Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Millennium Falcon Mural Has It Where It Counts

Could Kimber G. be the coolest mom ever?


Well, considering the mural she painted for her son's bedroom...

...I'm thinking "yes."

I'm excited to tell you that Kimber got the idea here on Epbot, too, back when I featured the Falcon blueprint (and challenged you all to find the bathroom. Heh.) She used an overhead projector from the local school to transfer the image, and a mere 12 hours of neck-torturing tracing later, vĂ³ila!

Here's a close-up:

Kimber tells me she only included about 80% of the detail and labeling, which was more than enough even at this size. The finished graphic is about six feet across, not including labels, and Kimber personalized it for her little Jedi by writing, "Modifications noted and approved - Sam" off to the side.

And here's the happy Sam himself, posing with his mom's Force-full handiwork:


And that, my friends, is why having geek parents rocks. MTFBWY, Kimber & Sam!



How about you guys - were your parents geeks? What's the coolest, geekiest thing they ever did while you were growing up?

92 comments:

  1. Star Wars watches and lunchboxes were bought by my mom, then promptly LOST by her. (These were bought the year Star Wars was released. OH, if we ever find them. MIP !!!) LOL HUGE running joke in our family, so we now give something Star Wars-y for Christmas in her memory. Occasionally, it will turn up on birthdays. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. My mom introduced me to the old Star Trek at a young age. I'm still grateful.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's amazing! I can't think of the geekiest thing my parents did growing up, but that's mostly because EVERYTHING my parents did while I was growing up was crazy geeky.

    I went to the GA renaissance festival at least one, if not twice every year since birth. When I was in third grade my favorite movie was "Robin Hood: Men in Tights". In middle school, my DAD was a dungeon master for my friends and me.

    My little sister dressed up as Buffy Sommers for Halloween when she was in first grade. As a nine year old, her favorite movie is Labrinth.

    I love my mom and dad and want to thank them daily for rasing us as nerdlings, but I would love them more if they stopped putting the bobblehead Cthulhu in the bathroom. It's not fun to have that thing watching you pee at three in the morning!

    ReplyDelete
  4. MTFBWY, Jen! My parents were never that geeky. Their favorite answer to my (ridiculous, I'm sure) requests was, "As the prophet Mick said, 'You cayn't always get what you wa-aant.'"

    ReplyDelete
  5. My parents were (are) history and lit geeks. We totally took history or book themed road trips. Laura Ingalls' house in Missouri, TONS of National Parks, Williamsburg, Virginia (I had the American Girl Doll, Felicity, so it was especially awesome!), etc.

    WV: prolo
    Geek parents are prolo the best!

    ReplyDelete
  6. My parents took me to my first con where I got to meet James Doohan and have him sign my blue prints of the Enterprise.

    ReplyDelete
  7. My Dad is a major geek and I'd say most awesome geeky thing he did for me as starting taking me (and my sister) to cons when I was 12. It meant all through my teens I had a community of amazing adult geek friends who supported me and just treated me as a friend. Secondary school (high school to americans) is a hell of a lot easier with that, I tell you.

    That mural is epic and the overhead projector idea is truly brilliant. I may steal it when I have walls I'm allowed paint!

    ReplyDelete
  8. My parents are true geeks as well, and they raised my brother and I to follow in their geeky footsteps. The best and geekiest thing they ever did for us was to take us to a sneak preview showing of Spaceballs. They still have the special ticket stub. My brother was 8, and I was 6. The majority of the jokes were STRAIGHT over my head, but that didn't stop me from cracking up. I thanked them for this by introducing them to Dr. Who & Firely.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That is too cool. What an awesome mom!

    The coolest thing my Dad did (or at least I thought so) was the wood-cutting of Beast from Beauty and the Beast he made for me. First he traced Beast from my story book on tracing paper, using a sheet of glass with a light underneath it, then he traced Beast onto a piece of wood. Then he cut the wood to the traced shape and painted him. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but I took one so you all could see. I've kept it now for some 20 years.

    The Beast.

    <3 to my Daddy.

