Who are the coolest geeks?

i could get into falconry, probably

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Uston

^^^^ gambling geek par excellence

LJ = sex geek.

certainly a lot of potential energy in this direction

when i was young i SO wanted to be a falconer. i think when i leave uni i will get back into birdwatching big-time.

A good example (that I know of because it is my field) of academia gone wonderfully geeky is the blogging crew that creates Blogging The Renaissance. There are caption-contests for early modern engravings and woodcuts, precis of really obscure early modern plays, and fun "hands on" stuff, such as the backyard attempt to actually make ink according to period chemical recipes.

re: the academic job market- there are very very few tenure track jobs these days and fierce competition for them. The number of postdoc positions keeps growing and they're staffed with really smart people who just didn't land a tenure track job, and it makes for some heartbreak and frustration and a lot of shuffling. When I started grad school I had to acknowledge receipt of a letter from Berkeley that basically said "you realize that your chances of getting a job out of this are incredibly small, right?"- and making sure people realize these risks going in is the only honest thing that schools can do given this situation.

i heard about this falconry wedding that sounded nuts. the falcons swooping out of the sky and delivery the rings to the betrothed. so awesome!

yeah drew how did you even land the johns hopkins thing? matmos fans ex machina?

where is the "nature" geek? like, only wears wool and other old-fashioned outdoorsy gear, listens exclusively to blue-grass and regularly throws 80s-themed dance parties?

one of these does not go with the others?

anyway clearly the answer to the thread is geek-geeks, which we have all decided to become, apparently

here's where I would post the .gif of the "it is a mystery" ghost . . . but the dull and yes geeky answer probably has more to do with my dissertation. Boring but true. But now I have to go to dinner with the folks. . . .

"anyway clearly the answer to the thread is geek-geeks, which we have all decided to become, apparently"

well, yeah, that's why i said above that i'm a geek collector. cuz, really, i'm a dabbler, and i've always admired the people who really went for the gold when it came to their loves and obsessions. i admire them and i fear them a little. cuz i see myself in them and (in some cases) what i could have become in an alternate universe. but mostly i just learn a lot of cool stuff from them. and trivia. and i get a kick out of the mania of it all. i love the minutia.

that story in the believer about gary gygax and the whole game underground in the 60's and 70's. the phone tappers who became the hackers who became apple and microsoft. the sci-fi clubs in the 40's and 50's centered around the magazines and writers of the time. i LOVE that stuff.

forry ackerman. man, geeks don't get any cooler.

http://www2.netdoor.com/~campbab/kong/fjakk.jpg

dude scott you should post to my tolkein vs herbert thread. I was trying to start a discussion re: the relative popularity/success of sci fi vs sword & sorcery stuff in postwar america and if it dovetails with various chronic pathologies/the phenomenology of stress as they developed with ww2 vets coming home and their families + the ruthless march of technology

^^^ thesis proposal

i was just reading bill bryson's book about growing up in the 50's and he talked a little about how the fear of mass destruction was everywhere, but also how excited everyone was about it and how the artwork in magazines that depicted nuclear destruction of the u.s. in the 50's was so EXCITING and somehow appealing to people. then, later tonight, i was reading leslie fiedler and he was talking about how the people in the u.s. had ALWAYS been waiting for the end of the world. the "endless waiting for the end of humanity" is how he put it. made me think.

um, i don't know if that has anything to do with the vets and the popularity of sci fi. but atomic power and the power to destroy the planet and what happened during ww2 had a LOT to do with the popularity of sci fi/comic books/etc.

yeah but why now is it that AD&D harry potter sub-conan foofaw is all over the place? when did that arise? I hypothesize that the bomb got boring and people just want to get the fuck away from cellphones and e-mail at this point

the apocalypse is a nice thing to think about because it's the last big change. after most of the world blows up, you don't have to put up with the meaningless grind anymore, no time clock, no insipid office chattering, no brand new piece of machinery you have to learn to deal with every 14 months

most adult males in america after ww2 ended were perfectly used to thinking of their own survival minute-to-minute. it was busywork in offices that got all up their ass and made them want to drink constantly

imo

might have been some guilt involved too. half the world blown to bits and GIs come home to the land of milk and honey where the bluebirds are always singing. part of them might have wanted to see things go boom. bryson talks about how many test bombs got detonated in the 50s. and how people would line up in the desert to watch them blow. laughing in the fallout!

