Geek Venues (4/4)

The final guest post from Brannen in a series about geeky hangouts around DC.

Places for Pages

Welcome back geeks and friends to the show that never ends, come inside, come inside.

I might be on cold meds. You have been warned.

I have to admit that I’m a book geek. When I finally accumulate Sod Off money my personal cave isn’t the sybaritic den that some might guess (that’s for sharing with guests, after all), no. It will be more like this:

No, I don't have enough. Why do you ask?
(via Charlotte L.)

There is just something about the weight of the book in your hands, the smell of old paper, oiled leather, hint of must and dust and words both shouted and whispered into my ears by people I’ve never met.

For a lover of books, not just as an idea transmission medium but as objects in and of themselves, then you’ve got to get over to the Folger Shakespeare Library. The collection is amazing and it runs far beyond just getting to coo at covers and look at a few displayed pages. The Folger does an excellent job of bringing out not just the texts but the context of the works as well. The easy hours of the place and the free admission make it a very attractive offering if your out for city exploration or scratching that academic itch. If you’re willing to pay out a bit the Folger also has an ongoing schedule of plays, musical performances, poetry presentations and other live works. The place makes a great spot for a geeky, elegant date when you’re looking to impress (or taking advantage of your SO’s patience to soak in your own preferred geekdom).

The second spot for the book geek and the final suggestion for this little series on geek outings for the winter winds up at a place very near and dear to my heart. If I had a church, a temple, a mosque or sacred grove this would be it:

Try not to fall when you look up, it happens surprisingly often.
(via Angela N.)

Yeah. That’s the Library of Congress that I’m talking about. Take a look at that image above again. Now think about your personal library or local library. Now look at the image below:

Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story...
(via Matt Riggott)

Yeah, tell me its not a place of reverence and I’ll call you a liar.

The complex itself is surprisingly large, spanning several buildings in DC and a whole warehouse area outside of the city. The buildings in the city are linked by a series of tunnels, so if you’ve ever been curious about underground DC you can get a small (and well lit) taste of what a lot of the federal passages around the area look like. I suggest coming in from the main entrance, though. Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass, as we all know, and you can really get a feel for that as you come into the main reading room. It truly does feel like a temple to knowledge, to the understanding and creativity of humanity. Its an incredible place to seek out on a wander, no matter whether you’re on your own or with others.

There are several options for visiting the library as well. You can do the standard tour thing, or even download some self guided tours onto your phone. The outer rooms of the library buildings tend to be special focus and often hold small exhibits that shift over time. Honestly, I’ve spent hours in there just for the art and architecture, let alone the book collection.

Ahhh, yes, the collection.  It is massive and you need to know a few things about it. First of all, if you want to actually access anything you need to get yourself a Reader’s Identification Card. The process isn’t bad, it took me about 20 minutes last time I got one. You need a valid photo ID, the ability to fill out a short form and then you’re issued a card good for two years. Once you’ve got that in hand you can use the on-site catalogs and can even request materials. Yeah, request. You can’t go digging through the stacks, which honestly is for the best. Just a warning though, depending on traffic this can take a while and what you want may not always be available. Last time I was in I requested a fair obscure book dealing with a Norse mythological figure. They’ve got it in the catalog, but after a bit more than an hour of a wait I was informed that it wasn’t available at that time. So if you’re going in to research, have a full list of materials you want to look at. On the upside its almost like a restaurant: Tell them which desk you’re at when you turn in the requests and they do the rest.

Well, that’s it for now. I hope these ideas have encouraged you to get out and about, even as the weather gets colder. Whether you’re seeking solitude from the maddening throngs or looking for that cool place to share some special company, there’s no reason to ever claim being bored in DC. We have a vast and rich region to enjoy. Get out there!

Until next time, I hope your obsessions blossom beautifully.

Geek Venues (3/4)

The third guest post from Brannen in a series about geeky hangouts around DC. This time, he covers a few museums that usually get missed in the online lists.

For Science!

Welcome back, geeks and friends. Today’s posting is brought to you by something I’ve been experimenting with involving high grade coffee beans, pure water, some lab equipment and very, very slow expression of the goodness in the beans. I’m almost to the point where I can see time, but not quite yet. Let’s see where I am by the end of this posting.

As promised on Saturday, tonight I want to talk about a couple of spots to get out to with friends, family, loved ones or those you hope to entice into becoming your companion for a time. But not just any kind of spot. Thus far I’ve looked at places for gaming, spots for making but tonight I want to talk about a couple of places that fall more under Science! than anything else.

For those who want a more mellow time (and perhaps be reminded of just how small and meaningless and... okay, I’m back), I can’t really suggest a better spot than the Albert Einstein Planetarium. Oh, sure, there are IMAX theaters all around you in the complex where you can watch Big Bird talk about the sky and stuff about planes, but that’s just local details. In the planetarium you get a kind of purity, a sense of where you are with all the stars shining around you. Not everything is sedate out there. I’ve been hearing good things about the Cosmic Collisions presentation at the planetarium as well, so you can go for the peaceful and philosophical or you can still get massive (galactic scale) bang ups. The choice is yours.