    ReplyDelete
  10. My parents took us to museums on a regular basis, and when I was older, I'd watch X-Files every week with my dad. But probably the coolest geeky thing my parents ever did while I was growing up was allow me to let my Ren Faire nerdiness shine and paint my bedroom walls to look like the interior of a castle. Even though I moved into my own place years ago, the painting is still there. :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Did you know there is a guy who is building a life size one?

    http://fullscalefalcon.com/

    ReplyDelete
  12. Probably the geekiest thing my parents ever did for me was naming me after Tegan Jovanka.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Being in 5th grade, May 21, 1980 when my step mom & dad came to school and picked me up in the morning. They didn't say a word until we got to the movie theatre and caught the first Connecticut showing of The Empire Strikes Back!

    ReplyDelete
  14. My mom sewed a Princess Leia costume (the white robe thing she wore for most of Episode IV: A New Hope) for me to wear for Halloween when I was in 2nd grade. My parents also took me to see Episode VI: Return of the Jedi when it was originally released in theaters -- I was 5.

    ReplyDelete
  15. My parents are the kind of people who don't admit to being geeks. I was raised watching Indiana Jones, Star Wars and Jaws (with some Disney princesses thrown in for good measure) and my Mother was at the press preview of the Empire Strikes Back. AND the first time I ever went to Floria with my family we went to Cape Canaveral. Which my parents had already been to.
    My brother is a computer programmer, I work in museums. (My sister is an aberration)
    In retrospect they did a lot. But they will never admit to being geeky.
    Sigh, it must just be the times.

    ReplyDelete
  16. From the time I was 4 or so, every Saturday night after all the soccer games were over and the muddy kids were clean, we would all sit down to watch Star Trek. The best bit? We all pitched in and made dinner during the commercials, a dish that to this day is called "Saturday night." And then, we got to eat in the family room - the biggest treat imaginable in our house. I subsequently fell in love with Jean Luc Picard and when other girls had boy-band posters up on their walls, I sported Star Trek memorabilia.

    Another awesome tidbit? My dad flew airplanes for a living and his call name is Yoda. (He's a bit "do or do not, there is no try" kinda guy.) I just don't think it gets any better than having Yoda as your dad!!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Mom introduced us to Star Trek TNG at an early age and we watched it together as a family. As I got older, we watched MST3K together on weekends. She also continues to purchase me some sort of Star Wars memorabilia for each gift giving occasion. I just turned 29. LOVE IT!

    ReplyDelete
  18. My parents are total geeks but the only thing they did was take me to S.C.A events, which I hated.

    1. Anything your parents force you to do you will hate

    2. The middle ages aren't my area of interest.

    On the other hand they are taking my daughter to an event this weekend and giving my husband and I a weekend to our selves so it's cool.

    I'm hoping my little one will like some of the geeky things I like but I'm not making the mistake of trying to force her.

    ReplyDelete
  19. My grandma and I used to watch the original first run Star Trek together. She loved it as much as I do. She bought me all kinds of DeForest Kelley posters to hang on my wall. Other kids had the Osmonds, the Jackson 5, or the Hardy Boys: I had Dr. McCoy.

    She and I would also watch every NASA launch. I barely remember Apollo 11, but I do remember Apollo 13 vividly. If she had been around computers, she most certainly would have been a geek.

    ReplyDelete
  20. My mom was just crazy but I have to say it was fun riding in her old vw bug backwards down the sidewalk. My grandma was awesome though! One morning after I had slept over she woke me up wearing a plastic viking helmet with horns and braids, a viking shield, and a sword while lip syncing opera. I will never forget that.

    ReplyDelete
  21. My dad has relatives who own a condo in Ft. Meyers, and every summer trip to FL, we always went to the Thomas Edison museum.

    Two years ago, my folks, husband, and I made the trek to FL and of course I had to share the museus with the hubby. Then my dad struck up a conversation with one of the guides and we were there for hours! Good times:)

    ReplyDelete
  22. I wouldn't say that my parents were recognizably geeky, but my dad DID take me to the college class he was taking on Tolkein when I was seven...and I actually did the homework. And he watched the PBS reruns of Doctor Who with me on Saturday nights. My mom kept two sets of encyclopedias and a relatively complete set of children's science books around. Oh, and my mom didn't approve of Barbies for little girls, so my first non-baby doll was Princess Leia! (Which was extra-cool after my mom started putting my hair in "cinnamon buns" for school.)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Both of my parents are unforgivably geeky--they met at a game store that my mother was working at when my father was a regular customer. They introduced me to all sorts of awesomely geeky hobbies--role playing games, star trek, sci-fi, miniatures, TCGs. . . you name it, they've probably been into it at some point!

