Geek pedigree

[KingRexII]

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday about our respective geek pedigrees. His geekiness was passed down on both sides of his parentage (music and gaming), and he proudly declared himself a second generation geek. I, on the other hand, come from fairly non-geeky stock, and I am mostly self-taught. I have a three year old right now that I'm already passing down my geek genes -- putting a video game controller in his hands while we play a game together, going to the comic book store where he likes to ogle the Warhammer pieces -- while my wife has taught him to recognize molecular structures. He is doomed to be a third generation geek. (My wife's parents are a physicist and a mathematician specializing in multi-dimensional calculus.)

What are the geek pedigrees of the playgrounders? Any 3rd or 4th generation geeks out there? Anyone with famous geek ancestors?

[KuReshtin]

First generation geek here.

Mom was a stay-at-home mom for a lot of my growing up, and my dad has worked in/owned a clothes store since well before I was born. He used to be a part time paramedic as well, but he's too old for that now and his back is knackered.

So that would make me a first generation geek, I'd think.

[Serpentine]

My dad used to play D&D with his students when he was a high school teacher. My sister used to be one of his players, and she, her partner and her son all regularly play in/host Magic: The Gathering competitions. My nephew, age 11 recently, does remarkably well in them. Also, he is being taught by her partner to play a drastically houseruled version of 2nd edition D&D.

2nd generation, here.

[Blayze]

First generation here. If anything, my geekiness caused my dad to develop an interest in Star Trek (Although I imagine Jeri Ryan and Marina Sirtis had something to do with it...) -- making *him* the second generation geek.

[Dragonrider]

I'm counting myself as . . . .

Well, hmm. On one side:


Great-grandfather was a HUGE HUGE geek. He got into impassioned arguments about technological possibilities and mathematics.
Grandfather was geek who tried to hide it by being exceptional at sports but when push came to shove he chose the intellectual persuits.
Mum is amazingly geeky. How many mothers of four do you know who've spent hundreds of evenings playing Diablo II? But in other senses as well. She has the insatiable thirst for knowledge that leads her to get up from the dinner table and go google stuff when we're having a conversation.

On the other side:

I know nothing about my great-grandparents. But

Grandpa is obsessed with electronic gadgets and runs Linux on his computer. The biggest fight he and Grandma ever had was over who got to read The Two Towers first. They couldn't resolve it so they bought a second copy.
Dad and his brother played D&D in middle school and Dad introduced my mum to Star Trek way back when (they went to high school together >.>). He now is the head of an IT department (though he claims to be the least nerdy person in our household, evidence suggests otherwise).


As for my parents' four children? HOPELESS. :smallamused: We're all going to grow up to be overeducated nerds with bizarre interests and excessive vocabularies. :smallbiggrin:

So I'd call myself 4th on Mum's side and 3rd on Dad's.

[Deth Muncher]

I'm second gen geek. My mother played a text-based D&D-type game called Dragon Realms for a good chunk of my childhood, and my father confessed to me that back when he was my age (late teens/early twenties) he was big into Lovecraft. Also, my dad's a sound technician, which could explain my music obsession.

[valadil]

My parents aren't geeky at all. Both uncles on my dad's side are though (one plays M:tG and video games, the other is more of a tech geek but has a black belt and makes his own sushi (more of an esoteric interest geek than gamer)). One cousin on my mom's side games too, but I'm not sure how often. I didn't find out about any of this until I'd already gotten into geekery on my own though.

[Telonius]

Second-generation geek here. Both my parents were teachers.

[Syka]

I'm at least a second generation geek. From both parents I get my bookworm gene. Like, when my parents divorced they took turns choosing books from their shared collection, and the house I grew up in was always filled with books. When I was little, we were allowed to stay up past our bedtime but ONLY if we were reading.

My mom went back to school to be a math teacher because, as she says, numbers speak to her. She's incredibly awesome with numbers. She was also a failure analyst for an engineering firm before I was born (she quit to stay home with my sister and I).

My dad is, quite literally now, a rocket scientist for NASA (he does computer stuff). Somehow, this combined science-math geekiness skipped me, though. Got my sister, but not me.


I'm not sure about my maternal grandparents. I never knew them, although my judging by my uncle's geekiness (he's always been sci-fi, dragons, fantasy, etc obsessed), it's probably another generation up on my mom's side.

I can't picture my paternal grandparents being geeks. They just don't strike me as the type and I've never heard stories to suggest otherwise.




Oz is also at least a secong gen geek. His parents are obsessed with Star Trek...like, hardcore obsessed. They have all of the scripts, a Spock cutout, all of at least one iteration Star Trek, if not more. His mom's cellphone ring is the Star Wars theme. They have lego Star Wars fridge magnets. Boxes and boxes filled with old VHS sci-fi movies and shows and all.

