For all you texters out there….

Both the original image (from  shaymus022) and this “remix” are licensed under creative commons:
Some rights reserved.

Ism x 3

Symbolism: 2 of these symbols were created by Roman priests more than 2000 years ago; one was created by an ISO standards board less than 100 years ago; and the accompanying notation was invented by Descarte in the 17th century. Yet the stylistic elements all work together quite nicely.

Egotism: I’m no sort of artist, but I think that the above rendition came out very well. Therefore you may see my trying my hand at simple cartoonograms in the future. Be warned.

Commercialism: In fact, I was pleased enough with how this came out that I went and tossed a couple of the panels onto t-shirts. If they happen to tickle your fancy, you can go pick up your own copy at the Geek Power shop. How’s that for selling out? If you ain’t interested, that’s fine too. I haven’t quit my day job.

(Update: apparently typepad isn’t happy with images above a certain width, so I’ve had to put in a thumbnail pointing to the full-sized image. Do click through to see the real thing.)

Geekday link roundup

I have decided to arbitrarily label the middle day of the week to be Geekday, since the English speaking world has traditionally named it in honor of the Nerd of the Aesir.  In celebration, I hope to make a weekly ritual of compiling various links that I have ecoutered over the previous week (or two) that help glorify the wide world of geekdom.  So without further ado, I present the first installment of the geekday links:

• My hometown newspaper, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has discovered that "geeks rule", and wrote a pretty nice article about the whole phenomenon.  (Thanks to Unspace for the pointer.)
• For serious geek science, I’m voting for the ultra-cool high-speed photos of popping balloons, posted by cdibona over on Flickr.  (A nod to Cory Doctorow at Boing-Boing for pointing these out.)
• For crafting geeks, my lady points out "wormspit.com".  Here we have a man who creates his own woven silk ribbons starting from the caterpillar, and will tell you all about it in great detail.  This is worth the link for the name alone.
• For fandom geeks, we have to go with the storytelling sensation that has swept the internet, Klingon Fairy Tales.  For the religiously inclined, I also have to point out "A Klingon Word from the Word".  This is, as best I can determine, serious bible study, using the lens of an alien language to examine the text of the bible in a new light.

And so I must end this geekday’s offerings, with less than minutes to spare before the end of the day.  With luck, I’ll have a larger bucket of links for next week.

Geek Hall of Fame, part 2

In a previous post, I compiled a list of TV characters who cast geeks in a positive light by actually placing them in starring roles.  This list was present in the hopes that it might encourage folks to seek out and promote geek-friendly TV and geek role-models.  Since that list was posted, I received several suggested additions: Stargate SG-1‘s Daniel Jackson and Samantha Carter; the whole crew at CSI; and "Bug" from Crossing Jordan.  I’ve omitted them because they are not starring roles, but it is clear that I need to start a "supporting role hall of fame" to supplement the "star gallery".  In the meantime, I do have one new entry for the star’s list:

• Alton Brown: As writer and star of the Food Network’s Good Eats, and as commentator for Iron Chef America, Alton is the quintessential cooking geek.  Between his regular pauses to consult with nutritional anthropologists; his on-air science experiments and improvised molecular models; and the need for an annotated script to catch all of the puns he sneaks in — this is quality geek-TV.  (Oh, and my lady recommends all three of his books and his line of Kershaw knives.  If you head to his site to buy them, tell him Gclectic sent you — although he won’t know who the heck you’re talking about.)

My blithe use of the phrase "cooking geek" brings up a very important question:  what is a geek anyway?  Isn’t it just another word for "science nerd"?  Well, I’m glad my hypothetical reader asked, because I’ve given that question a bit of thought.  The traditional definition, of course, refers to a person who bites the heads off of chickens.  I do not, personally, subscribe to that definition.  The negative connotations are nicely summed up in the wikipedia entry, which begins "A derogatory term for one with low social skills, often with average intelligence, as opposed to nerds, who are generally viewed as having low social skills but high intelligence."  I’ve personally always regarded the derogatory usages of "nerd" and "geek" to be equivalent, but I no longer subscribe to the derogatory interpretation either, so I won’t quibble.  This brings us to my current definition of "geek":

One who is preoccupied with a specialized interest beyond the limits of conventional social acceptability.

