I'm not a geek. I feel that I'm more of a fringe geek. I'm on the first or second ring out from the geeky, chewy center. Sure Star Wars shaped my outlook on life, but I think that I was even more affected by Close Encounters and Raiders of the Lost Ark. I hated Star Trek and Lost in Space. That weird 60's aesthetic freaked me out. I'm not a programmer, but I want to learn. I'm not a "Maker" but I appreciate the mindset and have dabbled here and there on some gizmos and gee gaws. I do dabble with a Theremin, but that's more band geek. I have an extensive CD and record library, but that's more music geek.
My wife thinks that I'm all geek. She rolls her eyes when I come home with another Nutshell book or something on game console hacking. Or when Make magazine comes in the mail. "Geek" is all she's thinking... I guess it's not easy for some to differentiate the subtleties of geek culture.
Now comes a new publication from the makers of Make. "Craft" "a new magazine devoted to crafts!" This is right up Jane's alley... because whether she knows it or not, she's a craft geek. She's an expert stitcher and costume maker, and now she's all about the knitting. She goes on about a particular knitting process or stitch. She explains why and how certain buttons go with certain yarn. Or she'll discuss with me the intricacies of deciding how many "skeins" she'll need for a sweater she's making... Then I try to counter with some hooey about web standards, tagging, or social bookmarking... It's what we do.
Thanks to O'Reilly we both can get our geek on. I'm guessing that that's exactly what they were thinking-- "there are all kinds of geeks! Why limit ourselves?" Soon they'll put out a magazine for NASCAR nerds.
