It really has been way way too long since I last blahed my blah at you, 2 months without a peep on the blog. Unforgivable, I hang my head in shame. However I return with exciting news! The Geekquest is evolving!!

A while back The Mistress and I were having a conversation about horror movies, as she (along with most of my friends) is a horror movie junkie. I made some joke about that being something we should do, she could do the make up and I could do some quality killing of the undead. We would rope people in to be victims or special effects people and wouldn’t it be funny. Well that’s exactly what I’ve decided to do. I am going to make a Horror movie. And I will need your help.

Anyone who has heard anything about Colin, the zombie film made for a reported £45, will know that the rise of uber low budget horror film is under way. Paranormal Activity has been storming up the box offices on a comparitivly titchy $15,000 budget. All proof that it doesn’t take vast amounts of cash to make a successful film. With the increase in digital technology’s availability and quality at ever decreasing prices lack of money is no longer the barrier it once was. What you need more than anything is people with enthusiasm, passion and dedication to what they are doing. Basically people like you, reading this blog.

The cast and crew for the film will be made up mostly of people who have trained in, been born in or reside in Wales. However I will be needing help from all over the world, people who will act as the street team for the film, telling people about it, spreading the news, sticking up posters etc. I call them the Bloodettes.

As more information comes in I will update you, in the meantime if you want to sign up to be a Bloodette, you or someone you know might be able to give your time for free to help make it (bareing in mind the Welsh criteria), you have a suggestion or you just want to say hey then get in contact. (Any nay sayers out there who want to get in contact only to say the whole thing is doomed to failure or something like it I am politely telling you now to cram it, don’t try and bring down others because they have the bravery and spirit to do what you dream of. As Nathan Fillion, Cap’n tightpants himself, says on twitter, it’s cost nothing to say something nice…even less to shut up altogether).

This is going to be a film made by geeks for geeks…and anyone else who’d like to see it, and I am looking forward to having you along on this Squeeetastic adventure

Love and entrials. x

Many universities, mine included, have medical, scientific and psychological departments. In order to keep funding coming in and because of the vast amount of PHD students that need something to do, there are always studies going on in these departments. And for this they need helpers and test subjects. Anyone from the UK may be reeling in horror as they remember the terrifying story that hit the news a few years back about a group of young men who were taking part in a clinical trial and ended up in coma’s in hospital. That’s not the sort of thing I’m talking about.

In a university there will be all sorts of studies being run, from ones on the common cold to the workings of peoples subconscious. Each study needs a lot of data in order to make its findings valid, studying half a dozen people isn’t enough to make a set of stats that will apply to the whole of the UK. And they pay their participants. Payment varies widely as do the types of things you’d need to do. For example doing a simple bleep test, where you sit at a computer screen and respond to things in time to the bleeps (these tend to be done to test reactions and things to do with pattern recognition) may take 15 mins, for which you may get £3. For a study on asthma you may be asked to walk on a treadmill for a while with your breathing is being monitored by machines, you may do several sessions over weeks or even months, and may get £15 for an hour long session.

The amounts of money may not seem vast but they soon add up, and if you establish yourself as being reliable and express an interest in doing other things your reputation will spread within a department and you may well be approached with offers of work for some of the more interesting and better paid studies. One of the best things about this sort of work is that it’s sessional and therefore can be fitted round an existing job or studies. It’s also a fantastic way to find out how studies are done and about all the little subconscious things people do.

So how does this relate to me being a bear, well I’ll tell you. One of the psychological studies going on at my uni at the moment is looking at who children’s socialisation and background prepares them for the world, how they respond to new and different things. Such as a twonk in a bear suit. And for two days last week I was that twonk. It was very brief and it was only 5 children in total being tested but yet I still found myself getting the sort of performance nerves I got when doing plays for A-level theatre studies. I didn’t want the children to feel like they were being palmed off with a sub par bear performance. There was some minor crying from one child, this either proves something for the study, or that everyones a critic.  

Total made from 2 sessions bearness: £12.

I shall be looking into further bizarre things I can do for cash as the GeekQuest continues. I doubt I shall find one that gives me more free reign to traumatize the under 2′s (just so we’re clear, I am NOT being a clown! I have my limits.)

The GeekQuest, oh noble cause and wondrous thing it is, is lining up to be quite expensive. With flights around the world and convention tickets it looks like it may be around £2000, and that’s with sleeping on peoples sofas and getting lifts to convention centres (by the way people with sofas and cars, have I mentioned how lovely you look tonight, are those new shoes? my they make your ankles look shapely).

My day job is part time librarian (librarian by day, UberGeek by night, snoozy in the mid afternoon, I’m a bondage taped super hero in the making). As rewarding and challenging as this job is it doesn’t make me a ton of money, and what with uni fees, mortgage and, oh yeah, a powerful need to eat sometime in the next week, it gets bitten into real quick. So I am looking for ways to earn extra cash, and not just ordinary ways, no no, that would not be the GeekQuest way. I’m looking for something mildly ridiculous to fantastically silly and everything in between; the bizarre, the obscure, the morally dubious, hell if I can get one that’s all 3 at once I’m set:). Here are some of the ideas that have been floated, and in some cases, discarded.

