As an indication of my extreme geekiness here’s the birthday cake my boyfriend just brought home for me.  Some of you will get the joke, the rest of you will think I’m lame.

It’s my party and I’ll geek if I want to….

Now when it comes down to being asked what my favorite monster is, the vampire wins every time.  Ask my boyfriend and, well, the zombie rules.  He has got a serious love for the games, the movies, the whole cult following really.  So what is a girl to do when it comes to finding unique gifts for a living dead fan who seems to already have it all?

You turn to Stuart Conover at BuyZombie.com!

Seriously, this was just too cool and it makes my shopping so much easier this year: I decided I wanted to get to know Stuart a little bit better.

1. You obviously spend a lot of time working on this site, is it a labor of love? Or are you just plain obsessed?

I honestly can’t say it’s one or the other. I’m actually a full time horror junkie in general it’s just zombies that I feel are the best part of horror. Besides the serial killer concept found in slasher flicks they are probably the greatest realistic threat we would face and one that would effect everyone!  Aside from that it’s been shown constantly as one of the sub-horror genres that seem to be an easy in for independent movie producers and new authors. One thing I’ve loved about running the site is how many newer published authors or directors I’ve had a chance to speak with as so many are attracted to the genre or find it easy to work with.

2. What’s your favorite non-zombie related movie?

I can’t break it down to just one I’m a huge fan of cinema in general. I can toss out some of my top picks though since narrowing it down to just one movie *shakes head* not possible! Trick ‘r Treat(saw the midwest premiere recently, amazing movie), Alien, Aliens, The Usual Suspects, Blade Runner, Gattaca, Let The Right One In, North by Northwest, Pulp Fiction, The Silence of the Lambs, The Shawshank Redemption, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Se7en, OK I need to stop here. I could probably go on for hours listing my ‘favorite’ movies! While I am a horror fanatic I’m pretty sure that small taste of movies I have enjoyed shows I’ve got a range to what I watch ;)

3. What prompted you to create BuyZombie.com?

The site initially started just as an online resource to find anything zombie related or themed online for sale. Over the past year I have switched over to an increase in posts of zombie news, movie trailers, reviews, etc. This started by posting occasional zombie ‘products’ done by the crafting and art communities online and quickly realized people wanted more and more zombies of any kind. I want it to be an all around zombie experience and not just what you can buy (though I of course list zombie items still as well!) Ever since I started the switch about a year ago there has been both a huge influx of new readers and opportunities for the site (which is causing us to expand soon to include a vampire site and general horror site.)

4. Quickly! We must rally the people for the oncoming Zombie Apocalypse! What should we pack in our Zombie Survival Kits?

Well this one won’t be quick! To start with a small amount of light reading: The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks and When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need To Survive When Disaster Strikes by Cody Lundin.  Both of these will help with any general survival questions on living and taking care of yourself after the outbreak occurs. A map of the area you are in and any you may wish to travel to. First aid kit for any cuts (if you’re bitten though you may as well give up now!) A Survival Fire Starter for having a way to start a fire if needed, can’t trust matches or lighters to not just run out. Mobile proximity alarms can be run on batteries and are light weight and pretty cheap to buy these days (as low as $10!) Speaking of batteries you’ll probably want a ‘few’ sets for any electronic gear you have with you. A set of night vision goggles. While you don’t want to be running around in the dark anything might happen and it’d be better to see what is in front of you as you’ll be wanting to avoid heavily lit areas. Rope and duct tape are always handy. Finally if you are comfortable and proficient with fire arms a pistol of some sort to both help defend against zombies as well as scare off anyone who might be trying to steal what you have on you for their own survival. (Food & Water are also bonuses, however, are both less easy to carry with you.)

5. How have you prepared for the zombie hordes?

I’m sorry but answering this one would make me sound like one of those crazy survivalist nuts that live in the hills and think the government is out to get us all! I’m not that crazy. Honest.

6. Where do you find all the stuff for your site? Is this a full time pursuit for you?

My day job is generally spent in front of a computer with 4-5 hours to spare on and off throughout the day. While originally I would have to comb websites nonstop with the invention and increasing popularity of social networking sites (primarily Facebook and Twitter) there is always an influx of new zombie information to be able to share with BuyZombie’s readers! On top of that as we have been gaining readers we get 5-40 submissions a week by e-mail on our contact page.

