About Me – Eric Pierce
Pop Culture Geek. Gamer. All-Around Nerd.
I was born 9 months after Star Wars premiered in 1977, which naturally suggests my mom’s womb quickened on its own after she saw the film. I get it — these movies make me feel things too. I learned about all the gender parts in health class but they neglected to teach us how babies are really made.
I’m not saying I’m a Chosen One, only that I wasn’t ready to be born into a world without Star Wars.
It’s hard to articulate just how big Star Wars was in the early 80s. Star Wars has always been big — it’s friggin Star Wars. But if you were young at the time, and of a certain persuasion, it was somehow more than it is now. It looms monolithic in my earliest memories and is a part of my own origin story. I have spent my entire life chasing those early feelings of wonder.
That sounds hopelessly dorky, but in my defense I did warn you of my nerdiness upfront. Sorry but there are no refunds for this ride.
I wanted to be Han Solo. Still do. But every ‘Which Star Wars Character Are You?’ quiz tells me I’m Luke Skywalker or Chewbacca. So I guess depending on the day, I’m either a bit whiny and hopelessly naive or growling unintelligibly and occasionally howling.
I guess that’s probably accurate.
Some of my favorite things
- Tootsie Rolls, Hostess Orange Cupcakes, Brookside Dark Chocolate
- I am a huge fan of the TV show Firefly and am writing a steampunk fantasy series inspired by it; it’s shiny.
- Cormac McCarthy, Patrick Rothfuss, George R.R. Martin
- Nickelback — kidding! Just checking to see if you’re still reading.
- Red Dead Redemption, Skyrim, KOTOR
- Basketball shorts. I don’t play as much as I used to but I still dress the part.
- The Office, Parks & Rec, Schitt’s Creek
- Sleeping in.
- Led Zeppelin, Oasis, Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Laughing. We’ll come back to this one.
I moved around a lot growing up. It sucked. One good thing that came out of it is that I got really good at making new friends. One bad thing that came out of it is that I got really bad at keeping old friends.
I don’t have great charisma. I’m not charming. I’m a Gen X introvert — not only do I not want to talk, I can’t be bothered to want to talk.
So how did I make friends?
I laughed. All the time. At everything. It wasn’t forced — I generally find humor in pretty much anything. People like when you laugh with them. Not at them, that’s different.
But I had a secret weapon: I have a funny laugh. At least that’s what people tell me when they’re laughing at me. It’s the sort that makes other people laugh. Spontaneous convulsions.
I understand this is not repeatable. But thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Ways I have made money
- Retrieving luggage carts from the Detroit Metropolitan Airport parking lot for a quarter each. I was probably 12 at the time. It was surprisingly lucrative, but some of the adults doing the same thing got pissed at how fast I ran.
- Bagging groceries in a small town. I won the city’s bagging tournament – yes, that was really a thing – and was invited to Lansing for the state competition but declined because there was no prize money and Lansing was 2.5 hours away.
- Selling high-end knives and cutlery. Not a good fit for an introvert who hates conflict.
- Packaging computer circuit boards at a semiconductor plant. My manager got fired for coming into work drunk; he was one of the more well-adjusted employees.
- Working at a Family Video during the waning heyday of video rentals. Probably my favorite job, though I got hit on a fair amount — older ladies are surprisingly randy, especially in groups.
- Evenings working the front desk of a seedy motel near a casino. Wish I had some good stories, but mostly I ate stale donuts and read sci-fi novels.
- Over 20 years in IT — what you might call a “career”. A degree in IT is pretty future-proof but what it means in practice is that you become your extended family’s go-to for anything remotely technical.
- Writing. Sort of.
I met my wife in high school. I guess that makes us high school sweethearts, though we didn’t start dating until halfway through our senior year. We married right before our fourth year of college. I was 21. If that seems crazy, consider this: I have been married over half my life. We’re coming up on 22 years this August. Still happily in love. With each other, in case that wasn’t clear.
I probably could write something about marital lessons after so many years, but I’ll just leave you with the biggest thing I’ve learned: sometimes laughter is not the best medicine. Pick your spots, yo.
We have a couple of teenagers who oscillate between Luke and Chewie in temperament. And a cat named Luna. She’s the favorite.
I am a big ol’ nerd
So I mentioned at the top that I’m a dork. Even with all the talk of Star Wars, I feel like I somehow undersold my nerdiness.
I read fantasy and sci-fi books. I play videogames. Not only do I play Dungeons & Dragons, I have an entire room in my basement dedicated to it (and other games). Behold:
I also created a D&D supplement with a buddy. I wrote the words, he drew the pictures. We raised over $1000 on Kickstarter. It was a fun experience, and totally different than writing prose or blog posts. We’ll probably do it again someday.
I run a pop culture publication called Fanfare. It started as an outlet for my thoughts on Star Wars (yes, that again), Marvel, games — whatever I was geeking out over at the time. I have gradually attracted like minds and recruited people of a similar bent. We have a lively community of readers and writers.
Fanfare is a partnered publication, which means all our posts are curated to multiple topics. That status was granted by Medium in August 2020 after over a year of quality posts. I’m quite proud of this distinction.
Check us out if you are interested in such content!
This is the end
As a parting gift, here are a handful of my most popular posts, in terms of clappers:
- George R.R. Martin is Only Fooling Himself at This Point
- Enjoy the Bonuses While They Last
- Melissa McCarthy is Wasting Her Talent Making Her Husband’s Shitty Movies
- A Constellation of Scars
- A Refresher in Basic Etiquette as You Reenter Polite Society
I also write an irregular column at Writing Cooperative called Popular Prose. It is irregular in frequency of posting, not how often it poops. Which is never.
With that, I take my leave. Or as we say in my country — goodbye.
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Eric writes about pop culture here at Medium and is really glad the character quiz didn’t call him Jabba the Hutt. If you’d like to see what else he’s working on, check out his newsletter.