Happy International Geek Pride Day!

Ah, people. We sure like to create celebratory days for everything we do. Well, today is probably one of the best days of note currently celebrated — it’s International Geek Pride Day! That’s right, because we need a day to be proud of ourselves for having superior knowledge of all things Star Wars. On TechRepublic’s Facebook page, we asked members how they’re celebrating Geek Pride Day. Some of the comical answers include:

• Mark Mutic is celebrating by responding to every single trouble ticket with “have you rebooted?”
• Steven Richards spent two entire hours discussing iPhone vs. Blackberry vs. Winmo vs. Android.
• Don V. Moore is holding his glasses together with colored tape.
• Stephen Lange has his towel.

Wait — okay carrying a towel is certainly geeky, though it’s not necessarily a geeks-only thing. So why is Mr. Lange ensuring ease of his day by knowing where his towel is? Because Geek Pride Day is also Towel Day! Beginning May 25, 2001, Douglas Adams fans started the Towel Day tradition as a way of commemorating the infamous author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Terry Pratchett fans also take note of May 25, as it is The Glorious 25th of May from Pratchett’s novel, Discworld. May 25 is also the anniversary of the premier of the first Star Wars movie.

It’s becoming clear to me that May 25 has managed to become the geekiest day of the year. I looked, and I can’t find a geekier day. It’s like the date, 5/25, has claimed geekdom for itself. Geek Pride Day even has a manifesto:

Rights:

1. The right to be even geekier.
2. The right to not leave your house.
3. The right to not like football or any other sport.
4. The right to associate with other nerds.
5. The right to have few friends (or none at all).
6. The right to have as many geeky friends as you want.
7. The right to be out of style.
8. The right to be overweight and near-sighted.
9. The right to show off your geekiness.
10. The right to make an attempt at being as geeky as Morgana Summers, and the right to fail. (Topher Stumph came quite close, but he too, failed).
11. The right to develop serious crushes on Randall Munroe, Shane Carruth & Bo Burnam, as opposed to say… James Franco. (See 10).
12. The right to carry a Thesaurus with you at all times, as opposed to an iPhone. (See 10)
13. The right to execute shameless self advertisement via the Wikipedia Geek Pride Day page. (See 10).
14. The right to falsely assume the surnames Finkleton, Waldman, Stratzer and Krukemeyer.
15. The right to quote Firefly, xkcd, or both, whenever at all possible.
16. The right to take over the world.

Responsibilities:

1. Be a geek, no matter what.
2. Try to be nerdier than anyone else.
3. If there is a discussion about something geeky, you must give your opinion.
4. To save and protect all geeky material.
5. Do everything you can to show off geeky stuff as a “museum of geekiness.”
6. Don’t be a generalized geek. You must specialize in something.
7. Attend every nerdy movie on opening night and buy every geeky book before anyone else.
8. Wait in line on every opening night. If you can go in costume or at least with a related T-shirt, all the better.
9. Don’t waste your time on anything not related to geekdom.
10. Befriend any person or persons bearing any physical similarities to comic book or sci-fi figures.
11. Try to take over the world!

You have to admit, a day that has its own manifesto is pretty great. Sadly, Geek Pride Day snuck up on me, and other than listening to NPR talk about what it means to be a nerd, the day has mostly gone uncelebrated for me. I’m considering knitting socks using a pattern based on binary or maybe a scarf. On second thought, I might try knitting a Dalek.

How are you celebrating Geek Pride Day? Or do you celebrate your geekiness every day?

Author: Nicole Bremer Nash

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