Noah is on his way to sci-fi geek status
My old friend, Robert, has always been a geek. He was president of the Central Ohio Dr. Who fan club at about fourteen and by the time I met him (he was 21, I think? I can’t remember — I was about to turn 17) he had focused his geek-energy on being a 4AD punk rocker. You know, Cocteau Twins, etc. (His mix-tapes set the standard for me throughout my formative years.) Nowadays he’d be called a goth but this was before there were all those sub-categories. People with funny hair in Columbus Ohio in the mid-80s were simply “alternative” or “punks.”
Anyway, Robert now has the disposal income to let his inner-geek run wild and he has an impressive collection of Godzilla memorabilia so when Noah decided that he would be a fan of Godzilla (despite never having seen the movies) I directed him to Robert with his questions. Burning questions like, “Is Godzilla a boy or a girl?” (Boy, if you didn’t know.) Robert, being a generous sort of man not to mention a tad evangelical, not only answered Noah’s email (with pictures) but sent Noah a large almost-birthday package of Godzilla toys, DVDs and magazines.
Can you believe this? See the incredulous joy on that nearly-9 year old boy’s face? Robert just made his whole damn week, honest to goodness. And Noah watched Godzilla vs. Mothra and declared it “really good” even though he thought the animation was not so hot. Still, he was able to see beyond that to the coolness of the actual Godzilla legend.
Between this new fixation and his continued admiration of showtunes, Noah is surely on his way to being a nerd extraordinaire. It’s a good thing we homeschool.
Thank you, Robert!!!
> Nowadays he’d be called a goth
Actually, nowadays, I’d be called “bald”, or “old”, or both! I’m so un-goth now, that yesterday I saw that The Sisters of Mercy were doing a big tour, wrapping up here in San Francisco in March. I was all ready to get tickets until I found out they were $42.50 apiece!!! WTF??? Man, I don’t pay that much for a ticket for bands that actually still release albums on a regular basis, let alone SOM!!!
Anyway, these pictures are GREAT! Makes me so happy. Reminds me of similar pictures of me at that age, except I think the boxes were Star Trek or GI Joe the spaceman. Just remember, if he grows up to be a geek, you can’t blame me. I just *fed* the desire, I didn’t create it!
I am worried about one thing, though: that pile looks too big. It didn’t look that big in the boxes. Heck, when he gets this much stuff from strangers for his birthday, Mom and Dad have some pretty high expectations to meet (I told you you should have sequestered one of those!).
I love the picture. My daughter is into the Laura Ingalls Wilder books right now and had that look on her face when she opened my sister-in-law’s Christmas present, a rag doll made to look just like Laura’s doll Charlotte.
Thanks for the great blog.
Godzilla is a girl right? She had babies in the film….What a sweet thing that Robert did, and that photo is gorgeous, I love his happy face.
Is a geek really the same thing as a nerd? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself for years.
My guess is they’re not the same, but I don’t know exactly what makes them different. IMHO, being a fan of something like Godzilla makes you more of a geek than it does a nerd.
Now, the fact that I even dwell on this question: does that make ME a geek or a nerd? :o)
Dawn, how cool is that! And in that picture Noah looks EXACTLY like you.
Does this mean I can geek out by sending Noah musicals? Does he already have Into the Woods?