10 things that make me a geek

Here’s a fun list of stuff about which I am pretty passionate, about which I know at least slightly more than the average person and about which I am constantly in fear of talking too much.

Over at Stainless Steel Droppings, Carl posted this thread. Fun exercise…

Pre-skull-hardening:

1) Legos. I’d spend virtually hours sitting on the floor with my big blue bag of legos, sorting them meticulously. I’d sit there so long, my legs would go all numb, but still I would search for the perfect pieces. Legos were instrumental in helping me hone my obsessive compulsive disorder. After a model was completed, I remember I had this odd routine where I would stare at it, blinking a certain number of times until it looked just right on display in my closet. Yeah, let’s move on…

2) Star Trek: The Next Generation. I was so into TNG that I called it “TNG”. I went through a 12 step so I’m better now. See below.

3) TNG technical paraphernalia. I had (by “had”, I mean “have”) the Technical Manual; the dang-near-life-size Enterprise D cut-away poster, showing decks and away vehicles and such; and the Enterprise D die cast model with working separation between the engine and deck portions.

4) Star Trek: The Next Generation books. Yep, I read the books too. That Trek was in print was embarrassing enough. It was quite another thing explaining the occasional titles to people. Metamorphosis: The Giant Novel clocked in at probably under 150 pages. They actually had to include the word “giant” on the flagship books to convince their readership of its legitimacy.

5) Basketball. Played since I was 7 or 8 I think. I practiced every morning from 6:30am till the school bell rang.

6) Star Wars role playing. Jimmy can tell you all about this. He and I used to make up whole episodes the ongoing saga in his basement with our action figures. Great fun. He even had an audio cassette of one such episode, but I think it’s dead.

7) Going to bed and rising early. I remember waking up so early on Saturday morning for cartoons that the stupid color bar test patterns were still on the TV!

8) Black & White outlook. Things are never quite as clear as through the eyes of a child.

9) Single-piece wardrobe. I loved my green shirt and blue jeans. That’s all I ever wore, I think, if it weren’t for my mother.

10) Girls. Girls were gross, and I would rather be caught dead than caught looking at one.


Post-skull-hardening:

1) Girls. You can’t tell me God’s not a guy. “Wo, Man!” were the first two words that Adam uttered after his rib-ectomy operation. And gauging the male comments on a recent Percolations.net post, it’s safe to say that I have much company.

2) Debate. This is one that, if I’m not careful, I will embarrass myself silly. I’ve argued myself into corners and tend to get way too emotionally invested and defensive. But I love to argue and I’ve been told that I’m contrarian.

3) Spirituality & Doctrine. I think it’s extremely fun to wax poetic about The Big Questions.

4) Using big words. It’s a raging habit that embarrasses me after the fact. It’s a sure sign of pretense and compensatory for a weak intellect. Oops, I did it again!

5) Quality sci-fi like Firefly and Battlestar (remake), and of course Star Wars and lots of other stuff.

6) Indie music. One word: podcasting. FM radio annoys me. It makes me furrow my brow (except NPR). Top 40 is music for the masses. I don’t want to be part of the masses. Give me underground music, or give me death. Life without The Shins, Innocence Mission, The Gerbils, Clinic, or Wilco would be a bummer. They’re the best music you’ve never heard.

7) Indie movies. You’ll often hear me go on a tirade of how studio-driven, committee-marketed movie drivel sucks. The cure for all of that is independent filmmaking. It’s fresher, more sincere, lower budget, non-formulaic, unpredictable, and zanier.

8) Documentaries. Of all the movies I’ve seen (logged 1280 movie ratings on Netflix), probably 25% of them are documentaries. I tend to get really worked up about them and feel a little embarrassed when I throw the word around too much. I’m afraid people will think I’m “one of those arty snobs.”

9) Netflixing. Not only have I been a member for 5 years, but I have over 1200 ratings, 350 movies in my queue, and I even use a special client program for my computer (a Mac, see below) called Netflix Freak which gives me more control over my Netflix account.

10) Macs. I’m a computer “power user.” That means I don’t just write email and play solitaire. I know how to maintain them and tweak the interface and repair them. Having to do that enough times on the PC with any Windows OS flavor is enough to drive any sane person to other platforms. Tried Linux, BeOS, but settled on Mac OS. I own a PowerMac dual 1.0 GHz machine. It’s sexier than your PeeCee and you know it. What can I say about Macs vs. PCs that hasn’t been said before? It’s summed up more eloquently by this great comic strip from Nickel Arcade: Penny Arcade

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8 Comments

  1. I can’t resist doing this again. I love doing these things and can add to the list I did on my site. (Incidentally, this is the second time I’m typing this as I was almost done when it all disappeared)

    1. Star Wars: Saw all the originals in the theatre as a child and was hooked. Han Solo and Chewbacca became heroes and I’ve never lost my excitement over these 2 characters. And how cool is the Millenium Falcon?!?! I have a replica of Solo’s blaster on my home desk and a little Mil. Falcon on my keyboard at work. Among my favorite books are the Brian Daley books chronicling the adventures of Han and Chewie pre-A New Hope.

