You may not be aware that “Geekness Day” is right around the corner! Geekness Day is July 13th and our friends at SingleHop have asked the Tech-Savvy Teachers to share our thoughts on what makes us a geek:
What makes you a geek?
I have always had geek tendencies but reflecting on my youth I would say I started down the geek path as a six year old when I watched Star Wars for the first time. I had a fairly intense hoarding of every Star Wars toy I could get me hands on. My first real geek out moment was when, as an eight year old, I received an AT-AT for Christmas. (This was actually the year after I originally asked for it. I asked my parents after opening all my presents the previous year, “Maybe if I am better next year I will get an AT-AT”. I have almost worked through that after years of counseling.) After years of enjoyment with my Star Wars toys I moved to the next stage of geekness: Football, Baseball, Basketball cards. This stage (middle school years) was spent walking to the card shop to get raked over the coals by the card shop owner which taught me my first lessons in economics. The lesson: be the owner and you get to set the rules. I also had my geekness come full circle as I made the naive decision to trade all of my Star Wars toys for the complete set of 1991 Fleer Basketball cards. I traded with a nice man (about 30 at the time) and felt great about it. Fast forward 25 years: My Star Wars toys have an approximate value of around $4000 and that complete card set $50. For those of you keeping track: “The man” 2 | Mike zero. I could not contain my inner geek as I discovered computers and the internet. My dad was an early adopter and we always had a computer in the house: Starting with IBM machines with the green screen. My first foray into computers was on a Apple PowerPC with aol and this thing called the internet. I would find pictures of my favorite basketball and football players and print them on our black and white printer. (Of course this had to be done in secret because to this day my dad is more frugal with printer ink then anything else in existence.) Once I started with computers I have never looked back. As soon as I started working if there was a geeky gadget, computer, device; I owned it.
What is your proudest geek moment?
Building my first computer from scratch was such a proud moment. I spent two months researching the parts, finding the perfect unfinished case, and then tricking it out with as many accessories as I could afford. I even did a custom paint job on the case. After two years of daily use I sold it for $100 less then I paid for everything originally. ( “The Man” 2 | Mike 1)
What is your geek motto/favorite geek quote?
“Luke, I am your father” – Vader
Who is your geek role model?
I would say the fine folks at Lifehacker and Loot Crate . I am a better geek because of them.
We want to thank the SingleHop team for reaching out to us as we proudly claim to be geeks of the best kind: Tech-Savvy Geeks! SingleHop is a leading provider of dedicated server and cloud hosting technology. Take a moment to check them out.
We would love to hear what your geekiest moments. Please share in the comments section below and thanks for being a geek – The world is better because of your geekiness.