"part of them might have wanted to see things go boom."

or expected them to go boom. either by alien attack or the russians.

hey office jobs suck for the ladies, too!

it's funny how that sunny mickey mouse smile can hide the deep deep deep millenarian streak running thru the u.s.

can it all be explained away as religion(s)? or people just can't believe that something so big and vast and (for the most part and for many people) good can last? people have always ALWAYS bemoaned progress in this country as a harbinger of future destruction even though this country has always been defined by its progress!

the harry potter foofaw is like all previous british childrens' cottage fantasy chewed up and spread between the leaves of many greater intact novels.

it is so inoffensively palatable, average and omnipresent as to create nostalgia in anybody who has enjoyed better fantasies in dahl, nesbit, wynn-jones, lewis, carroll/dodd, ransome, kipling, etc.

oh god what about "design" geeks. like want to talk to you about fonts and shit. ahhhhhhhh

ahaha, i had a girl show me her favorite fonts in a font book recently. it was kinda hot actually.

jordan a pimp 4 life

http://static.tagmy.com/fonts/pimp.gif

http://www.pimpmyfonts.com/

I voted for 'other', thinking of course of poetry geeks, of whom I am a prime example.

design/font geeks, and craft geeks, they are so hip and smug i want to smack them and their readymade magazine/bust/design sponge blogs too

i will stick up for design geeks here!! there is a difference (i think) between design geeks (like, uh, my dad and my girlfriend) who honestly and innocently geek the fuck out about great design and have a top 10 font list and have arguments about, like, kerning or whatever and design geeks whose geekiness is this self-conscious cool-kid smugness

this distinction is not altogether different from drew's academic cool-kid geeks and the ren blogger geeks--my kneejerk classification is "people who care honestly/authentically about their field of geekery (design/crit theory/medieval studies)" vs. "people whose 'geekiness' is a consciously assumed identity constructed to remind everyone how cool they are" but theres probably a fair amount of blending at this point

yeah thanks max for ignoring my previous blunts

lit dick

what is a blunt

a post to an internet messageboard that contains a salient point, as referred to by an individual under strong influence of alcohol

do you need more help?

or was your joke just that bad?

no wait me being blasted is not your fault
hang on
ok
wait
ok
sorted

yeah

oh no i get it! sorry i didnt quite get that yr posts were on the same topic. i sort of skimmed down.

I THINK WERE IN AGREEMENT

mostly i just wanted to defend design geeks since many of my loved ones are design geeks, the cool/not cool thing came as an afterthought I STILL LOVE YOU TOM KEEP FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT

nah fuckit just gonna kill m'self

2 late brah

2 late

if anyone knows andi maybe you should call him to make sure he is ok.

i <3 this thread.

Jordan, not that goths are geeks, but goths can include many who fall under that earlier description (isn't "geek" meant to mean, like, an excessive interest in and knowledge of something? not necessarily, social ineptitude, innit. it's just that they often come as part of a package): sex geeks (subset: S&M geeks), Wicca geeks, Anglophile geeks, vinyl geeks. And these are Goth Geeks. Plus the really uncomfortable ones.

Music geeks – They are usually pretty big crepes to me

Computer geeks/hackers – You can play the Hackers 2 drinking game with them, big case of Hamm's, fun night

Gamers – It is pretty endearing when you ask someone what they're doing that weekend and they say "working on my character"

Movie buffs – If you find yourself seated next to one on a flight you will have a fun conversation that makes the flight go quickly (I just discovered this)

Role-playing game geeks – See this I think of as "gamers"

LARPers (Live Action Role-Playing game) – Harmless and nice people

Comic geeks – Can be totally cool to talk to abt comics BUT also tend to be crepes to me, random ones IRL anyway

Sci-fi/fantasy/horror fans – These ones get the worst tattoos

Theatre/dance/opera enthusiasts – Mean! Meanies.

Mathletes – These are my people.

Board game geeks – Really rad, quiet people who you can have a fun and chill evening with. They will also tell you about new board games if you ask.

Numismatists/philatelists – Stamp collectors? They are rad because they pop a million boners if a stamp says like "National Beast Cancer Awareness Month" or if it has two douglas fir trees on it when it is supposed to have four.

Card collectors – I just don't understand at all.

Toy collectors – Creepy collecting habits, weird fetishization of some hermetically sealed youth they never had.

Furries – They live harmless but very sad lives.

Historical reenactment folks (Renaissance fairs, Medievalists, etc.) – They spend too much money on their shit, which would make for an uncomfortable relationship. "You can't buy another silk jocard, honey, you overran your minutes."

Some other type of geeks (specify) – I can geek out with a lot of the geeks but the most satisfying geekout is with a flag geek, or an invertebrate geek.

I am changing my vote to "other: Teeny"

fashion geeks

A flag geek?

What is "Numismatists?" Probably those!