On the surface, this would seem to imply that geekhood was a negative trait.  However, this is only true if you believe that the standards of conventional society are correct ones.  To my mind these standards are the reason cocktail party conversations center around "What do you think of the weather?" and "So where do you work?".  (See my earlier post on the advantages of partying with opinionated people.)  In some cases, it even goes so far as "My daddy told me what I’m allowed to be interested in, and your hobby isn’t on the list".  Thus, it is perfectly acceptable to hold forth at great length on the subject of football and baseball, but not on Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the upcoming release of Serenity.  (Hey, I already admitted that I was a geek.  I’ll take a Joss Whedon production over sports any day of the week.)  Of course, I can always talk about cooking instead:  "Hey Alton, when’s the episode on kimchi coming out?"

The body of a geek god….

For decades, the heroes of our TV shows have basically been frat boys:  jocks,
rich kids, and all around beautiful people.  I’m not one of those people.  I’m a geek — the sort of person
that Thomas Sullivan Magnum, III would have shoved into a locker in high
school. Benjamin Franklin Pierce may have been a brilliant surgeon, but he’d never have
tripped over me at the university library — he was holed up with a keg of
beer and three nurses.  So it goes across the board: the "nerds", "geeks",
"greasy grinds", "egg-heads", and "four-eyed brainiacs" do not get the starring
roles.  (We get to be the comic relief, and sometimes even have the best
characters: Wilson and Al Borland rocked on "Home
Improvement" and certainly mousy little Kay Simmons was one of the bright lights on "V.I.P.".  But that’s not the point — we’re still being
shoved into lockers.)

Now in 1985 we got a brief respite.  Angus MacGyver may have been eye-candy for the ladies, but he actually stayed awake through all of his science and engineering classes.  (I don’t know if they ever made clear how much he learned in class at Western Tech and how much he learned from special forces training.)  Shove him into a locker and he’d not only find 27 items to help him get
out, but also some useful materials to make sure the Mustang your daddy
bought you doesn’t run so well tomorrow. With a seven year run, the show certainly made MacGyver a household word, and started the process of making practical engineering "cool".  Unfortunately, the usual swarm of shameless imitators failed to appear.

As far as I can recall, we had no other high quality geek leading men until this year, with the premier of "Numb3rs".  For some reason, all the cast listings give Don Eppes the top billing, but we know who the true stars are:  the mathematical theories, the consultants who keep them more or less accurate, and Charlie Eppes.  When Charlie gives his "Math is nature’s language" speech and the ladies’ eyes glaze over — not with boredom but with wonder — you know that they’ve done something very right.  (Okay, the actress may have reacted that way because the script said to; and my own lady lusts after his body as well as his mind; but I was grooving on the poetry of it, and I like to think everyone else was too.)  You certainly will trip over Charlie at the university library, and the beer kegs are suspiciously absent.  (We don’t know if he was snagged by any nurses as an undergrad, but if so they were presumably turned off by a guy more interested in Traveling Salesmen than shoe salesmen.  Their loss.)  This show is a winner all around — it portrays mathematics as both interesting and useful; it gets the details right; and it will inspire the watchers to actually re-examine that "dry, dusty" subject.  And just as importantly, it’s darned good entertainment.

As far as TV drama goes, that’s about it.  It’s pretty slim pickings, but I’m hoping that the success of Numb3rs will inspire more producers to take a chance.  In the meantime, there’s another orchard that’s borne some tasty fruit, and it’s one that usually produces bitter lemons: reality TV.

What we get here is a true marvel.  We have real people, who are not merely allowed to show their true geek colors but rewarded for applying their full nerd potential to real problems.  Instead of useless challenges like eating bugs (which have few practical applications in urbanized western Pennsylvania), we get to see people exercising their true potential by building an automated hockey-playing machine.  And, while tensions do arise in the build-bays, the true drama of the shows is where it should be: in battling to apply creativity to solve hard problems, and to applying your skills to the utmost the make sure that your creation beats the [insert your favorite four letter word here] out of the competition’s device.

The formula shone marvelously in Scrapheap Challenge, Junkyard Wars, BattleBots, Panic Mechanics, Full Metal Challenge and Master Blasters.  These are the shows that actually kept me glued to the TV set; that had me watching in nearly real time because I couldn’t wait, rather than letting the TiVo time-shift them to whatever day or week was convenient.  These are, alas, the shows that blazed across the broadcast firmament for a few brief seasons, and then disappeared from American TV, to the vast disappointment of the teeming masses of nerd sympathizers and geek groupies.  (I’m the former, while my lady falls into both categories.  I don’t think there’s a star mentioned in this post that she hasn’t lusted after at one time or another.  Luckily, I got to her first.)