This is a hard spot to beat for sheer versatility. Desperately need a break before you go Sweeny Todd on visiting family? Head out for an afternoon showing and then a walk over to say hi to Albert himself. Need some alone time? Metro over and enjoy. Looking for something with more geek cred than a movie to take the object of your affection to? Take a walk around the Mall and wind up in the dark, looking up.

I wish you could see the ground at his feet. It's a map of more
than 2700 local stars. (via Bernt Rostad)

Pulling a serious one eighty from the planetarium (and heading over state lines) brings us to The National Firearms Museum, a prime example of the application of science. Now, I’ll say up front, this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. That being said, I know a lot of geeks who enjoy heading to the range now and again. I know a lot, lot more geeks who love guns (along with swords and lightsabers and knives and...) as part of their fandoms and fan iconography.

The museum itself is home to fifteen galleries and more than 2700 firearms. Most of the galleries are arranged by historical period (not a bad way to hook in a proto-geek child if you have one available) with a few specialty galleries like the toy gun section or the Hollywood Guns gallery. They also have collection images online, but that’s just the same as getting to see them in person. Check out the site for hours and directions, but if you’re the type who enjoys weapons or perhaps has a love of reserve engineering then go and enjoy an afternoon.

Coming up next from Brannen on DC Geeks is the final installment of this little series, two places the book geek has to go in DC.

Geek Venues (2/4)

The second guest post from Brannen in a series about geeky hangouts around DC.

Welcome back, geeks and friends. Tonight’s thoughts brought to you by Lady Caffeina, She of the Bright Eyes and Trembling Hands. "It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion, It is by the beans of Java the thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion" But, enough about my chemical addictions, let’s talk about a deeper and more insidious need of mine.

Crafter Spots

I tend to keep my hands and brain busy during evenings and weekends in making things. Its just something I do and the need to do it has gotten worse as I’ve gotten older. Culinary experimentation, fermentation, carving, building - its all there. Lugh help me, I’m actually looking through poly resin information in the other window and having visions of an extremely sticky-then-hard disaster in my future. There’s something about this time of year though; the chill in the air, the early sunsets, the endless, sanity destroying loops of carols in public spaces, that just makes me hands itch with memories of yesterday. Memories of handmade Christmas gifts (not out of some sort of ethical or aesthetic choice, but because us kids didn’t get an allowance or budget for gifts. We either had to make them or endure the shame of failed social obligations.) rise like swamp gas out of the muck of the mind.

Not all such memories are bad though, and obviously they haven’t kept me from indulging that drive to make and that ever expanding curiosity about how things work. And I know I’m not alone in that. The geek culture seems to have a large population of crafty and/or DIY folk in it. Sometimes the crafting is a way to further their hobby. Sometimes the making is the hobby. Either way, I call it a good thing (and look for further thoughts on this in the future). But for now, let’s stick with the original theme: getting out and indulging yourself.

HacDC is one of hundreds of Hacker Space or Maker Space shops that have sprung up around the globe over the past decade, spaces devoted to amateur engineers and their networks. Head over to their site and you’ll get a taste of what’s going on in the space. Gatherings for microcontroller and electronics enthusiasts are coming up soon, as is the ongoing software developers’ get together. They hold free classes and workshops, maintain space for the technical and social needs of those who want to tear apart and rebuild technology and generally do very cool work with the tech available to most folks. Their Spaceblimp project had me mesmerized. So as a way to get out for an evening, a working date in those early, what-do-we-talk-about stages or something to do with friends, its a great venue. Just keep checking their website, mailing list and other channels of communication.

See? You could be doing this on your weekends. (via blackrazorus)

If your needs are a little more... muscle intensive, then get yourself over to the gatherings of the Blacksmith’s Guild of the Potomac. Mostly meeting at the forge at Gulf Branch Nature Center in Arlington, they’re easy to get to and a friendly bunch of folks.

Now, just a couple of warnings about smithing: it takes time to pick up even basic skill, its hot, it takes time to pick up basic skills, you need keep aware, it takes time to pick up basic skills. But there is a pay off for patience and perseverance: you get to make things out of metal, with metal, in your own hands. Machine pieces can be a lot of fun and produce some beautiful work. Casting is just neat (and something I’m trying to figure out a way to do a lot more of), but there’s something about handling steel gone orange in the flames, about shaping it with heavy wallops and delicate strikes, of learning to coax and seduce the metal into what you want. And from a fantasy geek standpoint: who wouldn’t want to make their own mace?

