Geeks, Interests, and Toys 

Alright... So what is one of the overriding signs of a geek, besides the fact that they are incredibly cool and handsome of course. It's their love of toys. No matter what we do, it has to involve toys. Whenever we pick up a new hobby or interest, we immediately scour the internet, and the rest of the world (strangely I've found that the internet is not the world... I know... blasphemy) for toys to make that new interest more fun, easier, more efficient, and even cooler. It's all about the toys. Take for example my new interest in doing triathlons. What toys could you possibly need for that? After all, its about 1 man doing 3 things. Well... let me tell you there are lots of opportunities for new toys. You could just use your old ratty mountain bike, which I did do for my first triathlon. But, how much cooler is a new light weight Giant Road Bike with a great transmission and super thin racing tires? But just the bike is not enough, since I live in Wisconsin, my training time is cut down considerably. So how do I train on my bike in the winter? Do I ride in the snow? Of course not... that would be very un-geek. Instead I got a cycling trainer so that I can train in the comfort of my home while it snows outside in the frigid air. But we're not done yet. For why would you just swim in swim trunks in a frigid lake, when you can have a sleek new wet suit?

You see, being a geek is really harder than it looks. It takes time and skill to be able to take even the simplest hobby, and find toys for it. Did you know that even the simple act of blogging can be improved through the use of toys? Even now, as we speak (OK, as I type), I'm at Starbucks enjoying a Chai Tea Latte (bonus points if you know how to pronounce Chai). The tricks is that I'm not connected to the net. I'm on my laptop (another toy of course) using a new blogging tool called w.bloggar. By the way, Geeks often call toys by another name... tools. That way we can pretend that its important to have when we discuss matters with Non-Geeks, not just fun to use. Anyway, w.bloggar is pretty nice. Its free (always a bonus) and simple. It allows me to type, format, and spell check my posts offline, then post them later with the click of a button. It also has a built in FTP client so you can use it to upload pictures from your computer to wherever you host your pictures. You can even use it to edit your blog template, and it supports a variety of blog API's, including Blogger.

So go out and find your inner geek. Find an interest, either new and old, and get a toy. It's all about the toys. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to get back to my latte.