GeekOut Shrewsbury August ’19 – Netflix and GeekOut

This may have been our biggest GeekOut Shrewsbury ever. I’ve given up on counting these days because with people flowing in and out it’s all I can do to keep an eye on the games to make sure the library stays intact – you guys make that job easier, but a jam packed August has made entertaining a bit of a stretch, but I think it fair to say everyone had a good time.

This GeekOut Meet was not without bad news… but more on that later.

Pre-Meet – Off The Square

Thanks to the good people at Off The Square opposite Shrewsbury’s new Games Workshop location. We’ve never been to Off the Square before (well I have, we haven’t been as a group). We were well fed and fluided, a nice casual get together before the grand migration and a good turnout for the pre-meet. Increasingly we use the pre-meet as a way to get trades of cards out of the way, a quiet space to peruse folders and make exchanges. This time Murray walked away all the happier for a Gen Con exclusive Star Realms card, a benefit of having friends in geeky places.

Monty’s

Those of you who know me from these events know that I like a nice, natural photo, and that I prefer these galleries full of people who look engrossed and engaged in their games. So to say that I repeatedly yelled “Goddamit Nicole!” you’ll understand the fight I have on my hands with certain individuals who simply refuse to ignore me! Still, we’ve had another great meet, with more faces, new and old.

Now to the sad part of the tale.

The Tragic Cancelling of The Big Geek Pub Quiz

No projector means no quiz. The picture round is entirely dependant on being able to see pictures, and as Monty’s tower is currently unable to use their projector, and as I didn’t know ahead of time, a tragic pun is all but lost to us.

The theme for this month’s event was streaming services, so questions about Netflix, YouTube, and Twitch were high on the order of business… along with this:

… for which I am not sorry. Uploaded at Grace’s request amongst others. Send your answers to us here for the chance to recapture all the stress of secondary school geography.

And the quiz would have ended with a small nod to my plans for Friday and yesterday:

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Next month, September 26th: Wizard Club… keep your eyes on Facebook and Meetup for details, and watch the new countdown timer on the homepage.

GeekOut Shrewsbury July ’19 – Convention Season

We shouldn’t cancel GeekOut during heatwaves, no matter how tempting it might be. Who’d go outside in that? No one should have to endure those kind of temperatures but… y’know if I start down this path, the discussion gets dark. There were cold drinks and board games, ultimately that’s what’s important here.

The Pour House

I recently found out that The Pour House is about the change hands. Here’s wishing the previous owners the very best of luck in their future endeavours, and hoping the new owners uphold the legacy. We like the Pour House, I mean, I don’t drink so a place that does interesting things without alcohol is always high on my priorities list.

Thanks Tom for bringing in an old rendition of Jumanji as a real-life board game… not as immersive as the original. I managed to settle a score in Magic… that is a blatant lie, I had my ass handed to me by Kim again! Time to raise a deck with a higher pace to it, or maybe raise the Super Soldier deck from the archives.

Main Event

It should no longer be a surprise for me that our events these days get busy early and stay that way pretty much throughout, especially at this time of year, no doubt things will change come October or something, but in either case Monty’s Tower started out being pleased to see us, then asked us nicely to start using the other bar for a while after everything got a bit hectic. Fair ask, cheers guys.

Highlights of this month’s Shrewsbury Meet, Julia fetching out a 3D camera to play with, we did, shamelessly, an improvised chessboard, and the time it rained for about two minutes and it was… just so great.

Con-Poster Competition

Half an hour to design a poster for the best convention you can imagine! A theme, an event, and a special guest star are the minimum requirements, and design talent not… strictly necessary, although apparently an unfair advantage was granted to those who understood – or at least shared – my personal sense of humour, which is almost certainly how Murray won. Milencon would be a bleak affair of staring blankly into our respective hands as we despair over the world we live in and the unhealthy coping mechanisms we use to handle it.

Second place Cluedo Fest appealed to my bloodlust, love of the noir, and I liked the ambiguity of… literally every component. Vanitycon takes third place for it’s cynical approach to internet based narcissism. Other events were beautiful in their own regard, except Joelcon, which had the hubris to assume any relation between me and colours outside of grey.

