Geek Alert

When I was in High School, friends and I conceptualized a category of identification for ourselves, well aware that if we did not define ourselves with a label - others would be liable to do so for us. After much debate, we settled upon the title "Techno Hippie Individualists"Recently sorting through boxes of photographs and mementos I came across my own laminated membership card. A practical joke given to me by a friend and fellow member so many years ago. Years later, it still resonated with me.. Looking back on circumstances, I believe that I must have had the greater influence on the naming decision. Unlike K & J, S & others - I am the only one who grew into her geekiness. I stand alone.

I was inspired by my high school Film classes & work experience program which placed me at the warehouse of set supplier William F. White. Oddly enough K & J were more successful at following their hearts into the tech sector - taking classes in stage production and film makeup while my feet led me elsewhere on a wildgoose chase; but we all lacked equally in the follow through. Time and circumstance, family and lifestyle choices defined each of our destinies more than a tiny piece of cardboard pressed between shrinkwrapped plastic.

I somehow doubt my fellow members remember this at all - but for me - the basic memories last yet. I still rememeber the call sign for CRAT radio, our high school station which J coerced me into helping to DJ with her during school lunch hours. A cassette player and a PA system accessed from the front office of the school.

In hindsight it would be hard to deny that that experiment in geekiness obviously related to my becoming devoted in future years to KSIM radio - the online radio station created in Interhogan to complement the gaming world of THE SIMS ONLINE. KSIM Rocked my world and it, along with TSO, allowed the opportunity for me to create friendships and circumstances for me that allowed my life to evolve further than it might have if the Tech side of life had not been so available to me. Although later renamed WOKI and then SLAK Radio as time progressed and the evolution of community gaming evolved past TSO & Star Wars Galaxies - KSIM is where it all began.

Years later I still pour my heart into the tech side of things. I get giddy at the geekiest events, an example of which is the new STAR TREK ONLINE game being created by a local company to me. When i close my eyes and imagine myself transported to another universe, cryptic studios is well on its way to creating one of my ideal destinations. Mauii and Disney are great vacation spots but theres nothing like the geekfest of a well crafted mmo. I might not quite fit the definition of your mothers hippie experience but the Techno and the Individualist are still in full control.

Time Travel, Writing and the Persiedes Meteor Shower

When my sweetheart travels I often go with him, if not in fact then at least in action. When he is in another country and the clocks alter time I follow suite. My days get longer at first and then capsize in on themselves as I adapt to catnaps sprinkled in between long chats on the phone or via the computers. This occurs regardless of my best intentions to stay in the timezone where my feet are planted.

There are benefits to my sleepless nights; I am at my most creative late at night. Alone, my emotions run high and the shadows offer a discretion that is too easily voided out by the introspective light of day. In the dark I can write, but it is harder to peer at the page and reread the words laid out bare. Words fall from my fingertips with more honesty when given time to rest upon the page a while before being edited apart and dissected under bright lights. Nightfall allows time to pass before the fitful barrage of second guesses occur.

At this moment I am still at the brainstorming stage where ideas bombard me with such great impact that they threaten to remove prior thoughts and dislodge them from memory. I am still at the stage where I am frightened enough to keep pen always at hand, prepared to jot down my frenetic thoughts; to sketch them out a little later, once the tumult dies down somewhat and i can scavenge through the remnants of paper and text files to find the hidden gems.

My intention, to let the words fall, free of critique and restraint. Pleased enough with their existence in of itself.

It is a result of this recent time travel, the catnaps and what might be empty nights that in fact are not empty, that I will be readily available to sit outside and watch the Persiedes Meteor Shower this evening. While awake.

Details available on tonight's sky show that Perseus will rise in the northeast this evening, around nine pm, August 11th. It will not be until after 2 am that the moon sets and the sky becomes clear enough for the main show to present itself though. In a few minutes I am going to go dust off our telescope and ready my sky watching theatre in preparation. Then later, when I awake from another catnap I am going to curl up with a glass of wine in one hand and a pen in the other to watch the falling sky...


I will be looking for Perseid Earthgrazers--meteors that approach from the horizon and skim the atmosphere overhead like a stone skipping across the surface of a pond.

Earthsky offers a calendar of meteor and stargazing events for North America here. Astronomy.com offers excellent introductory to stargazing at their site. Space.com offers historical background and details on where and how to locate the best viewing experience.