#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
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