The book Geektastic is a compilation of stories about — you guessed it — Geeks. And if nothing else the book captures the pure essence of what a geek really is. Almost all of the stories ring embarassingly true stopping just shy of the insecurity point. I think I might have cringed at the LARP part just a little bit because that was ‘too nerdy’ even for me. If nothing else Geektastic is a great reassurance that you aren’t alone in your fanaticism. And that other people do love the crazy things you do.

I think my biggest problem with the book was most of the stories followed pretty much the same formula the nerd had his/her day, got the guy/girl and all lived happily ever after. It’s like going to what promises to be a great potluck party, and having everyone only bring coleslaw. I mean the party’s still there, you are just forced to wonder why no one called ahead to make sure not everyone was bringing the same thing. I mean, I guess if you’re writing for the Geek niche having a geek fail and then get hit by a bus would probably not help your readership.

Another thing that caught my eye was Libba Bray’s story. (Don’t get me wrong on this I am a huge fangirl of her Gemma Doyle trilogy and am waiting on the edge of my seat for anything else she ever writes). It was spectacular of course, and came as close as any of them came to being really meaty and gritty but… put beside all the other stories well, it stood out as being geared towards a much older audience. It was pretty surreal, the other stories about high school bullying and Libba’s involving underage sex. All of which was fine with me but it doesn’t fit. Either the other stories needed to step it up a notch, or Libba needed to tone it down.

There are also some notable nerdities missing, no gamers except MMORPGs and no anime and manga which I found particularly odd in a book about nerds.

If nothing else you have to read this book if you’re a nerd because they ‘nail it’. The feelings you’ve had, the situations you’ve been in, generally speaking you’ll find at least one story you’ll relate to. Inversely, if nerdy things are not your thing I’d probably say give it a pass.

Up next 69!

But I love a challenge, so here I am about to put my Fedora drive back in to fix it. For the sake of making this entry semi-useful I’ll outline what happened and the fix I was given lest someone else around here stumble upon the same problem. I doubt it since no one reads my blog, but hey, maybe writing it out will help me.

Basically, what I did seemed like a good idea at the time. On Fedora a little orange iconishthing pops up from time to time that says ‘Hey, you need to update this sucker.’ Generally I do just that and everything works like a dream, however, this time a large problem occured. Upon rebooting my machine I noticed that my resolution on the login screen was weird. Thinking this to be some sort of thing the update was twaeking I attempted to log in. Only, well, all I’d get to see was a white screen and nothing else, though it seemed to have loaded alright. So, at this point yesterday we get a resounding sigh followed by a whispered ‘Aw, fuck me.’ before asking my room mate if I can use her computer for just a moment. She grudgingly obliges and I throw myself upon the mercy of the uber nerds.

I shall pause here to illustrate some details for the non-nerds out there. On the internet there is a geek hierarchy, a kind of feudal fifedom of various kingdoms and suchlike. Those with more knowlage rank higher than the morons who don’t even know what their GUI is, and couldn’t put in a new ram chip if their very soul depended upon it. I am around the middle ground generally, maybe lower middle, regardless. Because of this when I don’t know what to do I must fling myself upon the mercy of the great nerds.

Some people may think this is funny. And perhaps a hyperbole, but it is no such thing. Asking the internet for help is serious business, sometimes you get lucky and the great nerds are benevolent, granting you at least a grudging shove in the right direction, but should you offend them, or should they be in a not-so-great mood your request for help leads to naught but scorn. Should you point out you were simply asking for help and that there is no need to get touchy about anything you will be treated to group scorn. As the great nerds may insult your intelligence as they see fit, but you, pitiful help-asker must take all the scoffing and patronizing they can dish out.

Don’t get me wrong, most of the time I get helpful and concise messages from the great nerds, but this is mainly because I google first, say please, and thank you, type in proper English and usually know how to describe my problem. I also display a willingness to learn which I am told goes a long way. But sometimes, no matter how polite you are, the nerds feel mean.

So, now I have a solution, the problem is the driver for my graphics card isn’t yet compatible with my update, so I need to hit shift on booting and boot from an older update (or kernel). Hopefully I will then be able to use my machine until such a time as my graphics card is compatible, which should be soon they say. Crisis aborted. Phew.

In other news I beat Fable: The Lost Chapters, I played as Good and let me tell you I was a bad ass motherfucker despite playing a hero.