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Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Growing Up Geek!

Yep, I grew up a geek. I played Dungeons and Dragons among my friends. A nearby mall had a store which sponsored games in the halls of the mall on Saturday mornings. I got my friends interested, although I haven't played in several years.

Along with that, I read all kinds of fantasy like Tolkien, Brooks, and Moorcock. I still read fantasy quite a bit. I even wrote short fantasy stories now and then, though not for publication.

I loved Star Trek and still do. I like them all. I rented Star Trek Enterprise and watched all the seasons over a year's time. I have even been to a couple of Star Trek conventions. I like other Sci-Fi shows like Babylon 5 and Farscape.

I received my first computer just before high school. It was an Atari 800. I taught myself to program basic. I taught myself assembly language on it. In high school, they started offering computer classes. I soon learned that I knew more than the teacher. I programmed my own word processor which I used fr my first two years in college. After that, I bought a Packard Bell and never bothered with programming again.

I started playing trombone in the 4th grade. So I was a band geek from early on. I even went to band camp for three years and I loved it. In fact, I met my wife at band camp. I started out as a music major in college. Now I play in a stage band. In fact, we have a big concert coming up soon.

However, I was involved in not so geeky things. I played sports most of my way through school. I played baseball and football. I did wrestle one season. I was never into soccer or basketball too much.

I also hung around some of the "burnouts." I got into smoking and drinking and the like. I was never really a part of that group.

I was always involved in church. I was in youth group by my own choice. My parents didn't force me to go or anything. I like church and still do. My Christian faith is an important part of my life.

When it gets down to it, I was never really a part of any cliques. I just new that despite my involvement in sports, I wasn't considered a jock. I certainly wasn't when of the "popular" kids. I guess I didn't worry about it all that much, but as I look back, I see that I was pretty much a geek and I still am!


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6 comments:

Brad Clements said...

Nice post, I can relate to a bit of all of that. Now, back to business - Basically ONE month left in the 4th of July Challenge, WHAT are you going to do about it.... B

Apex Zombie said...

Cool post :)

I can relate to a few of the things you mentioned there.

Nona said...

You know, we never used that term in school (in the Caribbean) and so I never really understood it until later in life through American TV.

From what you describe though, it sounds as though you were a very well rounded kid - curious and balanced spiritually, creatively, physically, socially and intellectually with a little harmless experimentation thrown in.

By the way, I never got into the first Star Trek but I loved the Second Generation with Jean Luc (yum). ;P

ArleneWKW said...

You have really spiffed up your blog with vibrant colors and the like. I like your list of upcoming milestones. I may add something like that to my blog at some point. Re. Star Trek, I got into it after a couple of seasons and throughly enjoyed it. My enthusiasm for the original didn't carry over to its rebirth with a new cast. I agree with Nona that you sound like you were a well rounded kid.

Moby Dick said...

Me too. comic books, action figures, geek.

Kim Ayres said...

Dungeons and Dragons - check
Tolkien, Brooks & Moorcock - check
Star Trek, all seasons - check
Babylon 5 & Farscape - check

I even played the trombone for a couple of years at school.

However, church, sports, computer programming and conventions were all alien to me.

Mind you I do wonder just how many of us have/had more than a passing resemblance to the Comic Book Guy in The Simpsons...