Myself

1. I am odd.

A week ago, I saw some college guy.  He just walked by me.  He didn't notice me, but I noticed him.  He had long shaggy hair.  The grease level was cranked up to 11.  Unshaven.  Sagging dirty jeans.  Untied shoes.  He took care of his health about as well as he did his jeans.  Which is to stay he doesn't.  I am getting to the point.  Slowly.  But I am painting you a picture so you understand where I am coming from.  On to why I am odd.  All of these things were registering at one time.  Would you like to know what the first thing that popped into my "odd" brain?  I swear to you this is the first thing my brain said (in my head)....

"What a scruffy-looking nerf herder!"

Really, Martin?!?  There were so many different thing processing and that is what I thought.  I could of thought....."wow, that guy is dirty."  Or..  "damn, dude take a shower."  Or...geez, anything.  But no....what came through my brain was a quote from 1980's THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.  For those not in the know here is the exact quote...

Princess Leia: Why, you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking Nerf herder. 

Han Solo: Who's scruffy-looking?

Yes, that would be a Star Wars quote for the late person.  Do I even know what a nerf herder is? Or could I even tell the difference between and well groomed nerf herder and a scruffy looking one?  No.  Which leads me to the next thing I have learned....

2. I am a geek, but not a Super Geek.

I like Star Wars.  I like a lot of different fantasy and science fiction movies, as well.  Movies based on comic book movies are usually pretty awesome.  Unless they are directed by Brett Hackner Ratner.  Also, LOST and FRINGE are two of my favorite shows on the television right now.  Geek is a good word to describe me, but I don't go too overboard.

A friend told me a fantastic story yesterday that pretty much illustrates the difference between these two (geek and super-geek).  My friend took his wife and son to a comic book convention (geek).  There was a costume contest.  As usual, many of the people were dressed up as different Star Wars characters (super-geek).  They thought it would be fun to take a picture with Darth Vader and some of the other geeks dressed up as the bad guys from Star Wars (geeky).  When everyone was ready for the picture, my buddy said, "Everyone say 'Death Star'!" instead of the usual "cheese!" (borderline super-geek).  The picture was taken and I assume they thanked them for posing with his family.  However, a person dressed as a stormtrooper that was standing near my friend heard what he said before he took the picture.  He walked up to him and said this with a straight face...

"We don't say the "D" word around here.  We lost a lot of good people up there."  

He then turned and walked away.  The geek meter just exploded into a million pieces. For the late person, the storm trooper was refering to the Death Star.  Here is a good definition from lovely Wikipedia: 

The Death Star is a fictional moon-sized space station and superweapon appearing in the Star Wars movies. 

In the first (and third) Star Wars movie it was destroyed.  This FICTIONAL space station was filled with storm troopers and their FICTIONAL lives ended violently and abruptly.  They did not get FICTIONAL burials.  Their FICTIONAL remains instantly became FICTIONAL space debris.  There is definitely a difference between dressing up as storm trooper (uber-geeky) and dressing up AND role-playing like a storm trooper (something entirely different and super weird and pretty creepy!).