Month: January 2018

It’s been a couple of months since “The Last Jedi” hit theatres, so I will say that this article contains spoilers, but come on!  We’ve all seen it already.

Scout and I were so excited to see TLJ, as we are always excited for any new Star Wars film, tv show, etc.  To put it simply, we loved it!  Why did we love it?  Well, here’s a list:

• General Leia, that’s all that need be said
• The inclusion of women and people of color throughout the film
• Realistic portrayals of women in power and how we problem solve
• Rose, again that’s all that need be said
• The new creatures
• Maz, again, that’s all blah, blah, blah
• BB8
• That throne room scene
• YODA!!!  Puppet Yoda
• The realization that the Jedi Order as it was, had to go.  The lessons learned there (failure being a great teacher, amongst other lessons) are valuable lessons for us all
• The director threw out the Star Wars playbook and let this episode play out like a third installment instead of a second one.  All bets are off now.  They can pretty much go anywhere with the episode nine.  So exciting!

OK, so that’s a small list of what we loved about the movie, but there was a vocal group of nerds that went out of their way to torpedo the film.  They used bots to bring the user score on Rotten Tomatoes down, had pages on various socials in order to bring this movie down.  What?  Why?

These nerds are most likely some of the same people that worked so hard to do the same to the women Ghostbusters.  Again I ask, what?  Why?

I wish I had an answer for you, but I do not.  Like most hate groups, I am left with a great sadness and more than a little confusion.  How does this happen to people?  Do they feel any joy at all anymore with their fandoms, or is their joy derived from torpedoing other’s enjoyment of things?

Now, if you didn’t like the movie just cause you didn’t like it, that is more than OK.  I’m not saying you have to like all the same things I like.  The hate groups are different.  They have actual hate for things because of the inclusion of people of color and especially women.

I’m afraid that as long as nerdy women keep going to cons, cosplaying, blogging and embracing fandoms, there will be hate groups out there to well, hate on that.  Rain on our parade, so to speak.  The more popular these fandoms become, the louder the complaining will be.  Oh well, anything to keep Reddit in business, I suppose.

Scout and I choose to continue on our nerdy journey and not pay them any mind.  That is easier said than done, but I think we can do it.  We nerd girls are made of tough stuff.

Love, Kim and Scout

This year was the first year that Universal Studios decorated the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at their various parks for Christmas.  Before our block-out days took effect, Scout and I hit up Hogsmeade for some Christmas fun!

On our way, we ran into a couple of friends:

After a couple of photo ops, we were ready to go to Hogsmeade:

First stop, butterbeer, of course!

They do have warm butterbeer during the holidays, but I have to get mine frozen.  I imagine the warm version is pretty amazing as well.

Next up, we watched the frog choir:

Then we hit some shops and Scout the brave soul, rode the Hogwarts ride.

After a delicious dinner at The 3 Broomsticks, we watched the light show on the castle.  It was beautiful.  I’m all about a Christmas light show that begins with castle ghosts!

We had an amazing day and found a new holiday tradition.

Love, Kim and Scout

Last week a YouTube star, Logan Paul, made a colossal mistake.  Then he followed said mistake by issuing a non-apology, apology, that made it worse.  So, what did this jerk-face do?  OK, it is just terrible, so you may not want your younger kids to read further.

He posted a video from Aokigahara of a dead body and proceeded to make fun of the man.  The man had committed suicide by hanging himself.  Aokigahara is also known as the “suicide forest” due to the large numbers of people that go there to end their lives.  Why Paul was there is anyone’s guess.

The video got millions of views before it was taken down by YouTube.  Paul issued an apology that made matters worse by basically trying to explain his actions away by saying he was trying to “raise awareness”.  Yeah, sure, OK.  Sure you were.

As a parent to a child that loves, and I mean LOVES YouTube, I was more than a little bit concerned.  Was she a fan of this guy?  His fanbase is made up of kids her age after all.  What is a parent to do about this?  Here’s what I did…

First, I asked her if she was a fan of his.  Thankfully, she is not, so I did not have to struggle with letting her remain subscribed to his page.  I had decided to allow her to continue to follow him, for now anyway, to see how he handled the fall-out and use it as a teachable moment.  Then I told her why I was asking.  She had heard about the video, but did not watch it.  She had no plans to watch, “Something so mean”, so I breathed a sigh of relief at that.  We then talked about his “apology” and why it was so not enough by far.

The kiddo and I have an open dialogue about her social media interests as well as her presence on various platforms, this blog, our Facebook page (which I run, but it is our cosplay page) and her own Instagram page.  I know her passwords.  I ask her about her YouTube interests and any new channels she subscribes to.  I look at who she is following on Instagram, and I have veto power of them all, as does her Dad.

I think you will agree, that this is tricky.  You want your kids to have freedom to pursue their interests, but there are just so many garbage humans on the internet, so what do you do to protect them while protecting their independence at the same time?

My best advice is to keep an open dialogue with your kids.  I mean, you should want to know what they are into anyway, so take an active interest in their social media habits.  I would also recommend visiting commonsensemedia.org when you have concerns and questions.  This site has articles from experts (which I am not), and you can search articles based on the age of your child as well for age-appropriate advice.

Here are some more tips for discussion with your child when letting them loose on the internet:

• The internet is forever.  There is no such thing as deleting.  Nothing is ever really and truly gone
• Be kind.  If you wouldn’t say it to the person’s face, don’t put it on the internet either
• There is no such thing as anonymity.  Your identity can be found out with some simple searching
• Set those privacy settings to protect yourself (probably best for parents to do this one)
• If you see something that makes you feel uncomfortable, sad or scared, tell a parent immediately!
• Lying on the internet is easy.  Do not just assume a person you have never met face-to-face is actually who they say they are

I hope these tips help in navigating this tricky parenting issue.  Please post any other tips you have that I missed in the comments!

Love, Kim and Scout

 

We are so excited to celebrate our second birthday with you all!

When we started this blog two years ago, we had no idea we would still be cranking away at it today!  We have learned so much in that time, and we have so much to share with you in the coming year.

We recently added make-up posts, and we are excited to bring you more of those as well as documentation of our adventures out there in the nerd world.  We continue to champion body positivity and body confidence.  I think you will agree that now more than ever, championing those causes is especially important to all of us.  We could all use some more positive in our lives.

As always, we welcome your comments.  What do you want to see us cover here?  What do you like/dislike about the posts?  What do you want to see more/less of?  Let us know!

So, here we go!  On!

Love, Kim and Scout