be a geek

just let your inner geek be your inner geek. there’s no need to bat him down – he knows what’s going on =P

i have done this….and done it well…when u finally realize u dont have to conform to what others think or say…this is when life become fun…and then you and everyone around u realize…ur not a geek your you and thats cool…

...the book Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Thanks to some standing geeks and aspiring geeks, I have been given my next two steps towards geekhood.

1. Watch the mini-series Battlestar Galactic and subsequent episodes from the TV series.

2. Read the book….. oops, forgot the name. Well, read the book, none-the-less!

K well I’m quiet possibly the biggest geek of them all, ok well maybe not the biggest, but I’ll tell you…lol…I love documentries, I watch tons of these things, commerical free, I run Asterisk on my Slackware 10.1 box. I’ve gone as far as stacking a nameserver and webserver on the same box, have run Active Directory at my house for fun, Love every star trek series that every came out (execpt Enterprise – I’m starting to watch it a bit now), Used to spend in excess of 13 hours a day in school and spend my weekends in school studying, enjoy computer networking, VoIP technology, am I geek cert’d yet. Never got into WWC or FF luckily, mind you I have a whicked addiction for Battlefield (1942, Vietnam and Modern Combat II).

ch3ck my l33t h4×0r5k1LLz (**that was a joke)

The two comments on the last entry prompted me to take a new test. This was because the first test only tested geekiness. The new test tested for Nerd, Geek or Dork.

I scored PURE NERD.

Pure Nerd
69 % Nerd, 13% Geek, 34% Dork
For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of: Pure Nerd.

The times, they are a-changing. It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendences associated with the “dork.” No-longer. Being smart isn’t as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older: eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label: Purely Successful.

Congratulations!

But it wasn’t until after the tragic events at Columbine High School that I formally adopted the word ‘geek’ to describe myself.

Not everyone knows this, or some may not remember, but there was a backlash against people who were ‘different’ at that time. If you want to know more, I strongly recommend reading “Why Kids Kill” and the “Voices From The Hellmouth” essays at slashdot.org (or look for mirrors on Google), as well as the book Geeks. They were all written by Jon Katz.

I found a geek test on OKCupid.com and took it. The results was 72% geek. The commentary said something like…. Simple Geek – has latent geek tendencies.

Here’s the whole report:

The Simple Geek
You answered 72% of the questions as a geek truly would.
You don’t seem to sway in either direction, however you still seem to have some latent geek attributes within you. Maybe you’re interested in computers but not a gamer? Maybe you’ve got geek hobbies but none of the awkward social tendencies. You may be slightly geekier than you thought and in denial!
The simple geek usually has various quirks that friends may make fun of, but in general can be considered a fairly normal person. Your geek attributes make you less likely to conform to society. The popular kids don’t hate you but the geeks don’t either, so it’s a respectable demographic.

In a nutshell, you answered enough questions with geek tendencies and enough questions without geek tendencies that it’s difficult to pinpoint your exact alignment.

• Now, in my opinion, even taking the test might prove a little geeky. What do you think?

Okay – downloaded the pattern for the Dr. Who scarf. Going to see if my aunt can knit one for me. – I think this might qualify as geeky.

I’m going to try to add some geekyness to my life everyday. This may be hard. There is a difference between being a nerd and a geek. Seeing that I’ve often been called a nerd or even eccentric, I’m not sure I know what qualifies as geek.

Avi