365 T-shirts - the reasoning

This blog should be sub-titled: a journal of my life in geek.

I get my geek on with things about which I am geeky: comic books, Baseball, Ultimate, science fiction, my favorite bands, books I have read and loved, and Jungian psychology to name some of the most frequently traversed subjects.

I began this project simply as a way to count my T-shirts. I own a lot of T-shirts. But how many do I have? Do I have 365? We shall find out.

When I started this blog, I thought about how each T-shirt means something to me. I bought it for a reason, after all. I set myself the task to post an entry about a new T-shirt every day as a way to simply write something every day, a warm up for writing fiction, which is my passion. Writing is like exercise. Warm ups are good for exercise. But after completing a month of blogging about T-shirts, I have learned that this blog serves as a journal; it documents my life in geek, sort of a tour of my interests in pop culture. The blog serves as a tool for self-inventory, for assessment and analysis of self and the origins of self, for stepping through the process of individuation in catalogues, lists, and ranks.

The blog also made me aware that I have some serious gaps in my T-shirt ownership, and I am in the process of collecting some new T-shirts for several of the great popular culture icons that I truly love. Stay tuned.

I was also a bit surprised that people checked out my blog and continue to check it, read it, and even comment on it. I am very appreciative of this readership. Please feel free to share your thoughts in my comments section. I will respond.

Also, please note that I have moved the original introductory text to the side bar. And now, I present to you the most recent entry of 365 T-shirts: a journal of my life in geek. Thank you for reading.
(Second Update - 1310.24. First Update - 1306.05 Originally Posted - 1304.25.)

Saturday, April 13, 2013

T-shirt #23: Planet of the Snapes

T-shirt #23: Planet of the Snapes

Blame Facebook again. Those damn ads that target our "likes."

This time it was Teefury that pooped next to my news feed. (Yes, I know the text reads "pooped." I meant "popped," but in an edit, I saw that I had written "pooped" and liked it so much that I decided to leave it.)

The social media interwebs knew that I liked geeky stuff; however, there is no way it could have predicted this particular confluence of forces and the meaning for my family.

My step-daughter Piper's favorite character in the Harry Potter books is Severus Snape. Also, we have learned that her Dad and I share many interests, one of which is the Planet of the Apes films, which I was mad for back in the 1970s and still consider among my favorite cult phenomena.

So, enter Teefury, a web store that offers a daily T-shirt. The shirt goes on sale for 24 hours. Teefury blitzes social media, sells the shirt inexpensively, and then makes it exclusive by yanking it from the market. When I saw the "Planet of the Snapes" shirt, I knew Piper would want one. I wanted one. It was clever and amusing, and it combined two things we both loved. I ended up ordering one for my step-son Ivan, too. Now, we're a family united by "Planet of Snapes." (I would have ordered one for  Liesel if she wore more T-shirts or had read the Harry Potter books).

There's more to say about how Harry Potter saved my life and how the Planet of the Apes movies influenced  my ideas about story-telling, but those are stories for another time. This entry needs to remain short. I had to log a short one eventually. I had intended for all the posts to be short this week. And then they grew and grew. Today, I am making an effort to keep it short and sweet. Don't expect a book every day.

-chris tower - 1304.13
Photo courtesy of Liesel MK Tower