Nerdity
“Make me a sammich!” Week
In addition to a kick-ass t-shirt, this year I gave my husband a “Gamer Kit” for his birthday. In the kit, pictured above, I included 1600 Microsoft Points to use on XBox Live, two bags of M&Ms (his personal favorite), and a Certificate of Sandwich that read as follows:
This certifies that
RUDY JAHCHAN
Has successfully aged one more year
and that his beautiful wife will make him
A SANDWICH
Upon request any day during his Week of Gaming
That’s right, I vowed to make him a sandwich whenever he said “Make me a sammich!”
The expression, meant to belittle women by saying they are only useful in the kitchen, is often used by asshole sexist gamers. My husband is not an asshole, nor a sexist, so I guess that’s why I thought it would be fun to give this to him as a gift. In fact, it has made him one of the most grateful men in the multiverse!
Before presenting him with his certificate, I stocked my fridge with a bunch of his favorite cold meats, cheese slices, lettuce, tomatoes, and a delicious artisan whole grain bread from the bakery section of our local grocery store. My mission was to “make him a sammich!” anytime he asked me this week (Monday-Friday) during his video game vacation. Of course, he never used the expression because he’s too nice, but he certainly had a fun Week of Gaming where he finally played through Mass Effect 1 & 2; games he owned, but never had the time to play.
It’s been a fun week and I’m proud of the sandwiches I’ve made. They were healthy and delicious, so I thought I would share photos and descriptions of them here, in case some of you feel like going and making your own sammiches. ;)
Day One: Roast Beef and Pepper Jack
Slices of roast beef, pepper jack cheese, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, and Dijon mustard on La Brea whole grain bread. Served with celery, baby carrots, and hummus for dipping.
Day Two: Tuna Melt
Tuna salad with provolone cheese melted in the oven on broil, sliced tomatoes and lettuce on La Brea whole grain bread. I also suggest adding a dash of Miracle Whip as well for a little extra zing.
Day Three: Pastrami
Hot pastrami and mustard on La Brea whole grain bread grilled panini-style!
Day Four: Wait… what?!
Oops… no more homemade sammiches! We went to DisneyLand and got lazy for the rest of the week. :P
There were a few more sandwiches I was planning to make if he asked me, but we ran out of bread and started eating out after DisneyLand. A few ideas I had up my sleeve: grilled cheese; egg salad; black pepper smoked turkey breast and provolone; and a grilled chicken sandwich made with the leftovers from Fajita Night.
I hope this post has given you some ideas for your gamer… especially if that gamer is yourself. ;)
Now it’s time for me to go tell some 12 year old boys on XBox Live to make ME a sammich! Later, n00bs…
Casey McKinnon on 1337 Lounge Live
In case you missed it live, you can now see the short recap of my appearance on Jace Hall‘s 1337 Lounge Live where I discussed my love of video games, and my recent single Santa is an Atheist. Enjoy!
Today only: Win a signed copy of Dixit from TableTop!
Hey all! Geek & Sundry is giving away copies of Dixit signed by me, Wil Wheaton, Beth Riesgraf and Leo Chu. Click here today to enter for your chance to win!
And if you still haven’t seen the episode of TableTop where we play Dixit, be sure to check it out here! It’s a really fun game and would make a helluva holiday gift!
Portal Casey/Chell pin-up prints now available!
Last year the talented Len Peralta, known for his awesome Geek-a-Week trading cards, drew a pin-up version of me as Chell from Portal. Well, prints are now available for purchase online, so get ‘em while their hot!
Join me at NMX for “In Search of Super Fans!”
I’ve been invited to speak on a panel at the New Media Expo (NMX) in Las Vegas this January. The panel, entitled “In Search of Super Fans,” will feature myself along with fellow web series producers/actresses Tara Platt and Kristen Nedopak, and will be hosted by loveable YouTube personality Andre “BlackNerd” Meadows. Here is the full description from the site:
You know they’re out there — the kind of fans who will follow their favorite projects, creators and stars to the ends of Middle Earth. But attracting their attention and their loyalty isn’t easy. Learn the tips you’ll need to win them over and keep them coming back, click after click.
The conference will be held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, and our panel will take place on Monday, January 7th at 2:45pm. Register here to join us!
I was on TableTop…
…but not in the nyotaimori kinda way. More like in the Geek and Sundry kinda way, which means more clothing and less sushi.
I had a really fun time shooting this, and I would do it again in a nanosecond! It’s probably one of the most fun things I’ve ever done aside from playing games with friends OFF-camera! Everyone at the shoot was wonderful, from the amazing and hilarity-inducing Wil Wheaton, to all my arch nemeses fellow players.
In addition to the episode above, the producers also shot an interview with me about… well, me. So here you go:
And here’s the hilarious gag reel that came out a week later:
Sexy Girl-On-Girl Crime
Ape shall not kill ape. So why do geeks bully fellow geeks?
— Casey McKinnon (@caseymckinnon) July 6, 2012
I’ve been getting a lot of feedback on my “This is why they hate us…” blog post. Some good, some bad, and some ugly. I wanted to set the record straight since there have been some misunderstandings.
The blog post I wrote was meant to ask the question of why there is so much sexism in the geek and gamer community. I didn’t try to write a long essay on the subject, but instead made a short post about a few things I’ve noticed recently; fellow gamers being attacked by misogynists (including a friend of mine), and a growing trend of women taking sexy photos promoting their geek pride.
The artist and pin-up models that inspired me to write the post were not featured as targets of evil, but were instead featured as part of a larger number of people in the community who are using sex to sell a geek image. Sadly, before we could have a civil debate, the models sicced their fans on me and I was barraged with a number of offensive comments, emails and blog posts.
To take a quote from the movie Mean Girls, “There’s been some girl-on-girl crime here.”
Perhaps I should have made it clearer in my post that pin-ups are not to blame for misogyny, but that the growing trend makes the geek girl community look like they are more concerned with looking sexy than actually kicking a dude’s ass at Halo. I certainly don’t believe these girls should be held responsible for the sexist actions of males, but I also don’t believe the act of taking sexy photos contributes to building up geek cred. As in other male-centric circles, we females need to prove ourselves to get onto the same level of distinction as our male counterparts. And if we want to add credibility to the image of the geek girl community we need to do it through knowledge.
In retrospect, I should have just shared Brandon Sheffield’s opinion piece in Gamasutra entitled Video games and Male Gaze – are we men or boys? He put a lot more thought and research into the piece (as I would have if I were writing an article for somewhere other than my personal blog!), and he outlines the problems and solutions for misogyny much more eloquently. Another great article on the subject is Sexually assaulting Lara Croft; required reading if you’re interested in fighting sexism (and other isms) in the geek and gamer community.
Thank you for all your feedback, but this is all I will say on this subject.
This is why they hate us…
Read the update to this blog post here.
I’ve been asking myself recently why I dislike the whole sexy geek girl movement so much. I mean, I was once a sexy blonde at a sci-fi convention dressed like Lieutenant Rand. Then, when Rudy and I launched Galacticast I became known as a geek girl online, featuring my geeky tees in my Daily Self Portrait photo series, and even scoring a t-shirt sponsorship from Think Geek! About a year later I became a subject of a documentary film and photo book called Fangirl Project where I posed in some of my favorite costumes. So why am I becoming so judgmental of the geek girls of today?
Recently I’ve heard about several cases of misogyny in the video game industry; most recently this case where some jerkoff (now fired from his job as a “journalist” for Destructoid) called Felicia Day a “glorified booth babe” who doesn’t “contribute anything useful to this industry, besides retaining a geek persona.” If Day, who has MILLIONS of followers online, hasn’t contributed to the gaming industry with her creative work on Dragon Age: Redemption, The Guild, and being an inspiration to women everywhere to talk more openly about their gaming obsessions, I guess gaming journalists haven’t contributed to the gaming industry either, huh?
Deep sigh.
I think the real problem that has been causing rifts and misogyny in the geek community today is not the simple fact that geek girls exist, but that there is a movement of people who participate in the sexualization of geek girls. Hell, even I’m guilty of doing a sexy sci-fi photo shoot, but there was always a line I would never cross.
Today I came across this Google+ post from artist Justin Chung:
“This is why they hate us,” I thought. And I’ve been facepalming ever since.
If there’s anything that I feel does not contribute to the geek girl community, it’s pin-ups and the whole “Hey! Look at me! I’m dressed like a geek and have bewbs!” type. Felicia Day, however, is not that type. And neither am I.
Sex sells and pin-ups will always exist, but we mustn’t allow them to define the image of our geek girl community. Comparing real-life geek girls to pin-ups wearing geeky costumes is like comparing a kid’s doggie costume on Halloween to a furry. But still, it sure feels like it’s eating our community from the inside out.
Our geek community is better than this. It’s time we show the world the intelligence and dedication our female geeks possess that our male counterparts have always been known for. And it’s time to encourage creative types, whether male or female, to promote a more realistic, everyday geek girl image instead of deconstructing our complexities to flat out sexual imagery.
SRSLY.
And now, on a lighter note, please do enjoy the wonderful musings of Kate Beaton in Strong Female Characters! ;)
The Best Steve Jobs Grief Counselor in Town
I forgot to post this episode of Geek Therapy that I guest starred in earlier this year as “The Best Steve Jobs Grief Counselor in Town!” It was great to work with America Young and Taryn O’Neill again, they are both good friends and fun actresses to work with.
RIP Steve.
DS9 episodes to watch before Season 3!
The other day my friend Neha Tiwari tweeted the following:
I really want to go home and watch some DS9 now…I know the first season isn’t that great,is season 3 where it picks up? (remind me tweeps)
— Neha Tiwari (@Nehalia) May 18, 2012
Since I just finished re-watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on Netflix, I know quite a bit about the series and understand Neha’s desire to start with season three because that is where the series really picks up. Overall, DS9 is the best Star Trek series to date, but in the first couple of seasons it suffered from too many Bajoran-based storylines and being overshadowed by its predecessor Star Trek: The Next Generation. Like any new series, it took some time to develop characters and come into its own, but by season three it had succeeded; DS9 raised the bar with epic three-episode story arcs and, after seven seasons, ended its run with a mind blowing, tear jerking ten-episode finale.
All that being said, I still feel it’s important not to miss a few episodes from season one and two since they introduce some amazing cross-season storylines and feature recognizable guest stars you will enjoy. So, if you want to skip ahead like Neha, I made this helpful list to help you breeze through the first two seasons without feeling like you’ve missed anything.
Season 1:
- Emissary: Picard’s in it and it’s a truly excellently written pilot episode. Watch it.
- Q-Less: Q returns with Vash. As a TNG fan, you have to see it.
- If Wishes Were Horses: A fun episode where everyone’s imagination becomes reality. I love the sexual tension between Dax and Bashir.
- The Forsaken: Lwaxana Troi FTW! Surprisingly touching and hilarious story with Odo.
- In the Hands of the Prophets: Season finale. Introduces you to the future evil of Kai Wynn. So evil. Seriously, would someone please kill this woman with fire?!
Season 2:
- The first three episodes are a full story arc that have a rather sexy Bajoran Steven Webber and Frank Langella.
- Invasive Procedures: Not the greatest episode, BUT it has Tim Russ (Lt. Tuvok from ST:VOY) and John Glover (Lionel Luther from Smallville) it it!
- The Alternate: Sweet Odo episode.
- Whispers: Great O’Brien episode.
- Blood Oath: First major Klingon episode.
- The Wire: Good Garak episode. One of the first episodes focusing on my favorite character!
- Crossover: The first mirror universe episode since ST:TOS!!! SOOOO AWESOME!
- The Jem’Hadar: The season finale that leads into the first two episodes of season 3.
Now, go watch them and feel free to let me know in the comments if I’ve missed any episodes… I’m just waiting for the wise guy that tells me I forgot to mention Move Along Home. I didn’t.
