Well, my girlfriend's been calling me a nerd a lot lately.

That's really not any different than usual, mind you. I guess it's warranted though, especially over the last few days.

You see, last week, I had my geekiest week ever.

It began on Tuesday, which is Miniatures night. I've been dabbling in Miniatures for a little while (both collecting and playing), but this week I kinda went nuts, spent a lot of money, and now I'm addicted to these damn gorgeous things. They are so cool. I love them. I want to marry them. Ok now I know my Geek levels are OFF THE CHARTS. Just like greenhouse gas emissions. So yeah, Tuesday, I bought Miniatures, I admired Miniatures, I swapped Miniatures, I played Miniatures, together with other like-minded buyers, admirers, swappers and players of miniatures.

A couple of days later, after spending half a day in the city (Sydney) geeking out in all the comic and gaming shops I could find, I headed for Supanova 2006, a pop-culture convention. This is the first time I've been to a con like this.

There was a fair share of Star Wars stuff happening there. Bruce Spence (played Tion Medon in ROTS) was meant to make an appearance; alas, he cancelled. Apparently Peter Sumner (played Pol "TK-421, why aren't you at your post?" Treidum in ANH) made an unexpected appearance, but unfortunately I missed that. Hopefully next year will attract some of the bigger names.

There was a viewing of that Star Wars fan-film, Reign of the Fallen. It was... eh... I didn't like it. To me, it was cosplay with a soundtrack. I think "epic" was the goal here, and they succeeded, in making a big epic nothing. The people around me seemed to like it; they applauded during the end credits. Maybe it was actually good and perhaps I'm just a cynic. But I was glad to get out of there. In its defense, I must say that it was presented pretty poorly, set up in a noisy bright room, and I did miss some of the dialog at the beginning.

It had nothing on TROOPS. No fan-film beats TROOPS. Ever. I always assume that every self-respecting Star Wars fan has seen TROOPS, but if you have not, then for god's sake man, stop reading this inane blog and watch TROOPS right frakkin' now.

Thankfully the 501st Legion were present; seeing them up close is quite impressive. I had my photo taken with a regular stormie and a scout trooper. Isn't it funny how when you want to look the calmest you can possibly be for a photo, you end up looking lamer than ever, with the standard stupid lazy-eyed pasted grin. I for one blame digital cameras. They take very ugly photos. I mean, the choices are endless - my preference is the blurred yet very colourful picture taken with no flash, rather than the crisp picture where everything in the frame acquires that ghastly white reflection. I hear that sticking tissue paper over the flash provides a somewhat happy medium. Oh and you gotta love high-resolution these days. Who the hell cares if it takes ten minutes to capture a single photo - it's twenty times larger than what my monitor can display; and that's what counts. Regardless of the subject that walked out of the frame in that endless lull between pressin' the button and the picture being captured.

Think happy thoughts.... oh yes: Novus Ordo. They're a Star Wars costuming group, and exhibited an awesome presence, with Mara Jade, Jango Fett, General Grievous, Amidala, Darth Nihilus and others, but perhaps most notably, a Slave Leia in Metal Bikini. In America, it seems that having 20 of these girls at a con is the norm these days. Well, here down-under, we're happy with just one.

There were plenty of stalls selling figurines, photos, Miniatures, comics, and all that. It was cool to see that my local comic shop had a stall.

The biggest attraction was easliy Summer Glau, aka River from Firefly / Serenity. She is cool. I felt kind of guilty seeing the large queue waiting patiently for her autograph, while the actors from Stargate and wherever else they are from were twiddling their thumbs. Ah well... I got her autograph, so I was happy. I bagged a photo with her too, sort of. Did I mention digital cameras are trash? This is true, but sometimes, you can really blame nobody other than the photographer. Here's a lesson for you kiddies: Don't let the chubby security guard take the important photos, because this will be the result. A real keeper, no? Seriously, a gorilla would have done better.

Anyway, Supanova ended, but my Geek Week did not. For the next day, I would be roleplaying with my girlfriend's brother and his friends. I'm surprised I actually agreed to doing this, because, 1, it was a non Star Wars RPG (it was based on Shadowrun), and 2, because I only just barely survived my last roleplaying encounter that was Necronomicon 2005. It was cool though. I based my character on Ghent.

So that was my geekiest week ever. It was such a geeky week that I even forgot about my mate's Halloween Party, which would have been freakin' awesome, and I'm very bummed that I missed it. I haven't seen my "normal" (non-geek) friends for about two weeks; that's terrible.

In retrospect, I feel kind of guilty, perhaps even dirty somehow. You know that feeling you get after a week of too much fatty food, or too much booze, or something like that.

I had to do something to break out of my Geek Week. So I made a two hour bike ride out to a friend's house a few suburbs away. Not that riding a bike is a particularly hip thing, but it made me feel better. A sense of achievement, you might say. Whatever.

The moral of the story? Well, being a geek is fine, but like anything else, it should be taken in moderation.