Take pride in thy geekery!

I've been busy with stuff recently... I have a couple of posters I'm trying to get organised in time for a conference next week. In Toulouse. Apparently, I'm a jet setter now. But I couldn't let today go by without saying -- Happy Geek Pride Day! Yep, that's right. A day when all of us geeks can cherish the things that most people pour scorn upon us for. Rise up, my nerdy cohorts, for your time is now!

So apparently, I am a geek. Though sometimes I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I don't draw the same kind of strict boundaries between work and !work that other people draw... But that's a rant for another time. In any case, for your nerdish enjoyment, I present the Geek Manifesto!

The Geek Manifesto

Rights:

1. The right to be even geekier.
2. The right to not leave your house.
3. The right to not like football or any other sport.
4. The right to associate with other nerds.
5. The right to have few friends (or none at all).
6. The right to have as many geeky friends as you want.
7. The right to be out of style.
8. The right to be overweight and near-sighted.
9. The right to show off your geekiness.
10. The right to make an attempt at being as geeky as Matt Young, and the right to fail. (Topher Stumph came quite close, but he too, failed).
11. The right to develop serious crushes on Randall Munroe, Shane Carruth & Bo Burnam, as opposed to say… James Franco. (See 10).
12. The right to carry a Thesaurus with you at all times, as opposed to an iPhone. (See 10)
13. The right to execute shameless self advertisement via the Wikipedia Geek Pride Day page. (See 10).
14. The right to falsely assume the surnames Finkleton, Waldman, Stratzer and Krukemeyer.
15. The right to quote Firefly, xkcd, or both, whenever at all possible.
16. The right to take over the world.

Responsibilities:

1. Be a geek, no matter what.
2. Try to be nerdier than anyone else.
3. If there is a discussion about something geeky, you must give your opinion.
4. To save and protect all geeky material.
5. Do everything you can to show off geeky stuff as a "museum of geekiness."
6. Don't be a generalized geek. You must specialize in something.
7. Attend every nerdy movie on opening night and buy every geeky book before anyone else.
8. Wait in line on every opening night. If you can go in costume or at least with a related T-shirt, all the better.
9. Don’t waste your time on anything not related to geekdom.
10. Befriend any person or persons bearing any physical similarities to comic book or sci-fi figures.
11. Try to take over the world!

(Source)

In fairness, one should be careful not to confuse a geek with a nerd. There is a subtle difference between the two, as is exemplified by this convenient venn diagram:

...I just proved my point didn't I? Crap. Oh well, at least I can be proud of it today!