Option 1. Heading to Japan to teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL) or to do hostess work in one of the many clubs :                 

Pros: I get to travel to Japan, a country I visited when I was little and remember as being awe inspiring. My brother is out there now, seeing friends and rapidly becoming fluent in the language (my brother is sickeningly good at learning languages). The money for EFL or hostessing is very good. It is a very safe country comparatively, crime rates are low. Being a natural red head I would certainly be pretty unique so this would be an advantage.

Cons: When I mentioned going to Japan and doing hostessing or something to my brother his response was well….interesting, he managed to get from me doing that to being a hooker and then being murdered in the space of a single text. Which even by his standards is impressive. So there might be some family objections. Also how do I get there? It certainly ain’t free to do that. All the money I might make would go on flights and accommodation. And the mortgage back here still needs paying while I’m out there.

Status: Undecided.

 Option 2: Stripping.

This one is a none starter really. not because of any moral objections, just my fantastic lack of coordination when in a pair of heels. I so much as look at stilettos I get ankle fractures. Falling down like Wile E Coyote on a banana skin may be funny to some, but I don’t think it will get many pound notes in my G-string.

Status: Our survey says No.

Option 3: Make hilarious t-shirts and other dohickeys of a geektacular nature then sell them to an adoring public.

Pros: I was discussing this with both the Mrs and Mistress not to long ago. We all have ideas for hilarious T-shirts, and for shoes and belts and other accessories with geek themes and decorations. I know there are various convention type things where I can sell stuff.

Cons: Set up materials and costs. Getting high off the smell of t-shirt dye and shoe glue. trying to fit in the making of stuff around everything else. Crowded and competitive market place.

Status: Tempting. very tempting.

Option 4: Sponsorship by some company or other.

Pros: A lot less worrying and having to work out to do. Possibility of free stuff.

Cons: I ain’t no ones bitch. It would have to be a company/product I really liked for me to feel ok with forcing it upon my beloved Tweetlings and Bloglets.

Status: Hmmmmm, more thought needed.

Option 5: Ninja

Pros: I already have the wardrobe. And know all the words to the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles cartoon theme song.

Cons: Having to work nights.

Status: Probably not, but if it does work out we never had this conversation.

So I am very much in limbo still but am going to keep on looking for the wonderfully bizarre and the bizarrely wonderful ways to earn my Geek bucks. In the meantime i am going to be doing some extra temp work. Thursday and Friday of next week I will be dressing up like a bear to scare small children (a psychology professor friend of mine is testing startle responses in the under 3′s, with someone dancing about in a bear suit). I think there might be a story in that And now to bed. 1am has snuck up on me while I wasn’t looking.

I seek knowledge and info from those more experienced in it than I, depending on what people say it will be added to the GeekQuest calender for next year.

I still seek recommendations for cons outside the UK and US. There are so many out there, which should I go to on this noble (and more than a little bit mad) endeavour?

22nd – 23rd May : Bristol International Comic Expo, Bristol, UK

17th – 18th July: London Film and Comic Con, London, UK

21st – 25th July: San Diego International Comic Con, San Diego, USA

It’s only the very bare bones, and already it looks like I’m going to be jet lagged for most of July. What I need now is to find cons that are at the beginning and end of the year, ones outside the UK/US would be good to. What cons can people suggest in Europe and Japan?

I also want to go to some more specific cons as well as general ones, ones that focus on a paticular show or genre. A Whedon dedicated one for example. And I think that I should go to at least one of the Twilight cons that will be running next year, as it looks like they might signal a shift in the conscape. Cons going from places that people do publicity at, to being entirely created as publicity tool in themselves, the equivalents of moving teaser posters.

The time table will change and grow, depending on circumstances, between now and January, so send your suggestions and watch this space.

This blog is the home of the GeekQuest, something which started out as a dream which became idle chatter which quickly became a scheme so hare brained and insane it should have been dreamt up in a lair under a volcano.

Basically it goes like this: having, for years, wanted to go to the San Diego Comic Con and missed it time and time again to do with a variety of things (poorness being chief amoung them) I once again saw the geekgasams flowing on Facebook and Twitter about this years event. So a merry band comprised of myself and my fellow geeks decided that we would definately be going to next years Con, and that we would start planning and saving now. Then we talked about how we wanted to make other con’s, such as the Bristol Comic Expo and the London Film and Comic Con. It was at that point that Jen (also known as Red Jen or The Mistress) said the immortal words “You could spend your whole year going to con’s”, and I thought ‘what a good idea’.

So that is what I am going to attempt to do. 2010 shall be The Year of The Geek. I am going to try to go to as many con’s around the world as possible, as cheaply as possible, and will blog about the experience. From scraping together the money to carrying home my special editions at the end of the last day I will describe it all, any wisedom I glean I shall share it, any pitfalls I come across I will warn others about it. Along the way I will blog about other things, comic books, writing, Neil Gaiman, my hopes and fears for the next Star Trek film, hilarious t-shirts and general geekery.

And I will need help, this isn’t something I can just do on my own. I need information, suggestions, hints and tips, and possibly floors to sleep on and rides to share. What conventions do you think I should visit? What guests should I see and which ones should I avoid? What hilarious t-shirts should I make to wear along the way?

Over the next 18 months I will be boldly going where no geek has gone before, or rather to places lots of geeks have gone before but not necessarily all at once. I would honoured to have you along for the ride. It could get bumpy.