A while ago I ran across a blog post called Fifty Things That Cause Me to Geek Out. To me, “geeking out” means that I love something so much I can talk about its little details and nuances until normal people’s eyes have glazed over and I can see them searching the room for the nearest exit points. I have quite a few geek triggers, though I have gotten much better about seeing when I have crossed the conversational line between “Wow, that’s an interesting factoid,” and “I’ll just smile and nod till she stops.” Mythology is one, as you may already know, ska music and voice-over artists are a couple of others.
What triggers your geek reflexes?
I Heart Heart the Doctor Bag from Etsy
14 replies on “LTP 6/10: Geekery”
Horror movies starring Vincent Price
Alt. country/insurgent country/punk country music
Whedon-verse
MST3K
Cooking
Ricky Martin. Parks and Rec. How I Met Your Mother. Latin Music. Harold and Kumar.
Books
Lord of the Rings
Harry Potter
Stumbling
Urban Exploration
The Rolling Stones
I am getting excited just typing this!
Horses. Pretty much just horses.
But now also:
Battlestar Gallactica
the Constitution
Anthropology
I’m pretty boring.
Doctor Who
Harry Potter
Lost
The Academy Awards
Anything Tina Fey or Amy Poehler has ever done.
Broadway musicals
Marvel superhero movies
Movie ratings (more rage than geekery, but I can rant about the MPAA like nobody’s business)
Doctor Who. Harry Potter. Pie.
Doctor Who
Late 80’s New Wave music
Fonts
Bloom’s Taxonomy and Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence
Aristotle
The Sims
WordPress plug-ins
Vonnegut
The space program
Voice over artists, really? I taught a student once whose dad was a German voice over artist–the official German voice of Antonio Banderas, Brandon Frasier, and… wait they get weirder… Tupac and Ice-T. The student was blond with blue eyes, but assured me that his dad has a “black voice.”
I can nerd out about certain aspects of philosophy (particularly theories of truth, aesthetics, and happiness) (but really!), American literature, and teaching, but since those are “academic” interests they’re usually derided a lot less than many geek-worthy interests. It’s early-ish for me so I can’t think of more unique ones right now.
Another Joss Whedon geek, reporting for duty! I get equally geeky about Veronica Mars and Doctor Who as well.
Also:
Rugby
The European Union (ok this is my job, I’m not *that* dry a human being)
The Second World War (mostly just the Eastern front, though)
Gin
Handbags
And did I mention RUGBY? I’m so annoying when I get going that I actually once bored a sports journalist who was trying to hit on me.
You’re rugby obsession reminds me of another of my geek-triggers: NHL hockey. Especially the Blackhawks.
Theodore Rex Roosevelt. Design blogs. Cooking. Knowing where to find useful and weird things on the internetz.
Also, speaking of Whedon.
I think readers here might like to know about this little charity event:
http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com/
:)
Fashion Fashion Fashion. (Especially these people: Kevyn Aucoin, my birthday twin and idol, McQueen, Rodarte, Coco Chanel, Irving Penn, Grace Coddington, Pat McGrath)
Everything Joss Whedon has done.
Hellboy
Gardening
Radiohead
(Does Gilmore Girls count? I wouldn’t put it in any sort of geek category, just Love.)
I think that covers the basics. But at the moment I could tell you all about interior paints and complimenting colors. And soon, I’ll be chock full of tiling knowledge and furnace repair. :D
Oh man, I have SO many. A few:
Classics (my major in college…)
Immigration issues (I work in immigration)
Green Day
Harry Potter
Oscar Wilde
Buffy and Firefly
YA fantasy literature (specific books or a general discussion of YA literature…I could probably spend HOURS on that WSJ article from last week)
Pern (books and role-play)
Classical piano (this one rarely gets triggered anymore, but I spent twelve years playing classical piano, and my brother is a prodigy, so when I do get started…)
I’m sure there’s tons more, but these are the ones that spring to mind. Lately immigration has been the most often-triggered one, since it’s a hot-button political issue and my day-to-day work (and just full of things that make me want to tell EVERYONE why this is a terrible system full of human rights and due process abuses that needs to be fixed.)