Geek Homework

This is directly from a "geek bio" thing I was asked to do for Inner Geeks.

My name is Lestack and I'm an alcoh- I mean, I'm a geek.

My geekiness began as a child when I learned all I could about the solar system. At that age, I wanted to be an astronaut. Naturally, my talents with maths prevented me becoming an astronaut as an adult. Also my abhorrence for military service, authority, and general lack of interest in learning an entire new language. This interest in all things geeky emerged when I learnt of sci-fi stories of time travel. I was introduced by the Academy Award-nominated film trilogy Back to the Future. To be fair I was introduced to the series via Universal Studios' Back to the Future: The Ride in Orlando. From there it was a short jump to Star Trek IV: The One With The Time Travel And Whales. The next year I saw the Star Wars trilogy on USA network on Christmas Day. For the younger readers, you must understand, many years hence, they used to play other movies on Christmas Day than just A Christmas Story for 24 bloody hours straight. After the new movies came out, or rather after Episode I came out, I fell off the Star Wars wagon, though never quite the whole science fiction wagon. I picked the habit back up one summer when I was bored to bloody tears and had a library membership. I read all the Star Wars books beginning with the Han Solo novels from before the original movie all the way to the New Jedi Order, which at that point had just grown the beard. Off and on I would become interested in other sci-fi franchises. I read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy shortly after the death of Douglas Adams, The Colour of Magic on the recommendation of a friend, and The Lord of the Rings because the movies had come out (I'm glad I read them, but I watch the films a lot more). I also picked up the Harry Potter series after having seen the first two films and been greatly impressed with them.

I truly began to branch out from franchise sci-fi when I picked up Matthew Woodring Stover's Heroes Die based on my love of his Star Wars novel Traitor. Stover's writing is a darker territory than anything I'd read before, but it seemed to fit with my interests perfectly. I read his other books when I got a chance, and after the release of Revenge of the Sith (the novelisation was written by Stover), I picked up the Republic Commando novels by Karen Traviss. After enjoying the hell out of them, I picked up her original-universe novels, the Wess'har Wars series. Upon discovering she was writing a tie-in novel for the video game franchise Gears of War, I bought that book having never played a second of the game. To date, I own all the novels written by Karen Traviss, Matthew Stover, Douglas Adams and JK Rowling.

Currently, I am reading the Dune prequels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson after having completed the audiobook to Dune and met Kevin J Anderson last fall. Attentive buggers may have noticed I lean heavily towards book-format sci-fi, but I am also a fan of Buffy, Angel (some of the series), Firefly, Dollhouse, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, the first series of Heroes, Torchwood, X-files, Red Dwarf, Cowboy Bebop, X-men, V for Vendetta, Shaun of the Dead, Watchmen, Neil Gaiman, Robert A Heinlein, World War Z, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (the first two movies as well). Pay attention, because there will be a quiz.

Outside of geeky things, I am a journalism major, I work at a clothing shop in the mall which shall remain nameless to protect my own ass, I am a major anglophile who wants to live in Boston on the grounds that I don't need a visa, and I use Mac products exclusively. Oh wait, that one was geeky.

Within Inner Geeks, I am the geek liason – I contact the members regarding their contact info and notify them about events and meetings. I also send out spam-porn emails on occasion, but usually only after I've been drinking a lot.