Tales of the Rampant Coyote

Adventures in Indie Gaming!

Geek, Game Developer, Author, Dancer (!!!)…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 13, 2015

When I was a kid, I dreaded growing up. As far as I could tell, once I grew up and had to become a responsible adult, life would be boring.

Yeah. About that. Not so much. If anything, the opposite.

Granted, some of the things which I consider kind of fun now would have seemed a little boring to me as a kid. All I know is I had a lot more occasion to “be bored” when I was under twenty than I have since.

This weekend we had two events put on by the Utah Winter Faire folks – the “Geek Boutique” and the “From Venice to Xanadu” Gala. The Geek Boutique was basically a geek shopping / gaming opportunity, with some of the vendors often found at conventions or Renaissance Festivals selling stuff, gaming tables, etc.

I got to play vendor again, which isn’t exactly super-exciting, except I managed to almost sell out of all of my copies of Mechanized Masterpieces 2: An American Anthology. That was pretty cool. I think this was the first time I sold books at an event that I didn’t lose money. I think when taxes, fees, and book costs (to me) costs were all combined, I didn’t actually make any money either, but hey… it was a non-loss (or at least a trivial loss), and I had a lot of fun meeting people, talking about geeky things, signing books, and eating some excellent Texas BBQ. Good times!

And hey, it’s marketing, I guess.

The following night was the gala, in which I was a ‘playtron’ – our cost for a most excellent dinner and fun-filled night was to perform with our group, Clockwork & Gears Vintage Dancing. Yes, I’m dancing. How I got roped into this I’ll never know, but now I’ve been doing it for a year. But it’s exercise, which we geeky types can always use more of. We had a very good time. We weren’t the only entertainment of the evening – there were also belly dancers, and pictures, a full-sized TARDIS (members of our troupe tried to test the “bigger on the inside” thing and found that at least our replica…. was a little  crowded. (I was a latecomer and so didn’t fit in the box…)

Sadly, I didn’t get any good photos myself (I was kinda busy…), and I haven’t had time to ask permission to post others that haven’t been made public, so… you’ll just have to take my word for it. I’ve heard this (or something like this) might become an annual event. That’d be cool, but oh, my weekends… my precious weekends. Maybe I’d like a little more boring…

One point of conversation during the weekend was how events like these are beginning to feel a little like family reunions – for our extended geek family, I guess. Some folks we know well, other folks we recognize, and there’s always some new people to meet. It’s a good time.


Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 2 Comments to Read



  • McTeddy said,

    Oh cut that out. You never became an adult… you’re just a big responsible kid! You still dream big, learn new things, and know how to enjoy yourself.

    That is something to be darn proud of. So many people let their inner child die because life can be brutal and it’s easier to just give in. But you beat the odds.

    You are pretty awesome.

  • Mrs. Rampant Coyote said,

    I know how you got into the dancing. I batted my eyelashes and said, “Honey, I REALLY want to do this….” and you were awesome enough to say yes!

top