Equal Opportunity Geekdom

A friend thought it would be funny to send me the link to Wired's Geek Dad blog post called 10 Annoying Habits of a Geeky Spouse. Of course I have a fantastic sense of humor and openly acknowledge that not only am I a bit of a geek (I think I practice geek chic) but I am about to become betrothed to one as well. Still, when I went down the list and saw how we measured up, my inner child, still desirous of being one of the cool kids, died another small death. We are all over this list like its our job or something. Here we go:

1. Punning - Thank goodness this is not us. While I am a fan of Sex and the City (one of the more acceptable, non-geeky shows I've watched) I could never stomach the terrible puns. I prefer to drum up old sayings, idiomatic expressions and obscure words. Nien prefers to opt-out and let me ramble on.

2. Using "frak," or Klingon, or both, instead of regular swear words - This also is a little off the mark, though we did watch every episode of Battlestar Galactica together and have both probably seen many or (more realistically) all Star Trek episodes and movies. I may have used frak jokingly, but never outside my apartment. I can swear like a normal person.

3. Weird or over-the-top ways of celebrating mainstream holidays - Consider us guilty of this one. We love to blow out halloween and are often strategizing mid summer on what we're going to wear. We are also weirdly competitive when it comes to gift-giving. Unless the person tells us it is their favorite or preferred gift we are not satisfied. We even planned out wedding for the summer solstice so our anniversary would be easy to remember.

4. Dissecting movies - Hello? Me? Never! Or should I say ALWAYS. I majored in cinema studies and Nien took some film classes in between computer science and engineering. We are all over this.

5. Wearing obscurely geeky T-shirts to "normal" places - I leave this one entirely to Nien. His favorite is the "I'm a Super Duper Programmer" shirt that I (hope) he recently retired. There are others, but we really don't need to get into it. Oh, except I found this really awesome "T-Qualizer" shirt a few years back that lights up when music is playing. Hmm, wonder why he never wears it?

6. Requiring extra room in the house for geeky things - My cool meter must be rising, because this isn't me either. Nien however, has "projects," multiple computers and toys. I pray for a day when he has an office he can cram it all into.

7. Geeky toys and decorations can be hard to explain to kids - Didn't I just mention toys? There are no kids at this point, but I bet they might question why they can't play with his Christopher Walken King of New York doll or the Leggo Death Star he claims he will have when we make more room. What about the E.T. puzzle we put together and framed? Are we going to have to fight the kiddies for it?

8. Looking up information while a discussion/argument is still in progress - Um, okay, I take issue with this one because, come on, isn't that part of the reason to have an iPhone? Of course, whipping out multiple phones to perform a search is pretty lame, so we should stop doing that.

9. Needing to watch certain TV shows ASAP to avoid spoilers - See aforementioned BSG, but also Lost. What's worse is that we DVR, wait like 10-15 minutes and then begin watching so we can still get through the commercials.

10. Geeky projects that take over the house and whole weekends - Check. This list is a little repetitive, but again we fulfill the requirement.

So there you have, like Geek Dad's Matt Blum and his wife, we also speek fluent geek. The blog, which staff writers seem to take turns writing, is worth checking out, whether you are a parent or not. Recent posts have tackled the SyFy rebranding (someone should be trying to explain that) Tiger Woods' Wii game as well as many more obscure topics that are even too geeky for me. It would be cool to see more Geek Mom posts (they have done a few to be fair) but its understandabke since Wired's readership is much more male skewing.

So, in terms of Nien and I, is there some kind of 12-step program to alleviate all this lameness? We do cool things as well, I swear. Like...hmmm, well, um? Give me a minute to think of something.

Frag Doll Casting Call

Are there any women out there looking to quit their day jobs to devote more time to playing first-person shooter games?

My gaming skillz are pretty terrible, but there are a ton of female gamers out there that could put their male counterparts to shame. Ubisoft, creator of games like Prince of Persia (which I don't play, but really enjoy watching), the Tom Clancy series and Shaun White Snowboarding put together a competitive team of kick-ass female players in 2004 to challenge the male-dominated perception of the genre. They are called Frag Dolls, and from their site, I gather the genesis of the name seems to be the following:

frag /frag/ n. & v. · n. 1 number of kills. 2 a fragmentation grenade. · v. 1 to eliminate other players in multiplayer shooters (fragging).

rag·doll physics /ragdol fiziks/ n. 1 a program allowing videogame characters to react with realistic body and skeletal physics.

frag·doll /fragdol/ n. 1 a female gamer with the skills to dominate in multiplayer shooters. 2 a lady with the sass to use the laws of physics to her incontestable advantage.

Since they came together the ladies have been taking competitions by storm winning awards and major street cred. Lo and behold, they seem to be looking for a new member, but the deadline is tight - applications have to be in tonight by 11:59 pm. Do you have what it takes? Of course that was a rhetorical question, but secretly I am thinking of two women in particular who could probably tear it up. Kiran? Amy?