De-Lurking With a Vengeance: Writer, Gamer, D&D Fanboy, Reader, Geek!

My name is Michael Crisman. I assemble words the way Slim Jim crafts beef sticks, and straight-up threatened to cut a fool in an argument concerning the necessity of the Oxford comma. That's the way I roll. If you're cool with that, we can be buds. If you aren't cool with that, don't bring up Oxford commas--everything else is negotiable. Oh, as a bonus, if you wade through all this, you'll see a picture of me attacked by wolves* (#NoFilter). That'll be a cool story to tell your grandkids, so keep scrolling.

I play old video games, and I write about them. I read books, and I write about them. I play RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons (BECMI - 3.5), All Flesh Must Be Eaten, and Paranoia, then write about them. I do geeky things that would shame my father and his father before that, and I have the pictures to blackmail myself with later.

Proof? Sure thing. No prob. Here's me cosplaying it up as the Fifth Doctor for Doctor Who Day at the bookstore where I work, along with a gender-bent Fourth Doctor and cardboard K-9.

[Yeah, that's right, lapel celery! Where is your Davros now?!]

I also like Japan, manga, the Japanese language, stuff like that, but I don't write about it much because there are enough weaboos on the internet making that their thing. International video gaming is awesome, don't get me wrong, but I'm not about to pretend I could kick your butt in a kanji-identifying contest. I live in Indiana...is it possible to get more gaijin than a six-foot tall, 200-pound mid-western dork whose skin is on the peachier side of the mayo spectrum? Probably, but you're picking up what I'm putting down.

You may know my good buddy @triverse and if so, you have my sincerest apologies he's a fun guy. He's the co-owner of Retro Gaming Magazine, an awesome shrine to old school digital entertainment if I do say so myself, and I do say so myself because it's one of the places I've been writing for since 2014 and he's my boss, so of course I'm going to say that. Hiya, boss! No hard feelings about that leftover pizza, right...?

So despite posting a picture that no one else on the planet would claim without a Tissue Compression Eliminator aimed at his back, it looks like the Steemit community needs to verify I'm not a walking meatskin puppet for the pending invasion force, a spambot, or a really cunning application of the Turing test. They demand sources.

Behold my sourcery:

Howl at me on Facebook, my bro dawgs: https://www.facebook.com/michael.crisman.14/

LinkedIn? Check! https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-crisman-04804769/

Sweet, hot Retro Gaming action's over here, baby: http://retrogamingmagazine.com/author/modern-zorker/

Wanna know if you've got what I need to read? Head over to my Goodreads page for reviews on horror, romance, gothics, and everything in between: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7266348-michael

I don't do Twitter, Instagram, or any of those other nifty platforms. It takes me an average of 184 words just to tell somebody hi on social media, my food intake basically consists of things I can make via the ancient culinary art of 'boil water, add noodles, stir in sauce', and there are only so many hours in the day. The line must be drawn somewhere, so here I stand.

If you think I'm interesting, prepare for profound disappointment (reminder: I cosplayed the Fifth Doctor), but if you think what I do is nifty, by all means, say hello. I'm looking to have some fun, make people laugh, and leave the world a better place than I found it. With your help, we can do it together.

Actually, I take back that bit from before about shaming my dad. As an OG Whovian recording it off Channel 11 (WTTW, Chicago) in the early 1980's, he'd be damn proud of his bargain-basement-Fifth-Doctor-cosplaying progeny. Grandpa on the other hand...well, he was a farmer and let's just say there's enough shame in that one picture alone to have tainted seventy-five acres come harvest time. Sorry, Grandpa. I didn't choose the geek life, the geek life chose me.

"For some people, small, beautiful events are what life is all about." -- The Fifth Doctor, 'Earthshock'

That's me in a blog post. Your reward is 'Wolves':

[*OK, so they're wolf puppies. Sorry. (Not sorry.)]