Trust me: Wear closed-toe shoes. No, I don't want to talk about it.
(via Derek Key)

Unless you’ve found a truly special someone, this probably isn’t a date kind of activity. Though, hey, if you have, team forging can be awesome. I would recommend this spot as a great way to get to know your friends, though. There’s something about dripping sweat and the concern of metal searing skin while you work that tends to focus the mind and bring out honest words. Or maybe that’s just my experience.

Coming up next from Brannen at DC-Geeks... we retreat a bit from the making to the use of tools in a couple of spots that might appeal to the science geek in us all.

Geek Venues (1/4)

Hey guys, this week I’m posting the first of a short series of guest posts from fellow DC Geek, Brannen, about a few fun spots he’s come across in DC. Give him a warm welcome.

Hello, DC Geeks. Brannen here, filling in for Aine this week. But for now, you’re stuck with me and a glass of something decidedly not coffee, so away we go.

The holidays are upon us, but I’m not going to talk about that. What I’m interested in tonight is venues. More to the point, venues for the geek around DC. Maybe its for a date, maybe its a new option for a family outing, maybe its a haven from family and friends. No matter the situation we need options. Below are a few I’d like to suggest as alternatives from the usual routine.

If your game center systems look like this, run.
You’re either in an art installation or an epilepsy study.
(via visual velocity pc)

Game Centers

Aye, it can seem a bit odd at first glance. Go out to some place and pay them for the privilege of using unfamiliar systems where I can’t lounge around in my boxers while my music throbs out of the speakers I got adjusted to just the perfect angle? And yet... and yet there’s an appeal to this. Maybe I’m odd, but I actually put this experience out there with going on a bar crawl or chatting up folks at a con. We’re all strangers, but we’re strangers together, an obviously shared interest and an excuse to interact. Or not. She may want to frag me while I just want to finish out the entire Zelda franchise.

That is another plus for game centers though: the collections. It may be tarnishing my reputation here, but I’ll admit that video games aren’t my primary area of fandom. I certainly can’t hold a candle to Aine’s collection (or obsession), nor that of several other of the DC Geeks writers. I’ll lose days at a time to a good game, but my collection numbers in dozens of titles, not in the hundreds. Its also a bonus if you’re trying to get family or friends interested in your specific interest (especially if they included folks who are completionists, like me. Poor souls.).

In Virginia you can take a look at GamePad for a start. In Maryland there’s Graphix Game Center. These are just a start, though. Whip out the Google-fu and keep looking. Its not a bad idea for a first date, a day just for you or a way to occupy your geek spawn for an afternoon.

Funny, I don't remember Zelda being co-op. (via Kevin)

Coming up on Saturday on DC Geeks... A counterpoint to tonight’s venues of the ephemeral. I’ll talk about local spots to make, build and craft.

Spotlight: Exotic Planterium

Exotic Planterium, Comic & Card Collectorama
2008 Mount Vernon Ave, Alexandria, VA
703-548-3466

Yeah, with a store front like that I had to check it out.

No.  That is not a misspelling.  This eclectic shop is a combination Exotic Plant shop and Comic Store.  Yeah.  That's what I said. WTF.

IT'S FANTASTIC.  It has that air of a hoarders personal collection of stuff, but it has so many interesting items for sale. Freakin' Star Trek TNG action figures (we'll ignore the Waterworld action figures...), Doctor Who books(old skool Doktor), classic comics, nerd classic scifi fantasy books.

Plants and comics.  Normally such natural enemies...

I FREAKIN' got a XANTH graphic novel from there!  Did you know that they made Xanth graphic novels?  Nope, neither did I.  Yeah, I know you see the look on my face.  I'm just as surprised as you.  How did I not know about this before?

I spoke to the owner for a bit.  He's been at this location for 35 years and seems very knowledgeable about the content on display and the plants for sale.  This store's location is nearly impossible to find through the Google or Google Maps.  But we've provided it at the top to make things a little easier for you.

Old comics, old card games, and action figures galore.

So, this store isn't the best store if you're looking for any of the newer comics or newer anything really.  Buuuuuuut, it's fantastic as a place to find all sorts of geekery that you either didn't know existed, or thought had been destroyed years ago.  Seriously, there was stuff there that horrified me and amazed me.

Ok, we'll go over what I actually picked up.  That Xanth novel, pretty good. Once you get past the normal Xanth cheesiness.  It's pretty in line with the book series, and it's kinda awesome seeing it drawn. The other item procured was the old school Doctor Who adventure novel for a friend of mine.  They had a bunch of them for a very good price.  I was tempted to grab a bunch and run out of the store cackling.

This place was full to bursting.  Sometimes it appeared literally.

One of my favorite moments, is when one of the DC Geekers with me saw an action figure from the movie Steel, immediately about faces and leaves the store.  Evidently this is an affront to humanity.

Check it out.  It's well worth a look see.