked about how a baby is a lot like a bad boss. As the Geek Baby has grown, I’ve come to think of another strong analogy for what I am reminded of.

Beyond looking good in yellow and being short and fast, a baby is a lot like CL4P-TP, or Clap-Trap, from the Borderlands video game franchise. A prominent NPC in the first two games, and a playable character in the third game…  the game 1.5? The Pre-Sequel. Clap-trap is always good for a laugh, for an annoyance, and sometimes for the plot. In the second game, he is your early-game tutorial. He’s the antagonist of a DLC in the first game.

And he’s incredibly quotable.

So here are my top five reasons that a baby is a lot like CL4P-TP.

My Adopt Don’t Shop Story

So even though X-Men Apocalypse was the one movie I’ve really been looking forward to this year, I have a confession…

I haven’t seen it yet. P and I instead spent the weekend making a big life-changing decision.

We rescued a dog. We’ve been talking about getting a dog together for most of our relationship, and it was finally a good time to do so. I brought a lovebird into our relationship, but we really wanted a dog too, and so he’s now older brother to our rescue, Frankie (Frank the Tank).

Looking sassy post-bath

A Tale of Two Board Books

Our favorite Board Book we’ve found for the Geek Baby – especially that isn’t one that we remember from growing up (nostalgia is a thing!) – is Hello Ninja by N.D. Wilson.

It’s a great little read, full of fruit-chopping ninja action. It’s cute, and while on the one hand it seems like a lot of it is play or imagination, on the other hand it never even implies that such a thing would make the boy less of a ninja.

The book only has the one “he” pronoun, and the ninja is covered up pretty much throughout… nothing that makes it at all that it has to be a boy. Our little Geek Baby can ninja too!

So I finally decided that we should buy the second board book by N.D. Wilson, that we kept seeing advertised on the back of the book. We loved this one so much, the other one had to be good too, right?

Right?

Why Science Fiction Today is Important

I know it has been a while since I actually wrote a Science Fiction Today post, but in the current political climate I am reminded why we started writing them in the first place. I am honestly sick of most politics today. We keep congratulating ourselves for throwing more and more money at situations without bothering to take the time to examine why things are happening. One thing I love about doing Science Fiction Today is that we can take a step back and imagine the entire world differently.

Part of what is great about trying to look at things from a science fiction perspective is you are no longer constrained by what the world looks like now. Some of the ideas we present really would not work in today’s world, but who knows where we will be in another 50 or 100 years and what could that mean for the problems that we are currently facing?