dis·crim·i·nat·ing adj. Showing careful judgment or fine taste: a discriminating collector of rare books; a dish for the discriminating palate. (American Heritage Dictionary)
fan·girl noun A person obsessed with an element of video or electronic culture, such as a game, sci-fi movie, comic or animé, music, etc; a person obsessed with any other single subject or hobby. (Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary of English)
The Discriminating Fangirl is all about geeky stuff. We glory in it. We revel in it. We review speculative fiction, movies, comics, tv, and the occasional video game, and we post random geeky chatter. This place may be called The Discriminating Fangirl, but discriminating fanboys are more than welcome, too!
The Discriminating Fangirl
(otherwise known as TDF Pamela)
The Discriminating Fangirl, who is more likely to answer to Pamela if you shout it at her, has harbored all her life a not-so-secret desire to be Indiana Jones. She realizes, though, that real archaeology entails less treasure hunting and fighting Nazis and more crawling in the dirt with a toothbrush, and so she’s working on a Master’s degree in English instead, focusing on literature and specifically young adult/adolescent literature. But the love of Indiana Jones and other deliciously geeky things was instilled in her at a young age by closet geek parents, and so she started this blog as an outlet for her geeky passions.
TDF Pamela reads like a fiend; you can see what she’s read in the past year by clicking that “Books Read in 2009″ link at the top of this page. She prefers speculative fiction by far and has been reading a lot of urban fantasy and paranormal romance lately. She also reads science fiction, more traditional fantasy, and the occasional Egyptian mystery. She digs comic books, particularly anything with Wolverine and/or Jean Grey in it as well as Fables and Hellboy. When time permits (that is, when she’s procrastinating), TDF/Pamela plays video games; she’s currently addicted to Sid Meier’s Civilization: Revolution, Little Big Planet, Lego Indiana Jones, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. She’s a huge Sims 2 junkie, too, as is evidenced by her bio pic. Geek fandoms of choice include X-Men, Firefly, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Star Trek, Iron Man, and way too many to list here. She’s something of a fandom polyandrist.
TDF Pamela currently lives with her Fanboyfriend in a little college town in northeast Texas and is plotting her escape as soon as that MA diploma is in her hot little hands.
elsewhere on the web
- Twitter: @tdfangirl
- Goodreads: The Discriminating Fangirl
- Flickr: autumnqueen
- DeviantArt: pink frangipani
The Bibliomaniac (a/k/a Jennifer)has a disease. Said disease is the only hobby that qualifies with the American Psychiatric Association as a mental illness, bibliomania (you knew there was a connection in there somewhere, didn’t you?) My mother taught me how to read when I was three, and I haven’t quit since. My personal library currently stands around 5400 volumes, with more on the way in the mail. My favorite genres include fantasy (especially urban fantasy and alternate history), horror, and SF. But I’ll read almost anything if bored or desperate. Favorite authors include Tanith Lee, Neil Gaiman, Thomas Burnett Swann, Rachel Caine, Kim Harrison, Stephen King, F. Paul Wilson, Manly Wade Wellman, Julian May, and Charles Beaumont.
A published writer, I have worked on a number of projects for White Wolf Games in the past, including projects for Vampire: the Requiem, Changeling: the Lost, and Scion. My first professionally-published short story is coming out in an anthology this December.
I have a B.A. in English (Literature) and a B.S. in Criminal Justice, as well as having done some postgrad work (courses in Medieval Latin).
When I’m not reading (when does that happen?), you can find me watching bad horror and chop-socky movies, gardening, playing with my five cats, LARPing and gaming, attending SF conventions, collecting comics, or making myself yet another cup of tea. Like many heartfelt readers, I am also a writer, and can usually be found typing diligently away on my next novel or working on another poem.
When creating a bio, one normally does deep introspective thought. They would then arrange these thoughts in a witty and pleasing way, keeping an eye on appealing to a target audience. However, that’s not how I roll. I am more a ‘from the hip’ sorta girl. Of course, I only preface with this because it gave me the opportunity to mention my hips.
