Are geeks born that way?  Is being a geek a product of nature or nurture?  That’s a question I’ll leave to the scientists.  I know that I began to have geek thoughts in Junior High – collecting Wolverine and Fantastic Four comics, playing “Legend of Zelda” and “Metroid.” Then I had my first real geek experience around the age of thirteen, with the older brother of a friend of mine; I was invited to join his Dungeons & Dragons game.

My parents were supportive when they found out I was a geek, but I could tell they were a little disappointed.  The other kids at school weren’t as nice – I was ridiculed, and made to feel like an outcast.  I reatreated into the closet, and learned to keep my geek life a secret from classmates, friends, and co-workers.  Only after I get to know someone will I reveal that I’m a geek, and even then I won’t go into great detail about what I do.  And I know that there are lots of other geeks out there that feel the same way.

But once a year, there’s an event where geeks get together to be their flamboyantly geeky selves.  That event is the San Diego Comic Con.  The geeks take over the streets; they dress like stormtroopers, or anime characters with oversize papier-mache weapons; they talk loudly and pubicly about the strengths and weaknesses of comic book characters; they get excited about meeting Stan Lee or Lou Ferigno; in short, the geeks make the “normal” people deal with them on their own terms.

So I want to congratulate San Diego on another successful Geek Pride weekend.  It gets bigger, better, and more accepted by the public at large every year.  (I went to my first Con in the early ’90s, when it was a small, furtive event for the most committed geeks.)  The Geek movement has made significant progress, but there’s still more work to do.

Fresh from watching the 100th Ultimate Fighting Championship, the Gents discuss their love of watching the gentlemanly art of combat, and their detestation of participating in it.

On the Agenda:

1. Opening Toast, by Mr. Gregory Bass
2. Open Discussion on the Subject of “Fighting”
3. Advice from a Gentleman, by Mr. Andy Trimlett
4. Closing Toast, presented by Mr. Andy Trimlett

Standard Podcast [ 48:45 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (794)

In honor of our drinking podcast…

This design was suggested to me by Gentlemen Jesse and Lee. During their travels abroad, they discovered a sign featuring the staff with a snake intertwining it that symbolizes medicine or pharmacies (the Rod of Asclepius, although the Caduceus is also occasionally used) and both mistook the staff for a martini glass. Read into that what you will, but both agreed that the healing powers of the martini surely exceed anything available over the counter.

As regular listeners and/or readers have no doubt noticed, the League strongly supports drinking with both leisurely and adventurous activities. With that, I now present what we here at the LGA have deemed, “The Hippocratini”. The symbol of approval for drinking as the cause of, and solution to, many of life’s problems.

This was an amazing little piece of art I came across while doing some research recently. It’s a lithograph by Nathaniel Currier during the extremely popular (note the use of highly sarcastic italics there) Temperance Movement in the United States. In honor of our second Drinking podcast, I pass this warning on to you.

I’m happy to say that our current active LGA members seem to be hovering around Step 5 so far… although the argument could be made that some of us have advanced to Step 6.