There are levels of geekdom now.
This was about seven years ago, when the extended edition of LOTR: Return of the King was released on DVD. I happened to have the day off from work, and was planning to buy the DVD and settle in and make an afternoon of watching the movie and all the ‘making of’ extra features. I actually had a dream about wanting to go buy the DVD, but I was disappointed because Best Buy and Target wouldn’t be open until 10 in the morning. In my dream, I realized, ‘Wal-mart is open now. I can go to Wal-mart and get the DVD and not have to wait.’ This realization woke me out of a sound sleep at 6 am on my day off. I was dressed and out the door in less than 5 minutes.
The giddy sensation of firing up my first hand-built PC. That’s when I went from being “kind of a geek” to being a full bore geekasaurus rex.
I am writing and drawing a comic book.
:: takes geek crown ::
I actually thought of that after I posted this morning. I’ve always built my own computers from components, ever since I was 16 because that’s how my friends taught me to do it. I never realized it was a big deal for years afterwards until I started having conversations like this:
Coworker: “Hey Blind, you’re good with computers, right?”
Me: “Kinda. Why?”
Coworker: “I’m thinking about getting a new computer and I don’t know to go with Gateway, Dell, or HP.”
Me: “Sorry, I wouldn’t know. I built my computer.”
Cue stares of mixed amazement and horror
I realized how geeky I am over the holidays when I was talking to a friend about playing *Axis & Allies * (which is like *Risk * but longer, more complex, more rules, and set in WWII) in college.
Me: Yeah, we would set it up in the conference room and about a dozen of us would hang out all night playing.
Friend: How did you change it to play with more that 5 people?
Me: Oh we didn’t, 5 people played and the rest of us watched.
Friend: Wait, you spent hours *watching * people play this game?
Me: Well . . . umm . . .
Hey, how many people just watch football?
My geek cred:
I brought the kitty Ursela to meet the real Ms. LeGuin. She was speaking at a book store and I showed up there with my pet. Now that’s dedicated geekdom.
Ah. I see. Ursela is an homage, or an “in-the-style-of” reference, not an exact copy. I bow to your superior geekdom. 
J.
p.s., got pictures?
p.p.s. It’s “Le Guin” (with space). Sorry. I have an affliction.
You win!
Not to mention prestige classes.
I don’t know if I count as a real geek since I’ve never watched firefly and I think the new BSG sucks balls (the original is awesome though).
But, the other night I started to feel my already low cool-factor slipping lower as I realized that I was playing Star Trek Online while watching ST:TOS on Netflix. What was even worse was the fact that my boyfriend asked ME what I wanted to watch. I wasn’t being forced.
UrseCat passed away about a decade ago during the predigital camera age. So no pics. She’s been replaced by Lucy Cat. We thought about naming Lucy Ursecat II but I decided Ms. Le Guin’s later novels did not quite merit a kitty. So Lucy is for Lucy Maude Montgomery.
My husband is more of a geek than I am. He read Ms. Le Guin’s *The Dispossessed *and told me he hated it. Why? Because she set an equation equal to zero. So I think he officially wins the Geek award in my household.
(emphasis mine)
I’ll confirm your suspicions - you are no geek. No self-respecting geek would admit to preferring the original BSG to the remake.
You mean Fey Step? Absurd. Eladrin don’t do jolly.
Hey now. Not so fast. A 90’s style ‘indie’ comic, or the good kind?
I get paid to run D&D games. That’s got to be worth something. Well, for geek cred purposes. Not so much on the whole ‘getting chicks’ front, but you can’t have everything.
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You can tell a 90’s indie comic from a regular indie comic by checking to see its ratio off of insight to pomposity.