#Adventures in Randomness and Rock & Roll w @leah_cevoli

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Leah. She's pretty rad and has an INCREDIBLY random life. Like, no - for reals ... did you know she has an obsession with vampires, psychics, and tarot card readers ... and she had more sex as a teenager than in her 30s ... anddddd she even had two ex boyfriends die violently - one from a heroin overdose, and the other was murdered. Holy moly roli poli oli - that shit be cray cray. Either way, she's now here to write about her life, love, and all things nerd. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT LEAH!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @Leah_Cevoli

Comic Con in one word was AMAZING.

This was my fourth year attending the International San Diego Comic Con; arguably the largest gathering of geeks, nerds, dorks, and creative, talented, passionate people in the universe. www.comic-con.org

This year held a lot of SDCC firsts for me!

MY FIRST SDCC SIGNING/APPEARANCE: For this I have to give a big shout-out to Jonathon London at GeekScape. Jonathon emailed me a few days before con and invited me to bring my fellow Co-Stars from the soon to be epic-fantasy series, Legendary to a signing at his booth. After discussing it, Jonathon and I thought it would be fun to invite the whole Geek Girls Create team.

The signing was a lot of fun, and an absolute great way to start off SDCC2012. The best part about a signing/appearance, is the young girls. And I don’t mean that in a creepy way, I mean the young girls that come up to the table and share a piece of their soul with you. Their eyes light up, and you can see the energy flow of inspiration travelling thru them, as they connect with you, someone who inspires them. If I have one mission in this lifetime, it is to uplift and inspire through my stories and life adventures. And that’s one of the things Geek Girls Create allows me to do.

My first SDCC Panel:

For this I have to thank the amazing Katrina Hill.Our GGC panel was not accepted this year, but Katrina worked her magic and invited TEN amazing women onto her panel, “The Most Dangerous Women of Comic Con”. Katrina wanted to spotlight the movers and shakers in this industry, those of us who are outspoken, proactive, and positive… she organized a great group, and special shout out to our panel moderator Bonnie Burton who someone made time-stop and allowed all 10 of us ample talk time.

I was nervous, not gonna lie.2000 people in the room, on a panel where half the girls I know and the other half are mere twitter legends. But it went off without a hitch, and I found a new Karoake Pal in Clare Kramer, and a fellow Philly girl in Milynn Sarley.

I like making people laugh during panels, and ooh, and ahh… You have to be quick on your feet with a coherent answer, and if at all possible a joke. I like it. I like panels. A lot.

My first Film Project at SDCC:

I’ve recently become the Social Media Manager for an epic science fiction series of feature films, Space Command. For Comic Con, I was hired as Social Media Manager, and a liaison for all things SDCC. Signings/Appearances/Meetings/Street Teams/Parties. 

And as such, after my awesome (all about Leah), Thursday ended. The rest of Comic Con was spent working with and for Space Command.

It felt great to be part of a working team of industry professionals, hell legends (Iain McCaig is our lead character designer.) 

Space Command is an Independent Series of Feature Films, a new Science Fiction Franchise... that is making serious strides, and I am so happy to be on-board. We welcome you to take the ride with us.

Join Us
www.facebook.com/SpaceCommandMovie

www.twitter.com/SpaceCommandMov

Comic Con was filled with purpose for me. I didn’t waste time, searching the convention floor for random folks, or trying to get into the coolest parties.

I had purpose.
I had a team.
I had fans.

And I had a great group of friends by my side, who even throughout their busy schedules, ended up showing up for each other at all the right moments.

In 2008, I drove to San Diego to see the Robot Chicken panel, I had no idea what comic con was. My plan was to drive down for the panel, and drive home afterward. And instead, I tumbled down a rabbit hole. Thank you Robot Chicken for introducing me to this world of magic, mystery, and fairy tales come to life.

Comic Con 2012.. you ROCKED my world.

Thank You.

Live Love. Love Life.

#xoxo

click here to follow Leah on twitter!

#NerdsUnite: Comfort zone be gone!

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Chelsea. She's a newbie to our loverly state of California and is currently trying to find her own voice and find her own way. Gosh, aren't we all??? She's here today to talk about her journey in life, love, and all things nerd. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT CHELSEA!!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @chelofthesea

Fears are like assholes – everyone’s got ‘em! But what exactly is fear? It’s an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. Some of the most common are heights, public speaking, spiders, snakes, and closed spaces. Many of these fears are actually evolutionary and help to keep us safe. For example, being afraid of a snake makes you less likely to get bit by one because you’re not going to run up and pet it like you would someone’s pug walking down the beach. (Side note – what if we walked snakes? Weird but I kinda like the image of that.)

