I have this theory that everyone is secretly a geek, which in my book (or at least for the purpose of this thread) is someone who knows waaaay too much about something really rather trivial. Like old TV shows, weird areas of science, the whole comic world, foods, historical eras, music. So, 'fess up with the geekness.

My geekness involves ElfQuest. I know waaay too much about it. I collected every issue, even the ones with crap art. Then *^%^&% bugs *ate* most of my collection. I'm still sad.

I probably still could quote the entire script of Rocky Horror Picture Show, with a little help.

I also am geeky about quilts, clothes and fabrics; I can usually still tell fiber content by sight, and it's wicked fun to be right so often when I say "Hm, looks like this movie is set in 19xx" just by the clothes.

I wish I was a geek about current mummy research, but I'm not.

I don't know that much about current mummies--didn't know they were still into making those--but I do know a shitload of stuff about Egypt and Egyptian mythology. I've even read the book of the dead (though I couldn't make too much sense of it). I recently ran a GM-ed "freeform" game set in ancient Egypt, and that was awesome.

I'm geeky about computers. I overclock my system, can tell you how many pixel pipelines which GPU has, and could beat all your guys' (and girls') asses in the original Doom Deathmatch.

Oh, boy...

I'm geeky about Doctor Who. I can describe the plots of serials I've never seen. I can name all sorts of dumb trivia about the making of the show.

I'm geeky about my favorite bands. (As evidenced last night in the car, as we listened to Echo & the Bunnymen's Porcupine and I started throwing weird anecdotes about the making of the album out at my wife.)

I'm geeky about the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, which comes from and leads back into being geeky about comic books from the '30s and '40s, the Pulps, comics strips from 1900 to the 1940s (especially Krazy Kat, which I love with a mad passion), movie serials, radio shows, etc.

Among many other things, I'm geeky about the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  I used to be able to recite the first season of radio broadcasts from memory.  I can still quote pretty freely.

yrs--
--Ben

Elfquest, eh? I've got the entire run of the original black-and-white series. You can come over and read them some time if you like.

I seriously don't know about the geek thing. I think all my geekiness is spent on roleplaying games, and everything else is just dabbling (at that, I don't know half what, say, Ron Edwards or Mike Holmes would about RPGs). I can tell you a lot about Marxist theory, but I don't think that's trivial.

I can tell you a lot about Marxist theory, but I don't think that's trivial.

(quietly)

I used to be a field investigator for the Mutual UFO Network.

(/quietly)

Jason, don't feel bad... (very quietly) I used to be a New Ager. (/very quietly)

I'm geeky about two other subjects: Photography and Paddling

With paddling, I'm geeky enough to drive 17 hours round trip for a two day event this year, and I build and design my own kayaks and canoes, because I can't find it on the market.  I'm also so geeky that I run my own website about paddling just so I can say what I want to say about the subject.

I terrify myself with my geekiness about Marvel comics.  I read them like crazy between the ages of about 6 to 14 (most of the 80's), and then stopped cold, and with a very few exceptions haven't read superhero comics in close to 15 years.  Yet all of that data is always at the top of my brain! 

I can't remember calculus.  I can't remember the philosophy I've read.  I've spent the past six months cramming tons of legal theory into my head.  I have trouble remembering where my girlfriend and I went on our first date.  But for the rest of my days I will be able to recite the roster of the Squadron Supreme.  This does me no good at all, and I wish I could wipe my memory clean and dedicate it stuff that's useful.

Seriously, people need to zap children with all of their culture's most important information.  Because once it's in there, you never ever forget it. 

I also have the same deal going with the original Star Wars movies.

yeah, I understand the feeling. I used to be a druid. Now I'm just a pantheist.

I have several subjects that I know quite a bit more about than the average person, but I can't think of anything where I'd beat the most intense fans. I make up for this with breadth of geekiness. For just about any obscure topic, I have the uncanny ability to have heard something about it. I guess that makes me a universal dilettante.

I have a substantial knowledge of ancient myth and religion and occultism. I used to be pretty into science as a kid and try to keep up-to-date on general science goings-on. Since I worked tech support for [major ISP] before they outsourced it all to India and for [major computer company] under a limited-term contract, I've got a reasonably-good grasp of computers and troubleshooting. I've also dabbled in perl and javascript, but wouldn't consider myself a programmer.

I haven't heard as much music as I'd like and usually get stumped by references to bands in the '80s or later, but I can pretty much identify 90% of all Jethro Tull songs by the first few bars, and tell you which albums they are from (people have tested me on this.)

