Am I a geek?

[porysski]

Throughout my life, until this week, I would have fairly unhesitatingly answered "Yes, I am a geek," if asked. It seemed to be the question of the week on my friends list, though (I blame xamses), so I decided to actually think about it. I really don't know.

Comments

To Geek

[xamses]

(9, for baseline geekdom)# I play role playing games

(10, for enduring the smell)# I go to gaming conventions

(10, for deserving a wedgie)# I have, from time to time, been known to describe reality in gaming terms (e.g. "Wow, Rasputin must have been pretty high level. All those hit points, combined with his good saving throws...")

(5, not terribly uncommon)# I have a reasonable knowledge of computers

(7, for the blasters)# I read a lot, primarily science fiction

(8, like a good geek)# I have been known to be quite socially awkward

(5, for academic geekdom)# I learn dead languages for fun

(5, the same could be said of many cool guys)# I have never managed to maintain a relationship longer than 2 months

(6, but did you wake up and drink Mountain Dew?)# I'm sitting here writing this list, instead of sleeping before work

Re: To Geek

[xamses]

(3, nerds are skinny or fat. This would be lower, but appearances do count)# I'm actually fairly in shape, though I don't look it (I can sustain a 20+ mile/day walk for weeks, and have proved this in the past

[snwkitty]

i suppose i see you kinda as a gamer geek, but not an all inclusive geek - and not a total gamer geek because i dont' see you on video games, or computer games all that much. Mostly i've seen you and heard of you with the pen and papers and haven't heard of you playing something like 40k.

Overall i don't consider you to be the biggest geek that i know of, not even in a gamer sense. Not that it's a bad thing though.

[corivax]

Part of the problem, I imagine, is that everyone has a different definition of geek. Mine is fairly straightforward: anyone who enjoys learning things just to know stuff is a geek. History grad students poring through moldy old tomes in the Vatican? History geeks!

In contrast, there are a bunch of people who got into programming because they wanted to make money, and generally act like frat boys with money. Not geeks.

I have a lot more in common with the history geek chasing down obscure details for his thesis than with some snowboarding lout who knows who to write html.

(I do consider myself a geek.)

[porysski]

Really, I cheated on my lists anyway. Many of the "non-geek" items are really quite geeky (e.g. I love studying the physics behind why my weapons work the way they do (Loved your post about gfish's atlatl, by the way)) almost as much as using them.

[tokahfang]

You are a gaming geek. You've been on a less geeky kick in the past few months, but a few months of clubbing cannot cancel out years of geekdom. You are something of nerd, but a bit too athletic to make a good nerd.

[beadedbudgie]

Yah, I'd have to agree, you seem more of a gamer geek as opposed to a full fledged geek, though I'd have to admit I dont' really know you THAT well, even when we lived in the same house :-P