Earlier this week, I had an empty evening so I went through my queue and watched a movie that had been on my list for a while. I had been in the mood for a full on action flick and this one fit the bill: Falcon Rising. It stars Michael Jai White as a former Marine with a past that he cannot make peace with. It also features Laila Ali and Neal McDonough, which both surprised me. At any rate, as I was watching this movie, getting pulled into the story and the impressive action sequences, I felt like something was missing. The movie started to bring back memories of the better quality movies from Cannon Pictures in the late 80s and early 90s. Then it dawned on me… back then I had a ritual to watching movies of this type. It involved an empty house, a cheap pepperoni pizza or a Red Baron pepperoni and sausage pizza, and a 2 liter of Dr Pepper. I can’t explain why, but that was the ideal “me time”. Now, as I watched the end credits, this realization dawned upon me. And, it made me wonder: as geeks, what rituals do we have for our various fandoms?

I know that many of us will try to read the book before the movie based on said book comes out. Or we’ll watch all of the movies in a series, in order, leading up to the newest release. Aaand, we can’t wait until Tuesday, when new DVDs are released in stores ,and Wednesday, when new comics come out! But what about the things you do that make your fandom specifically yours? Do you wait until Saturday afternoon to read your latest haul from the comic shop or do you have a Firefly marathon every long weekend?(YOU CAN’T TAKE THE SKY FROM ME!!!)

What I’m saying is that, as geeks, we have those little things we do that personalize what we’re into. For me it’s cheap pizza and Dr Pepper, for one. I know that I’m not the only one, what are some of yours?