The Innergeek Story

For now, this is just the "history" section from the old site. I'll update it in the future.

>2004.08.17

Now for the amusing. There is an article on webmonkey.com called Rules for Programmers that criticizes my little "lime-on-black world." Clearly, the author doesn't get the joke. She instead assumes that my site looks like this because I am a programmer and lack creativity; that there's no hope for "us people" in the web design world. What she doesn't know is that, though a little rough around the edges, I utilize Cascading Style Sheets and have simply chosen the "programming look" as my design. Ms. Pollock, don't you know what happens when you ASSUME? I should say thank you, though, for including the hyperlink to my site!

>2004.08.04

The Straight Dope listed www.innergeek.us on their front page as a "Weird Earl."

Also featured on the Harrogate, United Kindom, 97.2 Stray FM radio station as their daily website review.

>2004.08.01

New website design revealed, introducing frames, CSS, and much better organization.

>2004.07.29

Goddard Space Flight Center Community Day. NASA employees in Greenbelt, MD take a shortened version of the test and win prizes if they rank Geek God(dess) or higher. Thanks to Marianne Dailey in the department of Technology Transfer for making that happen!

>2004.06.05

Site of the Day, someonewhocares.org/siteoftheday

>2003.11.13

Link to the Geek Test placed under the definition for "Geek" in Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. (Thanks, Isomorphic!)

>2003.08.06

Link of the Day, userfriendly.org

"From PseudoNIHM, a geek from the Great White North (at least for now, right?), we have a Geek Test. Yeah, there's a lot of these, but this one seems pretty comprehensive. Just so you'll know, I doubt even Naruki could score 100% (there are gender-related questions), so I won't believe it if you do! FYI, you can't submit your scores, that feature is down right now. - Adiplomat, a 52-and-change% geek. (I don't like comics or wearing pointy ears, what can I say?)"

>2003.07.06

Featured in a newspaper article by Casandra Andrews in Alabama's Mobile Register. Unfortunately, I could not get in touch with her before the story went to print. There is just a reference to the elusive "Vetters." The text of the article is shown here with permission from the author.

"A new breed of nerd may be paving the way for the more awkward among us"

If you've ever been dumped at a "Star Trek" convention, hosted a LAN gaming party or kicked butt at Trivial Pursuit so many times that friends refuse to take out a board in your presence, chances are you might be a geek.

Stop rolling your eyes and sighing. You're in good company. There's Microsoft mogul Bill Gates, after all, and others, like actors Woody Allen and the ever-quirky John Cusack, who make being slightly odd seem cool.

For those unsure of their spot in the social pecking order, there's a quiz floating around online that has math club members and gamers alike clicking hundreds of tiny boxes in the hopes of rising to geek god status.

In recent weeks the site was logging several thousand hits a day, according to its webmaster. To take the quiz in its entirety, go to www.innergeek.us/geek.html. The query offers several hundred questions that cover everything from writing fan fiction to joining Mensa to the finer points of Linux.

At the end, those who complete the test can click on a "rank my geekiness" button to learn their score, which is, of course, carried out to the fifth decimal point. Those who score highest can join a Geek Hall of Fame.

Most of us aren't worthy.

The quiz was created by a webmaster who uses the name Vetters. The site keeper did not immediately respond to an e-mail query about the quiz.

Despite its mysterious origins, The Geek Test and its subsequent popularity seem to be proof positive of the emerging status of geeks in mainstream society.

"Back in the '80s, a geek was a term you didn't want to be associated with," said Jeffrey Welford, 22, who works at Game Stop at Colonial Mall Bel Air in Mobile. "Now, it's cool to be a computer geek because it means you know a lot about it."

Joel Scott, 28, who would only admit to being a part-time geek, agreed that being thought of as uncool has its advantages.

"When you hit the real world you were smart enough to make it," Scott said. "The people who called you a geek are looking at you now, and saying things like 'Man, he's got a Lexus.' Bill Gates. Look at him. He's an idol. God of all geeks."

Derrick Purifoy, a senior sales associate at RadioShack in Mobile, said staying abreast of technological advances is mandatory in today's high-tech world.

"I think it's cool to be a computer and electronics geek because you have to know about computers and electronics just to make it," he said.

Despite his convictions, Purifoy, who's been working at RadioShack for four years, described himself as a "borderline geek."

For decades, movies like "Revenge of the Nerds," "Real Genius," "The Breakfast Club" and even "American Pie" have introduced into popular culture awkward teens who take on the cool kids and emerge victorious.

A few summers ago, Drew Barrymore portrayed a nerdish newspaper copy editor who was assigned to go undercover and infiltrate the cool high school clique in the romantic comedy "Never Been Kissed."

Barrymore's character had to enlist the help of her popular brother to pull off the scam. In the end, she got her kiss and the cool kids looked like superficial losers covered in canned dog food.

Score one for the smart kids.

Proof that geeks are groovy isn't just at the movies. The signs are everywhere.

