An Appallingly Forgetful Geek

I've been rooting to attend the first-ever Iloilo Comic Con (Robinson's Place, December 1, 2012) ever since Nong Donne posted about it a couple months back. I think I even scribbled it on my organizer and put an entry on my cellphone's calendar.

But I forgot.

I'm a huge 'forgetter' of things, even if they mean a lot to me. :(  Maybe as a child, I must have drank from the River Styx, or maybe I am just a wee bit like Dory, who struggles to remember an address in Australia that’s something like “P. Sherman, (number here) Wallaby Way, Sydney.” I’m just a terribly forgetful reader/viewer, sad to say. 

My niece Anne would always laugh at me and tease me, or a better way to describe it is “She would alaska me," (but at this moment I couldn’t put a finger on an exact English translation) every time we watch an old movie or a re-run on TV and I couldn’t remember what happened next, or get the characters all mixed up, such as, for example, I couldn’t remember which part of the Resident Evil series the basketball star (forgot his name) showed up, or if I couldn’t exactly remember what happened on a book we’ve both read, such as for example, on which book did Edward and Jacob kill each other (I’m joking of course, but wish I wasn’t). Whenever this happens with Anne within earshot, she’d look at me accusingly as if I’ve done a deadly crime. In a way, I must have (holding up index fingers of both hands in front of me, and bouncing their tips off each other).

But the point is, I maybe a bookworm and a movie-buff but the truth is I’m forgetful of most books and movies I have watched. And so I feel ashamed of myself when I’d get all my info on books, movies, or comics mixed up, and doubt that I deserve my self-awarded title of geek. Hehe.

Like that time when a friend, Roy, posted on Facebook that there’s already “REC 4,” (fourth to the “REC” series that he introduced me and a handful of friends to a couple of years back, that got me hooked on zombie movies) and I asked “Really? The Spanish version?” and he replied that “REC” IS Spanish. Had always BEEN Spanish. Maybe, did I mean to ask really “REC” and not “Quarantine” the Hollywood version? Oh! Just one of the blunders that gave me blushes and would forever become a disgrace to all of Geekdom! 

 And of course, the First Iloilo Comic Con held at Robinson’s Place just this Sunday (December 1, 2012 – Yay! Historic!) is just a convention-full of blunders waiting to get me. Yes, I was able to attend. But not after Fred (high school friend) told me the night before, over future hangovers, that he's going to join the computer show, which is part of the Comic Con! And that's when I remembered. OMG moment- thank goodness for that unplanned high school get together (starring, Waji, Michelle, Bryan, with Anne tagging along for a lesson). And so I was there the following morning, after also receiving a text prompt from Nong Gil -- "Ari si Manix sa Rob!"

So, the Comic Con became a venue for my helpless forgetfulness.

Example: When another friend, Bor, tagged me a picture of him and Darth Vader the evening after the event, I enthusiastically commented, “Aw, it was just Iron Man that I had a picture with earlier!” Me, the know-it-all. I just had to brag. Apparently, it wasn’t Iron Man at all. The king of geek says it’s War Machine, not Iron Man. Fine. Huya man ta. Regained dignity and rolled eyes. Note to self—If someone, asks you, red is Iron Man, gold is War Machine. And who’s the black one then? Shrug.

L-R: War Machine (not Iron Man), Anne the Geek Police,
Anne's bestfriend Shella's sister, Black Iron Man (haha) and the Forgetful One

Then there’s Justine. She came dressed as Death (from Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman”. In red. Red? Death in red?  And I just had to ask her. So I got what I deserve: she looked at me like I’m some kind of dream fragment who’s lost in The Dreaming, and said, “Yeah. You know when Dream died? In the funeral, she’s in red.” Uh.. Oh..kaay.

And then, there's the matter of Gerry Alanguilan. I wanted to go to the Comic Con, if not to buy some awesome Pinoy komiks, or maybe chance upon the #1 of Trese, then maybe just to have my picture taken with the Komikero sporting his signature lewd grin. It's funny, I can't describe it. You've got to watch it on Youtube yourself so you can relate with what I'm saying.

Well, I just wanted to take a picture of me and Gerry's smile, like it was some landmark or something. And yes, I knew Gerry has been drawing for Marvel and DC, and that he's promoting "Elmer," a graphic novel about a chicken. But I tell you, it's more than that. I'll tell you all about it on a different (review) post. ;) From the article I read on the marketing website, I knew, Gerry Alanguilan also wrote something called "Wasted." So, the thing that I have forgotten, or actually, that I have never remembered I've forgot, about Gerry is that I have actually read and loved and cried over and related my own teenage angst over "Wasted!" And I've just realized it right after, when I googled it and came upon this link, where I downloaded a CBR file of it, free!

I know these things don’t really matter as long as we remember the lesson that each book, each story, each movie teaches us. Like I remember that “The Turtle and The Hare” teaches me that it’s better to be late than to be totally absent, or that “The Little Mermaid” teaches us that it’s never really a good idea to disobey your parents just because you want legs, or that the Holy Bible and Harry Potter (it’s an allegory of the life of Jesus Christ, it is!) teaches us that love can conquer all evil. But it drives me crazy at times when I know I’ve watched and read and memorized and can talk about a movie or a book like I made/wrote it myself, and then all of a sudden I don’t remember!

"P. Sherman...?"

Maybe I had drank a bit of the River Styx. Or maybe I’m a bit like Dory. At least these things I don’t forget. I guess it stems from the "early intervention" our high school English teacher gave us -- daily quizzes and daily class presentations on Mythology, and the timely occurrence of Finding Nemo during my college days. Nemo was just so cute!

It could also be that I did make a lot of notes back then for my Mythology class, and never actually did write down my thoughts on most of the books I've read, except when it's for a book report or if it really strikes me (like I mean, real hard). Hmm.. Gotta take a lot of notes from now on, then. On somewhere more lasting than on my cellphone's calendar.