7. What’s your favorite kind of cookie and why?

Hands down homemade chocolate chip. When I was growing up my grandmother used to make me homemade chocolate chips and warm fresh ones out of the oven. Yum! (With a glass of milk!)

8. What’s your preference of Zombie? The classical voodoo style? Or the Biohazard/Infectious Disease based style?

I would have to go with the disease based zombies. Would it really surprise anyone that there was a black ops government group out there trying to bring back the dead as a weapon? Possibly a group just trying to create immortality or extend the average lifespan until one fatal day they unleash a plague upon us all while just trying to help out. Why did they try to help? *sighs* Why? WHY? Ahem.

9. Which would be worse? Zombie Pirates? Or Zombie Ninjas? Who would win in a fight?

The ninjas would clearly be worse! In shape and in the top of their health before being bitten by an overwhelming horde of zombies chasing them they would be quicker and take longer for the decomposition to kick in. Pirate zombies would be in horrible health to begin with and some are already rotting on the inside! Both being zombies they would no longer carry their centuries old grudge between one another (unless after time brief memories of their past lives begin to emerge as Romero’s zombies have been doing) and would instead combine their forces to better eat or infect us all.

10. In your opinion, which style of zombie films are the best between the classics like Dawn of the Dead and the modern versions such as 28 days later?

I’m going to nitpick here. 28 Days Later isn’t a “zombie” movie. There are no undead or flesh eaters involved at all and it’s just an infection movie shot like a zombie movie. Putting that aside it really depends. I love the fast pacing of the ‘new’ breed of zombies and they honestly just freak me out. How can you fight back against zombies that can outrun you since they won’t get worn out and will just keep coming? Realistically though the slow moving zombies in large numbers seem more feasible (not feeling pain aside the muscles would decompose with the flesh and running shouldn’t be possible, at least not for long.) The other bonus of the slower moving zombies was the increased gore factor. If your into gore, no one today does it how they used to.

11. Who’s your favorite character in Left for Dead?

Francis! It really had to be, how can anyone not love and be entertained by how much he hates.. everything.

12. What’s your favorite zombie based video game?

For realism, Resident Evil 1. Hard game to master, save points were few and far between, and it had a decent plot. For fun it would have to be Left 4 Dead or Dead Rising (I’ll admit I haven’t had a chance to pickup Resident Evil 5 yet so that may change.) Probably between the two I would pick Dead Rising though. While L4D is a lot of fun I have *looks embarrassed* other first person shooter games I enjoy more. As a bonus Plants Vs Zombies is both an incredibly addicting and cute game from PopCap Games available on the PC (soon 360, PS3, Mac, and iphone.)

13. Do you think zombies could ever co-exist peacefully like in the ending of the movie Shaun of the Dead?

If you go by the classic thought of zombies being undead I would have to go with no. It’s not possible as they will just keep trying to eat us. However, there has been an increase in the thought of ‘advanced’ zombies over the past few years. From Romero’s zombies progressively getting smarter in movies (Day of the dead- “Bub” is able to learn how to use a gun and do simple tasks, Land of the Dead- zombies are doing basic tasks that they appear to have done prior to being turned) to books (Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament by S. G. Browne, great author and good person, has shown that zombies are not just mindless beings but can love and hate… past loving our tasty flesh!) Even with this increase of intelligence among the undead I fear that it can only drive them further away from any chance of a peaceful co-existence. Let’s be honest here- as a living person, huge horror tolerances/obsessions/fetishes aside, the smell of rotting flesh is going to get to the majority of people after awhile ;)

It’s no secret that I’m something of a hybrid, part goth and part geek. I’m just as happy wrapped up in the tight embrace of a properly bound corset as I am plunked down in front of a big screen television hacking and slashing my way through hordes of monsters. I don’t really deny either side, nor am I ashamed of either half despite having encountered some disdain for being “impure”. Personally, I don’t care, I’m fairly secure with myself not to give a damn about being so hardcore as to deny myself the pleasures of both worlds…

Likely, this is the key to success in my present long standing relationship. You see, I’m not dating a fellow Goth, I’m dating a hardcore geek. I was skeptical at first if this would work ,but it has and I’ve noticed quite the growing trend of both subcultures merging romantically to form similar kinds of bonds. Why is this? I like to romanticize it by thinking of us ‘gothlings‘ as the image of early European aristocrats who found themselves faced with certain destruction if they continued to breed within their own ranks and that the hordes of geeks trying to woo us were the newly rich trying to buy titles and status.