Now, in researching this post, I find that the shows aren’t gone.  Scrapheap Challenge has aired an extra season that apparently isn’t going to be shown anywhere in the US, and there’s a spin-off series called "Scrappy Races".  BattleBots are apparently still going strong, but nobody is bothering to televise them.  What’s up guys?  Did TLC and Discovery network not notice that they were getting a perfect demographic and attracting advertisers that are never going to profit off of "Dawson’s Creek"?  Did they think that we weren’t paying attention, or that we were all using our TiVos and ReplayTVs to skip the commercials?  (Here’s a hint guys.  show good commercials, and don’t over-saturate the time-slot.  We actually watched each new commercial on these shows. TiVo makes it easy to say "Hey wait a minute.  I haven’t seen that one before.")  Did Comedy Central not notice that BattleBots was a hit, and even so, did nobody else care to pick it up?  Heck, give us a special GeekTV channel for this stuff if that’s what it takes.  (I don’t know why the existing ZDTV/TechTV/G4 hasn’t been carrying this stuff.  Perhaps they assume the video game generation doesn’t have the attention span for Junkyard Wars, but they should love BattleBots.)

Lesser credit goes to Escape from Experiment Island, Monster Garage, and Beauty and the Geek.  They did some really cool things, and weren’t afraid to show real people (or "LA real", in the case of Monster Garage) but they felt obliged to go back the classic reality show staple of bickering as entertainment.  For me, this gets old quick.  Engineering on the other hand, just keeps getting stronger after a whole lot of millenia.  You should go with the tried and tested….

But I digress.  (It’s what I’m best at.)  This post is about the stars and heroes –  the men that little geek children will look to in generation to come and say: "I want to be just like him".  (I love geekettes too, BTW, and would love to revisit them later.  However, gender roles in sciences and engineering are too big an issue for this post.  I don’t digress that much.)  Therefore, here is one geek’s list of top geek TV roles:

1. Charlie Eppes:  What can I say.  He’s a fresh new face, and he’s got what it takes.  See above.
2. Angus MacGyver:  Not so new, but likewise.
3. Captain Montgomery Scott:  Seriously old school, and some would say he wasn’t the star, but those are just quibbles.  He had the right stuff.
4. William "Crash" Yerazunis: Crash, like all of those who follow, is a real person.  With a PhD in AI and 19 US patents, his geek credentials are impeccable.  Nor does he depend upon credentials alone — he had serious star-power on Junkyard Wars and appears to hold the current record for best spam filter.
5. Lt. Col Dick Strawbridge, MBE: Another old-school entry, Dick has an incredibly impressive resume, with a long military career, multiple TV shows, vast experience in bodgery, and (apparently) several more polished inventions ready to be patented and marketed.
6. Grant Imahara:  Grant is a triple threat, with appearances on BattleBots, Junkyard (Mega)Wars and Mythbusters.  His resume is a geek playground, with an ILM career than includes, amongst other highlights, "flight time" on both R2D2 and the Energizer Bunny.
7. Terry Stroud: Actually, both Dan and Terry of team "Master Blasters" deserve the nod here.  They both have excellent geek credentials, and a winning attitude.  I gave the edge to Terry because he sports the perfect geek look.  I’m still new to their show, so I can’t swear they’ve got the sheer nerd-stamina to hold out for the long haul, but I’m rooting for them.

There you have it.  My heroes.  The guys who believe quality TV has more to do with getting the job done than perfectly groomed hair.  Every one of them is a great role model.  (BTW, If you are just now choosing your path and think that the babes don’t go for guys like that — guess again.  Maybe I’m just lucky that I landed the perfect lady in spite of being a geek, but if I ever lose her it’ll be to one of these guys, not a jock.  And there really are lots of other ladies like her out there.  They aren’t on the cheerleading squad, and you may have to look around the paperback book and past the glasses, but they exist.  Better yet, enjoy the glasses.  Glasses are sexy.)   Did I miss your favorite geek hero, or geek-positive show?  Let me know.  Maybe together, we can show the world that being smart, creative, and a bit obsessive is not an insurmountable handicap.