"Now that I'm in love with a geek."

As I was leaving work one day last week, I bumped into Steven, the boyfriend of our admin manager, Wendy.*  Steven is a talented artist who has been involved in the production of several major animated series such as The Avengers, as well as writing and drawing several independent one-off comic books and developing other personal creative projects.  In addition, he's an ardent comic book fan, and as such our conversations tend to turn in that direction.

We chatted for a few minutes until Wendy came downstairs, and then I walked along with them on my way to the bus.

As part of the conversation, I commented to Steven, "I've been waiting to say this to someone who would know what I was talking about - my god, Bernie Wrightson died!"

Steven replied, "Yeah!  I didn't even know that he was sick until I heard that he was dead, but apparently he's had brain cancer for quite a while."

At this point, Wendy piped up with, “Wrightson defined the look of the modern zombie, didn’t he?” ** 

I'm reasonably certain that until she met Steven, Wendy would have never heard of illustrator and comic book artist Bernie Wrightson, let alone be able to cite his contributions to the aesthetic of the undead.  It touched me a bit to think that, as part of their relationship, she'd learned and retained this bit of arcane trivia regarding Steven's interests.

 I couldn't help but think of my wonderful girlfriend Karli, who bought us tickets to Science World for our first date, and who has in our two short years together happily joined me in visiting giant robots in Japan and Star Trek exhibitions in Seattle, texted me Star Wars jokes, stood in a Borg regeneration alcove, taken me to Game of Thrones improv, listened to astronauts sing, slept in haunted houses, watched episodes of Doctor Who with me, purchased me a 75th anniversary edition of The Hobbit and a Halo UNSC M6 sidearm, helped me relive my childhood, and even contributed to this blog.

So, on behalf of geeks everywhere, I'd like to express our gratitude to all of the significant others like Wendy and Karli who have endured, enabled and embraced the fandom of their partner. Thank you so very VERY much - it makes us feel loved.  For a lot of us, that hasn't always been the case.

- Sid

 

* Wendy is a fine person who has an unfortunate habit of hiring people with no knowledge of Star Trek.

** If any Walking Dead fans out there were wondering why the final episode of this season was dedicated to Bernie Wrightson, now you know.

Kaedama!

What does the well-dressed geek wear for ramen?  That's right, a Mighty Atom/Astro Boy t-shirt from the Nakamise-dōri market in Tokyo.*

- Sid

P.S.  Shout-out to Ramen Danbo at Fourth and Burrard!

* Hopefully my sister Dorothy will not comment that it isn't really Japanese enough.

Marching for Science.

 

“The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson

“Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.”

Carl Sagan

Distrust and violence against science is one of the standard post-apocalyptic themes in science fiction: civilization collapses, due to either a pandemic, thermonuclear warfare, drastic climate change, or d) all of the above, and the remnants of humanity turns their anger on the scientific community for either causing the catastrophe or failing to stop it.

The current situation is an odd reversal of this plot.  Rather than an angry mob venting its rage upon scientists after the world has fallen apart, instead there has been a sort of general denial of the validity of science as it attempts to warn the world of potential future disasters.

For the most part, this seems to be an American issue - I don't think of science denial as being as strong in any other part of the world.  However, the degree to which anti-science has become prevalent in the USA certainly makes up for any shortfall elsewhere on the planet.

But what is science?  It's more a question of what science does rather than what it is.  The scientific method allows us to develop an understanding of the nature of the universe, from the smallest particle to the ends of the cosmos, with a basis in fact rather than belief.  Experimentation proves or disproves theories:  every experiment advances our knowledge of how things work, and that knowledge allows us to advance as a species.

And yet, somehow this crucial foundation of our society has fallen into disrepute - the Trump government has slashed funding to the sciences, climate change denial is widespread, anti-vaccination exemptions have become commonplace, and apparently there were dinosaurs on Noah's Ark.*

The March for Science is a celebration of science.  It's not only about scientists and politicians; it is about the very real role that science plays in each of our lives and the need to respect and encourage research that gives us insight into the world.  

This coming Saturday, a total of 517 Science Marches in support of science are taking place in 54 different countries all around the world, including one here in Vancouver.  (For complete information about the March for Science Vancouver, visit the event's Facebook page.)  It's gratifying to see such a widespread display of support for science and scientific research - but more than a little sad that it's necessary to call for such a display in the first place.

- Sid the Science Kid

* Adolescent dinosaurs, so that they wouldn't take up too much space and crowd out the other animals. No, seriously.