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Girls Who Game: The Alma Matter

About this series: ‘Girls Who Game’ is a monthly series on female gamer and geek profiles. Every month, we present proof of real women who play without apology. Because we are not unicorns (or more apt, mermaids?).

Alma Anonas-Carpio
Girls Who Game: Alma Anonas-Carpio
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Alma Anonas-Carpio is pretty much Ellen Ripley. Except instead of spawning aliens, she has given birth to twin girls (affectionately called the Twin Towers for the height they did not inherit from their mother) who game and geek out as much as she does. Aside from real world awards to her name (a Palanca and an Intel Excellence Award, to name a few), she is also the Literary and Tech Editor for the Philippines Graphic, and is a former president of the IT Journalists Association of the Philippines (Cyberpress). Her geek cred rolls out like a red carpet, and like Ripley, she is nerd, warrior and momma, all in one.

How was it like raising twin geek girls?

It was awesome and terrible. The Twin Towers were so intelligent as infants that most people found it scary. They took after me, so I let it bloom and encouraged their geekdom – you can never go wrong with nature plus nurture. It started in the womb, I believe. I read all my geek books to them then.

What are your core geekdoms and how do they manifest? 

My main geekdoms are books (literary – poetry, fiction, pop lit), Star Trek TOS and TNG, professional writing, journalism tradecraft, physics, chemistry, health, some videogames (Diablo I-III, The Sims 1-3 and expansion packs, Counter-Strike – RPG, RTS and FPS being my favorite game types), crochet (yes, I do), Dungeons & Dragons (particularly the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance settings), cooking.

OMG, they manifest every day. In the Graphic newsroom, when I discuss literature and reportage nitty gritty with editor-in-chief Joel Salud, or when I am discussing Star Trek, Superman or Batman with associate editor Fil Elefante, or health issues with managing editor Psyche Roxas Mendoza. Also, at mealtimes with the family, because Relly  (husband), the Twin Towers and I are all geeks.

Some say that girls only like geeky things because of boys. What can you say about that?

Funny, but I adored all my geekeries waaaaaay before I found boys fascinating.

If you could exchange this world with a fictional universe, which would it be?

It would be a toss up between the bridge of the NCC-1701 (the Constitution-class Enterprise), or Rivendell, Middle Earth.

How does one build his/her repository of geekiness? Where do you start?

I started at the age of two by learning to read the 64th edition of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, much to my mother’s shock and delight (she was an English teacher at Ateneo Grade School). Why, you start with the word “aardvark” of course.

Denice De Guzman

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