Fanboy & Freakazoid
Way back in March, I was asked what I ‘Geek Out’ on. For those that don’t know the term, it means flipping out in ecstasy about a certain thing. It could be a movie, a TV show, a book series, an author, a dog breed, bacon, gluten free, or whatever gets your heart so aflutter that you see angels. Or see whatever it is you think you’d see when dying. I don’t know. I assume I’d see mountains of pizza that have been enchanted to help me lose weight and a writing cabin in the woods. Have I wandered off the topic already? Yes, so let me answer the question.
I truly have no idea if I’ve ever ‘Geeked Out’ entirely. I get excited about things like the upcoming Jurassic World and James Bond movies. Season finales of TV series that I like get a lot of attention. Yet I don’t think I’ve ever gone full on, hyperventilating, everything else sucks Fanboy on anything. It’s strange, but I honestly don’t think I have it in me for some reason. At least not any more and younger me always felt like I had to restrain my happiness. A lot of emotional bottling in those days. Currently, I just can’t push myself that far. I have an idea of where this came from and it actually stems from a specific fandom that will go unnamed. Just got driven nuts by my friends who were into this thing and it actually made me realize that ‘Geeking Out’ has a downside. At least when you’re doing it around people who aren’t on your wavelength.
Now, I have gotten obsessed over a few things to the point of making myself a wee bit batty and nearly taking a friend or two with me. This tended to happen with video games and the best example is Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. Specifically, this part:
That would be the Dhaka who is after the Prince to wipe him out of the timeline. You don’t fight this thing until the end and only if you unlock a special weapon. All you can do is run and the camera isn’t the nicest thing here. One grab and you’re gone. One stumble and you’re gone. This chase took me hours and I had a friend on the phone when I was doing it because he just happened to call at that moment. The Griffin and Queen were pains as bosses in this game and aggravated me because they were so cheap in the fights. The Dhaka was a personal grudge match because of this chase. Keep in mind that this is the 3rd one and he shows up at least 5 that I can think of.
Oh and a humorous part of this story: The music you hear in the video is ‘I Stand Alone by Godsmack’, which played during every chase. I was so obsessed with beating the Dhaka that my friend had some fun at my expense. He changed his ringtone to the song when we hung out and would randomly set it off. For months, I would jump to my feet and look around before I remembered I wasn’t playing the game. Even now, I can’t hear that song without my heart racing a bit.
That’s probably the closest I’ve been to fully ‘Geeking Out’ over something. Not really the same thing since it was built more on pride than joy. Though I did get a lot of joy from winning that chase. In fact, I had a save file for right before it and I’d do it again every now and then to make myself smile. I really went off topic here.
So, what do you go ‘Fanboy/Fangirl’ over?
