Why are YOU a Geek?

[Mender Silos]

Hmm, this is a difficult question to answer.

 

It could be the fact I discovered the exceptionally complex ability of Time Travel and put together a group of like-minded individuals. Guiding and leading them in exactly which points of the timeline to intervene in. All to preserve the stability of the timeline and to prevent the cold, dark place where all that is livings is too quickly burnt out, like where I come from.

 

It could also possibly be my work as an elite strategist; developing plots within plots in an attempt at world domination. One that you fools will never see coming when my army of Nemesis conquers everything.

 

Hmm, yes. That's it. That's the only reason.

[ImpousVileTerror]

I'm kind of "eh" on this rendition of Mender Silos falling back in to old Nemesis habits.  I liked the idea that he had genuinely changed for the better, with the impetus of realizing he backed the wrong horse for hundreds of years really weighing on him.

[Llewellyn Blackwell]

44 minutes ago, Mender Silos said:

Hmm, this is a difficult question to answer.

 

It could be the fact I discovered the exceptionally complex ability of Time Travel and put together a group of like-minded individuals. Guiding and leading them in exactly which points of the timeline to intervene in. All to preserve the stability of the timeline and to prevent the cold, dark place where all that is livings is too quickly burnt out, like where I come from.

 

It could also possibly be my work as an elite strategist; developing plots within plots in an attempt at world domination. One that you fools will never see coming when my army of Nemesis conquers everything.

 

Hmm, yes. That's it. That's the only reason.

You wont fool me my dear old chap. We both know you still want this sweet arse of mine, so so very badly. But I got to tell you it wont matter how much you try to twist the timeline and plot against this ol berk of an immortal. I intend to prove Breaking Benjamin wrong and be here at the end with my beloved Earth so she wont die alone. And a place where all life is burnt out, hell Ill call that my retirement estate so I can finally get some rest.

[Chance Jackson]

On 1/28/2020 at 11:10 PM, VileTerror said:

Well, as it happens, there are probably some pretty significant factors which lead to that.  

I'm odd.  Not one to fit in with normal folks so well, geek culture of the '80s and '90s provided me with characters and scenarios which were appealing to my not-terribly-well-socialized self.

 

I felt that, change the decades & that's me to a T

 

Videogames, Comicbooks, Anime, & Computers are some of my main Geek hobby areas of interest. 

[roleki]

Being born into the time & circumstances I was, I don't know how I could *not* be a geek.  Star Wars came out when I was 4; Lego came out with minifigures soon after, then video games, GI Joe/Transformers, comic books were sold pretty much everywhere... and I was the target demographic for ALL of it; we were the first generation of kids where toys and culture were weaponized specifically to grab and hold our attention.  Both parents worked and we lived in BFE, so I spent a lot of uninterrupted time immersed in nerdy things foisted on me by marketing wizards.  Happily, of course, but it doesn't make it any less unappealing to realize exactly how it came to be.

[Bill Z Bubba]

A dad that instilled a love of astronomy and other areas of science and a big brother with friends that included me in their D&D and Champions gaming sessions meant I was doomed to geek-nerd-dorkdom early on. And arcades. Man, I loved gettin 40 tokens for 5 bucks at Aladdin's Castle back in the day.

[ImpousVileTerror]

Oh god!  I forgot about arcades!  That was a big one, heh.

My grandma was taking care of me for a day while my mom was busy with something else.  I was . . . 4?  I dunno.  Young enough to be very impressionable.

My grandma had the plan of bringing me to the mall.  My mom warned her to keep me out of the arcade.  My grandma, seemingly wanting to defy my mother's parenting decided "what harm could there be?"  (Note:  This is back when smoking was allowed in arcades, and I was asthmatic.)

 

Long story short, as I personally can't remember all the details, but my grandma apparently thought I became possessed by a demon due to how excited and uncontrolled I became when soaking in the sights and sounds of the arcade!  I think Galaga probably broke my young brain, as I distinctly have memories of playing THAT beast for hours and hours on end, but being unable to get past the level after the first bonus round.