I also have an insane degree of knowledge about old TV. Not so much who was in what show, since I'm faceblind and get confused about actors anyways, but I remember lots of plots and series synopses. (aside: I've been enjoying TV Tropes recently; it could be a damned useful resource for any of you designers working on TV-themed games.)

I also have the ridiculously useless ability to remember where I was when I first saw something on TV. Sometimes that's my only clue as to when I saw it.

I also have about the same level of knowledge for '50/'60s sci-fi movies, because of course I watched them on TV when I was growing up. Oh, and about the only comic book I was really into, Doctor Strange. I've also seen pretty much 90% of all Doctor Who episodes (Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, and missing early episodes are my weak spots.)

Other extremely geeky things I have done and will occasionally bore people with: conlanging, algorithmic music, text randomization, medieval music.

Apart from Doctor Who, I really like maths. Last week, I did a power series in my lunch hour for fun. This week, I worked out some probabilities for some dice-rolling game Jason's working on.

Graham

I tend to focus on a topic for a period of time, and when I have satisfied my geek hunger for that topic, I move on to the next.

I have been very interesting in science and astronomy, to the point where I could prove some of the major theorems in the general relativity theory.

I have been interested in mythology. Especially Nordic and Celtic.

I have spend a lot of time reading about occultism. I have even been able to cite the Lesser Banishing Ritual.

Classical music did also hold my interest for a long time. I can in my head go through most of Beethoven's piano sonatas.

Computer programming have held my interest for a long time, which is good, because that is what I do in my daytime job.

And of cause I have a general interest in fantasy and science fiction books/comics.

- Anders

I combine Anders and Talysman.

I obsess about something, intake as much as is inhumanly possible and then shift to another obsession.

I am pretty big about Mythology, Mythological and behavioural relationships between Judaism and Christianity(much of it is observation rather than actual cited knowledge).

Poke'Mon, almost any other Anime/Manga/Sci-fi/Fantasy I've read or watched(if it's of a limited run for watched).

There was a time when I could identify a Magic card by flavour text, or alternately, cite flavour text by card name, for over 1-2k cards.

For my favourite channel on the radio I can identify 95% of the songs and song-performers in the first two seconds, beating the average 3 second ratio!

And many many others.

Freshwater aquaria.

Film.

Bartending.

And a bunch of other stuff that's in no short supply at any random con.

I used to have old-skool Magic geekiness. Flavor text, comboing, etc etc.

Lately I have been working on food geekiness. Soon I'll be able to throw together breads the way that I can currently throw together...sandwiches! I've been experimenting with how spices taste in mixture and how they react to heat, so that I can understand Indian cooking better.

Writing systems.

Oh, I forgot one! National Geographic magazine. I have a *huge* collection, spanning 1940-2006, with gaps. It's the only database I've ever made, cataloguing the ones I have, cross-checking for duplicates, etc. The Dec. 1990 issue on glass is so cool I have multiple copies. And the Dec. 1988 one with the all-holographic cover is awesome. The earliest one I have is a bound book of all of 1918. Waaay cool.

Oops. That was me. I scooped his seat at the computer. He would never be that geeky about NGeo. He's way cooler than me. 'Cept he has used them tons for gaming research, so there you go.

I also possess a shocking breadth of geekiness, altohugh I'll admit there are a few areas in which I excel(?):

--I am a David Bowie freak and can name nearly any of his songs within hearing a couple of notes, as well as recite lyrics to most of them.
--I am obsessed with zombie movies, particularly the original Dawn of the Dead, which I can recite line for line.
--I am the current world champion of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, if you definre the "world" by all the people I have ever played against.  Seriously, I did Bruce Lee and Elvis.  And Reggie Bannister from Phantasm.

Also, like that guy in Garden State, I have not one, but two--TWO--full sets of Desert Storm trading cards.

Nick

National Geographic is the bomb.

I am also geeky about mythologies, by which I mean "the stories that are told around religion and the supernatural."  Particularly Aztec and Sumerian, although that's mostly just an accident of history.  I want to learn more about pre-Incan South American myths.

yrs--
--Ben

ironick wrote:
--I am the current world champion of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, if you definre the "world" by all the people I have ever played against.  Seriously, I did Bruce Lee and Elvis.  And Reggie Bannister from Phantasm.

James_Nostack wrote:
I terrify myself with my geekiness about Marvel comics.  I read them like crazy between the ages of about 6 to 14 (most of the 80's), and then stopped cold, and with a very few exceptions haven't read superhero comics in close to 15 years.  Yet all of that data is always at the top of my brain! 

I also have the same deal going with the original Star Wars movies.