I’m not an expert on what people are like – I just enjoy thinking that I am. At any rate, I typically know the groups I associate with. More than anything, a culture is defined by the qualities of a person or group that guide their lifestyle. By that definition, I am (and always will be) a geek.

Before I go on, I need to clarify that while they’re two sides of the same coin, there is a difference between a geek and a nerd. While nerds are more into fantasy and role-playing, a geek is more into sci-fi and technology. The fact is, most geeks are also nerds and vice versa, but they are best classified as whichever side they enjoy the most. And for me, life is electric.

Being a geek has plenty of cultural qualities, besides. It has its own food – most of which comes down to Doritos and Red Bull. It has its own languages, which are typically programming languages, 1337, and internet-speak. There are geek clothes, like shirts that spell out a message in binary or pants with iPod speakers.

Geeks even have their own cultural music, even though a lot of it is remixes of video game songs and heavy techno. One such example of great geek music is a website dedicated to proving video game music is a legitimate genre – OverClocked Remix, located at www.ocremix.org. All of the music is made by users for the purpose of glory, and is free for download.

I’ll admit, I enjoy being a geek. My house is littered with various homages to the geek culture. Cords to various computer accessories are strewn about various rooms. Televisions and computers are decked out with stereo speakers. Every so often a stray Xbox 360 controller (for emulators) or a disc for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic goes missing, demanding a short manhunt. Even my array of Transformers pays a debt to my cultural heritage as a geek.

There are two things that are typically assumed of geeks, and more often that not, they are false stereotypes. The first is that the geek always got good grades in school because they’re assumed to be brilliant. This is partially true; geeks have been known to be ridiculously smart. But the main downside to this is that an average geek is either lazy, has very little motivation, or considers other things in their life more deserving of their time than doing homework. When a geek fails a class, it’s not because he couldn’t do better; it’s more likely because he didn’t feel like doing better. Either that or he failed a test because he was up all night playing Tetris.

The other stereotype is that geeks are virgins. In most cases, you’d be surprised; while elusive, the female geeks are out there somewhere. The downside is that by the time a geek finds one, they’re usually taken. It is for this reason that geeks tend to have low standards and expectations for other people. It also sometimes gives them the callous ‘I never got laid in high school’ logic that makes them assume if a beautiful girl likes them, it’s probably a joke.

Despite the stereotypes, there are plenty of patterns that geek culture follows other than the love of technology, science fiction, and junk food. The first easily recognizable one is that the vast majority of geeks have a model, replica, or toy version of something from geek culture. The guys at Penny Arcade! have a replica Lancer from Gears of War 2, for instance. And my room wouldn’t be complete without my ceramic Darth Maul bust.

For me, it’s great to be a geek. It is especially good to know a few of them, even if you’re not overly enthusiastic when someone starts talking about Firefly or don’t own any video game consoles. Do your geeky friends a favor and buy them an energy drink once every so often – when you have someone indebted to you that knows a bit about almost anything electronic, it’s almost never a bad thing.