Lucky for us, most people are able to distinguish between which fears are rational and irrational and don’t cross into the world of having a phobia. A good example of this is being scared of heights. This is beneficial because it keeps us from standing on the ledges of 100 story buildings, but we understand that going up an escalator to the second story of the mall is completely safe and do it without even a second thought.

I’ve talked about some of my fears before, which have to do with going out in public alone and meeting new people. These are both things I’ve worked on in the last 6 months and that I’m happy to say I’ve gotten over for the most part. Of course, I still get wicked awkward when I’m in a group of people I don’t know but I’ve learned to own me and just go for it and I must say it’s doing me well.

But this week I’m here to talk about an entirely other people – kind of similar to one of the earliest posts I wrote for TNTML. Ya see, one big fear of mine is sleeping alone. No, I don’t mean this in the “I need someone to snuggle with. My bed feels so empty when I’m alone.” No way –this girl LOVES her space when it comes to sleep. If I cuddle you while we sleep you can assume it means I really like you. I’m all about being intertwined before and after the actual sleep but I get way too hot when I’m sleeping to have someone else all up in my grill.

Anyway, I digress. So yes – sleeping alone is something that terrifies me, almost to the point of it being an irrational fear. Once in high school my dad was in the hospital for nearly a month, my mom had passed away, and my brother was staying with family in Indiana so I had the house to myself. My best friends had been staying with me nearly every night, and trust that we were getting into all sorts of trouble, but there was one night they couldn’t so I asked my boyfriend at the time if he would and you know what he said? No! First off, what dumb ass teenager wouldn’t take advantage of having an empty house? Probably the first of many signs I needed to end things with him. I remember getting in a huge fight about it and I actually wound up on the phone with him all night arguing, which was totally a manipulative move on my part to avoid having to sleep alone. Another time in college, my roommates were both out of town and I had to sleep alone? This time my tactic was to leave all the lights on and stack chairs in front of the door. That way if someone broke in, at least it would make enough noise to wake me up. I understand all of this makes me sound crazy but it’s just the truth. I’m a heavy sleeper and I’m almost positive someone could break in and steal everything in my bedroom without me even noticing.

Besides those two instances, I’ve been able to avoid sleeping alone for all of my life. But a couple weeks ago I was asked to dogsit/housesit at this amazing house in Hermosa Beach. (I’m actually sitting on their rooftop right now! Ahhh what an amazing view to have behind my laptop screen! And I’m working on evening out my farmer’s tan. Lovely.) After I agreed to do the job I realized that it meant I had to sleep alone. My first instinct was to try and convince a friend to stay with me the entire time, or find some way to avoid sleeping at the house…. Maybe just staying till bed time then leaving to my house where there would be other people.

But in an effort to stick with the theme of forcing myself out of my comfort zone, I bit the bullet and decided to sleep here alone. No craziness. Just embracing the fact that people have to do this and why avoid the inevitable? Everyone sleeps alone at some point! Well guess what? I’ve slept here three nights without being murdered! Honestly, there’s probably something weirdly wrong with me and I should go see someone to talk about how scared I am of being attacked by an intruder, but right now I’m going to ignore all that and just celebrate the fact that I’ve successfully given my fear the finger and slept alone in this big ol’ house! The first night I was really anxious and woke up every few hours but since then I’ve been able to sleep all the way through the night. YESSSSSS. I know this is lame but I’m really fucking stoked on it. Even the amount of times I play through all the possible scenarios continues to decrease. I’m such a believer in immersion. If you’re scared, just DO IT. Talking about it isn’t going to get you anywhere and this is proof that it works!

Alright, now that I’ve lost all my cool points (like I ever had any) let’s pretend I faced some way better fear, like swimming with the sharks or learning to swallow swords. Swallow... Ha...

#nerdsunite

click here to follow Chelsea on twitter!

#NerdsUnite: A moment of gratitude & a lesson on escaping depression

We interrupt this post to bring you a sex tip PSA from our friends over at LuckyBloke.com: One out of 4 sexually active people has an STD. (And new statistics indicate that in the next 5 years this will escalate to 1 out of 2.)

I just wanted to take a minute and say thank you to each and every one of you. I haven't been writing about what is going on behind the scenes as much lately, but that is only because some very very very big things are brewing and it is overwhelming me in an extremely emotional way.

Very honestly, I didn't expect to succeed with this website, I was just willing to die to find out. (I shit you not when I say that either. Two failed suicide attempts do wonders for ya psychologically in the whole "not giving a fuck department!") In 2009 I thought there was NO WAY I could launch a website because afterall the web had been around for so freaking long at that point and the so called "experts" had already been established. To have taken this idea that I had one day after seeing a trend at a tech conference and have it grow into this ... thing ... that I still spend half my day trying to figure out makes me grateful beyond words.

