Stranger Things is back on October 27th. We will have a new posting on its way. Here is a little flashback to get you back into the 80’s.

By G. P. Avants

 

Wow, you never know what will find on Netflix. Now that they have begun creating their own series, they have been pulling their resources into a new series called Stranger Things. It is sort of a mash up of Spielberg characters, meets Stanley Kubrick’s other-worldly surrealism. Toss is The X-files paranormalites, a little town with a Twin Peaks vibe, oh and the make the protagonists full on NEEKS and you get the general idea.

(Oh, what are NEEKS? This is a term we wanted to throw out there to mean the combined genius and techies talents of geeks and nerds.)

In the little town of Hawkins, Indiana Mike, and his buddies are shaken from their normal ten-hour D&D game by the disappearance of their buddy Will. Due to some obvious stranger things, a door is opened into the Upside Down a parallel dimension just under our own reality. A plant-like creature without eyes, is released in our world looking for something to hunt. Our Neeky heroes which, are introduced to 11 or El. She is a silent brooding girl who has abilities that no one fully understands. As roles are reversed, the boys in distress and El uses her amazing abilities to defend her new found friends. Together with brains and brawn they stand up to an onslaught of unknown things. The odd and the forgotten, such as Will’s unstable mom (played by Winona Ryder) and his shy and recluse brother are those who help keep the faith and connect the loosely connected pieces to find Will. Our intrepid trio of NEEKS use their seemingly useless knowledge of sci-fi fact and fantasy to solve the real-life dilemmas they have been drawn into. Mike, El, Dustin and Lucas are the least-likely heroes, but as NEEKS often are the ones with the out-of-the-box ideas, they find the only way to bring the normal world back into balance.

I think we all know that at times nerds and geeks are often overlooked and pushed aside in solving important problems. What would the world be like if a NEEK didn’t stand up and offer their help? Some of the greatest inventors and dreamers were misunderstood for their ideas and laughed at for their dreams.

In times like we are in the status quo isn’t working. Maybe the normal world is ready for the odd to bring their stranger things into the light?

 

Hey, while I have you here, tell me what you think about some new NEEK words that we are trying to introduce.

 

NEEKology: the ambiguously specific, plethora of things nerds and geeks are into. 

NEEK-o-Rama: a gathering of NEEKS, such as a Con or a get together. 

Nerdian: cool name for nerd

Geekin:  cool name for geek

Nerdatonium: the element that makes up the nerdiness in a person. 

Geekology: the study of geeks and their culture.