Any kids we have are doomed to be geeks. Oz has already said that if we have a kid whose not strong in the geekiness, he'll be disappointed. :smallwink:

[Icewalker]

I'd say first, for me. My father is an environmental scientist, although not a geek. I've gotten scientific influences, my parents enjoy (but are not wildly fans over) Star Trek, Firefly, that sort of thing. My uncle is a big science author though: book on Newton, book on chaos theory...still need to read some of them, myself.

[Castaras]

Second Generation here too. Lensman games, does kits, programming, loves his "model railway" (toy trains), collects images, collects books (average books in a household = 2?!! They should see our house...) and does 3d artwork. Starfish games also (Lensman introduced her to it, iirc), collects gaming figures (we're running out of room again!), loves dragons, has a degree in physics, and does 3d artwork as well.

I game, both D&D and videogames, can program, collect anything (it changes every few weeks / months / days), love maths, and love music (if that counts as geekism). My brother games, both D&D and videogames, and gets obsessive.

Although all of us get obsessive. :smallconfused:

But yes. Second generation.

[SDF]

My maternal grandfather was some kind of super hero, but not very nerdy. (MD, PhD [biophysics], Juris Doctorate, went to Berkeley and Harvard) My mother was a popular (though intelligent) girl from Sacramento. My dad was the nerd, and went to Stanford, and MIT for his two masters degrees. He also played first edition DnD at Gitmo while in the marines as some top secret comm guy listening to the Russians. I didn't really know ANY of this until after I started playing DnD and my dad started telling me how he liked to be a thief and blah blah. I was 19 and didn't know who my father was anymore.

[Fuzzie Fuzz]

Well, while neither of my parents do particularly geeky things, both have PhDs and are college professors. Plus, many many many books each.

[Sanguine]

I am at least Second-Gen

My mother isn't at all geeky unless you count the fact that when she was younger she had a Crush on Spock and none of her family I've met were very Geeky

My Father on the other hand is a Geek he plays DnD, reads fantasy novels like crazy, loves star Wars, and is into Computer Games. As for his family he was adopted so I can't say although his adoptive family isn't really geeky at all from what I've seen.

[Mando Knight]

It all depends on your definitions of geeky, and whether or not you allow for skipping generations. It could be 1st or 3rd, depending.

See, my parents are roughly "normal mid/late-baby-boomer" in terms of using electronics (i.e. depends on the children to solve problems they can't overcome, don't play a lot of electronic games). My grandfathers both had significant mechanical aptitude (paternal one was an aerospace engineer for McDonnell Douglas, maternal one had several sheds and barns full of stuff he tinkered with), but my parents picked up little of their parents' skills, and my dad didn't like advanced math. However, they're both rather well-read and have a decently large library of historical and technical literature, classics, mysteries, westerns, etc. in their basement. My brothers and I apparently inherited my paternal grandfather's aptitude for math along with the overall intelligence level from both parents. My sister's adopted, but at least some of the family traits seem to rub off on her.

On top of that, my parents have also been rather supportive of the geeky tendencies of their children: a bedroom full of thousands of dollars of LEGO, a multitude of Nintendo DSes, and every Nintendo console since the SNES begin to describe it.

[Flickerdart]

Grandparents: Doctor of Medicine for the Russian space program, underwater engineer, physicist, programmer. Parents: both programmers. Brother: programmer.

Uncle: Historian and artist. Me: Graphic designer.

So while I have exceptional nerd heredity, I'm not the right kind of nerd.

[SDF]

Ooh, also my mom went to high school with LeVar Burton.

[Fostire]

First generation here... I think. I got most of my geekness from by oldest brother but I surpassed him long ago.

He got me into videogames, music, and dungeons and dragons.

He used to be the best at video games amongst my brothers and I used to admire him for that. I used to think he was the best in the world at super smash bros. I still remember the day I beat him for the first time.
It used to be that a balanced match was me and two brothers against him, now a balanced match is me against him against a team of two of my brothers (although brother # 5 is usually good enough on his own too).

He also got me into Metallica, the first band I really liked, and that led (mostly through best friend) to expand into 80s music and from there into an ever expanding music collection.

He got into DnD from a friend of his who then sold him the 2nd edition books (including the ever awesome Dark Sun campaign setting). He usually played with his friends but he occasionally let me and my brother's join in.
After a couple of years I started DMing for my brothers and friends and eventually after he he got bored with DnD he gifted me his books :smallbiggrin:

He also gifted me his magic: the gathering cards but I never really got into those.

So yeah, either first or second gen, depending on how it works.

[ForzaFiori]

2nd Gen here. My dad teachers computer programming at a tech school (he got into computers before they were personal, and only has an electrical engineering degree because computer engineering didn't exist back then), and his brother is huge into video games and DnD and stuff. He actually gave me my first set of dice, and my first game system (an SNES, back when PS2 was about to come out). My mom is a Trekie, and a bookworm, though she wont admit she's a geek (she thinks you can't be a cool geek) and her brother actually designed and created a computer software company when they were first coming out, and created the software that lets realty companies keep track of all their houses that all of their company sells. He sold that company and created a new one to make 0 energy houses. My step mom and step dad aren't anywhere near geeky though.