Anyway. Hello, my name is Binary Betty (sorta) and I’m the girl with The Plan. My qualifications pretty much boil down to my being a Scorpio, born in the Chinese year of the Tiger, having an uncanny knack for saying the right thing without even trying, and being able to not only walk in 4 inch heels, but to make it look painless. Though I guess I don’t see how that last item applies.
Currently, when I’m not dishing advice on matters of the heart, text, screen, or otherwise, I spend my time dredging through my to-do-lists looking for loopholes. So far I’ve not found a way out of writing my thesis where I still end up wearing the fancy robes and accepting a brand new Master’s degree while my mom cheers from the crowd, but I’ll keep you posted on that one. Thesis and teaching and blogs aside, I can still manage to have some fun! For example, I have a secret crush on Cedric Diggory that is a serious slice of mental delights, I’ve made it my mission in life to ensure my totling daughter is exposed to as many Sci-Fi conventions as possible before she rebels in whatever way she eventually will, I struggle each night choosing what movie to fall asleep to (last night’s winner was the BBC version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which I settled on after realizing I was about to panic,) and I read almost anything and mostly everything voraciously. Seriously. I can go from Blogs to Bronte to Kerouac to Pratchett to Star Wars fan fiction in a fog of texty bliss, that’s how much I love it all*. I hope to one day write screenplays, but that dream is probably just an offshoot of my fantasy love affair with sci-fi adaptations.
* I don’t really ‘love it all’ when it comes to reading. Try and get me to read past the web addy to the Fox News website and see how well you do. Mmmhmmm.
elsewhere on the web
- Twitter: @binarybetty
Book Ali, who doesn’t live in an alley but kind of wishes she lived in a book, has been breathing since the day she was born (or so the legend goes). The legend also says that she was speaking at six weeks old, and reading/writing before kindergarten. But, those could be lies, or myths (but aren’t those practically the same thing?). She also finds mainstream awesomeness (term used loosely) mostly offensive (No, writers of Transformers 2, archaeologists NEVER would have found that Prime machine hidden in the pyramids. What did you think, they had degrees or experience or technology or something?). She is opinionated and obnoxiously loud, which makes the internet a great place for her. She’s getting her Bachelor’s in English with a minor in either Sociology or Political Science, she hasn’t decided yet. Thankfully, she has three semesters left to figure it out. She’s on the fast track, scheduled to graduate a semester early so she can go to grad school in Oregon or Colorado (one of those cold, northern states) a semester early. She wants to write Young Adult fiction, and plays with conventional poetic styles and integrates them into traditional prose novel styles. She’s been a geek since she could generate conscious thought, and was encouraged by one of her parents to pursue whatever obsessions she has as long as she’s being academic.
She reads like a recluse with a goal of 100 books for the year. She specializes in YA fiction, usually one end of the spectrum (fantasy, speculative) or the other (realistic, depressing). In the adult book world, she either reads Brit Lit (a slight addiction) or science fiction (a bigger addiction). She reads comics when she can find the time, which is scarce these days. She plays mostly RPGs (when she can find time!) and reads two manga series religiously (Nana and Vampire Knight). She is an official Film Freak, and has Movie-Binge Days more frequently than can possibly be healthy. She has also seen 26 films in theatres this year alone. Nerd fandoms include: Firefly, Justin Bartha, Vampire Knight, Star Trek (preferably new, but I appreciate where it came from), Wolverine, Iron Man and even more than can fit in her head at one time. Her favorite movies of all time are The Little Mermaid and Snow Queen.
Book Ali lives on the outskirts of reality and along the border of insanity, but most people just call it northeast Texas.
elsewhere on the web:
- Twitter: @iamsuffocating
- DeviantArt: iamsuffocating
Emily is a twenty-something fangirl from the East Coast. Her biggest obsessions are books—reading them and having lots of them. Her favorite genres are young adult, fantasy, horror, memoir, pop culture and humor. YA, in particular, fascinates her because she wants to convert more children to fangirlism at a very young age. She thinks you should always have a book (or three!) with you at all times, in case you get trapped in a well or otherwise have a lot of time to kill, and doesn’t like it when you ask her what her favorite book is because she doesn’t want to offend them by choosing.
