I found a box in my dad's garage with old issues of "Starlog" and my badges to my first comic/sci-fi conventions at the Shrine Auditorium in LA.

There used to be a mystery to being a sci-fi geek. There was lore, and the challenge. The thrill of a mail-order catalog, and the glorious joy of a 3rd generation "Dr. Who" VHS. Guys swapping stories and reccomendations at the local comic shop. The importance of all-night monster movie marathons on cable because that was the only way you were EVER going to get to see "Taste the Blood of Dracula." A convention was awesome, because it was a unique oppurtunity to meet fellow geeks and feed your need for new interesting materials- books, tapes, magazines, screening rooms, etc.

The internet (and the wide availability of DVD releases) has kind of taken the challenge and mystique away from the world of geekdom. Also to blame is the mainstreaming of the geek-world by the successful big budget movies that gave the masses, the kids who used to look down on us in school, equal access to Frodo, Spider-Man, and the Clone Wars. Now Comic-Con isn't about watching weird anime or buying old "2000 AD" comics, it's about meeting the cast of Twilight.

I'm not saying it's all bad, or that if I had my druthers I'd switch it back to the old ways. I don't know what I'm saying except expressing a pleasent nostalgia for the way being a geek used to be.