Seriously Geeky Sundays – Geek Pride

So, apparently it is Geek Pride day today, ain’t that something!

This isn’t something I have heard of before, but any day where we can come together to celebrate all things geek culture (hopefully without the usual silly bickering) is certainly welcomed by me! To celebrate this occasion, Heather of Just Geeking By has penned a series of questions that amazing bloggers (and myself!) can answer. It’s a fun way to get to know one another a little better and also a top writing exercise to get my rusty inspiration valves working again! Valves, that’s a weird simile…

Question 1 – What is Your Geek Origin Story?

I was always an imaginative child, by all accounts. Any kind of toy or book could entertain me for hours, be it a scabby die cast Thomas the Tank Engine toy my mum got for me from the local market, those awesome McDonalds transformer Happy Meal toys (I still want the French fries one).

But there are four main pillars to my geekdom origin story. Number one is Lego. Once I was old enough to not just eat the bricks and put minifigure heads up my nose, my dad used to sit on the living room floor with me for hours and we would build all manner of crazy models. My old man is a mechanic by trade and has quite the engineering mind, so he built some truly amazing models for the minifigures (from various scenarios and car boot sales) to use.

The second pillar to this tale would be kid’s TV from back in the day. Sharky & George, He-Man, Toxic Crusaders and, of course, Teenage Mutant Hero (yep) Turtles all fed the imagination of my child self, which also meant that my poor family had to put up with me running around the house with my light up He-Man sword all day (still got it, still works!).

Thirdly, I would like to nominate a book which was read to us by my year four teacher, which would have been around 1994. The book was The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien (though you probably already knew that!). The timeless, epic adventure of Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey enraptured me and the character of Smaug left me with dragons on the brain for years to come. In fact, when the big guy showed up in Desolation of Smaug, it redeemed the rest of that trilogy for me, it was fantastic to see!

Finally, the most important one of all. Just before the Hobbit incident, on my eighth birthday, my parents decided to save up and get me an all-singing, all-dancing gaming super machine, the Sega Master System II. I’m pretty sure the Mega Drive was already out at this time, but my parents didn’t have too much money back then, so the Master System it was. To be fair, they could have gone into the future and brought me a PS4 for the effect it had, because that thing blew my mind! I played Sonic the Hedgehog, Alex Kidd and Taz Mania to death on that thing, one of my fondest memories was watching the old man complete both Sonic games with all of the Chaos Emeralds.

So, between these four pillars was my geekdom temple built, or something like that!

Question 2 – What Does Being a Geek Mean to You?

When done right, being a geek can be the same as being a member of a club or society, lots of people interconnected through their love or understanding (or both) of something they enjoy in common. Whilst, tragically, the world of geekdom is also filled with hate, arguing and… just nonsense, if played properly it can be rewarding and you never have to interact with the ugly side at all!

So yeah, not only is geekdom enjoying what you love, it’s also meeting new people through it and using the things you enjoy to make new friends and opportunities!

Question 3 – How Do You Express Your Geeky Side?

I’ll be honest, I’m pretty low key with showing my geekdom in the real world. To look at me, only the odd tee shirt design would give it away (I love my The Well Red Mage one, for instance!)

As such, I mainly express my inner geek on Twitter and through my writing, both on here and on the aforementioned website which I have a tee shirt of. I’m also an avid gamer and movie fan (see my reviews here!) and often discuss these hobbies on Twitter.

I also host the Shart Select podcast with my good friends Stu and Ryan Egerton, which is about video games and a damned good laugh.

Question 4 – What Are Some of Your Favourite Geeky Websites and Places to Shop?

Ok, well, let’s get into this, shall we?

Websites, I would highly recommend The Well Red Mage for video games reviews and discourse, Shoot the Rookie, Just Geeking By and Pete’s Corner for any range of interesting articles (and many other blogs on top of these, check out my WordPress follower list, there’s too many to list!)

I would also be a bit remiss if I didn’t mention some awesome geek culture podcasts I listen to as well, such as Grief Burrito, The Spooktator, Cheapshow and PIXI Gaming Podcast.

I will admit, I’m not too savvy on where to shop for geek stuff. Forbidden Planet is good, but too expensive and the nearest one to me is 20 odd miles away in Manchester, so don’t go there very often. I would probably say I use Amazon the most for geek purchases, though eBay does deliver plenty of retro gaming goodies for me too!

Question 5 – Who Are Some of Your Favourite Geeky Celebrities

I’d say anyone from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. All of the big names from these movies always seem to doing wholesome things that rekindle my faith in mankind, it’d mad that Robery Downey Jr and Chris Evans are actually turning into their characters Iron Man and Captain America, with the good deeds they are doing since they bowed out of these movies!

I’ve also noticed that a lot of ex-wrestlers end up being really likeable dudes too, both on and off camera. The likes of Dwayne Johnson, John Cena and Dave Bautista would all be allowed on my lifeboat if the universe was doomed.

Question 6 – Who Are Some of Your Favourite Geeky Bloggers?

Sorry, I kind of already mentioned them all in question four, I got a bit over excited there!Read it again though, they deserve the attention because they’re excellent!

And that is that! This was great fun to write and I feel pretty nostalgic now too! Might go find my He-Man sword…