 

 . . . yeah . . . that fateful day . . . too young to really remember it in detail, but impactful enough that my family remembers the terror I visited upon my poor grandmother.

[UltraAlt]

I'm confused as to what people are typing about has anything to do with biting the heads off of chickens.

[ImpousVileTerror]

Oh, that was explained by @Doc_Scorpion:

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/14753-why-are-you-a-geek/?tab=comments#comment-203612

[Judasace]

I don't like or participate in social media. That's it, and I think it's the only hting these says that can make you a "geek:"

 

In a day and age where hot girls make millions cosplaying as Superheroes, dudes do the same streaming video games, and the Loser's Club (The real deal and the ST version) are cultural icons, liking comics, RPGs, video games, science, etc. doesn't make you a geek. The only people viewed as the kind of cultural outsider the traditional Geek once was are those that don't put their whole lives on display for the world to see.

[Argent Aegis]

I cannot remember when I became what is called a geek now.  Outsider could be a description used for some periods of my childhood, but I always had friends, but they weren't mainly one type.  So I was an outsider in that I was a social chameleon and while I got along with many, I was never one of the 'core' members of a group until my early teens.  I was fairly active as a kid, did well in school, and was larger than many other kids, but more the kid the football coach wanted on the team than the couch potato kind of large.  I was never great at sports and much like I was with people, I was able to play most well enough, just not enough to drive me to pursue athletics seriously.  Now reading and later role playing games.....that was what I developed a passion for early on.  While there were numerous books before Narnia, those were the first ones that I remember that truly dug deep into my heart.  Many decades and possibly a thousand books later, I still remember the childlike wonder of Narnia, Thomas Covenant & The Land, and Middle Earth.  This was followed shortly by the same fondness I still have for Oerth in D&D and the Spinward Marches of Traveler.

 

My teen years were the 80's.  But despite all the amazing things in that decade,  it was also when geeks, nerds, and dorks were not as accepted as they are now.  Role playing games were played in your parents basement and not discussed outside of your gaming group.   What is now called Cosplay was just called "weirdos dressing up".  Back then GenCon was in Milwaukee and was the only time I think I ever saw a large number of people get dressed up in costumes and accepted as normal (outside of Halloween).  And if you saw a girl at a gaming table.....wow....that was an event worth noting.

 

My imagination is what drove and still drives me.  I have always loved RPGs, mostly PnP games, but later video games like the gateway drug Elder Scrolls - Arena.  To this day I love just reading RPGs that I know I will never play.  I still have a group of friends that I have had for close to 40 years that occasionally get together when we are all in town or every few months Skype a continuing D&D campaign.   We still talk books, TV shows, & movies (old and new) as well about our real lives and families.

 

So ultimately, I think I realized I was a geek when I realized I was a dreamer.  I think that is trait that all geeks can find in common. 

 

[Clave Dark 5]

My dad was an old school (meaning 50s) sci-fi nerd himself and much was done to pass it along.  I also kept getting access to batches of old comics along the way that had showed me by the time I was 12 or so that there had been a lot of really good stuff in the past already. 

 

Then in my 20s I got a job in a comic book shop (remember those?) and got so burned out that I gave up caring.  But City of Heroes is an exception to that rule.

[Shocktacular]

Dad's an engineer.
I watched a LOT of Bill Nye.

I've always liked science and been good at math.
Somewhat socially awkward (I don't always "read" people very well).
Tendency to notice and comment on things that many other people don't notice and/or don't care about.
Star Trek!!!!!!
Star Wars, too.  I'm STILL bitter about not being able to get the original cut of the original trilogy on disk 😠
Usually one of the "smart one"s in school.
Loved that intro to physics class in community college.
Ended up as an astrophysics major.
I'll probably have a career as an astronomy and physics professor at a community college somewhere.
Mostly, though, my brain WON'T SHUT UP!  Getting to sleep tends to be fairly difficult most nights...

Edited October 28, 2020 by Shocktacular