I can't begin to tell you how dark the first 24 years of my life were. Look, here's a picture I just found on an old external drive ...

Look at those eyes, man - SO MUCH FREAKING PAIN THERE!!!

There is no rule book in breaking free of a depression for every answer you ever have in life is ALREADY inside of you. It's true that no man is an island, but we are SO much stronger than we ever give ourselves credit for and if we are quiet and still enough to just take a listen ... everything will start to change.

My change came about with social media.

I've been on computers since I was 2, but chat rooms and forums growing up were my savior. I never had IRL friends, the people that were supposed to be family were complete shits ... but it was online that I found OTHER people who were friendless and shared all the quirky interests that I had myself as well.

I always felt so alone in life, but it was there in this digispace where I would spend hours and hours and hours connecting with these people who although I had never met COMPLETELY saved me.

I can't begin to tell you how common it is in the nerd-o-sphere to have anxiety, depression, and overall emotional instability. (I learned this after I published the story of my nervous breakdown at 22.) I'm CONVINCED that it is a core ingredient to being a nerd in the first place since we are so cerebral and CONSTANTLY analyzing things ... but I just want to say to the nerderino that is still suffering that it really DOES get better if you make a concerted effort to change.

How does one make a concerted effort to change??

You start doing things that feel good.

It really is that simple ... if it feels good you need to keep doing it. The SECOND it stops feeling good ... you need to stop. Social media felt GREAT to me, and while I had no idea how to make a living doing it, by following each step it lead me down the path to self awareness which then became the path towards my business. I couldn't have the business until I became self aware, so your own journey is your own destination. You can't rush things, you can only stay appreciative for every moment and WALK.IN.BLISS. since that vibration on an energetic level will only bring you MORE bliss which will then help you sustain your existence.

There is no rule book in life, there is no one that will judge you or say you've done this wrong because HOW DARE YOU DISOBEY MEEEEEEE!!! You have to do you, speak your personal truth at ALL times and SHOW UP FOR YOUR OWN LIFE!!!

Your truth will also change as you are on your journey - but the more articulate you become and the more IMPECCABLE you are with your word, the faster the universe will help you manifest.

Of course too, you will be tested along the way. Intimacy is STILL something I am struggling with, however after exploring how much of my life has been an expression of shame - a lot more has come into focus.

It took me getting over that shame to now be able to feel worthy and comfortable enough with this site becoming more public. Things that I have been able to control image wise with this site is going to quickly change, and these stories that I have written FROM MY SOUL are now about to be shown in a more public manner. Does that freak me out? ABSOLUTELY!! Even in talking to my dad earlier today he asked me how comfortable I would be with some of these interviews and the process this journey is going to now take me on. I have no choice but to accept all of this, as again it is part of the process for this brand, but I just wanted to say thank you all so so much for reading and so so much for your tweets and Facebook messages. I'm scared EVERY SINGLE DAY doing what I do, but waking up to your emails and reading your messages keep all of this going and is helping me tremendously get over my own fear of the next steps.

For that I thank you. I thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.

I can't believe I am finally this free. Holy shit this actually worked!

#kthxbye

#SDCC: A lesson in off the grid-ing

Hello friends,

Another year of Comic Con has come and gone. Did you enjoy yourselves?? I know I did ... here's the rundown ...

So, not a lot of people know this ... but I am DEATHLY disturbed by crowds. I don't go to amusement parks on busy days, I avoid the mall between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I won't go to a general admission concert - it's not fear based per say - it just fucks with my inner ninja who is always COMPLETELY aware of my surroundings and can ALWAYS find an exit.

There are too many variables in crowds and too many people not paying attention to what is going on. Fortunately, having spent half my life as a super little peanut (I didn't grow to be 5'7 until I was 18 and randomly shot up 5") I've dealt with it by moving quickly around people.

As an adult however, I just straight avoid them as MUCH as possible. It's just not my scene, man. Go do your thing if that's what you're about, but being around that much energy and that many people not paying attention not only frustrates me - but it drains me tremendously.

Comic Con is basically the largest of all nerd herds so GOING to comic con in and of itself is a big deal for me. Of course I get SUPER excited to meet more of you, but I absolutely absolutely absolutely have to keep moving as much as possible and keep headphones in my ears at almost all times.

I physically cannot go to the floor of Comic Con. I do it when I ABSOLUTELY have to - but as a result, all 3 years of my comic con experiences have been more "off the grid."

