It may come as a shock, but I am a bit of a nerd. I was the president of the Science Fiction club at OSU, and I have dabbled in all of the classic fandoms.

When I was a teenager, I was absolutely obsessed with Star Wars. Back in those days the Expanded Universe was all the rage, with side stories only beginning to gain some mainstream exposure in the form of the Clone Wars cartoon series (long before the CG animated show). It was the comics from Dark Horse that really gave life to the entire franchise, not only expanding on the movies but also on each other, creating a grand mythology that ranged from very dumb to absolutely brilliant.

I have a lot of comics from the era, complete sets of Legacy, Knights of the Old Republic, and Empire. I also have most of Tales of the Jedi in trade paperbacks, and countless other Dark Horse offerings in the vein of Star Wars.

You may be able to tell that I have mixed feelings on modern Star Wars. I like some of it, I especially adore Andor, and I really liked both Ahsoka and the Obi Wan series. I am probably the only person who loved the movie Solo for some reason. But so much of it has been tainted by Disney's creative and operational culture, but you can get that kind of angst off any Reddit comment. I'm here to ramble about stuff I like.

I played a lot of d20 Star Wars during the height of the d20 system, and the game is absolutely an unbalanced mess but it was perfect for us as teenagers wanting to be psychotic droids, sith lords, and weird ass alien smugglers.

When I was growing up, my Dad was a big Star Trek fan. Next Generation was still on television, and I got to live the anxiety of the summer of 1990 not knowing if Captain Picard could be saved. The Borg absolutely scared the hell out of me, and I ended up having a bit of a fear of them through most of my childhood, alongside xenomorphs.

Eventually though, the borg did become less scary. A very dear friend of mine says she considers First Contact to be among the worst Star Trek movies because of the way they water down the borg, which is a highly controversial opinion but has a good point. First Contact helped me get over my fear of the borg, and I enjoy the movie quite a bit, considering it among my favorites, but it does introduce elements that ultimately make them less terrifyingly alien.

My favorite Star Trek is probably Deep Space Nine, making me fairly typical for the fandom. I def think modern trek has had a habit of leaning too much into the dark, taking the wrong lessons from DS9 I would say.

Strange New Worlds is a blessing, and I think it's the best trek to come out in 20 years. Lower Decks too, being a veritable love letter to the entire work. I did enjoy Picard, even if I do think they went way too dark and edgy and had obviously unmotivated hack writing during key points of the first and third seasons.

I played a bit of the Star Trek Online MMO, probably the only MMO I've played a significant amount of, although my social anxiety means I generally don't play it with anyone, which I know is kinda sad.

Just to brag: when I was president of the scifi club on campus, we got the inventor of klingon to come in and talk to the club one year. Aw yea.

And so to finish the trifecta of quintessential nerdery, let's talk about Lord of the Rings. My Dad read me the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings when I was very young, around 5 or 6 years old. It was just beginning to have its big resurgance into the cultural consciousness in the 90s, and both my parents wanted me to be into it because they thought it'd be the perfect fantasy for their boy.

They were, of course, absolutely correct. I became so enamored with Tolkein's world, and when I was around 9 or 10, my Dad got me reading the Silmarillion. Yeah, I never had a chance

I used to imagine being an Orc in Mordor, and incidentally that led to me becoming very obsessed with Warcraft when it first came out (As an RTS). When the movies came out, I was there for all of them, getting my high school girlfriend way more into it all than even I was.

When my Dad was on his deathbed, I told him that it was his time to ride the ships to Valinor, that his duties here were complete. Afterwards, I watched all six of the Peter Jackson films, extended of course. First the Hobbit movies, then the Lord of the Rings, all with my partner at the time. At the end I bawled watching the ships leave Middle Earth.

Afterwards I purchased, put together, and painted (most of it anyway) a Mordor army for the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, with a cool ringwraith in full plate armor at its head.

I may also be the only person who likes Rings of Power. I think it's compelling and well done.

So basically, I count myself a Nerd King (tm). There are of course a bunch of niche nerd things I find myself very into, but I can't resist the solid classics of now. I find it kinda impossible to keep track of everything I'm into. Sometimes it feels easier to list the nerd stuff I'm not that into, like kaiju films. Just never have been able to get into them, no strong feelings about the genre at all.

In any case, I love my nerdy hobbies. I adore them so much, they absolutely give my life meaning.