Along with her literary nerdity, Emily has also been known to geek out over comics, movies and TV shows. Prior to becoming a guest-nerd at “The Discriminating Fangirl,” Emily maintained a popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer website called “The Thundering Looney Bin” and a Harry Potter fanfiction archive.
Emily now lives in New York City. She works at a large corporation that crushes little piece of her soul out each day. One day she hopes to be able to pay for her therapy with books.
Finn is a fangirl hiding behind a pseudonym. While she is all about originality, there are some things in life that are too original, such as Finn’s real name. She lives under the belief that her parents secretly wanted a boy they could name Broc Lee and thereby punished Finn for being a girl by giving her a name that was undeniably feminine.
Thumbing her nose up at tradition, Finn discovered a love for all things comic book related at a young age and unabashedly strutted around the house wearing Wonder Woman UnderRoos. Growing older, and still wearing the golden lasso (in reality a piece of yellow string) and indestructible bracelets (uh…toilet paper cores cut in half), Finn barreled headlong through her formative years surrounded by all things related to computers, movies, books, video games, comic books and electronic gadgets. To this day, Finn has an unhealthy lust for the X-Men (especially when specific to Wolverine/Jean Grey), books (of the paranormal /urban fantasy/science fiction/fantasy variety), movies (of the campy horror/adventure/action variety), video games (of the bloody/gory variety) and her BlackBerry (of no variety).
Finn is currently working on her Bachelor of Science for computers and doesn’t, contrary to popular belief, live under a rock. Instead she lives in an alternate universe, where the state of Virginia doesn’t suck, with her husband and awesome geek daughter. She also reminds everyone that geeks are born, not made.
Lord Fanny, also known as CJ, or possibly Charles, but never ever Chuck, likes to make a habit of trying everything at least twice, as the first time may have been a fluke. He learned to read from his older cousin’s Justice League of America comics, and wants to be a superhero when he grows up, which should be any decade now. Hopefully he’ll have developed superpowers by then. Something cool, like teleportation or invisibility… In the meantime, he’s working on a Master’s degree in Literature, with a focus on comic books and superheroes.
LF/CJ loves to read, and given enough time and/or boredom will read quite literally anything, including shampoo bottles, cereal boxes, clothing tags, grocery receipts, and People magazine. His first literary love will always be comics and superheroes, but he also digs science fiction, role-playing game books, fantasy, horror, erotica, and basically anything weird or trippy.
LF/CJ also loves videogames, role-playing games, mixed martial arts (spectating, not participating!), music, and writing, both fiction and non-fiction. And monkeys. But who doesn’t love monkeys?
LF/CJ is happily married and lives with his beautiful wife and brilliant son in an interdimensional fortress hidden within a pocket universe, where there is rarely any traffic.
When I grow up, I want to be the Librarian. My parents think it’s a great idea, but friends have pointed out that without some serious investments with Johns Hopkins, I will never be like Noah Wyle. Their sarcasm will be noted in the afterlife. In truth, I would love my career to be “student”. I have two B.A.s (in Anthropology & Medieval Studies) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Medieval History (only recently have I stopped waking up in the middle of the night conjugating Latin verbs). I have plans for additional degrees, including an A.S. in Political Science, an M.A. in Anthropology. I love to travel, speak a little bit of several languages, and have several stamps in my passport (and not just to Canada & Mexico). I’ve driven across the United States twice and am only missing one corner of my puzzle – the enigmatic Pacific Northwest, home of Sasquatch and other X-Files-esque happenings. I read, I write, I knit, I scrapbook, I photograph, and I’m even learning to sew. I know how to dip candles, spin wool, make cheese, and use a foot-pedal printing press (yay for lead-free type slugs!). Next time on Olde Fashioned Skills, I will be learning to loom-weave.
elsewhere on the web
- blog: Twitter
Strangeness Abounds (a.k.a. Erin) is a recent graduate with her BA in English. She is considering returning for her Master’s sometime in the near future if this economic climate does not improve (hey, it’s better than getting a job at McDonald’s!). She is currently an assistant editor to Stonehedge Publishing and Mythica Publishing.
