Ceph = Geek?

[WhiteKiboko]

found this excerpt in a thing on how to pass as a geek: (italics mine)

"Hobbies: The more obscure, the better. You can always start out with the standard model-building, model railroads, chess, Medievalism. But since geeks love being narrow, beleaguered minorities, don't let that stop you from picking increasingly more esoteric interests, until you're assured that the person you're talking to will never be able to trip you up on cross examination. Instead of crossword, say cryptic. Instead of chess, say go. Instead of tennis, say fencing. Best is to find something that NOBODY ELSE IN THE ROOM HAS HEARD OF. Including interests of your own sole invention. Tell me "I collect cephalopod footprint fossils." doesn't hush the room."

any thoughts?

 

[Fini]

LOL! I find this hilarious. A few years back I went to a head-shrinker as my ex-wife had asked to see if I had some bugs that needed dealt with. Since I was over 30, didn't have kids, and had hobbies that much older or "enlightened" people would take an interest in she told me my best social group would be with gay men over 50!

Geeks do have a way of pulling the more rarified interest cards out. I feel like I've isolated myself a lot with my hobbies, and I would certainly say a special interest in cephalopods would qualify.

My hobby weirdness:
Tarantulas
Cooking
Wine
Coffee Roasting and preparation
Carnivorous Plants
Antique Import Cars (snobby European of course)
High Power Rocketry
Collecting antique Halloween and day of the dead stuff
Kite Fighting
Esoteric spiritual practices
Dark stuff
Indie Music
Turntables
Dog Scootering
and a whole lot more...

 

[cuttlegirl]

Wow, you have a lot of hobbies... although cooking and wine don't seem that odd to me. I just have cephalopods and French Flower beading...

 

[sorseress]

I suspect all of us here could be grouped under the weird banner to some extent. Anytime I mention that I like cephs, or bats, or spiders I get strange looks......then throw in my passion for classical music and opera, obsession with environmental issues, oh yeah, some esoteric spirituality, not in practice, just in study, (unless you count tree hugging) and that I don't like beer or Nascar or much of anything on TV and that I read like a fiend, it becomes evident that I am at least somewhat"different".

 

[clownfish]

If all else fails you can always be a computer geek

oh I keep cephs. and I spend the weekends working on my PC Its fool proof lol

 

[William Tyson]

wow yall have alot more interesting hobbies then i do, as cephs are as weird as my hobbies go, well so far

 

[sorseress]

wow yall have alot more interesting hobbies then i do, as cephs are as weird as my hobbies go, well so far

When you're in high school, there's only so much time to develop weird hobbies. We'll give you some time on that. If you're into cephs now other things bizarre are sure to follow!

 

[sorseress]

Do spinning and weaving count as weird?

 

[monty]

Dog Scootering
and a whole lot more...

Except for not having the slightest idea what "Dog Scootering" is, I think those are all fine hobbies... and believe it or not, I actually know a lot of social groups in which talking about those would be assets.

However, going back to the original post, I've never understood why people that aren't geeks want to pretend they're geeks. I was a geek before being a geek was "cool" and even though I'm pretty darned geeky, I'm not sure I get the "geek chic" thing...

Case in point: a friend of mine gave me a threadbare "Topp's bubble gum" shirt 'cause his sister gave him ten of them or something because she chewed a lot of gum in the 70s. I was wearing it 'cause I'd been painting or something, and went to a restaurant, and the waitress said "wow, that's cool, I bet that's even *real*!" and I was introduced to the notion that most people wearing ratty t-shirts of goofy pop items from the 70s paid $30 for knock-off reproduction shirts at Urban Outfitters.

Similarly, I come across as having "geeky quasi-meta-coolness" because I like cephalopods and functional programming languages and topology and spacecraft dynamics and computer animation and stuff like that... I'm very confused about why people would want to "pretend" to... if they want people to think they're weird, why not embrace their own weirdness instead of trying to emulate someone else's without understanding it?

It's all so confusing...

 

[Fini]

Do spinning and weaving count as weird?

Unless you are two or three hundred years old; yes it's weird. But cool nonetheless.

 

[Fini]

Except for not having the slightest idea what "Dog Scootering" is, I think those are all fine hobbies... and believe it or not, I actually know a lot of social groups in which talking about those would be assets.

Dog scootering is like mushing, but with a two wheel scooter. Basically you use all of the same gear; harnesses, tugline, dogs. Here's a link: http://www.Dogscooter.comDogscooter.com

As for the whole geek chic thing, it's just a trend. Most geeks will roll back into the subhuman class when the information age becomes old hat. I spent my teen years (and those after) behind a computer(s) racking up my geek-points and its nothing to brag about. Monty probably remembers being un-cool as I do. It's funny how the Internet made geeks popular, but I think it's short lived.

 

[bathypol]

Wow, you have a lot of hobbies... although cooking and wine don't seem that odd to me. I just have cephalopods and French Flower beading...

What's French Flower beading? and Dog Scootering?

 

[monty]

Do spinning and weaving count as weird?

No, Weird Sisters dance around cauldrons prognosticating, and Fates do the spinning and weaving for prognosticating. A small distinction, but important nonetheless.

 

[erich orser]

I'm offended that fencing could possibly be lumped into geekiness. You can't murder someone with a tennis racket, after all (well, I suppose one could, but not with any finesse). It's a serious martial art.

Really, geekiness can also be measured by sex appeal. 007 is an exceedingly annoying expert at every obscure, esoteric subject that is ever brought up around him, but would hardly count as a geek (although I suppose Ian Fleming might have been).

 

[monty]

I'm offended that fencing could possibly be lumped into geekiness. You can't murder someone with a tennis racket, after all (well, I suppose one could, but not with any finesse). It's a serious martial art.

Really, geekiness can also be measured by sex appeal. 007 is an exceedingly annoying expert at every obscure, esoteric subject that is ever brought up around him, but would hardly count as a geek (although I suppose Ian Fleming might have been).

The only reason nobody thinks 007 is a geek is because he's always got Q around, and no one looks geeky next to Q.

And I'm afraid that killing people in anachronistic ways is, in fact, still geeky. And the fact that you intellectually considered the possibility of killing someone with a sporting accessory makes you geeky, as well. Now, if you just grabbed a tennis racquet, a golf club, or a polo mallet and actually killed someone on a whim, then that would make you some sort of [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Skakel']silver-spoon murderous Kennedy cousin[/url] or something, which would be reprehensible but not geeky (and, as you point out, devoid of finesse). Of course, had he used a fencing saber or something, he would have been suave, geeky, and reprehensible... and he clearly had a leg up in the suave department, but blew the whole thing with the murderous idiocy. tsk.