What is a geek?

Does using freeware vector software to make an avatar count as geeky?

The BBC website has an article asking whether geek and nerd are now positive terms, well what exactly is a geek? It would be very easy at this point to reach for a dictionary. Well not physically, I can see it on the bookshelf but it’s out of reach…and I’m comfy. I suppose I could check the dictionary app on my iPod, or google it from the widget on my android phone. I could even just check it on the internet on my Linuxed netbook that I am typing this on.

Hmmm. That does give a good idea of what a geek is, or at least how we are perceived by non-geeks. Tot o them we are the techy ones, all computers and calculators. There is often some truth in that, technology is synonymous with geekdom, but there is often much more to it than that.

Geeks are cool.

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More magical and less miserable – the new Geek Ergo Sum

The ten Doctor Who Actors

I worry about what will happen when we get to Geek Ergo Sum 6

Welcome to the next phase of Geek Ergo Sum, a site that is catching up Doctor Who with the number of times it has died and regenerated. By my count I am now on Geek Ergo Sum version four, which makes this the Tom Baker era of my blogging (meaning I’ve just gone through the awkward Jon Pertwee stage, but could be about to approach my Peter Davidson years).

As has been customary with every other time I have let this blog implode I have gone through the exercise of removing all evidence of my writings from the internet, adding to the worldwide collection of 404 errors and dead links. Over 380 posts have been pulled down from this blog and await either a rewrite (if they are good enough) or forever face a digital death (so I look forward to posting the five posts that will survive this process).

What’s new with Geek Ergo Sum?

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On geeks

Geek Ergo Sum vector imageI accept that I am a geek, heck my blog name declares  it to be so. What I don’t understand is why many others can’t. My family and most of my friends make it sound like I should be ashamed of my social grouping. But I am not. Thankfully I have some awesome friends who do accept me for what I am.

I know fellow geeks (and nerds) who are made to feel that the fact they have obsessions that are not reported in the gossip columns or on trashy TV they are somehow lesser. I know the sons of Feanor, how is this different from knowing the names of the children of a z-list celebrity? I read fantasy novels, they read about their fantasy Mr Right.

Being a geek is only a matter of taste. There are computer, sci fi, gaming, movie, music, and sports geeks =. Geeks tend to only spend time with others of a similar mindset. Just because they don’t ‘go out’ doesn’t mean they aren’t as social. Continue reading

Completing the Geek trilogy

A part of the welcome I suppose it’s about time I did the ‘about me’ bit. This is tricky because, unlike those who have a really flexible spine, I don’t like to blow my own horn. Under normal circumstances I would surreptitiously get others to give me bits and pieces to fill in this section, after all my own self-image varies considerably from that of my observers.

As way of a basic introduction let’s do some facts. Continue reading

First post and welcome to Geek Ergo Sum

This is the first post on my little spot on the Internet. A place for me to talk about the things that interest and excite, and bug me, about modern life. This blog is only possible because another one died. Like the Sun it started to synthesise elements that would lead to its destruction.

Geek Ergo Sum is made of blogdust.

I intend this site to be a bit less miserable and a bit more Reithian. To educate, inform and (hopefully) entertain. As with my last attempt I have an idea of what this site will be like. Like my last attempt this will probably change. Part of the change is purely cosmetic and a name change, but names are powerful things and I felt that this was the most important change to make. Continue reading