This Week in Geek 2011/12/25

This Week in Geek, Christmas edition! Here’s a list of the events going on between Christmas and New Year’s. If you know of additional meetups or open events, please share them in the comments.

Longer Term

• Mental Health - Tactical Airsoft Arena - Rockville, MD - Monday through Saturday
• For when you really need to just pelt the shit out of that uppity hipster nephew in an airsoft match or blow off steam post-in-laws at the shooting range. The Tactical Airsoft Arena offers a great set up for a variety of interests. Check out their holiday hours.

Monday

• Steampunk - Chrononauts’ Winter Stroll - Washington, DC - 1:30 PM
• Time travelers, gentlemen adventurers, and Victorian tinkerers, gather round. Starting off at the Smithsonian Castle, you can all enjoy a stroll around the National Mall this Boxing Day. The Facebook event is here. Images from last year’s event are available on Flickr.

A local family of chrononauts poses in DC. (via the von Hedwigs)

Tuesday

• Gaming - Open Game Night - Washington, DC - 6:00 PM
• This is the last open game night of 2011. If you haven’t given the group a shot, you can make this last your first. Get a jump start on that resolution to be more social. If it’s not a night that you can pull yourself away from Old Republic, visit the link above. You can vote to try and nudge their next event to a day you would be free.
• Music - Thursday at the 9:30 Club - Washington, DC - 6:00 PM
• I just added this event to the list because (1) Thursday is a fun band. (2) The 9:30 Club is pretty awesome. (3) You get to spend the next few days telling people you’re seeing Thursday on Tuesday. It’s the little things in life...

Friday

• Entertainment - Olde City Side Show - Washington, DC - 8:30 PM
• For those of you interested in the side shows and vaudeville acts in addition to the burlesque, this event is for you. Fascinating, horrifying, either way you won’t be bored. I’ll steer clear of spoilers, but having read the act descriptions, I have to say this is not an event for those with faint hearts, weak stomachs, or delicate constitutions.

The impressive crew of the Olde City Side Show.
More photos are available on their site.

Saturday

• Museum - Lost and Found: The Secrets of Archimedes - Washington, DC - 10:00 AM
• I’ve posted about the Archimedes Palimpsest before. This is your last chance to see the exhibition before it closes. There’s a full article on why the Palimpsest is so amazing. Recovering data that’s a decade old is amazing, and this project recovered deleted data from over 2200 years ago.

• Reddit - Redditors’ Meetup - Reston, VA - Noon
• If you’re a local redditor, you should check out the meetup. It’s been considerately scheduled from noon to 5:00 PM so as not to interfere with your pre-existing New Year’s plans. Kicking off with a white elephant gift exchange, the hangout continues with lunch and ice skating. The meetup page has a spreadsheet for figuring out carpooling if you need a ride to Reston.

Sunday

• Remedies - Hair of the Dog - Anywhere where drink had been consumed in beastly quantities some time previously
• If you don’t drink, you can lecture your whining friends about the etymology of “hair of the dog.” For the rest of you, good luck. You may be pretending you’re going to go on one of the many runs in the area. But we all know how this is really going to play out, and preparedness is key. Repeat after me: vodka, tomato juice, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, celery salt, pepper, lemon juice, and a celery stalk.

Wishing you and your’s a great holiday and a geeky new year. “Though here’s a tip. Just ‘ho, ho, ho’ will do. Don’t say ‘Cower, brief mortals’ unless you want them to become moneylenders or some such.” And yes, I did learn everything I needed to know about Christmas from Terry Pratchett.