Well, I’m officially a geek. I attended my first ever web developer’s conference…and I liked it. WordCamp NYC is a conference that is held for people using the popular and open source website CMS platform WordPress. The conference topics ranged from “A Beginner’s Guide to WordPress” to “Object Oriented Programming for Plugin Development”. I fell somewhere in between the two in terms of level of expertise. Having taught myself everything I know about web development, it’s sometimes hard to know where I fit in to the web development community. I’ve determined that I know enough about this world to know how to break stuff at a high level.

Some of you are saying, “Dude, we’ve know about your geekdom for a long time.” My wife has been telling me that I’m a geek for years. I think the turning point for her was when I installed Ubuntu (Linux) on our Desktop computer and then made it look like OSX (Mac’s Operating System). What can I say? Windows XP just wasn’t doing it for me anymore.

I’ve rejected her claims, though, because I associate “geek” with the 2^nd definition – “peculiar” or “dislikable”. After all, I’m a cool cat. I play basketball. I rarely play computer games…and when I do, it’s a sports game. I don’t know anything about Star Trek and I’ve only seen the Star Wars movies once. And I’ve NEVER dressed up as a Space Cowboy. (I admit that my enjoyment of Firefly is certainly a hit against my record, though.)

So, with that qualified, I officially accept that I’m a geek.

But if you ever call me one, I’ll probably punch you in the face… J-Dogg don’t put up wit dat.

geek
noun. slang.

1. a computer expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self reference, but often considered offensive when used by outsiders.)
2. a  peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, especially one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.
3. a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.

Source: Dictionary.com