It's come to my attention that I am not nearly science geeky enough. Sure, I love Star Trek like the millions of other Trekkies (did I even spell that right?) out there. But I would never dress up and go to a convention or anything.
Sure, I've seen some movies, watched some TV (although I'm really into reality TV, not so much science fiction...), read some books. So. I need you to tell me: Where do you get your geek on? What movies should I be watching? What TV shows? What books should I be reading? Where should I be geeking out on the Internet?
Help me get my geek on!
Where You Get Your Geek On
  The League of Extraordinary Writers is a group of debut YA authors who write science fiction and dystopian works. The ten of us have works that run the gamut of near-future mind control to far-future space travel, but they do have one thing in common: a future where the Earth we know now is twisted, gone. |
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17 comments:
I took my daughter to Anime Weekend Atlanta recently and it was frawesome. Yes, I stole your word.
I would recommend watching Doctor Who and going to youtube.com/vlogbrothers. Have fun getting your nerd on! :)
Discover Magazines. Seriously. You can't make that s%!t up! I'm astounded by the wild, out-there science stuff that is actually HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!
Well, everyone's geek a little different. I was (literally) raised on Star Trek, and I watched every single one of the shows and loved them. I also really enjoyed Babylon 5, though it's a lot darker than Star Trek. Then of course there's Farscape and Firefly and all the Stargates. I'd recommend reading anything by Terry Brooks, especially the Knight of the Word series and Armageddon's Children (dystopia). I personally like to balance my sci-fi geekery with some fantasy geekery--helps me round ideas out in my brain.
Proper geek-dom and nerd-ery takes years to master.
You should watch The Guild webisodes. Also, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog if you haven't seen that yet.
For books I recommend Stephen Hawking's The Grand Design, recently released, nonfiction. And for fiction, Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, which won the 2009 Nebula and 2010 Hugo.
Sadly, you will have to do many more things to understand true geek-ery. As a SuperNerd(tm), I can tell you that it took years of devotion to video games and nerd culture to achieve such status.
A comment on "But I would never dress up and go to a convention or anything". I used to feel the same way. Even though I'm a huge nerd, I had still never been to a convention. Then, one of my friends made me go with him (he had broken up with his girlfriend and threw the 'but I don't want to go alone and wallow in self pity' card.)
It was one of the best experiences ever.
I have now attended Dragon*Con (Atlanta's SF/F con) three years in a row. Seriously, you have to try it just once. And at the very least, the people watching is awesome.
As for recommendations for movies/TV shows/books...ahem:
TV shows: Star Trek, Stargate, X-Files, Quantum Leap, Sliders, Battlestar Galatica (old and new), Firefly, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Eureka, Warehouse 13...
Authors: Isaac Asimov, Peter F. Hamilton, Anne McCaffrey, David Weber, Timothy Zahn...
And of course, this is just the SF side of things. Like Summer, I balance my SF with a good dose of fantasy as well.
Watch lots of old Dr. Who (like the Tom Baker years) and new Dr. Who. Also Battlestar Galactica--I'm still so sad that it's over! Currently on TV: The Big Bang Theory which is sweet and funny and definitely geeky. Visit the website of astrophysicist Phil Plait (called Bad Astronomy) as he is funny and smart and does a great job of bringing space information to the less... astrophysicisty of us: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/
Yay, geek stuff is so fun!
i09 is a gawker based website for geeks. That's a good place to start.
Jezebel, though it's a gawker based feminism site, also touches occasionally on the geekery.
You have to watch the one and only season of Firefly! Awesome, and it saddens me still that they canceled that show.
Watch old episodes of the TV show Sliders on netflix. You will heart Quinn. He's a cutie, sliding through alternate universes with his friends.
Netflix instant viewing is your ticket to instant geekdom. Bittersweet (and others)mentioned a lot of great shows--esp. Doctor Who, B5, BSG. I'd add:
Red Dwarf, Caprica, the original Prisoner, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Highlander, Buffy, Futurama...
I get my geek on in the privacy of my own home. Netflix and are great buds.
Okay. True Geekdom starts with watching all three extended editions of Lord of the Rings and the "making of" videos as well.
Then, you need to buy all J.R.R. Tolkien books and learn how to speak elvish.
Lastly, you start playing dungeons and dragons and answering/speaking to people in elvish.
Once you've mastered that, you are well on your way to being the true Geek you deserve to be.
Summer makes a great point. What sort of geek are you? Silly sci fi geek? (Doctor Who maybe?) Dark brooding sci fi geek? (Battlestar Galactica. Definitely.) Some mix of the two? (Hmm....Firefly?)
Oh, to keep your finger on the pulse of all things sci fi and spec fiction I know of no better place that io9.com. It's one of my multi times a day must reads.
Excellent stuff! I have never seen Sliders, Firefly, or Dr. Who. Tragedy, I know. I will definitely check those out.
I'm more of a Quantum Leap kind of girl. I know about io9, but I've never spent any time there. I can tell I have some catching up to do.
Thanks, everyone!
Fringe is fantastic. I also love Firefly, Torchwood & Battlestar Gallatica. Sadly they're not currently on - just DVDs.
Well, I believe my geeky-ness started young. Maybe it was in seventh/eighth grade when all the other girls were buying makeup and clothes I was buying "Return of the Jedi" Star Wars cards. I spent a fortune on them, but I got the complete set of 125 different cards. I still have them all. Honestly, they are one of my prize possessions. Pretty geeky, huh?
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