    2. Anime: It was only natural that I would eventually get into this as I love cartoons. Anime is a blend of stylized Japanese animation with adult themes and there is some great stuff out there. I have the 26 episode set of Cowboy Bebop which is my fav. and am currently working my way through Last Exile. Its an expensive addiction that could be much more inexpensively satisfied through Netflix.

    3. Jean-Pierre Jeunet: I saw Delicatessin in NYC and was hooked. City of Lost Children is such an eccentric, bizzare, fun science fiction tale. Amelie is one of the most fun, blissfully romantic movies ever made, and A Very Long Engagement deserved every accolade it received and more. Jeunet simply doesn’t make films fast enough for me.

    4. Foreign/Indie/Documentary films: basically includes anything not cranked out for mass consumption simply to make a quick buck. Films like Mostly Martha, Greenfingers, Waking Ned Devine, With a Friend Like Harry, Spellbound, The Straight Story, Pieces of April, Triplets of Bellville, and of course the Jeunet films are such amazing things to watch and share with others.

    5. Star Trek: The Original Series and Voyager. Those 2 were my favs although I did watch and enjoy the last few years of TNG. The Kirk/Spock/McCoy relationship and the Paris/Torres relationship were the reasons I watched and keep watching. Loved their interactions and both shows simply had the best doctors….acerbic and witty.

    6. Stationary: I like to write letters but don’t as much with the advent of email. I do still like to collect stationary, however. Whatever art, design, texture catches my fancy I’ve just got to have it. I end up using all but the last 2 cards or so and keep the stationary/boxes in a chest in my living room.

    7. Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver: I love cooking/food shows but am particularly fond of Olivers: The Naked Chef and Oliver’s Twist and Lawson’s: Nigella Bites and Forever Summer. I really enjoy Oliver’s energy and the way they shoot his show, especially Naked Chef. Nigella Lawson is a curvaceous (not skinny, she eats!!!), attractive woman with a great accent and a love of making real food. Nothing low calorie or low carb on her show. I enjoy the way they shoot her show as well and the ending where she sneaks to the fridge in the middle of the night to snack seem

    8. Coffee and pipe tobacco: love the smell of both. One of life’s little pleasures is to be in a coffee shop or tobacconist or around people doing either as the smell is simply heavenly.

    9. Celebrity crushes: We all have them. Audrey Hepburn, Meg Ryan, Nicole Kidman, Jean Arthur, Audrey Tautou, Kate Beckinsale, Gwyneth Paltrow..the list could go on and on.

    10. Girls (sorry to copy Rob): I love the way girls of all shapes, sizes, races, and ages look and smell and talk and live. God truly went all out when he created women. How we ever get the fairer sex to find us attractive in any way is a true miracle. We should celebrate them far more often than we do.

  2. Oh, Patty, you make me chuckle. I guess some things never change, even after our skulls harden.

    (Of course you realize that I was jesting a tad with the divine gender. I’ll save that one for another blog entry.)

    I should have been a little more eloquent like Carl.

  3. uh, i’m sorry…you accidentally classified God being a “guy” under the post-skull hardening category.

    i’ll forgive you for the error…surely it was an oversight…and you intended #1 in the post-skull hardning category to read:

    1) Girls. Surely the good ole’ boys over at Percolations.net are mistaken. In my wiser years, I have come to interpret the rib-ectomy as figurative and poetic- an expression of the unity that connects humanity. I have come to appreciate the fact the women are wonderful contributors to scholarship, culture, and athletics. They are not purely domestic creatures and,in fact, we have less of an accurate imaging of God by projecting any biological determination onto His personhood. Girls are wonderful. I love girls.

    Don’t worry- I got you covered. I knew that was what you meant.

    😉

  4. ok…i feel slightly like an arse. although only slightly. after posting the previous comment, i thought i would scoot over to percolations.net to give those “good ole-boys” a piece of my mind concerning god’s gender, and making wise cracks about the whole rib thing.

    which would be when, of course, i promptly discovered that percolations.net is a site run by women that are doing amazing thigns and discussing their legacy, heritage, and hard work.

    i apologize for assuming the they were “good ole’boys” (thus qualifying me as 1/2 of an arse.)

    next time, i will look before i leap.

    😉

    although, i stand by my original assertion that #1 under post-skull hardening is mis-categorized.

  5. while i think patty’s comment was hilarious!.. man was made in the image of God (a man). but yes, this is for another discussion. 😉

    and.. i’m not going to say how many TNG collectibles i have.. i mean HAD.. yeah.

  6. All this talk about girls…

    What about Antonio Banderas dancing and singing in the water fountain in Evita. Maybe I should put that on my favorite things list!

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