8 Years of The Geekiary: 8 Great Geeky Moments from the Past Year

The Geekiary was launched on March 3rd, 2013.  In that time, we’ve written over 7,000 posts, had almost 10 million readers, and attended over 100 conventions.

To celebrate our anniversary, we’ve compiled a list of eight great geeky moments from the past year, ranging from our last major event before the world went into lock down, all the way up until now.  The world has been a bit different this year, but we’re still all active in our fandoms, producing content, and having incredible experiences.  A pandemic isn’t going to keep us down!  And these eight great geeky moments from the past year prove it.

1) Khai Published A Book

A few years ago during SDCC, I found myself crashing at a friend’s house with Alex DiCampi. We started kicking around the idea of a comic anthology of war stories: written by service members, drawn by working comics professionals. Now, after a successful Kickstarter, True War Stories is hitting the shelves in actual book stores and local comic shops.

It’s a personal triumph for me, because these stories aren’t told with any political agenda. They’re just the stories soldiers like to tell each other: ridiculous stories, melancholy stories, stories that made me pee laughing every time I saw the pages during editing. I even have one from my first deployment in there.

The veterans (and artists) we worked with are a diverse group as well. This is a side of the military most people don’t get to see, and I’m pretty hyped to finally share it.

Plus, most of the proceeds are going to an awesome group of veteran’s charities. That makes me feel pretty good. 

2) Jamie Went to the Toy Fair (Before Lock Down)

So I was fortunate enough to get in one event in 2020 before the world collapsed. Toy Fair New York was held in NYC just a few weeks before the city went on lockdown.

It had been several years since I last attended, and my first time was overwhelming, but the 2020 TFNY was so much fun! I was invited to Hasbro’s showroom, which was so big it was in a different location, and I got to test out a lot of really awesome toys before they were released to the public.

2020 was such a weird year. I didn’t get to do most of the stuff I look forward to, so I’m really glad that I was able to attend TFNY before going into quarantine. If you haven’t already, make sure you check out my daily recaps (link to recaps – I can pull up the links if you don’t watch to search them), because I did A LOT during my three days at the fair!

3) Angel’s GISH Experience

I’ve been playing this little scavenger hunt called GISH (and by ‘little,’ I mean ‘Guinness World Record Holding‘) since 2011.  GISH is a week long event where teams of 15 create art, do stunts, find items, and spread good in the world.  My team has been coming in as a runner up team since 2012 and we have accomplished many amazing things.  We’ve launched paper airplanes into space, crushed a bus, and did some finger painting while wing-walking on a biplane.  Oh, and collectively GISH has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity, too, which is pretty neat.

This year the hunt was a bit different.  Not only were we all under lockdown, but GISH decided to throw some smaller hunts in throughout the year to help us all have something to do while we quarantined at home.  My GISH experiences in 2020 were some of the best I’ve ever had, and Team Subtext continues to be my rock, my best friends, and the greatest found-family in my life.

4) We Watched Cats Together

As the year began, we were coming off the theatrical release of Cats. We all heard the rumors of weird CGI, cast members being slightly regretful, and overall bad reviews. Of course, when we heard that the film was released on digital during that first week of COVID lockdown, we knew we had to watch it together. Erin, Tara, and Angel hosted the viewing party and cringe-watched the entire movie. 

We talked a lot about the story being just plain weird (still…what is a jellicle cat?), but also discussed the rumored “butthole cut”–no one needs to see that. By the end of it, though, we were all humming “Mister Mistoffelees”.

5) Angel and Erin Learned Languages… For Fandom Reasons

For those of you who frequent our posts and social media, you know we all tend to gravitate to hyperfixations on a regular basis. This is especially true for Angel and her donghua “Tian Guan Ci Fu/Heaven Officials’ Blessing” and Erin with her K-pop and K-dramas. While we both are comfortable with subs, why not just go all in?

Both Angel and Erin have spent the past several months learning Mandarin and Korean respectively. We’ve traded lots and lots of notes about what apps work best for both of us and shared the challenges of not only learning a new language, but a completely new alphabet as well. While it is a lot of work, it is really fun, and our hope is to one day be able to consume without the pesky subs and translations.

