Spider-Man, X-Men, video games and Star Wars. These things were all pretty foreign to me once. Upon starting my relationship with my boyfriend a little over six years ago, all that changed.
When we first met I slowly learned that he was a fan of just about every comic-book character ever created. As time went on it was established that if a comic-book film came out we would be at the theater to see it, even if he didn’t particularly care for the comic associated with it. I chalked this all up to a “guy thing.”I was never much on comic-related material aside from Batman. Now I research the latest goings-on at comic cons around the nation, read about the latest comic-book flick coming to theaters and buy comic-book T-shirts that I never would have considered before.
While comic-book cartoons and movies are a big deal, another geeky hobby rules the world of my significant other. This hobby is video games. The boy can spend hours mastering a world of flesh-eating zombies or playing (surprise) one of his favorite comic-book characters in pixilated form. This particular hobby has cost me lots of money in the form of games and consoles for Christmas and birthday gifts over the years. What’s worse, he’s gotten me started too. Before meeting him I had only a Playstation, gathering dust in my bedroom.
Thanks to him I discovered the world of Grand Theft Auto and all has been downhill since. I now own a Playstation 2 and 3, Wii, PSP and Nintendo DS; items I never would have considered worthy of their lofty prices in the past. Today the video game obsession only continues to grow, as he has chosen a career in game development, a choice I encourage since he can at least start making some money for those hours he spends attached to a TV screen, controller in hand. The true nature of the geek within the man I love only recently became crystal clear. We recently watched a film called Fanboys, where a few geeks go on a mission to break into the Skywalker Ranch and watch Star Wars Episode: I. In the movie, two of the characters sport authentic stormtrooper costumes to a Halloween party.
Once he said, “I wish I had a stormtrooper costume,” I knew there would be trouble. Having recently been laid off from his job and on summer break from school, he has a lot of free time on his hands. After the comment about the costume, I knew he would be considering an impulse purchase of a costume online. I was initially correct in my assumption, however he threw me for a loop when he decided that maybe it didn’t make sense to spend that much money on a costume. I was shocked that he had such a logical thought about something as visceral as a stormtrooper costume and thought that maybe I was rubbing off on him a little. He quickly brought me back to reality when he informed me that he planned to make his own.
The days since have been filled with back and forth on what he would make and how he would make it. It started out as a stormtrooper costume made like the original costumes for the film, including the need to create a full-body cast and sculpt plastic.
He came to his senses and realized this may be out of his league, instead settling on creating a stormtrooper blaster gun.
For the
next couple of days I received updated picture texts of the progression
of his geeky project. Once it was finished he was high off the fun of
creating something with his own two hands and decided that he had to
make a costume next. Instead of going back to the impossible
stormtrooper assembly, he aimed to create the bounty hunter Boba Fett.
His plan to create this seemingly complicated costume: a step-by-step
tutorial on making the armor and equipment out of trashcan plastic.
I initially laughed at him for his obsession and doubted the
possibility that he could pull it off. I have since been corrected. He
did a pretty good job. I have spent the years telling him how big of a
geek he is, especially the past couple of weeks. Sometimes it gets
frustrating when his nerdy hobbies and obsessions become a little
overbearing but I have realized that it’s something I would never want
to change about him. I look forward to Halloween when he will be able
to don his hard-earned costume with pride as I stand by inevitably
dressed as Princess Leia, still rolling my eyes but proud to be dating
a geek.
Be sure to check out triadpolitics.info for the latest Triad Politics updates.
