BdeB
Current Rant bdeb Old Rants bdeb Contact Me BdeB
bdeb Sign Guestbook bdeb My Home Page bdeb My Profile
Diaryland bdeb Recommend Me bdeb Read Others

It's not an addiction if your friends do it too right?
2006-05-04 - 9:07 a.m.

Hm...diary entries are getting fewer and fewer...while livejournal thrives...writing on the wall I guess.

I would like to say that I think that Hayseed Dixie should cover Cyprus Hill's "When the Shit goes down" right now as that would be totally stabulous.

I shaved in the bathroom at work today (hey if other guys can sleep here, I should be able to shave) and my face is all dry and itchy. I look like total crap today, in black jeans that are sausage-tight, and a green polo shirt that is missing its one button. I forgot about the horrific bruise on my tricep so that is showing.

I wonder if anyone will send me links to Abuse hotlines like they did Kimmie. Heh. Doubtful.

My co-workers are aware of my odd hobby. It comes up (never by me) at every gather we have. It's the old joke of the office. My boss¡¦s daughter still refers to me as "Sir Duane" whenever she calls. Drives me nuts.

Speaking of which, a friend of mine is doing some research into fan culture, feel free to post the results of this on your blogs:


Fan Questionnaire

Thanks you for taking the time to look over and answer
The following questions. They are based on and follow
up the ¡§Why is a Fan?¡¨ survey from the second
SaFari annual published in 1961. Several of
The questions have been updated, and several new ones
have been added.


If you know of anyone who might be interested in
Answering the questionnaire, and wouldn¡¦t mind
forwarding it to them, that would be appreciated very
much.


Please respond to George Sartiano at
Sartiano@speakeasy.net orCountalaric@darksites.com

Thanks!
George

Questionnaire-

What is your name? You know my name, bitch! (Duane Moore)

Do you have a ¡§handle¡¨ that you go by in the fan
world (Yes, the SCA counts as a fan world for
the purposes of this survey)? Yes, Sir Bryce de Byram, OL or just ¡§BdeB¡¨ or ¡§Bryce¡¨ or ¡§Byram¡¨. Damn I have a lot of names.

1) In your family, are you and only child or first
born? If so, do you feel that this has any bearing on
your being a fan? No, I am the second and last child and it does influence why I am a fan. My sister was 13 years older than me and my idol as a child. She loved reading, especially history and fantasy, and so I followed in those traditions. We joined the SCA together. Comics I picked up from friends at school. For a long time I was a Professional Wrestling Fan during the tail end of it¡¦s Boom. That I got from my grandmother, who watched wrestling like soap operas.

2) Are you a second (or later) generation fan? No/Yes. My mom sorta used to like Elvis, but I think that was required of her age group. I guess you can count the Wrestling though, since I watched that with my grandma, and nostalgia was part of why I got back into it for a while.

3) At what age did you become interested in
science fiction or fantasy? What aspect of science
fiction or fantasy (book, show, film, etc) caught your
interest and brought you into that world? When I was around 5 Star Wars came out. My sister dressed me up like Luke Skywalker and we went to a showing. I got my picture in the school paper I think. I was one of those kids that were babysitted by the TV. From TV I watched a lot of Star Trek I think my dad liked the green women¡K) and my school carried the old Star Trek books, some written by Rodenberry, Block, Bradbury and others so I guess that is the first Sci-Fi that I read (which was basically Fan Fic by good/average authors). I started reading comics when I got an allowance and used to buy them at the Drug Store. I loved Batman, The Flash, and Green Lantern. Later, At about 12 or 13 a friend at school started me reading comics by showing me this new book called ¡§The Dark Knight Returns¡¨ where robin was a girl, and Batman was a psycho. I was hooked.

4) At what age did you enter fandom? How did you
enter fandom (event, friend, etc.)? I¡¦d say at about 14 I started gaming, playing D&D and at 15/16 I went to my first SCA event. My sister introduced me to both.

