You may have noticed I’ve been using a new avatar here on my blog and on Twitter. During our trip to Dorset, Cristiano made a couple of cool photos of me and I had been thinking for a while to change the avatar I use everywhere. The old one was taken 2 years ago in Italy, so it really felt like time to update it. 

I liked the colours in this one, but after trying it out in a smaller size, it just didn’t pop out as much as I wanted (plus the hairs in front of my eyes look weird in small):

I really loved this sepia photo of me, but after cropping it and rescaling it, it just didn’t seem to work as an avatar:

Then Cristiano suggested changing the colours; instead of sepia, there’s now a slight overlay of the Miss Geeky red over it. I think it fits pretty good in this site:

What do you think?

Interesting links for September 23rd:

• The Stargate Universe Team Assembles – A list of some of the new characters of the new Stargate spinoff, Stargate Universe (aka Voyager 90210). So who do we got? The old guy/leader, the medic, the spoilt rich girl, the Good Will Hunting type genius, the hot reckless guy and the big butch guy. Anyone else noticing we're still missing the alien?
• All of Them Witches – A fashion photo shoot with Emma Watson (aka Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies), modeling designer dresses. I love the Alexander McQueen one; it fits perfectly with the magic vibe. The rest look pretty cool too, except for the Matthew Williamson. What the hell is going on there?? She's floating?
• 60th Annual Emmy Awards: Very Good, Very Bad, Real Ugly – Ooh, Red Carpet dresses from the Emmy's and comments from the Jezebel blog. I'm absolutely adoring Olivia Wilde's princess dress (but then I'm a closet Disney princess). The Bad dresses aren't as bad as previous red carpets, but still: they aren't the most flattering dresses for those celebrities.
• Valerie Atherton’s Playground and Intellectual Department – I have no idea if this blog is real or not. It's from an 18 year old girl who was a successful tweenmodel who "grew up being told by my parents and teachers and friends that there was something special about me". I've read a couple of her "reviews", but they're more like faulty plot synopsis's. For instance about TDK: Batman has the superhero abilities of superhuman strength and flying (ehm…no), Heath Ledger knew he was dying while shooting The Dark Knight (again: no) and Spiderman, Hulk Hogan and Iron Man are popular superheroes (well, two out of three ain't that bad).

Interesting links for September 16th through September 19th:

• Badvertising: Sex Sells. Or Does It? – Guess the products (and brand) from the sexy ads. Some pretty easy ones, but there are a couple of weird ones too.
• Triviagasm: What's the Real Explanation for the Roswell Incident? – Cool list of all the different explanations in tv shows, movies, etc for Roswell. One remark though: the Roswell tv series from a few years back was based on a book series, but the premise of the book (where the aliens came from) was completely different from the tv show.
• The Stretch: Find True Love in Fight Club – Funny post explaining how Fight Club could be seen as a version of Romeo and Juliet.
• The Pixar Blog: Docters building dream home – Now here's where I'd like to live when I never grow up.

Interesting links for September 5th through September 11th:

• ohnotheydidnt: Kermit Bale – Cool collection of photos comparing Christian Bale to Kermit the Frog.
• Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet? – In depth article about the Hadron Collider and whether or not it has destroyed the world yet.
• Tokyo Fantasy: Images of the apocalypse – Wow, beautiful photoshopped images/photos of a post-apocalyptic Tokyo.
• Made in China – A whole bunch of Chinese fashion photoshoots. Some of the them are amazing, some I just don't "get".

Interesting links for August 26th through September 2nd:

• Geek Girl Friday: Darth Vader Nesting Dolls – Awh, these Darth Vader nesting dolls are just so cute! I've always liked the idea of those Russian nesting dolls, but I never liked the design/painting of them (too headachy). But these are sweet!
• Why Me?: Greenpeace – I linked to this artist a while back and how her art is being used as part of a very clever campaign from Greenpeace: "Every signature helps save our seas."
• Roberson's Interminable Ramble – Interesting letter from 1865, where an ex-Tennessee slave, responds to his former master's invitation to return as a laborer on his plantation.
• Codebox Software – How many of the 100 most common words of the English Language do you know? Little game/app that gives you 5 minutes to guess. I got 52 of the 100 (and forgot some pretty simple ones!), what's your score?

As I’ve said many times before, I consider myself a real geek. It’s not something I’ve grown into the last couple of years or have taken on because it’s nowadays “hip”. I can seriously say that at all stages in my life I’ve been a geek in one form or another.

A while ago (10 months to be exact) I wrote a post about the definition of geekiness, where I tried to explain what I think a geek is. At the time I came up with the following:

a person with a passionate devotion to and an extensive knowledge of a particular interest

The main difference from the original “definition” that I wanted to bring across, was the fact that geeks aren’t just fans liking a specific topic, but that they truly are obsessed/passionate/devoted to it. Plus the fact that they aren’t necessarily socially inept. Yes, there are non-social geeks… but that doesn’t mean we all are.

Photo by alistair_uk on Flickr

Now I’ve noticed most people tend to agree with my definition (in as far as I can claim it as “my” definition). Except for one point. They always assume the particular interest is tech-related. Geeks mean gadget-loving, computer-wielding tech-lovers. Is this true? I don’t think so. In my eyes, you could be a geek in any topic: from math to snowboarding to mobiles.

