The Geekie Awards

Started my day on the elliptical and 15 minutes into my cardio workout my machine started to make some grinding sounds and then suddenly I couldn't push the pedals and everything had frozen. This is just how my luck has been going lately. Just when I get into a great routine and really enjoying the workouts my machine breaks down. I took it apart to see if it was an obvious fix but I couldn't see anything.

The big thing today was The Geekie Awards. This is the first year for the Geekies and I was privileged to be a judge for the podcasts entries. I debated on what to wear, I considered renting a tux but instead decided on just a suit. But I wanted to cosplay it up a bit by wearing some of my Hobbit gear. I figured I'd be a modern day Hobbit. At first I was just going to wear the feet as I really didn't want to shave my facial hair. But after talking to folks and getting various opinions I decided to go with not only the feet but the hair and wig which meant I had to shave since Hobbits don't have facial hair.

I did a test run on what I was going to wear to make sure it looked good together but it was way to hot to wear it over to Jes' place as I was meeting up with several friends (Robert, Jes, Doug and Aaron) and we were carpooling to the award show. So I arrived with everything in hand. First thing I did while at Jes' was put on my ears as that normally takes the longest and just a few minutes before Doug, our final person arrived I put on everything else and as expected it was hot.

We all piled into Aaron suv and headed into Hollywood for the event. Doug and I were both judges and Robert was my plus one and Jes was Doug's plus one. Aaron actually purchased a ticket for the event. We got to the event around 5:15 as doors opened at 5:30 for a VIP pre party. When we got there we asked what line we needed to stand in and were told that the line on the left was for VIP and those who wanted to walk the red carpet and the line on the right was for VIP and Judges. Doug and I had the option on doing the red carpet but I read in an earlier email that our plus one could not. So we opted for just the VIP line.

We stood in line for over two hours, it was ridiculous. I know this is the first year of this event so of course there are going to be bugs and things they'll need to workout if there is a second but the process of lining up and getting our passes was horrific. I don't know who was in charge of this but they royally dropped the ball. We were all hungry and thirsty as we were told that the VIP pre-party was going to have drinks and food. Well we didn't get into the event until 7:15pm and the show was suppose to start at 7:30.

Once we were inside the rest of the evening was fantastic. The venue was nice, they moved us from the balcony VIP area to tables on the main floor by the stage, so that was cool. They had these cool 3D printers creating a rocket in the middle of each table. The show actually started only a half hour later then planned.

Andre Meadows (a popular youtuber) opened the show with some comedy. Then there was this really EPIC battle among various iconic geek characters, Black Widow, Bane, Jedi's, Dark Helmet, Batman, Joker, Hawkeye, etc.. they were fighting over a metal briefcase. This is all happening on the big screen when suddenly it moves to the theaters live, and the fighting continues on stage and behind some audience members. It was a really great opening to the show.

Host Alison Haslip

Then host Alison Haslip (who I just love) comes walking out with the briefcase, opens it and pulls out a Geekie Award. She goes into her opening monologue and got the show going (btw, she was a fantastic host). First award went to Stan Lee for the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award. He was awesome, came out questioned what a geek was to begin with because it does encompass so many different things. Then he read/sung us a poem he wrote about geeks and it was pretty awesome. A great way to start the awards presentation. They then announced NASA to receive the 2013 Geek Cred Award which was pretty great, and then they gave Nathan Fillion the 2013 Geek of the Year Award. Unfortunately he wasn't there but they did a funny acceptance skit instead. Then the actual awards started to be announced. Best Crowdfunding Campaign Award, Best Podcast Award (This is the category that I voted for), Best Short Film Award, Best One Shot Award, Best Toy or Game Award, Best Retail Store or Website Award, Best Web Series Award.

Cast of Freaks and Geeks

The presentations went great, they had some youtubers mixed in with some celebrities as presenters. They had fun little video bits that opened each category. My friend Olivia was part of a skit as

Friend Olivia on right

well as a "trophy" holder for one of the categories. The only real mistake was from The Winner Twins and Richard Hatch when they went to present Best Retail Store or Website Award. They did their shtick at the beginning and then went right into who the winner was. We had no idea what category this was for or who the nominees were. They went right to "And the Winner is...". Found out later from Olivia that the teleprompter screwed up and they just said what was on the screen. But other then that snafu the evening went smooth.. at least from the audience perspective.

It was a fun night, there were several "commercial" breaks during the show. Since I didn't get into the theater until a few minutes before it started I was unable to really socialize with any friends, other then the few I was with. So during the break I did manage to run into Lan Bui and Steven Dengler, both of these guys I haven't seen in quite a while so it was nice to catch up for the few seconds we were talking.

The show ran a bit long as expected since it didn't start on time and was over by 10pm. There was a VIP after party, but several of my friends who I came with had to work the next morning, plus we were all starving, so we did a quick round and I managed to say hi to my friend Bonnie Burton when I was picking up my "Judge" award bag. But I didn't get to meet Kristin Nedopak who I was really looking forward to meeting or Jenna Busch, again I'm a big fan and wasn't able to meet her. There were actually a good 20 or so friends there and I only saw three of them :( We left the theater around 11pm

Overall it was a fantastic time, and I really do hope there is a second annual Geekie Awards. The only downside to the night was the process of getting in, which lead to my other disappointment, not being able to socialize more with friends. But for a first time award show.. Kristin Nedopak should be commended on a job well done.