A keyword search on Google reveals hundreds of Web sites with names like Girlgeeks.org, Geeklife.com and Proudnerd.com. Serious-looking teens can be spotted almost daily hunched over chessboards in local coffee shops, clicking electronic score keepers after every move.

Shirts and shorts and lunch boxes emblazoned with big letters that say things like "Keep on Geekin'" litter Web sites. Then, there's the proliferation of webzines, hypertext fiction and conventions for gamers.

There's even a "Sexiest Geek Alive" contest held annually in Texas.

Beth Burgess, 23, of Mobile, theorizes that geek stock may be rising because of a bohemian backlash. "It might have to do with the nonconformists," she said. "For a long time there was this whole thing where we all had to be the same as everybody else. If you weren't, you weren't cool in your rebellion. Now everybody feels like they can be different."

Despite the groundswell of all things geek, not everyone is convinced that it's hip to be square.

Kramer Wells, 27, a second-year medical student at the University of South Alabama, took the geek test this week. A friend told him about it. Wells was shocked by his score. His friend wasn't.

Wells scored a 47.73176 percent, he said, which lumped him into the Super Geek category.

"This really surprises me," he said in an e-mail. "Although my score was supposedly in the top .07 percent of the population, I must be adamant and specific in denying any involvement whatsoever in 'Magick' or any role-playing games."

The Geek Test asks a myriad of questions about video and computer games. "I don't believe in wizards or dragons, I do not read adult comic books, and I have never worn shirts that say, "I AM A GEEK," "LINUX OR BUST," "Windoze is for luuuuusers," or anything else like that," Wells said. "I have a reputation to uphold, you know?"

To be clear, Wells said, he's never attended a Star Trek event, or worn a form-fitting shirt with a boomerang on the breast.

Not that there would be anything wrong with that.

"I am flattered by the suggestion that nerdy is chic," he said, "and that it's cool to be a dork, but I am not convinced. I know that there are going to be those that try and say, 'Well what about Bill Gates? He's a geek and he's the richest man in history.'"

Wells, who may be bordering on bitter, isn't buying that logic for a second.

"The question here is not over money or power or shrewd business decisions or anything else," he said. "It's quite simply 'Who can beat up who,' and 'Can you get the chicks?' Even in the adult world.

"If you don't believe me then just ask Screech from 'Saved by the Bell.' I'll bet he's all grown up now. And I'm sure that he would gladly trade places with Brett Favre or Antonio Banderas or Kid Rock any day. Why? Because there are no girls outside waiting to get on the tour bus at the World Star Trek Convention."

>2003.06.30

The Geek Test racked up a record 488,989 hits for the month of June!

>2003.05.28

Listed on USA Today's Web Guide to Hot Sites

[insert picture of young male geek]

"Have you ever dated a geek? Did you really push the envelope and marry one? What does that make you? Find out if you're a geek too with The Geek Test. Be honest about your penchant for programming calculators and watching Buffy, then hold your pocket protector and tally the results. Just a minute here, I thought the Monty Python movies were cool."

Mentioned on salon.com, too. The blurb has since been lost in the sea of internet.

>2003.04.18

"If it could stand up to being FARKed it'll take just about anything."
-Tom Bolenbaugh

>2003.02.01

The first interactive Geek Test is revealed at Geek Party 3.0 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It uses a clever javascript written by James Nicholls from Australia, which he used on his own version of a geek test. His version was created after this one, but was first to go online. There are some similar questions, which proves how geekhood transcends international boundaries!

Two laptops and a desktop were provided for the 9 people in attendance to take the new 507-question test online.

>2001.12.08

Geek Party 2.0 with a Holiday Twist in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The test was still on paper with a total of 339 questions and little boxes to check. That's a lot of little boxes to check. We actually used pens and pencils. Close to 20 people joined together for geeky games and a Geek Gift Exchange. "Star Wars: A New Hope" played in the background (except for WithaK, who chose to sit, stare and recite every line along with the movie). Gifts exchanged included a Lord of the Rings Aragorn action figure, a Mensa puzzle book, a deck of Anime cards, SD-RAM, and of course a pocket protector. Ted brought "Chez Geek" and we had fun playing that. Though we didn't have a nerd-eating contest, they were available for consumption. Michael Ringenbach won Geek of the Year and took home a very fancy glitter-and-glue stocking award.

>1999.10.16

The first iteration of the Geek Test is revealed at the First Official Geek Party, held in Oxford, Ohio.

The test was on paper and had 100 questions that had to be added up manually. Approximately 15 people attended, dressed in the geekiest clothes they could muster out of the dirty clothes hamper. Mala and Jon got bonus points for being the first to arrive to the party. Each guest had to take the Geek Test as an entrance exam. We had a "No Posers Allowed" rule. Everyone wore a nametag with their name and Geek Rank. We played with Rubik's Cubes and compared multi-sided dice. We listened to Devo, They Might Be Giants, and Dr. Demnto. We had a nerd-eating contest with the Halloween-size boxes of nerds. GrapeApe won... he emptied a total of 11 boxes into his mouth without swallowing.