Friday, August 10, 2007

Geekdom

Our society is home to several different classes of geeks. I'm not using geek as a derogatory term, as many people use it, but rather as a descriptive, and often as a title of respect.

See, to me, being a geek means you're into something, be it Role Playing Games, computers, console games, comic books, books in general, sports, sport statistics, or whatever. I've run across geeks of every imaginable interest, either in my "flesh" life or online.

Being a Geek, with the capitol letter, means that not only are you into something, you're very very good at it.

I'm a book geek. I read constantly, and although my selections are rarely the classics: Jane Eyre, Emma, any of Orson Wells's books, I do try to read a few, or re-read my favorites, every year.

Like so many others around the world, years ago I was caught up by the Harry Potter craze. I'd heard a lot about it, but hadn't picked up an actual Harry Potter book until after the second one came out. I finally decided to check it out of the school library, and see what all the fuss was about.

I was hooked. And shortly, so was Farmmom.

We've kept up with the books and movies ever since.

Tonight, we're going to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It'll be the first Harry Potter movie we've watched in a theater. We've always waited until they came out on DVD so that we could own them and watch them a couple of times in a row, once to see the movie, and once to point out all the flaws and missing pieces from the book.

And of course, if Daniel Radcliffe's run of Equus is ever filmed and released in the US on DVD, we'll probably own that too.

What can I say... he looks yummy in the publicity photos.

A Forward from Farmmom

Someone finally said it.
How many are actually paying attention to this?

There are African Americans,

Mexican Americans,
Asian Americans,
Arab Americans,
Native Americans, etc.
...And then there are just -
Americans.
You pass me on the street
and sneer in my direction.
You Call me "White boy,"
"Cracker," "Honkey,"
"Whitey," "Caveman,"
... And that's OK.
But when I call you Nigger,
Kike, Towel head,
Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey,
Beaner, Gook, or Chink
... You call me a racist.
You say that whites commit a lot
of violence against you,
so why are the ghettos the most
dangerous places to live?
You have the United Negro College Fund.
You have Martin Luther King Day.
You have Black History Month.
You have Cesar Chavez Day.
You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi.
You Have Yom Hashoah.
You have the NAACP.
And you have BET.
If we had WET
(White Entertainment Television)
... We'd be racists.
If we had a White Pride Day
... You would call us racists.
If we had White History Month
... We'd be racists.
If we had any organization for only whites
to "advance" OUR lives .
... We'd be racists.
We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce,
a Black Chamber of Commerce,
and then we just have the plain
Chamber of Commerce.
Wonder who pays for that?
If we had a college fund that only gave
white students scholarships
... You know we'd be racists.
There are over 60 openly-proclaimed
Black-only Colleges in the US ,
yet if there were "White-only Colleges"
... THAT would be a racist college.
In the Million Man March,
you believed that you were
marching for your race and rights.
If we marched for our race and rights,
... You would call us racists.
You are proud to be black,
brown, yellow and orange,
and you're not afraid to announce it.
But when we announce our white pride
... You call us racists.
You rob us,
carjack us,
and shoot at us.
But, when a white police officer
shoots a black gang member
or beats up a black drug-dealer
who is running from the LAW and
posing a threat to ALL of society
... You call him a racist.
I am proud.
... But, you call me a racist.
Why is it that only
whites
can be racists?
There is nothing improper about this e-mail.
Let's see which of you
are proud enough to send it on.

Authority Envy

I like to play around with the stuff that is connected to these blogs. Its really rather fascinating how many people have come up with nifty ways of saying "I'm better than you!"

The Technorati Authority system is one of them.

And I have authority envy.

I have an authority of 7.

One comes from AD (Hey wow, thanks man!) who has an authority rating of 253. Holy crap!

Also, BabsRN who has an authority rating of 113. Again, holy crap!

AD, Babs, someday I hope I can grow up to be as good as you guys!