Fanboys and Riot Nrrds

Saw Fanboys last night. It's not a good film, but enjoyable enough as a geek road movie (and it's not like that's a large enough genre that one can afford to be too picky) It was VERY much the story of a bunch of white straight dudes, though, the writers clearly had no idea what to do with their one female character and the homophobia was pretty intense. That said, I think I liked it as much as the geek guys I've discussed it with, since the main problem with the film is that apart from the odd quite funny scene it just isn't very good!

Anyway, it was thus nice this morning to read ‘CAUSE I’M NERDCORE LIKE THAT: Toward a Subversive Geek Identity which then led me to Riot Nrrd, a very cute webcomic about "being LGBT nerds, female nerds, nerds of color, disabled nerds, and other kinds of nerds that don’t get as much love" which is like a cross between "Dykes to watch out for" and geeky slice of life comics like "Weregeek"(*). It even has a transcript, huzzah!

There's geeky female characters in lots of webcomics, often but not always done fairly well, but I'm having trouble thinking of any I've really liked in mainstream-ish films or books. Any suggestions?

(*)Not that "Dykes to watch out for" doesn't have geeky aspects and geeky webcomics don't have any female/LGBT etc characters. But this is more concentrated.

A post about politics!

I've had trouble getting engaged with the upcoming election: I know who I'm voting for, and all the outcomes are just depressing. (Oh Julia Gillard. I was cynical about your chances of being an improvement, but not cynical enough)

Still! Via various people on twitter(*), The Age Vote-a-matic poll, which asks your opinions on various issues and tells you who to vote for.

This is interesting on two levels: first, it made me a little more aware of the main parties' policies and where I stand on them (I mean I knew I tended towards Greens policies, but I didn't know I agreed with them 88%)

But also it's a bit troubling to imagine possible bias in the questions chosen for the poll or how they're worded actually affecting the election outcome! (I didn't notice any, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist) I mean I'd like to think people wouldn't base their decisions solely on an internet poll but you never know...

Is it visible to non-Australians? I imagine you guys might find it interesting too, in an abstract sort of way :)

I reeeeally don't feel like getting into a political argument, this is one reason I don't tend to talk politics much. But I feel weird never talking about it at all.

(*)Where I am also sqbr, but I only tend to add people back if I know them irl, and not always then. I tend to forget to check it for long periods so like to keep my list short.