But honestly, it’s more likely that we just click together. Geek boys just can’t seem to resist us goth girls and I can think of ten easy reasons why that is:

1. Goth girl fashions are still more socially accepted than cosplay. And if a goth girl wears cat ears in public she’s not always surrounded by teenage fanboys/girls exclaiming “Kawaii! I love Darkstalkers so much! You’re so kewl! Do you speak Japanese and eat Udon noodles? Cause I do!” Sure, it happens sometimes, but a quick shot of pepper spray clears that up right away.

2. Goth girls totally get that aversion to sunlight thing. There isn’t too many other subcultures that share a dislike of bright natural light quite like the goths and the geeks. While goth girls are natural night owls with pale, unearthly skin tones they need to preserve, a geeks pasty complexion is usually more of an occupational hazard from too many wasted days in front of an LCD screen.

3. You rent a flat in your mom’s basement? Don’t you mean “Lair of Dark Isolation?” Goth girls love their atmosphere and this is where geek guys get to be spin doctors. Don’t think of your underground place as a potential deal killer, most geeks now have a lot of awesome tech toys to show off and with a little work and creativity you can transform the place that used to be used for storing Christmas ornaments and canned fruit into a cool dungeon of solitude.

Put up some dark curtains, hang some unearthly colored lights and drop some skulls here and there for effect and you could soon have yourself a place that goth chicks actually want to hang out at. Just a hint though, real cobwebs are a sign of poor housekeeping, not coolness.

4. Did someone say Zombies? Where a lot of preppier girls might roll their eyes or cry out “Gross!” at the sight of rotting flesh monsters or unnecessary carnage, a lot of us goth girls are ready and eager to go wading through the blood and body parts for a good survival horror RPG or grindhouse flick. Hell, for some of us it’s our idea of a romantic evening for two.

5. In the event of a Zombie Holocaust you can count on us to step up to the challenge and wield our own ‘boomstick’ when this all goes down in real life. We’ve seen the movies, we know the drill. Don’t expect us to stand there screaming while we wait to get torn apart. Goth girls know how to kick ass and take brains when it comes to the risen dead.

So, when you’re picking your team mates in the race for survival, you can skip the bubbly pop princess and grab the girl who’s already barricading the windows.

6. We look like the girls you dream about when you’re not gaming. It’s true, when I met my ‘Geek Charming‘ I had “BloodRayne Hair” and vampire fangs. It really was “Love at First Bite.”

7. The Enemy of My Enemy… We weren’t even in the running for Prom King and we were never destined to become the Head Cheerleader. We were the outsiders through high school and we’re united by the fact that we were never the popular kids. We might not have had the same social circle, but we have an understanding of what it’s like to be stepped on by the kids who are now all grown up and making minimum wage because they were too cool for school.

8. We have a shared dislike of country music. Enough said.

9. We’re less concerned about your expensive brand-name threads than we are about if you actually own every gore flick made since 1980. Okay, so maybe that’s a bit excessive of an example, but your ‘terabyte-worth’ of obscure vampire films is pretty impressive. Sure your mom still buys your shirts, but we don’t care, we’re too busy scanning through your files to see if you’ve really got all of the original Prom Night movies.

10. We might be the girls your mother warned you about… But she’s just happy that you’ve finally brought someone home. Our faces might be filled with metal, our skin might be covered in ink and we wear our corsets on the outside of our clothing but your mom gave up on you marrying a “nice girl” after she chanced upon your frighteningly huge porn folder cleverly labeled “Homework“.

(This Article Was Previously Posted On www.pretty-scary.net)