    Without a doubt, though, the coolest geeky thing of my childhood was when I was in 5th grade. Pokemon was a big deal, and I was just starting to get into it. My mom designed a game for me to teach my classroom based on the little pictures of Pokemon that were on the back of the Lunchables containers at the time! Then, when I finally got the video game and started playing, my Mom insisted on getting her own copy so she could play with me. I hope I can bequeath the same heritage of geekdom to my kids!

    ReplyDelete
  24. My dad studies African music, so right there he's way cooler than anyone else's dad! When Star Wars came out, he refused to take me to it, he said it was much too grown up for me (I was 10!), but then he took me to see "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind"??? To this day, we both make flat-topped mountains out of mashed potato, and we'll look at each other and laugh if we're driving in the dark and can see lights approaching from the other side of a hill. Luvya, Dad!

    MC from NZ

    ReplyDelete
  25. Hey, my name is Kimber, too! I don't see that name very often. Love the mural. I'm 39 and remember going to Star Wars with the family the day it came out on my birthday. My dad wallpapered Star Wars posters to my brother's bedroom walls, much to his chagrin when he became a teenager. My dad made a Star Trek phaser and communicator out of wood to match the store-bought one so my brother and I could both play at the same time.

    I recently found my R2D2 jointed necklace and wore it with my Star Wars shirt as a preschool teacher yesterday.

    My kids and I attend a Ren Faire here in the midwest every year with my Dad. Geeky? Yes!

    ReplyDelete
  26. As a young child my mom always related everything to Star Trek (original series) episodes. She would say "That episode where... You know?" and we'd all say that was our favorite episode or else she'd make us watch that episode. However, I eventually grew to love Star Trek (okay so I'm only 16, so it's not as long of a time as it sounds:D). And now I'm even more of a geek than her (bring on the Whoniverse:D)

    ReplyDelete
  27. Very cool!

    My parent's parenting skills are... questionable at best, but I did grow up with an Aunt in my life who was amazing and on the geeky side. I loved going places with her because she had a magic car! I was 4 or 5, and it was banana yellow with CRUISE CONTROL! I had never seen a car that was so amazing. haha

    ReplyDelete
  28. My mom once took me 1200km (700+ miles? - sorry, I'm Canadian) and across the border to see a Star Wars exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution in DC. Coolest mom ever!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Best. Mom. Ever.

    I hope when my husband and I have children, that I'll have the opportunity to do something equally cool :D.

    ReplyDelete
  30. I owe my geekyness to my dad. He introduced me to Star Trek:TNG, et al. And I would sit next to him as he played computer games and I would "help" until I was old enough to play on my own.

    We still get into big debates about which Star Trek Captain was the best.

    ReplyDelete
  31. LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE! Great job, Geek Mom! You are much better than a Hot Mom or a Soccer Mom!

    And thanks for the hint on the projector--what an excellent idea for murals! I can't draw or paint fancy stuff, but I can trace like nobody's business!

    The Burton Inspiration

    ReplyDelete
  32. P.S. I agree with Gina. My parents are also closet geeks. I was forced to watch Star Wars and Indiana Jones as well. My parents saw Jaws when it first came out, while my mom was pregnant with me (maybe that's why I'm afraid of sharks? BUT I LOVE Jaws!). The first movie I saw in the theaters was Lady and the Tramp, with my mom. My dad would take VHSs and record them with two VCRs, so we had bootleg copies of SW, Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth because of him. We used to watch ST:TNG together as a family. My dad is a pilot because of Captain Kirk--he wanted to be a captain of a starship because of him, but he settled for the next best thing, which was a fighter pilot in the Air Force. When the new Indy movie came out, we all went to see it as a family. So I was raised geek as well, even though my parents won't admit it!

    Currently, my parents do Cowboy Action Shooting and they run one of the largest international matches in the world. Last weekend we all went to the Ren Fest, and we all dressed up! My parents have matching duke and duchess outfits. It was tons of fun!

