Who knew dating a geek could be so confusing or controversial? GeekMom Ruth‘s post concerning Alyssa Bereznak’s online rant about her date with Jon Finkel, was just the tip of the iceberg. I’d bet every geek out there has had to deal with an “Alyssa” from time to time in the awkwardness of dating, mind you few of those experiences are made public on a blog.
Geek is a very broad term and really only means that someone is passionately involved with something. Geeks come in all shapes and sizes and their interests are incredibly diverse, just ask Scott Johnson the creator of The 56 Geek Project.
It got me thinking, what advice would I give my children if they ever found themselves dating a person they didn’t understand? Conversation on a first date can be excruciating, wouldn’t it be nice to have a little insight into the interests of the person across the table? Sometimes breaking the ice is all it takes to get a geek to break out of their shell and become comfortable with the situation they are in.
So here it is, a primer. Tips for dating the:
- Astrophysics Geek: When units are measured in lightyears and parsecs, pi equals 3.
- Trek Geek: Kirk or Picard? You must have an answer, it will come up and its important.
- Jedi Geek: Han shot first.
- Apple Geek: Its release is purely speculative, no one knows what it will actually look like, no one knows what it will actually do, but its been pre-ordered.
- Engineering Geek: Duct tape can fix everything, and yes they have it with them.
- Food Geek: Do not ask for steak sauce with your $100 steak.
- Hitchhikers Guide Geek: 42 is the answer.
- Linux Geek: That source could be a little more open.
- Board Gaming Geek: No, you can’t put your stuff in their trunk, its full of games.
- Physics Geek: A cow is simply a series of spheres.
- Doctor Who Geek: Bow ties  are cool.
- Conspiracy Geek: Gas prices too high? Global Warming? Fluorinated Water? Burnt the toast? All the Illuminati.
- Electronics Geek: If you just add one component to that clock it could also bake bread.
- Simpsons Geek: They are so smart, S-M-R-T, I mean S-M-A-R-T.
- Photography Geek: Yes thats a camera in their pocket, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t happy to see you as well.
Mind you this is an incredibly short list of the possible geeky realms, only the ones that I (and my husband GeekDad Brian McLaughlin) are personally familiar with.
If you are a geek, what one tidbit would be imperative to getting to know you?
the Ultimate Geek, my definition, is the one who can, and will, sit through almost any scifi movie you put in front of them, whether they’ve seen it or not, love’s both star wars(all the movies, preferring the originals) and star trek(every series, excepting maybe ‘enterprise’), can and will watch/read Shakespeare for fun, is more than happy to watch football all Saturday, will listen, for hours, to another geek describe their specialty, reads continuously (particularly books they’ve already read at least once or twice), watches movies and tv shows from the ’20’s up until now, is fluent in both mac and pc, love’s action heroes (even if they don’t really now that much outside the basics), can quote almost every line from at least 25 movies, can listen to upwards of 6 genres of music in the course of 8 songs, can and will geek out with a fellow geek even if they don’t understand everything involved in whatever the other geek is geeking out about, understands the necessity in working on one little piece of(whatever it is) for hours when it looked fine in the beginning, has the ability to pick up on bits and pieces of every geeks addiction of choice, and so forth and so on…. just a thought 😉
Have you been studying me???
<3
Amen.
Superdittos to that! And let’s not forget, we can make up our own language and it’s totally understandable to any other geek.
That sounds just like me… except the football part. 😛
You’re forgetting Video Game Geeks ;D
Helene, you rock. You’re clearly an awesome mom.
The Excel Geek: has a strong preference for either INDEX/MATCH or VLOOKUP and is ready to argue about it. Refers to “workbooks”, not spreadsheets. Has a favorite keyboard shortcut, possibly one they set up thenselves as a macro.
Don’t forget the “roadgeek”. 🙂
My husband, an engineer and cooking geek, always says to me “Pat, what you need is a class in thermal dynamics.” Or “Turn the temperature on the boiling water down. It’s never going to get above 212 degrees”. Obviously he’s in charge in the kitchen 🙂
FAN FIC GEEK: you can tell me anything because it will probably fit into the story I’m writing.
That’s so true. But seriously the best advice for geeks looking for love is to find someone who can appreciate your interests but has interests of their own. That way you both have something new to learn about. If you both like all the same things the relationship gets boring very quickly. 🙂 If you like Star Wars (and really who doesn’t?) then find someone who loves Firefly and doesn’t know much about the force. You both love a similar topic but with different stories. It has kept my husband and I together. We still have new things to share with each other because our interests always have us looking in different places.
Book geek: just one more chapter and I promise I’ll …(insert mundane task)
Or
If I go to bed right now I can get 7 hours of sleep, I can get by on 6 and a half, so 30 more minutes of reading.
(half hour later) if I go to bed now I can get 6 and a half hours of sleep, I can get by on 6, 30 more minutes of reading
(Repeat)
True Blood Geek: Eric or Bill? The answer tells me how much I can trust you.
and I am almost defined as an Ultimate Geek according to the first commentor… except I can watch football all day on Sunday, not Saturday… I don’t think a player should be called down if they haven’t been touched.
and i forgot, I wanted to add one for
Video Game Geek: Owns at least one vintage system. Had a secret crush on Sonic or Princess Toadstool as a kid.
I actually have a working SNES and a Sega Genesis AND a Dreamcast.