Geek Inside... Definitely

Anyone who knows me will tell you I have little fashion sense. For years after the Grunge invasion of 1992, I was wearing army boots and flannel until it damn near fell off me. It wasn't until 1998 that I finally cut my hair, and drop-kicked my grunge apparel. I cleaned up my image for the subsequent years, exchanging boots for shoes, and T-shirts of every band I supported into clothing that was a little more "proper". Since 2002, my hippie hair has returned, as my hairline continues to recede. I figured this was my last chance to be a hippie before I would have to resort to shaving my head for the rest of my natural life.

The grunge/punk/hippie movement of the early-mid 90's left a lasting impression on me, probably due to the fact that I was "coming of age" and discovering who I really was. Clothing that was considered "trendy", which is just another name for sweatshop-produced, overpriced, poorly manufactured garments, was avoided like the bubonic plague. The clothes you wear is reflective of your personality.

So I often opted to purchase clothing that made a statement of sorts -- or at least had some inkling of sick, twisted humor. For a number of years, my favorite shirt was one I purchased on Whyte Ave. in Edmonton. It was entirely black, with white letters that said: Rehab is for quitters. I'd wear that shirt to the bar, to parties, to gigs, and it never failed: There always was a person who would read the shirt, and then proceed to spew whatever beverage they were drinking onto the floor in a sticky, cold mist. I made many friends with that shirt, even though there were a select few who didn't share my cynical sense of humor. Sadly, the shirt has been retired, though I miss it terribly.

Thanks to Wil Wheaton, I believe to have found a replacement for my Rehab shirt. He referred his readers to ThinkGeek, where you can purchase nerdy gadgets, and apparel that is somewhat nerdy, yet full of intelligent humor. There is apparel for geeks of all ages and genders. I would suggest to navigate to the T-shirt section, and be prepared to ROFL.

Speaking of which, here is another priceless t-shirt for toddlers. I must give credit to the parent who has the cajones to dress his kid like this. If I were a parent, it would be a cold day in hell before I would take my child in public with such a shirt. I must admit, I LMAO when I first saw this image.

The other day, I purchased a couple T-shirts from ThinkGeek, one of them being the "Geek Inside" t-shirt displayed above. I'm going to love wearing this shirt in public, and perhaps I can get a few unsuspecting strangers to erupt in spontaneous laughter.

It occurs to me that in recent years, at least since the tech bubble, that there is a certain amount of sexiness in being a geek. A few years ago, people bought dark plastic-rimmed glasses. The world embraced computers and the internet. It become more cool to be interested in books and science than to be a jock.

I guess there are nerds that are equally unattractive. Those creeps that lurk in chatrooms, the ones that are 35, overweight, balding, and still living at their parents, -- three letters: O.M.G. Does "get a job" ring a bell?

I really don't want to get into the whole "chatroom" subject here, but I will tell you that for a year or two, I got "addicted" to the chatroom scene. In fact, it was a pretty ugly scene. It was at a point where my life nearly fell apart. You know you have hit a new low point in your life, when you are drinking copious amounts of alcohol by yourself, staying up until sunrise, chatting with (and trying to pick up) strangers, when you don't even really know the age or gender of the person on the other end. At the height of my chat-room addiction, I was on dial-up, staying online for more than eight hours at a time. I would often find myself staying up all night, waiting for a certain person to log in. I even began "cyber-dating", and ended up taking long trips to meet complete strangers. Some of these online relationships developed into telephone buddies, and not only did my internet bill skyrocket, my cellular phone bill became astronomical. A few telephone relationships developed into real relationships, albeit long-distance, where we dated for months but only saw each other a handful of times.

What a way to torture oneself. It was a deluded state of love where the web could make you into anything you wanted to be; and everyone you met was the epitome of the perfect mate. Reality is hardly perfect, and the ideals that were crafted in these chat rooms were incredibly seductive. All was not in vain: I did meet some wonderful and friendly people in those chat rooms.

The chat rooms I used to frequent, are now rather empty. They are (more or less) full of bots that flood the message boards with advertisements for porn, products, or services. I sometimes log into the rooms for kicks, but leave promptly when I see nobody's talking -- if there is even something that resembles a living organism on the other side of the terminal.

Sometimes I think the internet is in a sad state of affairs. When it first became popular, it was a plethora of free information on almost any subject you could imagine. It still is an indispensable learning tool. But the image has become so tarnished. Viruses and Spyware have infiltrated almost every corner of the web. Spam wastes terabytes of server space and floods countless emailboxes. You are almost bound to download something malicious the moment you sign on to a peer-to-peer network (some might argue that if you illegally download software, such malicious software is rightfully deserved).

I expect that eventually things will return to the golden age of the web, but things are going to get worse, before things improve. Programmers will have to invent a more secure internet, or the web will have to be regulated. Personally, I don't like the idea of the latter. The web is our last source of free speech and expression. This is the last place I can speak my mind, or listen to new ideas without fear of censorship. I can hardly imagine what my life would be like (or the world, for that matter) without this medium.

I often wonder if the advent of the web was a little premature for our society. For it to truly be a statement of our technological achievements, and to become the hallmark of our culture, we must be a little more enlightened that what we truly are. It can be surmised that the ability to express oneself, without any repercussions, or accountability, brings out the worst in us, but that is a subject that should be reserved for another entry.