Celebrating My Inner Geek

A few weeks ago my mentor at work suggested I be a bit more personable around the office.  “Stop focusing so much on the task at hand.”  M. suggested.  “Take some time and get to know the people around you.”  I resisted the urge to ask M. his thoughts on the recent Attorney General opinion on confidentiality out of Kansas and asked how his kids were doing instead. 

Being personable sounded like a lot of work to me.  In the first place, it meant I'd have to deal with actual people.  I wondered if I couldn't just send an e-mail instead.  I guess M. was right, connectiong with coworkers was a problem for an introvert like me.

But since M. never steered me wrong, I agreed to try it his way and get to know the people around me. Luckily, my first opportunity came later that week at a meeting.  We were there to discuss the details of business plan.  Even though I was itching to get to work, I took a few moments before the meeting and smiled over at my coworker J.

J. and I had worked together for several years but, truth be told, I barely knew anything about him.  I think he once told me that he moved here from California.  Or was it Canada? Did it really matter?

So, in my most pleasant voice I tried to act interested in J.'s life and said, “Hey  J., did you do anything fun over the weekend?”

J. was caught off guard by my sudden attempt at congeniality.  “Uh.  Not really.” He said.  Then, almost as an afterthought, he added, “I was in Indianapolis.”

As I was on a continuing mission to prove I actually have a personality, I refused to let J. off the hook.  “That sounds like fun.” I said.  “Were you visiting friends or sightseeing?”

J. bristled a bit before answering.  Then he blushed slightly and said, “No, I was at a Star Trek convention.”  I’m not sure why J. was so afraid to tell me about his weekend excursion.  Did he think I would call him a “Trekkie” and try to stuff him into a locker or something?

Social cues are not my strong point.  And to J.'s dismay I kept pushing.  “Was there anyone good there?”  I asked.

J. pointed his nose in the air.  “No one you would know.” He sniffed.

Ah, a Star Trek snob.  So we’re going to play it that way, huh? 

My eyes narrowed and my smile tilted to the side.  “Really?" I said. "Because I heard Wil Wheaton was going to be there.”  J.’s eyes lit up brighter than the instrument panel for the weapons system on a Klingon Bird of Prey getting ready to fire on a Romulan War Ship. Now I had his attention.

For the next ten minutes, J. and I had a complete Geek-a-palooza.  We discussed Wil Wheaton (that’s Wil not Will) and the highlights of the Indy Star Trek Convention.  I asked if he followed Wheaton (child actor who played Ensign Wesley Crusher on Star Trek the Next Generation and is currently an actor-slash-writer-slash-blogger) on Twitter.

J bobbed his head up and down in response.  "Did you know he did a cameo on The Big Bang Theory?" The other meeting attendees stared at us, groaned and rolled their eyes. 

There it was.  The truth was out and everyone knew it.  I had revealed to the world my deep dark secret.  I am a geek.

Yes, I admit it.  I am a geek. I always have been. Unfortunately, when it comes to being a geek, I’m not that high in the geek pecking order.  Like if most geeks are VHS, I'm definately a Beta Max.  

For those who don’t know, the geek hierarchy goes something like this: theoretical physicists, rocket scientists, computer nerds, engineers, chemists, math majors, comic book store owners, dungeon masters, technical support specialists, dot matrix printer repairermen, the guy selling USB cables at Best Buy, and then me. In other words, Stephen Hawking equals geek rock star.  Me equals geek groupie.

Let me see if I can explain better.  When I am at parties, for example, I rarely try to impress anyone with how many decimals of Pi I can recite.  And I’ve never named a pet after my favorite Ewok.  On the other hand, I have been involved in a heated debate over whether Voyager or Deep Space Nine was the better Star Trek spin off series.  (For the record, it's Voyager.)  And, I actually got butterflies in my stomach the day I visited Google’s Chicago office last spring. 

Then there’s my recurring nightmare.  It starts with me on an airplane with Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Vinton Cerf.  We crash land in the middle of the jungle and none of us can get any bars on our smart phones (mostly because we all have AT&T as our carrier, big mistake).  So we have to hike through the jungle to find help. 

The whole time we’re walking, Gates and Jobs are arguing over whether Microsoft stole Apple’s graphical user interface to create Windows.  Things get pretty heated until Cerf reminds them that they both stole the idea from Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center.

After a few hours of tramping through the underbrush, we find a small group of mud huts.  When we ask the natives if anyone has internet access, they roll out the only computer within a thousand miles. To our horror, it’s a Radio Shack TRS 80 with dual floppy drives, a black and white CRT monitor and only 4 KB ram.  Don't even get me started on the processor.  Oh, the humanity! Just then, I realize that the external modem won’t connect any faster than 9600 baud.  That’s when I wake up in a cold sweat and screaming "Please don't let it connect to AOL!"

Yep, I’m a geek alright.  It’s taken me (ahem, cough, cough) years.  But I’ve finally come to terms with my inner geek-ness.

Part of accepting my geekdom was realizing that I’m surrounded by geeks.  Geeks, I’ve learned, come in all shapes and sizes.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say most people are geeks in one way or another. 

Ken, for example, is a music and sports geek.  My across the street neighbor is a lawn and home improvement geek.  My friend Nan is a germ geek.  And my older sister is an infectious disease control geek.  I’ve met movie geeks, television geeks and gaming geeks.  But I’ve also run into fitness geeks, race car geeks, and wine and tequila geeks.

Realizing that I’m not the only geek in the office has given me a bit more confidence.  I’m still reluctant to quote Douglas Adams freely with my peers. ("It's no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase 'As pretty as an airport' appear.") But I’m now confident enough to trot out a Monty Python quip now and then.  (Know what I mean? Know what I mean? Nudge nudge. Nudge nudge! Know what I mean? Say no more.)

So as you go about your day today, don’t forget to celebrate your own inner geek and to recognize the beauty in the geeks around you.  Now if you’ll excuse me, the SyFy Network is doing a twelve-hour marathon of Battlestar Galactica (the original) and I have a thing for Dirk Benedict.