Geek Pride Day – What are my Geek Credentials?
A Postsecret.com submission
Apparently it’s geek pride day and this geek test has been going around across multiple blogs for us to test how nerdy we really are. I took it myself well-knowing that I was not going to score high.
48 is pretty representative of my status as right in the middle – depending on the company, either too geeky or not geeky enough.
However, I found the test to be very lacking, so… all that makes a geek… I mean nerd (I’ve heard that geeks are like nerds, just without the social ineptitude) are sci-fi, math, physics, chemistry, technology and a little gaming.
A second test, version 2.0 in fact, is also available, but it was still hugely simplistic and didn’t include all the ways one can be a nerd/geek. What about memes? How can one not include internet memes? What about anime? Not that I am into anime, but it’s one of the things that come to my mind when I think about the people I study with. Trust me, they are actually quite representative of geeks and nerds out there… mostly geeks ’cause they are not that socially awkward. We all study computer games in one way or another, that’s pretty geeky!
A Postsecret.com submission
At the end all I could think of was that they forgot a few crucial questions: Are you male? Are you white? Are you cisgendered? Are you heterosexual? It’s my impression that especially the last one is important.
Very Lemonade basically said that unless geek culture becomes less excluding, there’s nothing to be proud of:
“Stamp out harassment of women, increase visibility of PoC, kick the fucking slurs from your language, stop making rape jokes, build video games that are accessible and stop shitting all over people that don’t fit your stupid geek identity. Embrace and build a geek culture that includes everyone in a healthy, positive way.“
But if I am a geek, what kind of geek am I? What are my geek credentials?
Pros:
- I study computer games, that has to give some good points!
- I have recently made my own character in 3ds Max.
- I work at a university library.
- I like books and computers.
- I spend a lot of time on the internet doing random things. “A lot” is an understatement.
- I like cats a lot, lolcats!
- If people had to describe me, I suspect the word hipster might come up (does hipster even overlap with geekiness, I’m not sure?).
- I own a lot of LEGO. Working for LEGO would be a dream come true!
- I’ve been playing computer games since a very young age.
- I sometimes get the urge to actually say “lol” IRL, sometimes it happens…
Cons:
- When I was a kid, I thought that Wolfenstein 3D Demo was the name of the actual game, and that the reason I couldn’t progress that far was because the floppy-discs were damaged. I’ve always wanted to go back and actually complete the game.
- I don’t like anime much, it creeps me out.
- I don’t play first-person shooters – too stressful.
- I’ve never been into Star Wars nor Star Trek nor any other Sci-fi.
- I’ve never tried LARP’ing, but have tried a little tabletop role play.
- I don’t wear glasses.
- I’m not strong in neither math, physics nor chemistry.
- I don’t own that many gadgets. F.ex. I don’t have a fancy multifunctional phone, and it’s not retro either, it’s just really lame and cheap.
… Nah, I’m still just a general 50/50 geek.
Traveling the Multiverse 
What??? You do not wear glasses? NEVER speak of this again! Never!! Otherwise, you’re WAY more than 50% geek. Come on, you made your own ripped off 3dSM character? How does that not trump disinterest in Star Wartreks? You’re 80%+ easy… probably 92%… those scales are obviously out of date. Way.
A librarian who doesn’t wear glasses? That IS disturbing. Why would you even tell us that? Talk about TMI! Some people just have no sense of propriety. Which, of course, makes you actually more of a geek anyway.
You’re good to go, just never bring up the glasses thing again. SHHH!! Never. Zip it!
Hahaha, yeah, I have raised my geek score substantially recently with 3ds Max, that’s true. I can agree on 60% then. I see the obvious paradox in me not wearing glasses while prancing around at the library, I’ll keep quiet about that… although, is it okay since I don’t work there as a librarian?
SHUT UP!!!
xD
Years ago I read the Elfish Gene by Mark Barrowcliffe – his embrace and shunning of his past geek-attude still resonates. No, I guess I cannot consider myself a geek, but never quite fit in anywhere. Always wanted to be the girl-hero whom the guy geeks secretly worship. Minions are tough to come by.
Love autobiographies, maybe I should fetch that book one day.
Haha this made me curious of my own nerd score :P I got 73, sounds about right for me :)
I see scores around 60-100 more often than below. I wonder what result someone not identifying as geek at all would get (hopefully less than me, haha)
Your creation of that excellent Carl more than makes up for the lack of glasses, in fact I think that alone is more than enough to tip the scales past 50/50, lol!
I guess I don’t see it counting for much due to how much I struggled compared to my class mates. I’m still just a beginner with 3ds Max.
I am still laughing about the Wolf 3d demo :P Ironyca!!! LOL
Even today I feel like calling the game “Wolfenstein Demo”, it’s like “Wolfenstein” has something missing, which is Demo of course!
That first nerd test gave me a 91 and a title of “supreme nerd”. ^_^ I guess that’s what happens when you study in an IB program for 7 years. Like you said, the test only checked the nerd factor and not the geek factor. (Geeks and nerds are actually very different. Nerds are people who are into bookish stuff (mainly science, math and computers) while geeks are people who are very interested into things that are considered unpopular by the mainstream. And the social awkwardness is for the “dork” label. Someone can be one of those things but not the others, or 2/3, or they could be all three.)
That explains my low nerd score, maybe me actual geek score would be higher!