Finding my brethren October 13, 2008
Posted by faranaaz in Life.Tags: comics, Johannesburg, Magic the Gathering, Outer Limits
3 comments
Over the past few days, Sameer and I have been lamenting the lack of geeks in Joburg. We’ve met a couple of locals and generally they seem to be typical Joburgers – work oriented, image conscious and slightly sexist. And we were feeling the minority, we were feeling low. Where were all the oddballs and quirky folks? Where were the Laragh-type peeps — all into sci-fi and fantasy and anime and gaming? We were starting to lose hope of finding them.
Then Sunday afternoon we went to Outer Limits in Melville Main Road to pick up issue 6 and 7 of Sandman for Sameer and 100 Bullets for me. As we were paying for our stuff, the guy at the counter spotted our Lego Star Wars for Xbox and said “That’s a great game!” Next thing you know, everyone in the shop is advising Sameer on where to get the best game swopping deals.
Then the conversation went to Cape Town and comic book shops and one guy said Wizards is awful coz the people there have a bad attitude, and we were like Yes! Then Sameer mentioned that he always enjoyed the vibe at Outer Limits in Strand Street, coz the people there were friendly and interesting and that we’d first gone there to get Magic Cards. And then, as Sameer said, the guy’s “eyes just lit up”. Next thing I know we’re being fervantly entreated to attend a small Magic tournament. I told them I play horrendously but they said never mind, about half the people playing have only just started anyway.
And so, though we wouldn’t say we’d made any friends or anything, at least we’d found some people who were interested in something other than cars, clothes and chicks.
What it takes to bring out your inner blogger August 29, 2008
Posted by faranaaz in Life.Tags: blogging, Johannesburg, Life, moving
2 comments
You need sole access to a PC, none of that sharing stuff. You need a good internet connection. (Thanks Dad for the free internets!) And you need to have no other stressful, demanding issues looming over your head.
So it’s Friday afternoon, my bronchitis is finally clearing up, we have no errands to run. We’re just sitting at the house waiting for appliances to be delivered. There is almost nothing in the house. We bought a couch but it has to be made up and that takes four to six weeks so here we are on our old Weylands mat from the 1st Avenue house. I’ve tuned up my guitar in anticipation of practice, practice, practice. Sameer is playing Pro Evo on Dad’s TV after learning some tricks from Ali while we were in CT. The sun is out, it’s warm and we’re feeling generally peaceful. Suddenly, I feel the urge to blog again.
I had a major wiggins yesterday when we came in to unpack our clothing. It was quite depressing. We opened up the backpacks and unrolled our clothes and put them on hangars and then I suddenly felt this immense sadness. It was like that feeling I had when we left CT for the UK. Weird how you can go through such similar feelings in such different scenarios. In that case, we were about to embark on an overseas tour and I thought I was leaving SA behind for a very long time. In this case, we’re settling back into normality after bouncing all over the place for months. Both times I had such feelings of self doubt and sadness.
Two enormous scoops of Haagen Dasz and copious hugs later, I started to feel a bit more upbeat. It’s one thing to know the logical reasons for why we’ve made the decisions we make (?) but it’s another thing to go through with the plan and accept that in choosing to go in one direction, you’ve effectively closed off all other routes for the foreseeable future. Scary wot?
Anyway, that’s it for the moment. I’m probably going to double post today but first I need to sort through the Syria pics.