    ReplyDelete
  33. I wish my kids were geeky enough to WANT that on their wall! I'm totally geeked out looking at it. Am I too old to do that for my wall? What would my non-geeky athletic husband say? hmmmm. questions....

    ReplyDelete
  34. I found the bathroom!

    ReplyDelete
  35. Aww, how cool! That's an amazing amount of detail and the boy looks so happy. :D

    My parents are science/space nerds... we always (still) go to science and history museums on our vacations (and I'm 25, haha). My mom also brought me to a launch of one of the Mars projects at the Jet Propulsion Lab -- what a collection of nerds!!! Some 4 AM launch party, I think it was.

    On a side note -- not sure if you (Jen & John) like Threadless but I'm sure other Epbot readers do... apparently you can buy Threadless designs on paper and canvas now! I saw these two and couldn't contain myself!

    Boba Font and Font Vader -- prints of the characters made of type! :D How cool is that?

    ReplyDelete
  36. As a little kid my dad would read to me from "The Hobbit" every night. I'd go to sleep dreaming of adventures through elven woods, golden dragons, dwarves, and giant eagles. Once we got through that it was onto "The Lord of the Rings." I'd also creep downstairs to hide behind the couch and watch "Buck Rogers" and "Dr. Who" with my parents.
    After that, it was the full on sci-fi/fantasy life for me. We watched "ST:TNG", "X-Files" "SeaQuest" and anything else remotely geeky on tv or in the theaters. In 5th grade my mom helped me sew my own Star Fleet uniform and blue lab coat so I could be Dr. Crusher for Halloween.
    Now I'm married to a Star Wars-aholic, and we're planning a "flight room" when we get a house. It will hold all of his Tie Fighters and other vehicles & figurines and all of my dragon & LOTR collections.

    ReplyDelete
  37. My Geek Mom made me a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man costume out of Diapers, White Trash Can liners and a Seal-a-Meal...unfortunately, I can't find one dang picture of that costume, but I loved it!!! (i do remember it being really HOT though, an the white face paint was itchy)

    ReplyDelete
  38. My grandmother (she raised me like she was my mama) introduced me to shows like 'The Twilight Zone' and 'Dark Shadows'. I took it from there.
    Now I'm passing the torch. Teaching my son all about science fiction and using your imagination.
    He loves Star Wars, science, Harry Potter, vampires and werewolves. Pretty much everything that I loved as a kid.
    We're moving soon and I'm thinking his new room would look super kick-ass with something similar on the wall.

    ReplyDelete
  39. I'm 12 years old and my parents *are* geeky. Sad...

    ReplyDelete
  40. My parents are not particularly geeky, but my mom once devoted an entire day to washing and ironing the costume I wore to a convention. Total labor of love.

    I definitely plan on being a geek mom (my boyfriend and I have agreed if/when we have kids we are buying them Star Wars board books!)

    ReplyDelete
  41. I don't have any personal geeky parent memories, but my friend's mom has written at least one Latin-Klingon lexicon.

    ReplyDelete
  42. My Geek Mom used to make all my costumes, so one year I wanted to be the STAY PUFT Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters.... with her creativity and tanacity she made me a costume from Diapers, White Trash liners, and a Seal-a-Meal...ingenuity!!
    (the costume was very very warm)

    ReplyDelete
  43. Personally, my parents are geekier now more than ever... I'm 26 and they're just starting... If only they'd been geekier while I was growing up!

    ReplyDelete
  44. My daddy loves old western tv shows and movies. I think I've seen nearly every show. We owed the Star Wars original trilogy on VHS and watched them frequently. My Grandma was also really into Jaws and I remember watching it with her when I was around 4. Weirdly enough I'm not afraid of sharks.

