{"id":6104,"date":"2011-09-09T14:00:44","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T18:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/?p=6104"},"modified":"2011-09-09T14:00:44","modified_gmt":"2011-09-09T18:00:44","slug":"the-life-and-times-of-the-socially-awkward-3-speak-out-with-your-geek-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/the-life-and-times-of-the-socially-awkward-3-speak-out-with-your-geek-out\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life and Times of the Socially Awkward #3: Speak Out With Your Geek Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>by Ryan MacDonald<\/a><\/p>\n

I know, the official week isn\u2019t until next week, but if anyone\u2019s got something to say about this it\u2019s me. \u00a0Speak Out With Your Geek Out is a week set aside by those morally outraged by an article written by a certain Gizmodo writer, who\u2019s since been, reportedly, fired, about her date with a Magic The Gathering World Champion. \u00a0He seemingly made no effort to make it the only topic of conversation, though she went out of her way to make it the quintessential deal breaker. \u00a0It was a display which falls beneath even the most scandalous of high school publications.<\/p>\n

Speak Out with Your Geek Out is a week set aside to stand up and talk about something you\u2019re passionate about and to be proud and to share that with others. \u00a0It\u2019s about being positive about something and taking pride in what you do. \u00a0Having started my own effort to unite us as a subculture and community with Spread the Nerd, I can\u2019t help but latch onto this and appreciate the @#!*% out of it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spent my entire life like this. \u00a0As long as I can remember I\u2019ve been a geek. \u00a0And I\u2019ve suffered the hardships that came with the territory, especially when I was in school. \u00a0Saying this makes me feel old, but when I was in school we didn\u2019t have the general acceptance of geekery that exists now. \u00a0Eventually I owned it, wore it like a gleaming red and yellow S, or G rather, on my chest. \u00a0And in doing that I solidified myself for life.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a misconception about the community that I really hope to one day see wiped out, and it\u2019s that we\u2019re nothing more than a\u00a0myopic group of hate mongers.\u00a0 Granted, every group has a handful that are less desirable to deal with than others. \u00a0There\u2019s nothing wrong with wanting the best for the things we put so much of ourselves and our lives into. \u00a0Call it nerd rage if you must, but until you\u2019ve invested yourself into something like we invest ourselves, you may not really understand why we \u201crage\u201d like we do.<\/p>\n

Being a geek, for me, is more than having seen Star Wars more than once, it\u2019s more than playing a card game once or twice, it\u2019s more than watching a particular show. \u00a0Being a geek for me is being passionate about something, about all things. \u00a0And I don\u2019t want to reserve those things exclusively for myself, no, I want to share my passion for all things geek with everyone. \u00a0My hobby isn\u2019t any one geeky thing in particular, it\u2019s all of the things!<\/p>\n

My girlfriend and I have developed a ritual. \u00a0Every Saturday we get up a little bit earlier than we\u2019d really like to, and drive about an hour to sit in our favorite comic shop and play board and card games with each other. \u00a0Anyone who comes into the store is more than welcome to join us, and we\u2019ve even had people step up and sit in and inquire. \u00a0And everyone has left us having had a great time. \u00a0I\u2019ve done everything I could want to do, spent time with my girlfriend, made new friends, and introduced them to new and exciting games they may not have given a second glance to if they\u2019d not been invited to play. \u00a0Through this charge I get from spreading the culture of geek, I\u2019ve developed a movement of my own.<\/p>\n

Not unlike Speak Out with Your Geek Out my effort encourages the geek community to unite and to spread our culture by any means necessary. \u00a0And by any means necessary, I of course mean sending and giving comic books to random strangers. \u00a0Telling your sons, daughters, nieces, and nephews superhero origin stories before bed, introducing someone to the pop culture phenomenon that is Doctor Who. \u00a0I mean, really ANY means necessary and available to each and every person. \u00a0With it I hope to track the travels of a single package of comics, which is being sent to South Florida this week to begin it\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing that I love more than being a geek right now. \u00a0And to pick one hobby to be passionate about is unfair to every hobby that came before and will come after it. \u00a0I\u2019ve been a geek my entire life, and I never felt more fulfilled by it then when I began sharing it with other people.<\/p>\n

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For more views, reviews, and opinions from the geek realms, check out Ryan’s blog over at http:\/\/mylifeasag33k.wordpress.com<\/a>, follow him on twitter @mynameisg33k<\/a>, and don\u2019t forget to join the Spread the Nerd<\/a> effort on Facebook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ryan MacDonald I know, the official week isn\u2019t until next week, but if anyone\u2019s got something to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6106,"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104\/revisions\/6106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}