Random FAQs of Geekery!

Hopefully, this page will answer questions that you might have for me about the Random Acts of Geekery!

What do you mean by "Random Acts of Geekery," anyway?
Well, I suppose I should first define "geekery," as it fits me. Basically I see geekery as anything relating to geek interests, such as comic books, sci-fi and monster movies, toys, etc. Now, some of you who have been reading this blog for a while may have realized that there really isn't as much Randomness here at the Random Acts as one might suspect... and yes, there is kind of a key to determining when some features will recur here (aside from the obvious Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday weekly regular features), but I won't tell you -- and sometimes I have to move a feature from when it would normally appear to a different day.

In short (too late), "Random Acts of Geekery" means that you'll never quite know what you're going to find here from day to day... something might spark a childhood memory, or you might find out about something you've never heard of before...

What are the regular features here?
There are a number of them, and let's see if I can remember them all!

Puzzle Sunday: Every Sunday (for the foreseeable future), I'll present some kind of puzzle from Marvel Fun and Games Magazine or some other geek-related puzzle book. But first, you'll get last week's solution or answers.

Cool Stuff: Cool Stuff is photos of things I've seen on eBay that I think are cool, that were produced sometime between, oh, about 1940 to about 1980 or so. Merchandise featuring superheroes, favorite TV shows, cartoons and the like are to be expected, plus some other toys and stuff that appeal to me for one reason or another!

Monster Monday: This is an all-monster version of "Cool Stuff" that appears on Mondays. There could be memorabilia from monster and horror movies, toys, or other stuff.

Original Comic Art: Scans of original comic book art pages, as you might expect!

Give-A-Show Fridays: Each week on Friday, I present two videos that I've created from my Give-A-Show Projector or a related toy.

Movie of the Week: The trailer (if I can find it on YouTube) and a bunch of posters, lobby cards, stills and pressbooks for one genre movie. Plus an Amazon link to buy it on DVD, if it's available.

Dog of the Geek: Each installment of this feature presents a brief bit of information on a dog (or doglike character) that us geeks should be aware of! Dogs from comics, cartoons, movies and TV shows will be featured here, as well as geek-related wolves, foxes, and werewolves!

Random Videos of Geekery: YouTube videos that I think you guys might enjoy. I usually pick a theme for the videos each month.

By the 10s: A look at various comic book titles via every 10th issue (i.e., issues 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, etc.). Sometimes we can see how a comic's changed over time, and other times we can just be amazed at how long it lasted!

Children's Book Theatre: Lots of geek-favorite characters have been featured in children's books, such as Big Little Books and coloring books -- check out what you might've missed!

Hold on now... what the heck is a Give-A-Show Projector?
Ah, you must be quite a bit younger than I am. From about 1960 to 1985 or so, Kenner Toys produced the Give-A-Show Projector, which was sort of a slide projector that was battery-powered. They produced slide strips with seven separate frames/cels that would tell a story. Cartoon characters were very popular for these (especially the Hanna-Barbera characters). I've been collecting these for a few years now, and started creating videos to share my collection.

The stuff you show photos of, are you selling them?
Nope, in fact, the photos used for "Monster Monday," "Cool Stuff," "Movie of the Week," and "Original Comic Art" were all saved from eBay auctions. I started saving these photos because I was trying to find out information about toys I remembered from my childhood, and it was rare that books about collectibles would even have a photo of some of them! But then it occurred to me that this kind of stuff gets sold on eBay all the time, and why not save these photos so they were archived?

So no, I'm not selling that stuff. If I am selling anything, believe me, I'll tell you guys!

Why did you start this blog, anyway?
It's all Tom Peyer's fault. Back in 2005, I hosted the trivia contest at the Emerald City Comic-Con, which pitted a team of comics pros (Kurt Busiek, Tom Peyer, and Roy Thomas) against random groups of comics fans. Anyway, Tom gave me the URL to his blog, and so I checked it out. Around the same time, I was trying to interest a comics website in a weekly column, and so it seemed like maybe blogging would be a way to get something out there on the net on a regular basis by me. The original name of this blog was "Waffyjon's Random Thoughts," and it wasn't going to be nearly as geeky as it turned out to be! I had planned on writing a lot of rants about things that really torqued me off, as well as about other stuff in my life. Eventually, the geek in me took over, and I finally had to change the name of the blog to something that fit better!

So what is your deal, anyway? Your 'About Me' doesn't say all that much about you that isn't just about your geekery.
Well, let's see... I was born in South Dakota, but raised in Western Washington State. I've lived in this area most of my life, except for the five years I was in the Navy, and almost six years when I lived in Wisconsin. I used to be a graphic designer for the Olympia newspaper, but was laid off from that job in March of 2009, so I embarked on a new career path, and am currently studying at South Puget Sound Community College as a Medical Assistant. I expect to finish that program in the Fall of 2011. I am married to Jessi Knutson, and we have two children -- Tristan and Desi -- and three dogs -- KO, Krypto, and Ginger (all boxers).

Wow, you sound busy. How do you find time to do this and all the other blogs?
I'm not always certain of that myself. Basically, when I find I have some time, I work ahead on this and the other blogs, trying to get ahead whenever possible, and to get as much ahead as I can.