    ReplyDelete
  45. My 10 year old calls me a geek almost daily. I had her ceiling painted with glow in the dark stars - in the exact formation they were in on the night she was born. She was princess Leia two Halloweens in a row. I have Yoda as the voice on my GPS and last week at mass when everyone says "peace be with you" to everyone else, she turns to me and says "May the force be with you." I was so proud. Laughing, but proud.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Sunday night's family dinner took place... in front of the tv, so that we could all watch Star Trek the Next Generation together. My mother is a huge fan of ALL the series, my dad is a voracious reader and I grew up on classic sci-fi lit.
    And my dad sang folk music on the side, so when he found out about filk, he was very amused.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Mine weren't geeks, but they embraced my artsy nature and let me paint whatever I wanted all over my walls. My looney toons obsession, and undersea fascination were displayed on those walls for years. Somehow, the only picture I have is in my head... so sad to see it painted over.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Not quite geeky, but definitely no your regular parents - when I was about 10 my parents took me to see the stage show of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Mum spent forever putting my hair in tiny plaits the night before that I kept in all day at school so she could brush it out all crinkly (no crimping iron in those days!!) I had a blast!!
    And my dad and I used to watch the Young Ones together & the very original Simpsons on the Tracey Ullman show :)

    ReplyDelete
  49. This wasn't while I was growing up, but in a way, it kind of was. The story my parents told all of us frequently about them dating was that when Mum met Dad, he had a purple button on his jacket that had, in simple black letters, the words "Frodo Lives" printed on it.

    Shortly after they got married, the button disappeared. Mum always joked that she married Dad for the button, but decided to stick around even after he lost it.

    Just a couple years ago, Dad made a replica of the pin and gave it to Mum for Christmas. And now she wears the pin on her jacket. Frodo lives!

    ReplyDelete
  50. My dad and I always watched Star Trek together. I can never remember the specifics of the occasion, but we either went to a space shuttle launch or maybe the process of piggy-backing it on an airliner when I was little and he bought me a TON of "astronaut food" they had for sale at the event. I ate freeze dried ice cream for weeks thinking about how great it's going to be when we have food replicators.

    ReplyDelete
  51. my dad, for as long as I can remember, and to this day, wears a pocket protector. Or as we all refer to it: his "nerd-bucket"

    ReplyDelete
  52. We didn't know our parents were geeks; neither did we realize that even we were geeks until adulthood.
    As a present when she was 12, J received a microscope and disection kit. L wanted to go into electrical engineering during highschool, and they supported this even though the school counsellor tried to disuade her. This was at a time when girls were not encouraged in these endeavors.

    As a family we always had science, sci-fi, and fantasy books in the house.

    We also watched Star Trek, Dr. Who, Twilight Zone, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Once while away on vacation, we even called our Mom at 2:00 am for an update on Dr. Who.

    ReplyDelete
  53. My mom was a huge Star Trek nut with my step dad, but I hated it. Along with X Files. My brother was into Star Wars, and his gift to me one birthday was to take me to see the movie re-released in theaters, where Luke had to cut into the animal to sleep in it. Puked all over the theater, but I liked it. My real geek niche came with Sailor Moon....my father went everywhere to find me toys and dolls, which I still have. I keep collecting merch too...

    ReplyDelete
  54. My Mom went along when I dragged her to the 1975 & '76 Star Trek Conventions in NYC. (James Doohan thought she was cute!)

    My Dad took me to opening night of the first Star Wars movie- we stood in line for an hour. The theater put it in the "mini" theater, they thought no one would want to see it. 2 days later they moved it to the "big" theater!

    My Dad also used a projector on his bedroom wall and traced a slide of the Roman Coliseum. The house is now mine and it's still there 47 years later (a bit faded).

    ReplyDelete
  55. We lived in Germany when "Empire Strikes Back" was released and my parents took my brother 10 and me 7 to a German theater. I remember standing in line FREEZING waiting to get in. My brother and I talked the other day how weird/fun it was to sit in rocking recliners (in the theater) and watch ESB with German subtitles. Ohh, and there were waiters to take your food and drink orders!!! Still waiting for that kind of theater here!

    ReplyDelete
  56. I don't know if it counts as geeky but my mom helped me do the greatest projects for school. One time we made a mummy and sarcophagus (spelling is off I know) from a plastic doll, old sheet, glue, and modeling compound. She still has it! We also did a Viking ship with toothpick oars and a diorama of Pompeii after the eruption. I loved Egypt, Pompeii, and pretty much anything creepy. I know she wasn't into it but she let me be me! Thanks Mom! I love you!

    ReplyDelete
  57. My parents never really were part of the nerdy bunch BUT
    they approved of everything nerdy that I ever did/wanted to do ...

