One thing I know how to do is talk. About anything and everything; directly and indirectly. Everything except myself. You’ll get to know me through my writing, but if you must know in the direct fashion. My name is Stephen Lawrence, born, raised, and still residing in Austin, Texas. Everything you have heard about Texas is true and everything you heard about Austin is a lie. It may be a somewhat cool place to live as a college student or an adult, but that same concept doesn’t really shape kids in the way you might think. I spent my youth slinging sausage wraps at all those festivals you hear about, admissions was just canned goods for the poor, and they may have lasted multiple days on the weekend, but they didn’t span 12 stages. SXSW was just a few backyard BBQ’s strung together. But more than anything, there was no culture Monday through Friday in my stretch of Travis County at the edge of North Austin. Just an endless string of hot roads and suburban sidewalks, with nothing to do but break into apartment pools and basketball courts.
As an only child, I spent a lot of time in accidental self-reflection. This introspective stasis was done staring into the gleam of late night television, watching repeats of classic sitcoms and movies. At some point, I got the feeling that there was a reason all these people were talking. That there was a purpose to the noise. And when I was tired of them squawking, I would hijack channel 3 and flip the power switch on the Genesis. Again, I started to wonder what the point was. Why did someone make this? My walls were lined with books because my dad ran out of room in the garage. They were all fantasy novels, sci-fi paperbacks, and 50’s childrens super-science fiction akin to Johnny Quest. In a way, these were more trash than television sometimes, but it gave me a love of the word. In the end, I just couldn’t stop thinking about the point behind it all. I wish I could say I read an author that made me think I should become a critic or a writer, but unfortunately I was way more egotistical. I simply wanted to talk to people about movies, but when people can’t or won’t, I turn to writing. Message boards were my first outlet, but even that felt limiting. I needed an outlet that had an endless capacity for my ramblings. Luckily, blogs were born.
Now I write simply because I enjoy it, but I think I still have grandiose designs on writing something a bit more substantial. But in the meantime, I am going to continue filling out AVOutput with hobby thoughts. This entire project is essentially egotistical, so I am going to push the envelope a bit with a series I am going to call my “Why?” series. I’ll give you further insight into why each part of nerd culture that I care about hooked me. I will encourage any other authors who write for AVOutput to do the same. It’s crazy to me that nerd culture has become as big as it has. People can geek out about anything, the internet and big data gave rise to people diving into the minutia of everything. I am going to embrace that ethos and lay it out for you, straight from the horse’s ass.