Hats Worn Today, Thursday July 30 2009

very day, I have to take on a bunch of different little hats, each one a particular type of Geek activity. Today was a very laid-back day (No Programming homework, no personal problems with my hardware, etcetera.) and so, I didn't need to dig up too many of my hats.


Font / Graphic Design / Eco Geek

My mom lost a PDF original of a flyer she needed for her composting presentations. She was going to use our printer's Copier function with an old printed one, but I noted, after she pointed out how the flyers had changed to use less ink, that she'd be wasting ink with that blackened xerox crud all over. I popped it into Photoshop, cleaned it up, and E-mailed her the clean copy after printing some copies for her.

Bonus: Cracked Comic Sans joke.


Roleplay Geek

Participated in a smallish Forgotten Realms oneshot. I was honestly a bit hesitant;

I'm moving from San Diego back to Tucson soon, and I really miss the in-depth experience of Live-Action Roleplaying in the Camarilla. It's a very immersive RP experience, more like improvisational theater and shared storytelling. There's a lot _Less_ of a focus on this in my local group of players in San Diego, especially when we're getting together simply as an alternative to not playing. I suspected the group would be some of the more RP-light folks and was worried it might not be as rewarding. In all fairness, it wasn't bad - But, I've been in numerous small, make your character on the spot games this summer, and most of the drama and investment I'd like in a Roleplaying game has not been there. Maybe that's a topic for another post however.

Roleplay TMI: 4th edition, Scepter Tower of Spellgard. I played a 3rd level dwarven devoted cleric, for healing and buffing. I aimed to add some ties to the 4E Faerun setting and some background and a good goal, seeking a lost dwarven relic, but it all basically boiled down to pushing through combat encounters. Like most games since I got back. Minor le sigh.


Computer Gaming Geek

Double dose here. My comic of Mirror's Edge (Bought for 7 bucks, shipping included off of Newegg, thanks to Dealzmodo.) arrived today, although I haven't gotten to play it, but once I got home from the above RPG, I hopped on and played a few stirring maps of Counter Strike: Source with my friends. Strangely, only one lives in my state or has met me in person, and he was the 'odd guy out', and I had to make sure it was all right he joined us. I'm acceptable at CS, and managed to top a few maps, but it was basically just shooting large teams of bots up for a very casual experience.


Comic Book Geek

I purchased Mice Templar last night, and finished it today. Strangely enough it was originally a mix up when searching for info on the new Mouse Guard that I found Mice Templar. Any comic whose foreword name-checks Reepicheep and comes recommended by Mike Mignola of Hellboy fame had to be a keeper, and I didn't feel disappointed. The novel is much more nuanced adventure, with a lot of moral gray areas and a world whose lore is never entirely honest about what's going on. And some seriously Bad-Ass Mice.


To-Do list:
Expandable Post Summaries (O)
Split Blogroll into Webcomics, Blogs, and Other (O)
Interview Fellow Geeks on Title Identity / Geek Species (O)

What is a Geek?

I think it might be easiest to explain this if people know where I'm coming from, but to get there, I guess I need to find out where others are coming from.

Before reading on or looking into the below link, think to yourself. If you're here, you probably understand, abstractly, what a 'Geek' is. You might be one. Know a few. Been raised by some. But, can you really narrow it down and put it into words, or not?

Below is the Wikipedia entry for Geek. I think it's surprisingly short.

'Geek' on Wikipedia.

The general idea is that 'Geek' is changing. It's no-longer exactly derogatory. It represents 'An enthusiast'.

I happen to like where the specific quote by Julie smith was heading:

"a bright young man turned inward, poorly socialized, who felt so little kinship with his own planet that he routinely traveled to the ones invented by his favorite authors, who thought of that secret, dreamy place his computer took him to as cyberspace—somewhere exciting, a place more real than his own life, a land he could conquer, not a drab teenager's room in his parents' house."

The definition has the things I like about the title; An implication of escapism, of a secluded covenant with things like books or the internet. And, frankly, a little bit of geek elitism.

But, as the article, and probably you, notice, there's not exactly an easy definition that works for everyone. And some of them vary a bit.

So, with so many ideas floating around, what can we agree on? Let's just break down the "Other Definitions" from Wikipedia.

* A derogatory reference to a person obsessed with intellectual pursuits for their own sake, who is also deficient in most other human attributes so as to impair the person's smooth operation within society.

* A person who is interested in technology, especially computing and new media. Geeks are adept with computers, and use the term hacker in a positive way, though not all are hackers themselves.

* A person who relates academic subjects to the real world outside of academic studies; for example, using multivariate calculus to determine how they should correctly optimize the dimensions of a pan to bake a cake.

* A person who has chosen concentration rather than conformity; one who passionately pursues skill (especially technical skill) and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance.

* A person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainstream. This could be due to the intensity, depth, or subject of their interest. This definition is very broad but because many of these interests have mainstream endorsement and acceptance, the inclusion of some genres as "geeky" is heavily debated. Persons have been labeled as or chosen to identify as physics geeks, mathematics geeks, engineering geeks, sci-fi geeks, computer geeks, various science geeks, movie and film geeks (cinephile), comic book geeks, theatre geeks, history geeks, music geeks, art geeks, philosophy geeks, literature geeks, historical reenactment geeks and roleplay geeks.

* A more recent school of thought sees Nerd as being a derogatory phrase, whilst Geek is simply a description. It is taken to be someone who is an enthusiast, often in things outside of the mainstream spectrum, of note is that in this definition, there is no reference to being socially inept in the slightest.

Of the above, only one of the six is explicitly derogatory. And, in truth, only two of these definitions discuss computers and technology. Yet, there's common ideas.

Obsessed. Interested. Relates academic subjects to the real world. Concentration. Devotion to something. An enthusiast.

There's social implications, too. Two talk directly about operation with society (The lack, or the lack of a lack) and two of 'mainstream social acceptance'.

So, dedicated self-selected specialists within fields outside the mainstream seem to be a common thread to most of these definitions. And it's not a bad place to start. Nor is that next to last definition, which discusses Geek as having subspecies.

That idea is really the purpose of this blog, although obviously with some bleed through from a Roleplay Geek. There's different tracks, focuses, specializations and interests among the Geek genus, Wikipedia naming most of the main ones we think of - Comic books geeks, Cinephiles, etc. But somehow, even geeks from different species seem to get along. There's some kind of commonality that lets a Band Geek get along with a Roleplay geek or vice versa. More important to this exploration, there's also very, very few examples of 'Pure' geeks with but a single focus. People who get the geek label tend to spread at least a little beyond their home turf, often as a side benefit of that easy interaction between groups.

So based on the ones I know, most geeks are, at their heart, not only in their own field. They branch out, and are, by their nature... Cross Class Geeks. I hope to chronicle all those classes, and try to figure out what Geek means in our society, and maybe discover the magic secret that makes interdisciplinary geek-dom so freaking easy.

Until then, I plan for it to be a bunch of cool stuff and musings on my different foci.


So, as best I can think of from 'Most' to 'Least', here's the geek species in me:

Science Fiction Geek (By... Birth?)
Roleplay Geek (By Practice)
Comic Geek (By Osmosis)
Internet Geek (By Exposure)
Computer Game Geek (By Daily Ritual)

Computer Geek (By Blood)
Programming Geek (In training even.)
Mythology Geek (By Preference)

Firearms Geek
Movie Geek
Art Geek


What about you?
Bottoms Up!