And that brings me to the title of this post: six degrees of geekiness. I am six types of geeks all rolled into one*:

1. The TV Show Geek

2. The Sci-Fi Geek

3. The Movie Geek

4. The Book Geek

5. The Game Geek

6. The Computer Geek

I was going to write about how I got into each of these geekhoods, only to discover there’s way more backstory to each of them (hey, I’m a blogger, I like to talk about myself, get used to it). For instance, my descent into Sci-Fi started with my attempt to enter a harmless drawing competition at our local mall. And how could I not tell the tale of how I became a computer geek without mentioning my beloved graphic calculator?

Photo by illustir on Flickr

So instead I thought I’d do a collection of blog posts: each one about another of my geek sides. You can expect the first some time later this week. In the mean time, why don’t you share a bit of your geek background stories. How many degrees of geekiness do you possess? 

* I am now omitting my minor prior geekhoods of Math Geek, Egypt Geek, Conspiracy Theory Geek, Paranormal/Ancient Weird Stuff Geek. I’m not as obsessed about those topics now as I once used to be. But, seriously, you’d be surprised at how many weird random facts are just floating through my brain. 

Interesting links for August 12th through August 16th:

• Series Creator Kevin Falls Reveals The Secrets Of JOURNEYMAN!! – AICN interview with the creator and main writer of Journeyman. I’m still annoyed that this series was cancelled. I think if it wasn’t for the writer’s strike, they may have actually gone on with it. Such a shame, cause it could have been great.
• Styrofoam dome homes – Don’t these houses look adorable?
• A Collection of Olympic Torches – Gallery of all the different designs the Olympic Torch has taken on throughout the years. My favourite is the Sydney 2000 one, although I might be a bit biased.
• The Blogadilla Swedish Furniture Name Generator – I’m MELLYNTA, a Coffee Table. Who are you?
• Springfield Punx – Unique little blog from a guy who creates Simpsons versions of pop culture characters. Take a look at his archive, he’s done quite a lot already. Spiderman, Batman, The Matrix, Back To The Future, they all get the yellow Simpsons makeover.
• Jason de Caires Taylor, Underwater Sculptures – This underwater art is just creepy and beautiful at the same time.
• Page F30: Why Norwegian is the easiest language for English speakers to learn – I’m now bilingual in Dutch and English, but I only learned Dutch properly when I was 8. It wasn’t too difficult, but then I had already been “exposed” to the language and was still young. This blog post not only explains why Norwegian is “easy” for English speakers (not sure if I completely agree though), but also compares it to other languages like Dutch and Afrikaans.
• Selling Women’s Clothes To Women: Athleta Vs. Victoria’s Secret [Today In Catalogs] – Interesting comparison of two catalogues and how they present their clothes.
• The Beauty of Steampunk Fashion – I love a couple of these outfits. I don’t have the guts or the eccentricity to pull something like that off in real life, but they still look amazing.

After seeing a couple of other people post their results on Flickr, I thought I’d give a go of FaceYourManga. It’s an manga-avatar creation website, where you can choose from a whole range of different features to build your own manga face. Here’s what I came up with:

So… does this look like me? In my opinion, kind of. I wished you could specify your own colours (I mean , how hard can that be?). My hair and eye colour aren’t right at all; they’re a much warmer brown, while this is just bland. Anyhow, it’s a nice little app to play with.

Check out some other people’s Manga Faces: Cristiano, Alper, Dan, Eelke and Jo.

Interesting links for August 6th through August 12th:

• Geek Hierarchy: Find Your Place In Geek Life – I never considered myself a snob, but according to this "Geek Hierarchy" I'm pretty high in the list.
• John Scalzi – Is The Dark Knight Oscar Ready? – The title says it all: a review of whether or not The Dark Knight will be nominated at the Oscars.
• Tube Door Etiquette – I'm getting more and more annoyed with pushy people who want to get in the moment the tube doors open, while there are a bunch of people wanting to get out. Bit of room, bit of patience, maybe? I'm slowly learning to use casually use my elbow and nudge those type of people away, but it doesn't really help. This is a great little anecdote of what one girl did in the same type of situation. Pure brilliance…

Interesting links for July 31st through August 4th:

• When Geeks and Stained Glass Collide – Ooh pretty! I like stained glass artwork, but most of the time it's boring bible depictions. This is way cooler! I especially love the Spiderman one.
• Why Heath Ledger Can Be Replaced As The Joker | The Movie Blog – I agree completely wit this blog post. The author tries to reason why (if the Joker has a role in the next movie) he could and should be replaced. It shouldn't be seen as an insult to Ledger, that's like saying (now I'm quoting) “The best way to honor the magnificent career of Michael Jordan and to thank him for what he did for the game of basketball is to shut down the NBA after he retired”.
• The Art of Alex CF » Artwork – The artist that inspired the Wonderland expedition kit (see next link). These designs are just gorgeous (although I don't think I'd actually want to own any of these).
• absinthetic: Wonderland expedition kit – Guy made this for his girlfriend's birthday. It's an expedition kit from an explorer who traveled to Wonderland, filled with "exotic" memorabilia and specimens. I love the pinned up Soldier of Hearts and the small/big potions.
• Top 10 Geekiest, Nerdiest Bento Box Art – Funny list of geeky bento boxes. Some obvious designs like Mario and Pacman, but also some strange choices like Bill Gates. None of the boxes actually looks that edible.
• Quint chats TERMINATOR: SALVATION with McG! – My main concern with the new Terminator movie was the talent of it's director, McG. This interview though helps alleviate my fears a bit. McG seems to know he wasn't that much of a director (remember Charlie's Angels?), but hopes he can create a Terminator movie that's worthy of it's predecessors. Fingers crossed!
• Interview with Victor Garber from Alias and Eli Stone – Short interview with Victor Garber; I love his role in Eli Stone!