I’m 19 and just transfered to a new college. I am a geek, and I’m basically proud of it.
I watch X-Files and Buffy and Babylon 5 and MST3K and, yes, Star Trek. I have They Might Be Giants and Moxy Fruvous and Stan Rogers and Great Big Sea and a fair smattering of classical music in my mp3 collection. I saw Fellowship of the Ring in the theater 3 times, I can’t wait to see The Two Towers again, and I’m planning to read the Silmarillion soon. I played QuizBowl in high school, and I was damn good at it. I’ve read Shakespeare plays purely for fun. I thought this thread was completely hilarious and I got most of the jokes right off. Most of my close friends have been fantasy readers, comp sci majors, gamers, Trekkies or at least theatre geeks.
Nevertheless, I’ve got a good grasp on personal hygiene and basic social skills, enough to function well in non-geek social circles. Now this new school I’ve transferred to has a gaming club and a medieval recreation club…but they seem a little, uh, hardcore about their geekdom. Nice people, but, you know, sometimes I like to have a conversation that does not consist entirely of Blackadder quotes. At the school I transferred from, almost right alway I fell in with a crowd who were dorky in all the best possible ways and only a few of the worst, and I miss those guys. So: how do I find the cool geeks?
I’m with Giraffe here. You have to find someone cool who shares perhaps one of your interests (say…Moxy Fruvous or Buffy). Then you introduce them to other, more interesting things. I mean, that’s how you get new geeks; you recruit 'em. Hell, I’m a newly recruited geek, and we rock. We still maintain enough savvy about the outside world to function, yet we can be totally, irresistably zany when it comes to our pet topics (mine, for instance, is Buffy).
Then again, you could also make some completely non-geek friends. I have a lot of those, and they’re cool; I mean, they might have different interests, but you can still do stuff with them.
Maybe I’ve been a geek too long, but I seem to recall that it is relatively hard for a geek to make a cool friend. I was once called “the most normal guy in graduate school [physics]”, but my camouflage didn’t help me much.
I made ungeek friends by meeting my wife. She was a naive country girl, easily corrupted into geekdom. Pretty women, though, escape more easily than male geeks, and few of her friends were geeks.
I made ungeek friends on my own by becoming an athlete. I have a lot of stamina, so I became a marathon runner and a triathlete. Of course, they’re just another form of geek, but the conversations are different. And, with my apologies to female physicists, the women are better looking.
I think you’ve got that confused with the Gay recruitment campaign. Geeks get scroll-cut computer cases, Bluetooth-enabled PDAs, or their choice of the “Special Extended DVD Edition” of one of a number of current movies.
I love how you know what you like and are not ashamed. You are genuine to you SELF, not trying to be something that you aren’t, just to avoid cristism.
This is idea of corrupting a cool person into a geek sounds great. But don’t be afraid to broaden your scope either. Give and take. One night is Buffy night… the next night try your hand at a poker game or playing pool.
I don’t think it’s terribly advantageous for anyone to pigeon hole who could qualify as a “friend”.
there’s a group at my college (for anime, rpgs, etc.) that a lot of cool geeks flock to, and even though i’m not as hardcore geeky as most of the people, they’re fun to be with. so i’d suggest going to the groups at your school (get to know the geeks before you decide whether they’re cool geeks or uber-geeky geeks) or corrupting the normal people. that’s always fun.
You obviously haven’t seen the toster oven of which I speak. It comes pre-loaded with Red Hat, and has it’s own 802.11b adapter for wireless networking, so that you can pre-heat it from the comfort of your workstation.
The only real drawback I see compared to the one you get from the Gay Recruitment campaign is that it doesn’t come in a variety of colors to match your interior decorating scheme, because someone at the home office decided that geeks can’t color co-ordinate. Fortunately, the case is easily moddable.
I’m going to give you some different advice than everyone else so far, and say get to know the people in these clubs a little better. Some of them will probably meet your standards and who you can get to be good friends with. You don’t have to be close to all of them, although it’s good to be nice even to the more extreme folks. As I always say, geeks got to stick together, even when you’re dealing with geeks who seem geeky even to other geeks.
I’m with Lamia. Sometimes it’s easier to degeek a geek (or coolify a geek?) than vice versa. At least you know the geek won’t lose interest after a while.
In my experience, I’ve found it’s easier to find cool geeks at anime clubs than gaming clubs. Oddly enough. Perhaps it’s because anime clubs have a greater amount of walk-ins than gaming clubs?
You know, geekiness is an odd thing. I’m a geek as are many of my friends, but the veriety is sometimes really tough to deal with.
Most of these people I’ve known for years, so I know how to handle them, but sometimes “true geekiness” is hard to handle.
F’rinstance, two guys I’ve hung with for a good 5-10 years who are currently roomates.
One I enjoy sitting and chatting with about world politics, football, whatever. And the RPGs we enjoy.
The other you can barely talk to for more than a few minutes before he begins rambling on about the crazy world of New Bremen.
As for finding new geeks outside my old circle - no luck so far. 'Cept for folks I’ve met here, of course.
One thing that always helps me meet new people (too bad you’re too young) is alcohol. People sharing a cold beer an get into some pretty interesting conversations and it is very easy to find out if you have things in common.
Hell, even hanging out with people socially in general will do that.
Lamia has a great point - there ARE cool geeks in both the gaming club and the SCA group, you just have to find them - then they will recognize your non-Lame geekness and invite you to meet their non-Lame geek friends.
Likewise, broaden your horizons - befriend non-geeks.
Explore some of your other interests - I played college bowl in college, and it was a nice smattering of geekness (yeah, a couple of lame ones, but not all).
(Also, hit the student lounge during showings of Buffy, Star Trek, etc.)
