A Geek and a Nerd
Written on May 2, 2026
When you look up "geek" or "nerd" at dictionary.com, you'll find similar definitions for each:
- geek: a peculiar person, especially one who is perceived to be overly intellectual, unfashionable, or socially awkward.
- nerd: a person considered to be socially awkward, boring, unstylish, etc.
Depending on who's observing and what's being observed, I could be either one or both. Most observations are incorrect. I'm into computers, but I'm not into gaming or programming. I'm into music, movies, and video series, but I'm not obsessed with any of them.
Computers
Although I've owned "hobbyist" computers in the past, like the Commodore 64, I've never used anything but an IBM PC compatible desktop or laptop for anything serious. That includes the Raspberry Pi 400, which uses an ARM64 processor instead of an x86-64 processor.
I've never owned or used anything made by Apple. I don't like proprietary hardware and software. That's the main reason I started using Linux instead of Windows. I've tested iPhones, iPads, and MacOS computers and all I can say is "no, thank you".
I'm a former programmer. Today, I write scripts in Bash and PHP, but I don't consider them programs. I also dabble in web design. Even though I used to program in BASIC and Assembly Language, I got tired of it decades ago.
Music
I have more than 2,800 music files and my collection continues to grow. Most of the titles were released in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. I only have 251 titles from this millennium so far because I don't like songs with explicit lyrics.
While I enjoy music from almost every genre, the genre I have the least of is rap music, followed by country music. I don't like the California sound of the 1960s, so I don't have many songs by those particular music artists.
Regardless of where I hear it and on which device I hear it on, I listen to music every day. While I like listening to classical music, I don't want to collect any of it. I probably have a few song titles anyway.
Movies and Video Series
I prefer science-fiction and fantasy, but there are a few things I like that don't fall into either category. While I used to like horror, it doesn't really interest me much anymore. The exception is the Evil Dead franchise.
I've watched every Star Trek movie and series except for Star Trek: Prodigy and I'm in no hurry to watch it. Other than a few exceptions, animated video series aren't as interesting to me as live action.
I haven't watched every Star Wars movie, and I haven't watched any of the video series associated with them. Except for Stargate Origins and Stargate Infinity, I've watched all the Stargate movies and video series. I have no desire to watch those two series.
Although it was years after cancellation, I watched all of the Farscape video series. I watched all 10 seasons of The Blacklist, a crime thriller, because I'm a big fan of James Spader. I could go on, but I'm not trying to build a list.
Even though I like watching movies and video series, I don't watch that much anymore. I've only watched one movie in the last month, and I haven't watched any video series in the last three months. These days, I tend to watch YouTube videos.
Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay