The Guild - The Jerd

Stunt Work for Fitness - DC Stunt Coalition

This website started with a single idea – That if my fellow geeks and nerds were introduced to physical activities that were both mentally engaging and fun, that they would be more inclined to get off their couch and exercise.

Originally I envisioned doing a web-series on YouTube where I traveled around finding geeky physical activities, trying them out and then grading them for the viewers.

After having this brilliant idea, and starting this website with no forethought or planning at all, (you can see our origin story here) I realized three very important things:

I had no idea what I was doing when it came to making or editing videos.
Even if I knew what I was doing, I would not be able to produce them fast enough to make it worthwhile on it’s own.
Since proper diet is such a huge part of living a healthier lifestyle, a big piece of the fitness puzzle would still be missing. (I don’t think anyone wants to see a video of me shopping for my kitchen essentials!)

I didn’t let that stop me though, I had a vision and a goal I wanted to achieve so I just modified things a little and kept moving forward!

If I learned anything from the things that inspired this site, namely Kevin Smith’s book “Tough Sh*t“ (seriously, read it… it changed my outlook on life) and Felicia Day’s single-minded devotion to bringing her web-series “The Guild” to fruition, it is that if you believe in something just do it.

Being scared that you are going to fail, or putting things off until you are “more prepared” is a surefire way to never get anywhere. In fact, this mirrors my view on fitness as well; stop waiting and just get moving! (Check out my thoughts on the Basics of Getting in Shape)

So what exactly am I rambling about?

After wandering around outside on Preview Night and then braving the convention on Day 1 of Comic Con, I felt as if I had a good rhythm down. Start off teasing, by heading to an off-site event to let the crowds disperse at the doors a little, get my nerd on with some of my web heroes and then head to the Con itself for some deep entry and exploration. Followed by pulling out of course, no more little Jerdlings for me!

WARNING – LINK BOMB INCOMING!

So back to the Belo lounge we went, this time to sit in on a panel run by Jeff Lewis and Sandeep Parikh of “The Guild” fame, where they promoted some seriously funny new projects along with Teal Sherer. So we watched footage from Save the Supers, Season 2 of the Jeff Lewis 5 Minute Comedy Hour, Chatroom of Solitude and My Gimpy Life. All, very funny and well done projects that I will definitely be following.

After an interesting Q&A session and meet-n-greet, we wandered back down to Comic Con itself for another day of fighting the crowds and checking out the convention floor.

We wandered, spending most of our day in Artist Alley perusing and buying prints to expand our collection of art to hang in our rec room.

That’s not armor, *this* is armor…

There were definitely more people on Friday and the number of Cosplayers at least doubled. Let me say this upfront, I don’t get Cosplaying. Not one bit. Whether I get it or not though, I have the utmost admiration for the level of effort that goes into making some of these costumes! Outstanding! As I was admiring one gentleman’s ultra realistic Iron Man suit I realized that at some point the sight of someone in mechanized armor, just walking around, had become somehow normal… and it kind of boggled my mind! When I was a kid I knew that the characters in my comics were purely fictional, but at some point the magic of cinema had progressed to such a level that no longer did I even bat an eye when I saw something so fantastic right there in person before me. It is as if I naturally just accept these things as potentially real now. Strange. As we wandered we managed to grab a few more autographs, see some amazing movie props (Holy Tom Bombadil the trolls from the Hobbit were there on display and they were fantastic!) checked out a panel on voice acting and really just enjoyed the experience and spectacle f it all together; that is until tragedy struck.

You see loyal readers; this is the part of the adventure where the hero falters. Where his steely disposition cracks and his weakness pours forth onto the ground, like the entrails of a Tauntaun, for the world to see. That’s right, I fanboyed out. Hard. I admit it. Am I proud of it? Not at all, but the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem and evidently I do. You see, I wanted to get Michele Boyd to sign her Steve Jackson Games Guild Munchkin Card and to meet the rest of Team Unicorn as they were amongst the group of web-celebrities I hold in high regard for their creativity and ability to make me laugh. What came stumbling out of my mouth though was nothing close to that. I am pretty sure I yammered “I’m a big fan,” twice, and slid my card across the table towards her with all the grace and class of an inbred howler monkey. It was an epic fail.

Why did I take that particular moment to geek out? I don’t know (but man, my wife has not let me live it down yet) but I want to apologize to Michele if she’s reading (yeah, that happens) for my fumbling and inability to form a coherent sentence. Thanks for signing the card in spite of my possible impersonation of a serial killer, and thanks to you and your friends for putting out content that inspires…

She wrote “Stupid”, not me!

Now if I can only track that Wil Wheaton fellow down, I will have a complete autographed set. [Sheldon]Wheeeeeaaaattttonnn!!![/Sheldon]

All in all it was a spectacular time, and yes I fully intend to be in attendance next year assuming I can fight my way through to obtain tickets. Hopefully a four-day pass will be mine so I can comfortably attend a few panels and check out the Masquerade on Saturday night. If you are a geek, a nerd, or whatever and want to realize that you are indeed not alone in your particular level or area of fandom, I highly recommend braving the journey to this mecca of geekdom.

See you next year ~~at Comic Con~~ in Nerdvana! Let me know if you plan on going!

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After an interesting Q&A session and meet-n-greet, we wandered back down to Comic Con itself for another day of fighting the crowds and checking out the convention floor.