So, this year, I decided to just chill out at Wired Cafe (located inside the Omni) where I had been the last two years. You have to get on a list to gain access to the cafe (yes, it is one of "those") but at least when you get in they have free food and free drinks so you can basically get all your networking done while not having to spend a dime.

It's been great the last two years, but unfortunately this year they had a new PR crowd running it. I'm not going to "name names" but the people at the door were SUPER douchey. I get it ... I get it ... it's their job to be assholes since I'm sure people try to sneak their way in - but how much more Hollywood can comic con get?? Isn't the purpose of nerd/geek culture to be all inclusive since we were the ones left out of shit growing up? Is this some kind of revenge?? It's now the "cool nerds" only??

Who the hell are the "cool nerds" and isn't that sentence in and of itself a COMPLETE oxy moron?

After everything shook out, however, I got in no problem and even though I was there by myself I not only quickly made new friends, but had no less than 3 guys come up to me with the exact same line ...

"I totally wouldn't mind being a story of yours."

One guy even took me in the hallway and totally tried making out with me.

I'm obviously COMPLETELY elated and ENORMOUSLY humbled that the site has become quite popular, but by publishing my sex life online doesn't mean I'm going to bone you in the hallway of a conference.

I have WAY less sex than people realize. People think I publish only a percentage of stories, but what they don't understand is that doing that would make me a HORRIBLE artist; I instead publish ALL of my stories.

After the mouth molestation, I then tweeted out that I was looking for the next open bar.

To my surprise, instead of finding an open bar one actually offered to host us!!

I had about 4 friends with me at the time, but then because the place was so rad and because we were tweeting about it we quickly gathered a crowd that met up multiple nights of the con.

How fucking amazing is twitter btw, that all you have to do is tweet something out and someone ... somewhere will connect the dots for you!! SO FREAKING EFFICIENT!!!

All in all I have to say that I wasn't mad at Comic Con this year. Again, it was SUPER awesome meeting you guys - but I have to say the best parties that I went to were the ones the TNTML community created for ourselves. You don't need to get all access into the "biggest and best" events of the night - you need to gather your social media buds, find a chill spot, and let loose, man. THAT is what life and Comic Con are truly all about. Screw the rest.

#thatisall

OH! OH! My fav piece of swag though from the con was just a promo piece for a movie ... but LOOK AT THIS THING!! It actually WORKS!!! 

Special thanks to Melodie for letting us crash at her place, and the Propagandist bar for their wonderful wonderful hospitality and TRULY amazing drinks. Many thanks friends!! xoxoxo

#Nerdsunite: Confessions of a Videogame Journalist (Back from the Grave)

 <editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy John. We started talking on the twitter not too long ago, and then he reached out and asked if he could write for us regarding his journey through the nerdy realm. I was all DUDDEEE!! That's so raaaddd!! And now, here we are. Like right now, in real time, this is happening. Pretty cool huh? HIT IT JOHN!!! </editorsnote> 

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @JohnSollitto

Some of you may be wondering why you haven’t heard from me in a while. Others of you could probably care less, I’m sure some of you haven’t even read this blog. I have been through a number of different things over the past few month or so that have kept me from posting but still working for the site in a background capacity. Think of me like the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain at this point. Though, not nearly as important and cool.

I will talk about each of them in turn and I’m sure this will be the longest post that I will ever write here, unless something equally traumatic happens or worse and a bunch of other stuff piles on top of it in some sort of perverse way. But in any case:

I have literally been waiting for the perfect time to use that clip and now it has come. Excuse me while I laugh a little after all the madness.

My house flooded. Yeah. That toooootally happened. Let me set the scene for you.

So my family is moving their sign shop to a different location in Irvine, some 30 minutes away from Huntington Beach. That involves a lot packing, shipping, car trips, me lifting things and general nonsense with cable and security and internet at the new joint.

We have a lot of stuff in the sign shop from all the material we use to the giant 54 inch printer and cutter,  to tables and freaking tools. It’s just a mess. If my father wasn’t an organized person this place would be a death trap.

While this is happening, my mother is also moving her classroom to another school since her school is going to be under renovation. That requires me to do a lot of driving, lifting things, moving things and whatnot. Two different moves going on. No big deal right, those are under control.

So the first day of work this week my favorite co-worker comes back to work after having moved with his wife to stay with her as she followed her career. We’re just so happy to have him back because he’s so good at what he does, he works well with us, and he’s just awesome.