    In fact my dad was part of the "cool" kids when he was younger

    Oh the shame XP

    ReplyDelete
  58. My mum was most definitely a geek. We were virtually raised on Dr Who, which came on every night when my dad wanted to watch the news. Mum and us kids all watched Dr Who on the colour telly, and Dad had to watch the news on the old black and white :D

    Possibly the coolest geeky thing Mum did was give us a day off school and insisted we all go and watch Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Dad was a Methodist minister, so all the houses we lived in were owned by the church, so there was no chance of a Millennium Falcon blueprint on our walls, even if there had been such new-fangled things as the internet back then in the 70s and 80s.

    ReplyDelete
  59. My dad is the kind of geek who got his degree in computers using punchcards. He insisted that we all go see Star Wars VI: A New Hope when it came out - even though I was about 6 months old. The first movies I actually remember seeing are Wrath of Khan (but I made my mom take me out during that hole ear bug scene), E.T., and Dune. He also let me use his "laptop" computer when I was in junior high (it was the original suitcase-sized Compaq, green and black screen, with TWO 5 1/4" floppy drives, totally awesome). He still has his old Altair. I think his favorite picture of me is the one where I am standing with the 3 foot tall robot he let me play with and program while he was babysitting me at his office - like this:

    Topo

    ReplyDelete
  60. Holy chocolate starfish! That is amazing. Wow, must not show kids, lol they'll want to redo their cars bedroom.

    My parent's weren't really geeks, we were more of an outdoors/pageants family. {don't ask me how that ever went together, it didn't.}

    The geekiest thing my mom ever did for me was make my "my little pony" costume and then carried around a "pony" with me so people would get it without breaking my heart. I thought I looked great! *laughs* I was 4.

    The geekiest thing she did for my sis was by accident. She made her a mouse costume and everyone thought she was an ewok.

    ReplyDelete
  61. I never thought my parents were that geeky growing up....I guess that comes from being a geek myself. :)

    I do remember my dad waking us every Christmas morning by blaring a John Philip Sousa march from the record player at about 6am.

    ReplyDelete
  62. Ahhhhh! I want this in my living room! LOL

    Way to go. Love it.

    ReplyDelete
  63. When the original Star Wars was rereleased my Mamma decided that the only way to see it was at our (then rare) IMAX screen. The screen was so big that it took up the entire building and tickets were not cheap, especially with four kids, but my mom would not hear of anything less for us. Hyperdrive was so awesome on that screen! much geeky love to all the parents out there

    ReplyDelete
  64. My parents love sci-fi stuff, so I was raised on Star Wars and Star Trek and many other sci-fi movies.

    I think I probably out-geek them though, I named one of my kids after a Star Wars character. And I take them to cons and a lot of our family jokes relate to something geeky, so yeah, my poor kids are stuck with their geek-girl mother.

    ReplyDelete
  65. Wow. Just... wow. That's awesome! And an even bigger wow that overhead projectors are still around!

    ReplyDelete
  66. I watched the original Star Wars with my dad (in syndication--I'm not that old!), and he also introduced me to Doctor Who and a ton of sci-fi movies at an early age!

    ReplyDelete
  67. We played DnD. My sister was Barbie the barbarian. My brother was a dwarf. I was the thief who upon entering any room would ask "Is there treasure in this room!". My brother had Space wallpaper and Star Wars sheets. My Dad would read us The Spirit by Will Eisner as our bedtime stories....oh Gosh I could go on and on. We had the best Halloweens.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Wow! ten stars. I'm jealous that I didn't have geeky parents.

    ReplyDelete
  69. Sci Fi is the closest we get to religion in my home. I was the only kid in third grade whose favorite TV series was the Next Generation. I wore my headbands over my eyes a la Geordi la Forge, and if my dad wanted me to do something, he would tell me to "Make it so."

    ReplyDelete
  70. I'd never thought of my parents as geeks, but come to think of it my dad is crazy into all the incarnations of Star Trek, and indoctrinated all 4 of us kids into the wonders of the Princess Bride. I carry the torch with my own kids, having knit (and designed) a Superman costume for my son, and made a matching invitation.

