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A Brief History of the Geeks

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June 28, 2016  Today in Geek History - 1984 - Compaq releases the Compaq Deskpro, a 16-bit desktop computer featuring a 7.14MHz Intel 8086 microprocessor. It is markedly faster than the market-dominatingIBM PC and is capable of running IBM software. Meet the Geeks started off at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in July of 2002. It was in the beer tent that I was introduced to Clayton Stewart who, at the time, was trying to get a crew together to make a Star Wars fan film. Little did I know how that meeting would change my life. While the film, Star Wars: The Evil Within would ultimately be shelved Clay and I, being of unsound and like minds, came up with an idea for a webcomic where four of the core members of the film would become the story fodder for Meet the Geeks. The premise was simple, four friends, who have fallen on hard financial times, move into a house together. Sitting in a restaurant Clay and I tossed around ideas quickly coming up with a variet

New Ideas and projects.

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I've been eyeing the book Talk to Me: How to Ask Better Questions, Get Better Answers, and Interview Anyone Like a Pro by Dean Nelson for some time now. However every time I had a little money to spend there was always something else that needed to be picked up or had more value in my mind.   I was delighted then when I found out that the book was available as an audio book via Audible. Even better I had a monthly credit available and no other books in their repetoir were calling out to me. So with a click I am finally getting to, not read, but experience this book on my ride to and from work. It couldn't have come at a better time.  I've been looking for a podcast idea of my own that would allow me to try out my own journalistic skills. It's occurred to me on more than one occasion that I've been very fortunate in my lifetime to have been able to meet and befriend some very talented people. People like Laurie Smith and George Freeman, Lar DeSouza and others.  Init

Brian Toews Interview with Global News 2004-02-10, Winnipeg Manitoba

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Some time ago my mother had asked me if there was a way to convert a shoebox of old VHS tapes of my dads old games and interviews to digital format.  We found and purchased a analog to digital converter from Amazon.ca and I recently got around to hooking it up to an old VHS player that we fortunately still had and our computer. This is the first interview that I have uploaded using the converter and edited in DaVinci resolve. If you want to skip ahead my fathers interview starts at 1:01:16.  ~CoreyGeek 

Phantasy Star

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  I've never really considered myself a gamer, certainly not by the standards of todays professional or even casual game players, but back in the day, with the Sega Master System, there was one game that I stubbornly played my way through. Even though it took a couple of years if I remember correctly. That game was an early RPG; Phantasy Star This past Christmas the WifeGeek and I bought the Nintendo switch as a family present. Of course the kids and wife all found games readily that they wanted to play on it. Not myself though. There wasn't anything that immediately grabbed my interest so I was content to let them play.  Then my wife started playing Stardew Valley. Jokes about being a Stardew widower aside, the 8 bit graphics immediately reminded me of Phantasy Star and an idea was born. So I started looking online, found a Sega emulator for PC but couldn't find a download of Phantasy Star 1. (There have been several sequels to the game). Eventually I found out that it is

MTG... Meet the Geeks? No! Magic the Gathering!

  Let's go way back into the far-flung past and visit a young CoreyGeek. I really can't remember when I first found out about Magic the Gathering but I do remember that I bought my first deck from our local 7-11. I didn't know much about it but I would learn. There were many an evening where myself and a friend would be slinging cards, in his basement or mine, playing multiple games per evening. I recall having an affinity for Black and remember being told, no, you can't play your plague-rat deck.  Buzzkill. I played for several years into my twenties until my attentions were drawn elsewhere and I eventually stopped playing altogether. Now at forty-six I found myself at local game store  Amuse N Games  picking up a couple of Planeswalker decks and being utterly confused at the transformation that the game has undergone in the last thirty years.  To be frank I never would have imagined that the Game, made by Wizards of the Coast, would remain so popular for this amount o

A new year and more updates?

 Hey Geeks.  Things have been a little quiet around here lately but I'm hoping to change that this year. Obviously 2020 was a shit show but things appear to be looking up for 2021.  So firstly, the bad news. Late last year I decided to discontinue our comic Meet the Geeks. I have been finding it harder and harder to connect with the characters which were 20 something versions of ourselves. It was also difficult to find time and the energy to write, draw, ink and colour the comics while juggling my home life, other budding interests and work. It wasn't an easy decision but ultimately I think it will prove to be the correct one. Now, as for this years projects. I am working on producing an audiobook version of a friends, uhm... comedic erotica... book (yes it's smut). I'm hoping that by the middle of this year covid takes a running leap off of a short pier and I can get a cast together to record this thing. In the meantime I'm teaching myself a few new skills which I

Thinking of Riley

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On Friday May 29th our lives changed forever. I woke up at my mothers urging, laying on the spare bed at my mothers apartment, groggy from the wine the previous evening.  Friday evenings have become a tradition since our youngest's birth. Spending the evening at my parents, drinking wine and visiting with Hunter. It's become more important to me since my fathers passing early last year. And Friday evening seemed like any other.  What I didn't know was, during that time, our oldest child Riley had become unresponsive at his group home. An ambulance was called and Riley was being admitted to the Children's ICU at the Health Sciences Center. Jenn was called and informed and, with the help of one of our close friends, went down to stay with him. I found this all out the next morning.  And ultimately there was nothing that I could do other than pack a bag of necessities for Jenn and drop it off on the main floor. Because of the current Covid 19 pandemic I am not allowed to s

Oh yeah, that's a strip

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Sometimes the strips featured on Meet the Geeks are based on reality. And often I find myself in these moments quoting Clay "aannnd... That's a strip"  Take last night for example.  Spring and I have a love/hate relationship. I love spring for the resurrection of life, fewer bugs and cooler pre-summer temperatures. I hate spring because of my allergies, and they have been acting up with a vengeance.  Last night I was sent to bed by my wife around 7:30. I was exhausted and in need of a good, solid nights sleep.  After crawling into bed and dozing for a bit I started feeling the first tickles of an itch forming. I tried to ignore it. But sometimes it just feels so damned satisfying to scratch. And scratch I did.  For the next several hours.  It got to the point that I was trying to draw blood because pain is better than those itches. The ones at your joints. The ones that scurry around under your skin as your scratching fingers desperatel