Geek Pride Day

Today is Geek Pride Day. No, I didn't know such a thing existed either. I only know this because I randomly happened to find out.

If you're wondering why May 25 is the day that was chosen, it's because it coincides with a few other holidays:

• Towel Day, the day two weeks after Douglas Adams passed in 2001, when hoopy froods keep their towel handy
• The anniversary of the first Star Wars film, Episode IV: A New Hope, released on May 25, 1977
• Glorious 25 May, the day in Terry Pratchett's Discworld when wearing lilac and hard-boiled eggs (and raising awareness around Alzheimer's research) is appropriate

So, today is a day for all things geeky. With that, here's a list of geeky things I like, just for fun.

1. The geek code - apparently such a thing exists. Each letter tells something about your geekiness. For those interested, here is my geek code:

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCS/MU d- s-: a--- C++>$ U? P L E? W++>$ !N o? K- w O? M+>++$ V? PS++ PE-- Y- PGP- t++ 5? X? R tv+ b+>+++ DI+ D? G e- h! r++ x- 
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
[translation: Geek of computer science/music, I'm usually in jeans and a t-shirt, I look up to most people (I'm short) but I'm average weight, I'm age 15-19, Computers are a large part of my existence, and I'd like to make money at a computer related job someday, I don't know much about Unix, I know Perl exists but that's all, I know what Linux is but that's about all, I don't know what Emacs is, I'm pretty good at the world wide web and I'd like to make money at it someday, I don't like USENET News, I don't know what USENET oracle is, I don't know who Kibo is, I use MS Windows but I don't have to like it, I don't know what OS/2 is, a Mac has its uses and I use it quite often but I'd like to get better and make money at it, I don't know what VMS is, my political views are fairly liberal, capitalism is evil and government should provide the services we need and nobody should be rich, the government must be able to protect itself from criminals and the populace from indecent speech, I don't have anything to hide, Star Trek is great, I don't know what Babylon 5 is, I don't know what the X files is, roleplaying is something to do to kill a Saturday afternoon, I watch some TV every day, I enjoy reading but don't get the time very often and I'd like to read a few books a week, I read Dilbert daily and often understand it, I don't know what the game DOOM! is, I know what the geek code is and even did up this code, haven't finished high school, I am stuck living with my parents, I've dated my current significant other for a long time, female and not having sex by choice]

If you'd like to find out what your geek code is, go to http://www.geekcode.com/geek.html

2. Geeky jokes - there are way to many of these to count. This is my favorite one:
Heisenberg gets pulled over for speeding. The officer asks, "Do you know how fast you were going?"
"No, but I can tell you exactly where I am."
Confused, the officer replies, "You were going 80 miles per hour."
"Great! Now I'm lost!" he shouts. Then Shrodinger gets out of the car, too. This is enough to make the officer suspicious, so he inspects the the car.
"Did you know you have a dead cat in your trunk?"
"Well I do NOW!" Shrodinger replies.
(To see more geeky jokes, go here and here.)

3. Geeks who change the world - this world would be a very sad, boring, place if it weren't for the geeks and nerds who come up with brilliant ideas. Without them, we would probably still be living in caves, ignorant and lacking innovation. Now, for some examples... my stats tell me that 48% of you use Windows, so you should thank the geek Bill Gates. For the 41% of you using Apple products, you should thank Steve Jobs, another awesome geek. Larry Page is the geek the 10% of you who use Android have to thank, but since this is a Google Blog, none of you would be reading this if it weren't for that genius. And just to make sure I include everyone, there's also Dennis Ritche, creator of Unix (which 1% of you are using), and Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux (which another 1% of you are using). Now, this isn't to say that computer geeks are the only kind of geeks that exist, but they are the best example I could think of here.

4. This. Without geeks and nerds, we wouldn't have this awesome video.

Just for fun, I watched this video again and kept a tally of the number of times one of the things the geek or nerd said applied to me (this included accomplishments and insults). The score? 11 points for geek, and 8 points for nerd. It was actually closer than I thought it would be.

5. The obsession to understand the difference between nerds and geeks. There is so much on this discussion/debate. Just out of curiosity, I googled "what makes a geek". I got 129,000,000 results. That's a lot! (In case you were wondering, "what makes a nerd" has only 51,800,000 results, but that's still a lot.) There are also a good number of results for "geek vs nerd": 5,220,000. Interestingly enough, though that last search query is popular, "nerd vs geek" is about twice as popular, with 10,200,000 results. I could point you too some websites/web pages about the issue, but there are so many that I don't know where to start.

So those are a few of my favorite geeky things. Happy Geek Pride Day!