    ReplyDelete
  71. That is so freakin' AWESOME!! Very cool mom. When my brother and I were younger and we were finishing the basement in our split-level house, my folks let us each paint a wall however we wanted to. I did an ocean scene, but my brother painted his wall black and put a Star Wars scene on it. Small ships, though, but still very cool. It's still there, too. When we were studying geography (we homeschooled) we did what Kimber did with the projector, but we traced a map of the world on the 3rd wall and painted and labeled each region as we studied it.

    ReplyDelete
  72. My parents were NOT geeks in the least, but my mom did get addicted to gaming, starting with my sister's Atari console, then my TRS-80 Model III, then she moved on to the Nintendo console series.

    The coolest thing Mom ever did? She played the "snake" game so much on my TRaSh-80 and got so good at it that she grew the snake to the point that it LOCKED UP THE GAME (there wasn't enough room left on the screen to put another box). She was so proud of that accomplishment that she left the computer on for hours until I got home so I could see the full screen. hahaha

    ReplyDelete
  73. My parents named me after Nyssa of Traken, and considered both Tegan and Leela as alternatives. Had I been a boy, I would have been Adric.

    ReplyDelete
  74. My parents loved Star Trek and Star Wars.

    I remember when I was little, we'd get home from church on Sunday and Star Trek would come on shortly after.

    My Dad would have enough time to make a huge root beer float in his Hires glass, then prop himself in the rocking chair and watch double episodes. Many times I'd sit on his lap to watch and share the float.

    My slightly older by one year brother was born in 77'. After he was all swaddled and in the nurses care and my Mom fell asleep, my Dad went out to the theater to watch Star Wars.

    My Mom woke up alone in the hospital. See that my Dad had disappeared she imagined the very worst, she thought he'd "run off".

    My Dad strolled in a while latter and didn't know what the big deal was. He was celebrating by watching the best movie ever!

    We still hear this story about once a year. Usually around Donald's birthday. :)

    ReplyDelete
  75. Oh, and one more thing, since that was all mostly about my Dad.

    My Mom took us to see Labyrinth in the theaters 8 times! She was obsessed with the movie.

    We were huge Jim Henson supporters in our house. The soul reason of us subscribing to HBO was Fraggle Rock.

    We still have a decaying copy of Emmit Otter's Jug Band Christmas. Since it's so cherished, I've transferred it to DVD and burned copies for all my siblings.

    All the original Muppet Movies were beloved and we had records for each movie.

    Also, Star Trek NG was huge in our house. If we could sit still and be quiet during an episode, we had to find something else to do. Mom and Dad loved/love their Star Trek.

    ReplyDelete
  76. I never thought of my parents as "geeky," but there were a few things that left pretty lasting impressions.
    Geekiest, greatest thing my dad did was take us to the university observatory on Saturday nights (open to the public). For his birthday (late July), we'd go out to a friend's house in the countryside to lay in the grass and watch the meteor shower.
    Renaissance festivals? Yep!
    Star Trek? Yep!
    But even better -- Star Trek trading cards? Yep!

    ReplyDelete
  77. My parents took us to Washington DC on vacation when I was 4 and again why I was 8. We saw presidents homes, the Smithsonian, the monuments, Williamsburg.
    I don't remember much, but I LOVE history and DC.

    ReplyDelete
  78. That mural is amazing!

    I saw this and thought of you: http://thatsnerdalicious.com/sugar-rush/these-arent-the-cupcakes-youre-looking-for/#

    ReplyDelete
  79. My family and I sat in line on the sidewalk for hours to see SW ep4. Even as a 7yr old I knew sci fi would never be the same again. My parents were so cool that we went back the next weekend and stood in line to see it again! Truly a blockbuster! That fall I was Princess Leia for Halloween. Mom dyed my blond hair black to make the cinnamon buns. I had to shower til the water ran cold and even then I didn't get all the dye out. My brother and I had SW t-shirts and plastic light sabers, and our parents took us to Burger King to meet Darth Vadar when he came through on a promotional tour. We watched ST & STNG together as well as Max Headroom, and X-Files. Great memories!

    ReplyDelete
  80. Lots of parental geekery, but a note-worthy one was the time my dad brought me a broken broom handle from his work.

