Welcome!

Heya, folks.  My name's Ed.  And this is, I believe, the fourth time I've written an introductory post for a blog I've eventually left to rot.

Well, no more!  (I hope.)  This time, Another Geeky Blog is here to stay.

Why should you care?  No idea.  I'm not anybody famous or influential.  I'm smart, but I'm no engineer, nor do I have fascinating and unique insights into aspects of our popular culture.  I'm a good writer, but I have trouble finishing things, and all the discipline and fortitude of a goldfish.

I am, you see, a bard.

See, bards are usually the butt of jokes among pen and paper nerds.  Even Blizzard went out of their way to make fun of 'em.  The irony is that bards, more than any other class or fantasy archetype, embody what it is to be a modern-day geek.

Bards are the jacks-of-all-trades.  They dabble in a little bit of everything, because damn it, adventuring is fun and why would they want to limit themselves to swinging a sword or casting spells when they could do both?

At a table full of Dungeons & Dragons players, you've always got folks making references to Star Wars or Princess Bride or (at least with my group) My Little Pony.  In an actual D&D world, though, it's the bard making those same jokes.  When a Bardic Knowledge check turns up that the monster's one fatal weakness is peach cobbler, he's not just pulling that out of thin air; he's remembering a story he read, or a song he heard, where the good guys prevailed by that same method.  He's a student of pop culture.

Sure, a wizard studies in his tower, learning the mysteries of the world and dazzling mortals with their knowledge and power.  A bard can do that, too, if not as well.  Maybe he can't chuck fireballs, but he can still carry on an intelligent conversation about magical theory and have fun with Prestidigitation and Ghost Sound.

Most of all, though, bards are enthusiastic.  It's their defining attribute.  Sure, somewhere out there, there may be a guy who plays bards that mope around and quote Edgar Allen Poe all the time, but they're the exception.  In every game and every story, bards are the heart of the team.  They love what they do, and they share that joy with their friends and companions.

That's my goal, here.  I want to tell you about things I think are awesome, and I want to infect you with just a fragment of my enthusiasm for them.

Now I just have to decide which of my many obsessions to talk about first...