6) Khai Made Fandom Masks and Caps

At the start of the pandemic I had a massive stash of fandom-related cotton prints. I like to pick up fun patterns whenever I come across them online or in craft stores, so I had roughly.. I don’t know, twenty or thirty yards of geeky fabric. I used them to make geeky masks for my friends and family, then considered that my contribution.

A few weeks afterwards, two things happened. My friend Pond, a travel nurse working in COVID hotspots, told me she was in serious need of caps fluffy enough to fully contain her hair. Right after that my sister’s sewing machine broke while she was working on a massive batch of masks promised to the residents of a local shelter.

I recruited a friend for some socially distanced sewing (her in her house, me in mine) and we made our way through the caps and the hundred-odd mask order. Then we kept sewing, because there were a lot needed in our neighborhood and fabric was running low in stores. Masks went to my partner’s work, the family upstairs, the local drop-in center- anywhere that asked got Star Wars, Doctor Who, Wonder Woman, Harry Potter, Star Trek, and even a chibi Avengers print.

I don’t remember how many masks we made. I do know that one sewing machine fully broke and I had to get another. Plus, I have maybe two yards of fabric left. If anyone else asks me to make them something I might cry… but at least I know I did what I could to help. 

Also, now I get to buy more fabric. 

7) Tara’s Virtual Convention Experiences

With the pandemic putting the kibosh on almost every single 2020 convention, virtual cons became a Big New Thing, and I was lucky enough to actually participate in two of the best (in my opinion, anyway). I organize Ice & Fire Con, which was the first ever Song of Ice & Fire/Game of Thrones convention in the U.S. and takes place in April. We of course postponed our 2020 event, but it was a nearly last minute thing – we did so less than a month prior to when it was supposed to happen and therefore had very little time to plan.

All that said, our volunteers, guests, and attendees came together in force for what was for many the first virtual convention of the year. We had special events (such as “A Small Council Affair” featuring David J. Peterson, who created the languages for GoT, and a live viewing and cast commentary of Westeros: An American Musical), live discussion panels hosted on our YouTube channel, and even late night Zoom hangouts. While it was obviously nothing compared to what we’re used to, it helped many people – myself included, of course – come to terms with what had been a very difficult first month or so of quarantine.

Much later in the year, Dragon Con 2020 moved to a virtual platform as well, and I’m not the only one who believes they hosted the absolute best virtual convention of the year. While Dragon Con TV had a subscription option prior to 2020, they really upped their game for this event, providing 24/7 entertainment on several “channels” from Thursday evening through Monday afternoon of Labor Day weekend.

On top of that, most of the fan tracks utilized their own YouTube channels to host additional panels and events. Yours truly participated in two panels, both with the High Fantasy fan track – “We Have Always Fought: Warrior Women in High Fantasy” (only available on Dragon Con TV) and “Game of Tricksters“. And for several Saturdays prior to the weekend itself, there were Facebook Lives where organizers talked about all of the things we had to look forward to. Not to mention an official Dragon Con Discord channel and an unofficial Facebook Group, “A Group Where We All Pretend We’re at Dragon Con 2020“, which led to a TON of hilarity.

While of course no virtual convention could possibly compete with the chance to experience these and other events in person, they also opened up the possibility for so many to ‘attend’ who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to, even without a pandemic keeping them away. Sure, we all can’t wait to get back to doing it all in person, but these were still some 2020 high points in geekery (geek…iary? ha)!

8) We Engaged with Our Readers

While we’ve all been isolating alone at home together, we’ve cherished every interaction with you, our wonderful readers.  Every tweet, comment, like, retweet, and share has made us feel not quite so lonely.  For that, we say thank you.

We’re heading into 2021 at full speed, and there’s light on the horizon as vaccines start to roll out and our population approaches herd immunity.  Perhaps we’ll get to see you in person again at a convention this year! Or perhaps we’ll have to wait until 2022. 

Either way, thank you for being here with us whether you just discovered us today, or were with us when we first launched eight years ago.

Author: Angel Wilson

Angel is the admin of The Geekiary and a geek culture commentator. They earned a BA in Film & Digital Media from UC Santa Cruz. They have contributed to various podcasts and webcasts including An Englishman in San Diego, Free to Be Radio, and Genre TV for All. They identify as queer.

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary