A Brief Note On My Geek Cred

As a software developer, I wasn't really expecting to be rolling with the cutting edge of "cool." At least not as defined by popular media. (Which I'll take this moment to say, is rediculously stupid; I'm not sure I've ever met anyone I respect who gives a rats what the fashion columnists say.) However, I was in no way prepared for the level of geek cred I currently run with.

Geek cred or geek credibility is the geek culture counter-part of street cred. Geek cred in the programming world is a good thing. However, there are certain things that either bring up, or bring down your geek cred. For example, no self respecting geek will sport a tan, and you better know whether 2D4 is better or worse than 1D8. (Paper and pen games for increased geek cred. A +25 geek cred bonus is if you currently play Dungeons and Dragons.)

Anyhow.... almost my entire team meets on Saturdays to play Dungeons and Dragons. They've been doing this for quite some time. And of course, this naturally spills over into the work environment. Whilst chatting with one co-worker over the best translation strategy for merge fields, it isn't uncommon to hear a rulebook question on a spectral hand curse combination against a wraith. Now, to my shame, I don't really know what this means. (It's supposed to be good though. And a -5 geek cred for not being familar with the special problems posed by a wraith in additon to the -25 geek cred penatly for not having played Dungeon and Dragons.)

The situation gets bleaker in other ways:

For example, I'm the one of the few guys on the team that doesn't code at home. Coding, while enjoyable in some ways, is not fun for me. Coding is a job. I'll work hard, and work smart at work, but I'm not particularly thrilled and burning my own time on it. Because of this sad state of affairs, I'm just not as involved in the platform battles that periodically go on. ( A further -5 geek cred for not caring what IoC tool we use.)

As a final blow to my geek cred, I happily use, and intend to continue to use, a Microsoft Windows OS. It's true. I said it. I don't particualarly like Macs. They work in a convoluted and backwards matter. More to the point, I detest the rabid nature of Mac afficionados. It isn't enough for them to love their OS, they have to hate Windows. If your main selling point is that you're not a PC, why also advertise that you can run PC programs? But I digress.......

I'm also not a big fan of Linux. The only real reason for this is because thing's don't work like I expect them to. I am a lazy individual, and don't want to work hard for something that I can do easily. (Score! +2 geek cred!) I don't like command line, and I hate being forced to figure out the minute and often irritating diffrences in commands between Linux flavors. (A -5 geek cred for not preferring command line. -25 geek cred for disliking mac, and -50 for not liking linux.)

I figure that current bunch of guys I work with can only up my geek cred. They're a good bunch of guys, and I'm learning many things from them. (Both what to do and not to do.) I really enjoy the friendships I'm developing there.

I work with a bunch of geeks..... and I fit in there!! The thing that you have to remember though, is that in the end, everyone ends up working for a geek.

What is a blue-jay gonna do with spikes anyway?

My wife and I periodically play "vintage" video games together. So earlier this week we were playing Sonic 2 on the Sega Genesis. All of the sudden, out of the rock, pops what appears to me to be about 7 blue-jay's in a row. These blue-jays spring out in a straight line, then back back into the rock. Now, if you've played Sonic 2 recently, you'll be well aware of the very dirty nature of the game. There are parts that almost perfectly geared in such a way that you CANNOT get through it without getting hit. This blue-jay attack is one of those parts.

So I think to myself, "what the crap are blue jays flying out of rock for? Even for Sonic this is a stretch." As I begin to curse (in a completely non-cursing way) at the game, my wife chimes in that I hit the spikes.

So, thus begins my question. What the crap is a blue-jay gonna do with spikes anyway? Spear the berries before it eats them? So, muttering, I continue to play through this dirty level getting my can kicked repeatedly by the bespiked-blue-jay-trains. It soon becomes apparent to me, that given the proper number of spikes in a long enough train, bespiked-blue-jay-trains could easily dominate the world. Because of this, logically, I think we humans could do with having a few more spikes. The bespiked-blue-jay-trains may take, us, but at least we could take a few of the train with us. ... Of course, I guess we have knifes, which are kinda like spikes, but not in the over-powered bespiked-blue-jay-train fashion. It is the difference between Wolverine and a common mugger.

Regardless I eventually completed the level (with 7 rings, but at least I didn't die trying). However, in the end I realize that the bespiked-blue-jay-train was actually a robotic spiked snake.... which of course isn't near as cool as a fleet of bespiked-blue-jay-trains bent on world domination. So, I guess we humans won't need spike grafts to protect our selves.

........... For now.