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Next Month, August 29th, Netflix and GeekOut, a celebration of Netflix and internet streaming original content. Attendees are not required to chill… if it’s anything like this month, it may prove impossible.

Thors-Kin Podcast Guest Spot

About a year or so after meeting Alex from Thors-Kin Podcast, inviting him to a GeekOut Shrewsbury Meet, even having him join us at a couple, and repeated invitations to join in the podcast and talk about GeekOut, who we are an what we do, I finally got time and opportunity together to join in with Alex and Tom to talk GeekOut, Shropshire Dungeon Master, and… other subjects.

GeekOut Meetups in 2019

All of the GeekOut Meetups for 2018 are over with. That’s it, there’s no more this year. We’re not doing a New Years Eve special this year in Bristol, so we’ll be back in 2019! Joel and I have been hard at work to try and get the perfect meets arranged for the new year. As ever, we want to make sure we deliver the best monthly geeky events and we will stay free to attend. There are some changes coming for the Shrewsbury folk, with some changes to Monty’s Tower, but other than that we’re going to be having another awesome year of events. Read on to find out when our events for next year are and what the general themes are.

GeekOut Shrewsbury Meet: A Review From A Bristolian

I’ve always wondered what being on the other end of the coin is like; you know, actually sitting and enjoying a GeekOut Meetup, rather than running one. In the whole time that GeekOut Shrewsbury has been a thing, I’ve never been able to go up myself. It being on a Thursday means that I’d have to effectively take a day off and do over five hours of travel, or take two days off and do two lots of driving and have a place to stay. I also didn’t want it to be obvious, so managing to keep it secret for so long felt oh so good.

GeekOut Shrewsbury September ’18 – Harry Potter and The Shrewsbury Geeks

Finally, a Meetup title too long for Facebook to accommodate in full.

This month mixed back-to-school with quiz month, meaning a quiz more aggressive than any exam you could hope to face, but many of you proved you could face down the worst of what I had to offer, and good company, good games, and a box of Harry Potter themed biscuits softened the blow a little. Here’s what happened this month:

Celebrating Five Years of GeekOut South-West

Holy smokes, I knew this year was my fifth year running this blog, but on Wednesday 19th, it was officially the anniversary of the website. Hurrah! No, there’s no time for cake, as I thought that was a perfect excuse for me to chat about everything that’s happened with us. The good, the bad (although there’s not really a lot of ‘bad’) and of course, the outright amazing. All in all, it’s been five years of ups, so expect to see a lot of gushing about how excellent this has been… And hey – We’ll chat about the meetup and what that means to us, as well as future plans.

A Call To Local Geek Businesses: Make Yourselves Known

We here at GeekOut Media often get a number of emails from retailers, charities and more. They start off by telling us about something exciting that’s upcoming, or about some stock they got recently. I was inspired to write this quick article by one such email I got from Books for Amnesty in Bristol. They were asking for us to share that they had some manga in stock – and it was quite a selection. Hey, if you’re reading this Colin, I hope you’re doing well and that you’ve started to sell a couple of them manga novels! I’m still going to have to pop by at some point for those Shaman King books, unless they move.

GeekOut Shrewsbury July ’18 – Steampunk’d

Did anyone get a head-count on the day? I think we surpassed thirty which is always a pretty good month, the pre-meet was a grand outdoorsy affair, as befits the season, although gaming wasn’t ideal given the furniture.

But so many of you showed up, and so many of you put the effort into the steampunk theme of the day. Top hats, waistcoats, the finest of attire, and a couple of artistic contributions to the inventors fair. Fun, laughter, games, and general geekery, and so much to do in the long gap between now and August’s Shrewsbury Event.

GeekOut Shrewsbury April ’18 – Marvel vs. DC

Over a year of GeekOut and it just keeps getting better. This month I decided to poke one of the geekiest bears out there, as divisive a topic as Kirk or Pickard, X-Box or Playstation*, D&D or Pathfinder, and to pitch the giants in the comic book playground against one another seems very du-jour considering Infinity War was released the day of GeekOut, and that I’ll be going to watch it tonight.

Some of you may have seen a few photos and live-streamed footage already, courtesy of our guest from Thors-Kin Podcast, Alex, who helped out with this month’s competition. Here is this month’s slightly belated gallery.