Geek Speak

So, I'm a geek.

Well, to be honest I think I'm a geek. Over the years, I've found that my fascination for all things that people consider geeky (gaming, trading cards, comics, anime/manga, Sci-fi shows) has grown to such lengths that I'm losing more money 'vices' than what I can normally make.

But so what, I enjoy my newfound geekhood. In fact, I want to race head long into all things geeky and divulge myself in various geeky activities.

There was a time when admitting such things (ie Highschool) would alienate me from the general population of society and make me a social outcast. But why? What made me different from the others? Was it that I found sport, while fun to play but not to watch, a boring past time; watching sweaty blokes hugging one another not an idea way to waste my life, but finding yu-gi-oh (current fad I was in at this time), a fascinating strategy card game?

And gaming, don't get me started on gaming. I sit infront of the computer/television, controller in hand and people would think shake there head and murmer I was wasting my life away. Now, flash forward nearly ten years. Now everyone labels themselves a gamer.

No

You're

NOT!

Playing Bejewelled doesn't make you a gamer. Neither does Wii sports, Nintendodogs, or any other 'casual game'. And saying that you play Modern Warfare all the time makes you a gamer either.

Now, I'm not a heavy gamer, but I remember level pass codes, I remember limited lives and the terror of not knowing what was around the corner in Doom2, my palms sweaty as I noticed I had only 12 shells left in my shotgun and only 18% of health. I remember that the princess was in another castle and All Your Base Belongs To Us. I memorised cheatcodes, did my damned hardest to find 100% in every RPG and I spent hours grinind my characters to take on Sephiroth.

Of course, that was a gateway drug. With pokemon, came the introduction of anime, with an old Daredevil comic found in a school camp, the world of comics unfolded.

Nowadays, having an interest in these things doesn't seem to have the same stigmata. Either that or deep down, we're all secretly geeks.

Now, where's my Magic: The Gathering cards, my ps3 controller and my Ultimate Spiderman comic, I've got some catching up to do.