Things You Never Knew...

Sha pointed this out, and hey whad'ya know. That's me!

Great reasons to be a geek!

You’re probably very smart.

Yep that's right. Okay, quite smart, at least, depending.

It’s hip to be geek. Everyone is familiar with the stereotype of thick glasses, a pocket protector, an obsession with star trek, and social skills akin to a sack of potatoes. Times have changed: geeks are often fashionable, hip individuals who are very aligned with the trends of their own generation.

YARRRR.

You geek out on more than just your computer. Ever seen the movie collection of a film geek? Ever had an automotive geek work on your car? Ever seen the body of a fitness geek? The tenacity of someone like us, when applied to hobbies outside computers and the like, can yield impressive results.

Right now, the flavor of the month is board games! Check out BGG - www.boardgamegeek.com.

Geek humor is the best humor. This is perhaps a biased opinion, but I’ve never laughed as hard as I have while reading some of the random, funny things that came out of geek culture.

The bestest webcomic is xkcd. (also recommended by Sha. Huh) But as a random sampler, check out the O RLY owl.

You listen to good music. Geeks have access to tools that allow us to hear music that extends well beyond top 40 radio. Want the entire discography of Aphex Twin by tomorrow afternoon? Ask a geek. Not only do they listen to good music, they can find just about anything you’re looking for in a heartbeat.

I can do that. Whoever Aphex Twin is. But ubernet.org is a good place to start.

You make good money. If there’s one stereotype about geeks that usually rings true, it’s that they rarely have trouble earning a decent income.

Ahem. I shall reserve judgment on this for the time being.

You fix stuff. Everyone loves a handyman, especially one that can fix one of the most frustrating devices ever conceived: a personal computer.

I charge $30 per job for this, but I do good work!

You’ve got your own stuff going on. You’ll never meet a geek who runs out of things to do, they’ve got lots of hobbies and interests and are more than happy to dive head first into one of those when they’ve got some spare time. In other words: they won’t rely on you to give them a life.

Note to self. Next freetime block - memorize e to about 20 digits.

You’re very articulate. Compulsively reading a few hundred RSS feeds a day yields a vocabulary that could put most college English majors to shame.

What can I say? (Pun wholly intended)

You’re passionate. When a geek becomes interested in something, they tend to immerse themselves in it entirely. They’ll strip a new gadget down to nuts and bolts and re-build it with an xhtml compliant grappling gun. This intense passion can extend to many areas of a geek’s life, not just computers and hobbies.

Again, YARRR.