    See, it was a *green* broom handle, and had a smooth plastic ring at the perfect 'hand grip' spot, so he knew I'd love it. My very own lightsaber, just like Luke's! :)
    - Kelly

    ReplyDelete
  81. My dad was a total geek and I have him to thank for the geek I am today (I even cosplay). Sadly, he passed when I was 11, but my mom carried on the tradition and the geekiest thing she ever did (ok, there are a few) was buy my sister and I, AND our husbands replica lightsabers for Christmas. She also come with me to my first major anime convention and it was a total blast. She even helped me with my costume when I had to be go the bathroom.
    She's a total geek at heart :)

    I'm totally going to be the geekiest mom on the block for my girls. My eldest already has a sailor moon, star trek and star wars snow monster costume and she's only two :D

    ReplyDelete
  82. In second grade my dad made a movie-quality Batman costume for the school Halloween carnival. It took him 2 weeks and about $120, but all the boys wished he was their dad! :D

    ReplyDelete
  83. I'm actually trying/intending to be a geeky parent, but my father got me into Science Fiction in the first place and started me off with his classics (and my mother had the Hobbit). Also, when the original star wars trilogy was back in the cinemas in the digitally remastered version, he took us all to see them - and cinema tickets aren't cheap here. Three movies each for 5 kids :-)

    At the moment I mostly swoon over any alien/rocket/robot clothing I see for kids, and try to buy if possible and applicable.

    Rachel

    ReplyDelete
  84. I think my parents are more nerds than geeks. They took me to my first live performance of Shakespeare ("A Mid-Summer Night's Dream") when I was 8. I am eternally greatful!

    Passing the literary nerdiness down to my son, I made him a Max from Where the Wild Things Are costume for his 2nd Halloween.

    http://madincrafts.blogspot.com/2009/10/let-wild-rumpus-start.html

    ReplyDelete
  85. That was awesome! We did a Marvel Superheroes room for my son with a mural of the New York skyline and Spiderman swinging off the wall. It took 3 weeks of work, but it was SO worth it. We are uber geeks about a lot of stuff, mainly Disney & Marvel :0) My folks were NOT geeks, but they did humor me in my childhood love by taking me to Babyland General Hospital in Georgia, birthplace of the Cabbage Patch Kids.

    ReplyDelete
  86. LOVE THIS!!!
    Can I live here too??!
    :) Mags

    ReplyDelete
  87. Hey!!! You actually posted it! (Not that I doubted you, but the e-mail saying that you'd put it on here was enough - and I made all my friends read it....that goes without saying...)

    Thanks to everyone else for the sweet comments. It's nice to know that there are lots of us out there!!! (I think my parents were more nerdy than geeky, but I do remember going to Star Wars when it came out - Episode IV - at a bright blue theater. I was 3 or 4.))

    Just passing the love along to the young uns...

    ReplyDelete
  88. I love the room. Just thought I'd share my own "Geeky kid" room. My husband and I recently put up the final touches for our nursery. The theme? Super Mario Brothers. I've posted about it on my blog at Cup O'Cake Designs.

    I'm also hoping to get another post up today about my "Geeky baby wear." A Space Ghost baby sleeper.

    ReplyDelete
  89. My mom made me a Ghostbusters costume for Halloween when I was in 3rd grade.

    ReplyDelete
  90. My dad read The Hobbit to me as my bedtime story. It took him four months but it was worth it.

    ReplyDelete
  91. Say g'night, GracieApril 26, 2011 at 8:19 PM

    My (former) step-dad took us to see Star Wars (yes, the original) when it first came out. That was about the extent of his geekiness. My mom and my dad are most definitely NOT geeks, but I've already corrupted my kids. My 12 year old plays D&D with me, and they both like Star Wars and Star Trek. :D

    ReplyDelete
  92. My father introduced me to several things throughout my life: painting, leather working, sculpting, constructing radios, computer programming (self taught), reading and writing Sci-Fi stories to name just a small portion. As a mother I have tried to pass this onto my children. Together we have made small steam engines, and numerous pieces for table games. They both write Sci-Fi and are 4th generation Star Trek fans. At 1 time my husband, my brother, both our sons and myself all played WOW together.

    ReplyDelete

Please be respectful when commenting; dissenting opinions are great, but personal attacks or hateful remarks will be removed. Also, including a link? Then here's your html cheat sheet: <a href="LINK ADDRESS">YOUR TEXT</a>