A Bit About Nathaniel

I am the everygeek. I play video games. I watch anime. Once upon a time, I played Magic: The Gathering. The vast majority of the books I've read outside of school have been sci-fi or fantasy. I enjoy superhero movies, westerns, silent films, and all manner of other movies (except horror). I've been involved in numerous theatrical productions as a writer, an actor, and a director. I'm a music fan with eclectic taste, and I aspire to have the soundtrack to every video game I've ever played.

I've a nascent interest in non-mainstream board games, and I participated for a time in an online game of Epic Diplomacy, where the game board was the entire world. I write Dungeons & Dragons quests, and I occasionally play D&D and other roleplaying games both in person and in play-by-post games. I'm a closet shutterbug with a deep appreciation for fine photography. I'm a Religion major, and I'm fascinated by religions and how they have shaped the world's people, their cultures, and history. I have a collection of action figures, and a toybox filled with some issues of MAD and Cracked, and scatterings of mostly-inherited comic books of varying levels of obscurity.

I'm making my own homebrew Super Mario World game. I've posted a few multiplayer levels for Jedi Knight II on the Internet. I write reviews of video games, and I'm working on an FAQ/Walkthrough for the DOS game Jetpack. I once created a computer game or two with QBasic. I have a large bucket in my closet filled with LEGOs, and I bring it out when I feel the urges to create and to return to the simplicity of my childhood. I loved the Choose Your Own Adventure books, and I even wrote a few adventures of my own.

Every few years I play through all the core classic Mega Man games (the numbered ones) back-to-back. With my friends, I've watched marathons of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, The Matrix trilogy (with a few parts of The Animatrix thrown in), the Lord of the Rings (extended edition) trilogy, and all six Star Wars films.

I write poetry and murder mysteries. I challenge myself to keep up with the lyrics of "Weird Al" Yankovic's song, "Hardware Store," and I do a darn respectable job. I read webcomics. I collect D&D miniatures. I have posters on my walls of Star Trek, EarthBound, D&D, Star Wars, Blue Seed, and The Simpsons. In my cubicle at work I have two small ships from Star Trek, a figurine of Mega Man, and two RPG motivational posters.

Former Halloween costumes include Geordi LaForge, Luigi, Mega Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, and a California Raisin. I've dressed up as Gilderoy Lockhart multiple times to assist with the local library's midnight launches of the new Harry Potter books. Twice I've been to the Baltimore anime convention, Otakon, and twice I've come in costume.

I could go on. Though you can probably tell where my strongest interests lie, I'm always interested in being exposed to more, perhaps to find a new hobby or fandom that I love, or perhaps to be able to stay afloat when the conversation turns to Call of Cthulhu, Watchmen, or World of Warcraft.

Being informed about other people's hobbies and fandoms, even if we find them unpalatable and their appeal inscrutable, brings us closer to those around us. It's the difference between seeing a child who wants to be some cartoon character named something like "Bat-Guy" and seeing a child who wants to be rich, carefree, and very, very cool.

I am the everygeek. There's a lot I can tell you about... but I'll bet there's a lot you can teach me. Stick with us. We're in the business of expanding horizons and bringing folks of every shade of geekiness together. I think there's a little something to be found here for all of us.