The day’s going good, I get sent home to just chill. I’m pulling up to the sidewalk in front of my house and I notice there’s water on the driveway. I’m thinking, “It’s the afternoon, the sprinklers wouldn’t come on...” I get to the front door, ready to turn off the alarm, start my workout and play some guitar, when I hear a hissing as it opens.

Quickly rushing into the house I set foot in a SOAKING wet dining room. I then run to the downstairs bathroom where the pipe for the tank of the toilet has burst and is just spraying willy-nilly about in the bathroom like some sort of metal cobra spitting venom at indiscriminate objects. This must have been going on for some time because my parent’s room? Flooded. That bathroom? One inch of water all over the place. The garage? Also flooded. Kitchen? Fuggetaboutit. Flooded. The only room not affected was the living room as it’s elevated about 6 inches or so above the dining room by a step. Oh but don’t worry, that started to get wet too as the water creeped up the carpet and soaked it too.

I’m home alone, the house is flooded and what do I do? I lose it. I don’t think I’ve ever just shouted obscenities at the top of my lungs like that with the front door open. I just didn’t know what to do. I called both my parents and told them to get home right away, opened all the windows to start drying the place out, tried sweeping water out of the garage and then just sat on the floor staring at the water.

I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t think of anything. Eventually my parents got home and we began taking things off the floor that were wet. Some books were damaged, shoes, wooden furniture too. It was bad.

I was sent out to get dinner and honestly I got to the parking lot and had to just sit there for a while and let out my frustration. I just stared at the sky and turned up my music. P.S. thank God for the Chulahoma album by the Black Keys, saved my life. If you haven’t listened to that album you should. I highly recommend it.

Then we had a guy come and check everything out and he said they might have to get into the walls because of the asbestos that was probably in them since the house was built so many years ago that it would most likely have it in there. Great, that means the whole kitchen would have to be redone and the floors and some of the walls and all repainted.

Next day they came, guys with a big ass truck all ready to pack up what could be salvaged and what they were going to try and save and everything in between and put it away. I’ve never moved before, sure gone off to college, but never moved and seeing my life and my family’s put into boxes so that the house could be emptied was unnerving.

Fast forward to through some bullcrap with the insurance company rep stalling and thinking we’re trying to cheat him out of money and keeping the contractors from working on the house and two mini-vacations for me later, the house is still under repair. The entire first floor has concrete flooring and there’s a good foot to two feet of drywall just ripped open from the dining room to my parents’ room so I can see basically the entire house if I lay on the floor.

It’s...it’s pretty horrible. All three of us have gotten sick from the dust and crap in the air, it’s cold, and depressing. My family is remarkably strong to have dealt with this so well, but there have been times when we’ve all had to let it out.

In between all of that, I went to the Bay Area for a while to visit someone I met at E3 and her roommate. That was...remarkable. I hadn’t relaxed like that in a long time and I owe it all to her and her roomie. They’re saints.

The reason for the visit is that I might be getting a job out that way very soon and I wanted to check the area out if I’d like it. I do. It’s beautiful and there’s lots of green which I’m not used to out in a beach town, but I liked it a lot and I’m excited at the prospect of actually working out there. I’m already cultivating a lot of leads and saving up to move there soon. At the latest after I finish my last semester at Cal State Fullerton.

And then Comic Con happened. Now, I’ve been going to SDCC for 12 years, back when I was a wee lad and before the Great War when there were pushcarts and none of this Google-stuffs. No, I kid, but seriously a long time ago. I remember when Con was really small and you could just walk in and see the whole floor in one day and then relax for the rest of it all and just go to panels and all manner of things.

Now it’s a little bit of a circus but it’s dying down from that as I think studios and such are realizing that Con just isn’t the gold mine they thought it would be. I’m kind of glad because that means there’s just going to be more comic people there and nerds rather than people who are there just to see freaking Twilight.

But, this was my first SDCC where I got to hang with friends and here’s a picture of me with some of the Talk Nerdy Ladies. You may recognize some of them.

Aren’t we a cute bunch? Shit got real after that. We went to bars, we drank, we danced, I’m pretty sure Julie killed a guy and Jen lit a car on fire but other than that it was pretty normal. In all seriousness it was a load of fun and I’m so thankful for the ladies letting me tag along and not letting it be a “ladies only” type of thing. It made me feel good to be a part of the group, not that I’ve never not been, but it was nice to have friends this time as opposed to just hanging with my folks.

So in short: I’m alive. My house flooded. I might be moving to the Silicon Valley. I might have a job. I had a LOAD of fun at Comic Con. And I’ll probably write more about that all in detail.

Okay, I’ll stop writing now.

#nerdsunite

Want more from John? Click here to follow him on the twitter!

Check out his gaming site too!