5) What fan communities do you consider yourself a
part of? Comics and SCA. I used to be a fan of Professional Wresting, but lost interest in that after a few years.

6) Do you feel that fandom, and the fan community,
has changed since you joined? If so, how? Yes, I think it is has gone through little periods where it was ¡¥hip¡¦ to be a fan. It wasn¡¦t hip when I was a kid that is for sure. I stopped reading comics for many, many years because it wasn¡¦t ¡¥cool¡¦. The SCA has certainly changed with the times. Gone are the crazy-assed drunken parties and revels as Lord Bob the Letch and become Master Robert the father of two.

7) Has fandom changed since the rise of the
internet being used for communication? If so, how?

Oh yes. It is much, much easier to be a fan. No dirty newsprint copies of mags, and instant communication. The internet, in many, many ways, has fucked up the SCA. People have the ability to play ¡¥on line¡¦ rather than get out and meet people. On the other hand, it hasn¡¦t been all negative. I have a lot of friends from all over the country that I met first on the interwub. That is pretty cool.

8) Why do you stay in fandom? How long do you
expect to remain a fan? Because it is where my friends are. As long as I have good friends involved, I will be involved.

9) What benefits do you get from fandom? A sense of community. A huge extended family or friends. Enjoyment and laughter. Fulfillment that my regular 9-5 job can not provide. Escapism. All that crap.

10) What drawbacks are there to being a part of
fandom? It can warp your sense of reality, where you put too much of yourself into your hobby rather than your home, relationships, family, your job. It sucks out a lot of money too.

11) What does fandom mean to you? It means people looking for community in a cold, sterile world. Always something more to learn, something to do.

12) Have you come ¡§out¡¨ to your friends, family,
and co-workers as a fan? How do you feel these
relationships are affected by your being a fan,
or hiding your fandom? All my family, and my co-workers know about the crazy ¡§SCA-thing¡¨ I do. The comics I more or less keep to myself about. There is bigger shame in that because they are suppose to be something ¡¥kids read¡¦ and I¡¦m here in the middle of living history land, where people put on wool costumes and shoot at each other all the time. My parents do not approve of either of my hobbies but have come to accept them, finally, after about 15 years of whining. They know that I am a grown man and they aren¡¦t going to change me now. But for years my mom really believed it was something that I would ¡¥grow out of.¡¦ I see my family less than I would if I wasn¡¦t a fan (thank god¡Kthey make me nuts) and basically, I don¡¦t have friends that are outside the SCA. Take that as you will.

13) Do you attend conventions? How have conventions
changed since you began attending them? I¡¦ve only been to one national comics convention and one local one. I have no frame of reference. As to the SCA, go back and read what I said about the drunken, swinging crowd from the early 90¡¦s. They all drive BMW¡¦s now. I used to go to Professional Wrestling shows but I have no sense of scale on how they changed.

14) Why do fans gafiate, and are these reasons
sufficient to make you gafiate? Do you know what
gafiate means? No clue. So I Googled it. They do it because they grow older and their tastes change, society changes (the internet and on line gaming) or they have kids and focus their energies there. I left Wrestling because the WWE dominated the sport, and their writing went to total hell. I just felt like they were crapping on me as a fan, so I moved on.

15) Do you feel that the language of fandom has
Changed significantly since you joined? Yes. The internet has had a huge affect on the Wrestling and Comics jargon. The SCA has matured in the opposite direction, and you are less likely to hear folks use crazy-assed code words like ¡§Dragon¡¨ for car or ¡§Farspeaker¡¨ for phone. There is a large counter movement against those sortas of terms and the SCA tried to go ¡¥legit¡¦.

16) Do you have any fan anecdotes or remarks that you
would like to contribute to this study? Stormtropers kick Ass! Heh.

17) Are you a SMOF ;)? Nope. ļ

previous - next

 

Designed by Gen