5 geekdoms chain meme

[solipsistnation]

As per trixiegnosis, who lists hers here.

"List 5 reasons why you are a geek. And make them good reasons. Justify them. Explain them. Be loud and proud about how big of a geek you are! Then pick the 5 biggest geeks you know and have them do the meme."

1. My living room is furnished with:

• a very large set of speakers dumpster-dived and rebuilt (electronically) by audiogeek and (driver-replacingly) myself. (He did the hard part, but showed me what he did and it was neat.)
  
• test equipment scavenged from the Physics Department, including some lovely bakelite cube clocks, a darkroom lamp, something with eyepieces, a very cute little powder-finish flanged spherical lamp of some sort, an ex-tank-periscope mounted on a block with a lamp in it, and a sextant
  
• a lamp with a bunch of bulbs on the ends of flexible stalks, 3 out of 5 of which are blue
  
• many CDs
  
• many records (actually stophittinyrslf's, but still)
  

2. My game machine. I think that picture says it all. Consider please that I acquired a Dremel and a hole saw and learned how to paint aluminum correctly (including the deadly etching chemicals) in order to create that little computer.

3. Volunteering at Small Press eXpo 2004, and, I hope, 2005. And then using the funds I didn't spend on admissions to win auctions for the CBLDF benefit.

4. Is unix geeky anymore? I suppose that I even have to ask that question cements me firmly into geekhood in the minds of 97% of the population. If it is, then I'm a pro unix admin because I think it's neat, not because I wanted to make lots of money in the lucrative IT business of the late 90's. Which is good, because I didn't.

5. First-name basis at the local comic shop. And I just discovered that I have as many graphic novels (by sheer volume) as I have other books, and I have a LOT of other books. (Does this overlap with 3? I could come up with another, I'm sure.)

...there are things I considered, too. iPoddery isn't really geeky-- that's mainstream these days. Music geeking has become a little tougher with the fragmentation of music fandom through the internet. Everybody is their own niche. Synth-geeking? I don't do as much any more-- I still look at good old-fashioned synth porn on the intarweb and can talk synthesis algorithms with the best of them, but I mostly play my guitar these days, and guitar is seriously not-geeky. (You have to go pretty far out of your way to be a guitar geek, I think. I sort of lean toward it, but I'm no Fripp.) Video game geekery? That's going all mainstream, too, and the discussion of video games in a larger social context (or even a technical or gameplay context) is pretty geeky but, well... I leave that to others, although I'll happily discuss it with them.

So, how'd I do?

The meme says to tag five more people. I could do that, I suppose, dear readers, but I think I'd rather throw it out as a challenge. Think you're geeky? Prove it. Name five geekdoms.

Comments

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

Consider please that I acquired a Dremel and a hole saw and learned how to paint aluminum correctly (including the deadly etching chemicals) in order to create that little computer.

Which is, I must confess, a far cry from your previous method, which involved an old steak knife and a long, long, long time.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

And it is, I must say, a SERIOUS improvement over said previous method. It also includes far less in the way of exposed 120VAC wiring in my bedroom.

By this measure...

[quaintance.livejournal.com]

.. I am so _not_ a geek. Nature nerd, maybe, but I'd need a dedicated place for the microscope besides the linen closet for that to be true.

Do you still have wires and chords running every which way? That tangle was the thing that fascinated me most about your room during my visit to Stayton.

Re: By this measure...

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Heh, only one one room. I've managed to hide the cables in the living room, mostly, but the music room (aka "the crap room") is kind of scary still. Not so much as when I had a rack of gear plus a bunch of keyboards, but there's some serious octopus-of-doom action going on there.

[crossbonesdj.livejournal.com]

I get #3 as well...but add that I did it 2002,2003 and 2004 (and again in 2005) and I was asked to introduce TERRY MOORE in 2003 because I'm such a geek!

[stophittinyrslf.livejournal.com]

1. i dream in code more frequently than i'd like to admit here.
2. in my spare time, i like to make art out of old keyboards.
3. while i can't remember anyone's telephone numbers, i can tell you the e-mail addresses and livejournal (or other blog) addresses for more or less everyone i'm friends with, in real life or not. off the top of my head. only geek brains do that sort of memorization thing without effort.
4. via virtual pc, i have installed and run suse on my powerbook. this becomes geekier when i explain that my reason for this was so that i could shower my dad the project i'd done writing character device drivers in operating systems. more of my spring break was spent compiling and recompiling suse in order to try and make it run the code...
5. well, i am dating solipsistnation. that's gotta count for something.

[em-yrt.livejournal.com]

I think #5 is the MOST geeky thing on the list...