Strangeness Abounds is a girl who is a discriminatory viewer of many books, movies, and video games – books coming first, video games second, and movies third.
SA loves to read fantasy novels, manga/anime, graphic novels, documentary books, Stephen King, and Garrison Keillor. She cannot stand Jane Austen or any of the Brontes, blasphemous though that may seem.
SA is a tremendous fan of The Legend of Zelda series, and has been for nearly a decade. Be aware that if any mention of Zelda is made, she will ramble about theorizing for a long, long, long time. She is also a fan of any fantasy-type video game, but doesn’t care much for “shoot-’em-ups.”
SA is Harrison Ford’s biggest fan. She is not ashamed to admit that she has the occasional dream of bearing his child. However, she knows that some of his films are flawed – some, badly flawed – and yet continues to cheer him onto “that big hit” that will reignite his career once again. SA would love to see Harrison win an Oscar, even though he has said that such things are not important to him.
elsewhere on the web
- blog: Truthful Oddities
Wenchie, mostly known as Brittany to those who aren’t in on an old ren faire joke, is a gamer. She loves playing Half-Life 2, Age of Empires, Civilizations 4, and plays Left 4 Dead on a mostly regular basis.
Wenchie is a bookworm. A long time ago, in a state only half the country away (aka Texas), she became hooked on books, even when she was too young to read. Fairytales were her drug of choice back then, mostly of the Grimm or Anderson variety. Then it became paranormal YA novels and fantasy YA novels. Now it’s romance, paranormal, high fantasy, urban fantasy, sci-fi, or almost any genre that also has a good romance element to it.
Wenchie is random. Think Pinky, from Pinky and the Brain, but not stupid. Just ask her about the unicorn sometime and you’ll know.
Wenchie is a history nut. She started out wanting to be an archaeologist from an early age, with her love of history (and an Indiana Jones influence) and all things ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian, what have you. It turned out, however, that some dreams don’t make as much money as others and, with an interest in art and computer graphics, she decided to go to college for animation instead. After six years of college, she finally graduated with a BFA in New Media. Now she lives in CA and is still working on her portfolio.
In a nutshell, Wenchie is Wenchie.
elsewhere on the web
- DeviantArt: britbrat84
- Graphics LJ: twincapricorns
The WereGeek, also known as Deke (no, really), began reading comics as soon as she could read. Her parents bribed her with Disney and Harvey comics to keep her quiet on long road trips. Before long, she moved to Archie comics and then to Marvel. Power Pack turned out to be her gateway comic – leading first to The Uncanny X-Men, then to Alpha Flight, The New Mutants, Thor and a host of others. She also picked up ElfQuest (and felt very naughty reading the orgy scenes in the fourth graphic novel) and even picked up some DC comics when the only 7-eleven in town was out of her usuals. She collected comics of all sorts through the 80s but stopped in 1992 when every title became multiple titles. When she couldn’t afford her habit, she quit cold turkey.
Of course, all that changed in 2000 when the X-Men movie came out. She began collecting comics again in earnest and tried to fill in what became known as “The Gap”. Thanks to student loan money, The Gap is now much smaller and more sporadic than it once was.
Speaking of student loans (of which WereGeek has many – she refers to the payments as her “condo only [her] brain can live in”), she got her undergraduate degree in History, with a minor in English so she fits in around here, concentrating in Medieval Britain. She even studied abroad in Swansea, Wales, where she learned some Latin she’s now forgotten and took lots of pictures of Traveling Wolvie interacting with the locals. She also got her Master of Science in Library and Information Science but is not currently working in the profession. Her dream job would be to work as Marvel’s digital archivist or be the curator of a comic book museum.
Other fannish favorites include, but are not limited to: Being Human, Avatar: the Last Airbender, Firefly/Serenity, Dark Angel, The Dragonriders of Pern books (only the ones written solely by Anne McCaffrey), and the Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett. Come to think of it, anything by Terry Pratchett.
WereGeek currently lives in northern Colorado, but would jump at the chance to move back to Wales permanently.
elsewhere on the web
- Twitter: weregeek
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