Me and my sister are both huge geeks. We read like 24/7, play DnD, read web-comics, etc. I'm the only one that watches a bunch of sci-fi though.

[CurlyKitGirl]

Maternal side:

Mum: just about edges in as she has a massive library of fantasy books as well as others; she's quite the music geek, and although she dropped out of school at fourteen is still knowledgeable about a lot of things. I picked up her love of all music from the 1940s straight to the '80s.
Grandmother: I can't remember much about her, but she was, in her own way, quite a geek when she was younger. Dancing, Ancient Rome and C16th European History. I picked up her love of classical music, as did Littlest Brother.
Grandfather: very much so. Never went to school, yet has a wide knowledge of things ranging from history to mechanics, and is able to repair a fishing trawler almost on his own. He''s something of a weapons expert and dabbled in medievalism when he was a child - he understandly lost his enthusiasm for it after he was shot in the eye with an arrow, but still knows a lot. He also loves reading fantasy novels and solves even the most complex of thrillers/mystery books etc. well before the end.
Various relatives: yes! A few cousins have been to Oxbridge; one was a genius on the piano until he developed carpal tunnel syndrome. Most of my aunts and uncles are self-taught to a high degree, and all love reading.

Paternal side:

Dad: Yes! Introduced me to the Discworld and has a large amount of fantasy and sci-fi ranging from Dragonlance to ASoIaF to Arthur C. Clarke and is currently trying to do a long distance degree to get a BSc in Astronomy while working over 100 hours every week working entirely on his own, not including when I help him. I picked up his taste in metal and rock music.
Grandfather: No. Unless you count an encyclopedic knowledge of westerns.
Grandmother: Has published fantasy novels and is obsessed with the supernatural and the Arthur legends.
Various relatives: Lots of self-taught relatives; one of my aunts got an MA in some very obscure piece of history, my aunt's currently doing a BA in Sociology and Psychology. Several of my many cousins play D&D etc. and my Favourite Cousin plays Call of Cthulu.

I don't know much about my great-grandparents, but they were mildly geeky in their own fashion.

Call it a third generation geek, with every one of my close relatives from siblings to cousins displaying varying amounts of geekery.

I pity my hypothetical children. They're already going to be read Old ENglish poetry, the epics and the like. And their musical tastes will likely be weird if I have any influence over them. WHich I will.

[Flame of Anor]

My mother was (and is) a big Doctor Who fan and a D&D player, though her parents are pretty un-geeky. My dad likes electronic stuff and has been known to play D&D; his mother isn't at all geeky, but his father is a reactor physicist, which was probably one of the most geeky things you could be in the 50's.

[Mando Knight]

Ooh, also my mom went to high school with LeVar Burton.
...
...
...
That's one of the things in my top 100 list of things that automatically makes someone cooler.

[Moff Chumley]

Second gen here. My dad is an enormous sci-fi (especially Cyberpunk) geek, and my mom is a bit harder to classify, but is still quite nerdy.

[blackfox]

Slightly third-gen. Dad's in the social sciences, although at one point he managed to get into med school. Dunno if that counts. He's the geekiest on his side of the family. Mom's mostly a hippie, her dad mighta counted as a geek way back one. He was a brilliant man.

[Lioness]

About one-and-a-half degree geek.

Dad did maths and sciences at uni, but isn't particularly geeky (he doesn't enjoy being labelled a 'geek', and often plays down his knowledge).

Mum likes reading, but isn't a geek, so to speak.

I'm the first actual gamer/english geek in the family.

[CMOTDibbler]

3rd generation geek here. My grandfather started his career repairing old types of cash registers, and is now a computer programmer. My parents both play DnD, and my dad used to play MTG.

[Jallorn]

I'm gonna say 2nd. Mostly because my brother is pretty much in another generation (tail end of generation X). Also, my mom isn't really a geek (my dad is, but more of a hippy then a geek), but she does like some of the geeky stuff, like LoTR, SW, Dune, Wheel of Time, Song of Ice and Fire, etc. Not to the extent that a geek would though.

[Raiki]

Wow. Reading this thread makes me really really depressed. Both of my parents and disturbingly normal. My mother is a born-again, and the man I always thought of as my father can't handle any thought more intellectual than who won the last nascar race.

Jealous Raiki is jealous.

~R~

[CrimsonAngel]

None of my grandparents were geeks, but my dad loves computers, Roleplaying, and books. My mom loves books.

And here I am.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

It's funny...

My grandfather was an electrician that worked on the space shuttle.

My Dad is a computer programming, Star Trek/Star Wars fancying, Dilbert-hanging, fantasy novel collecting, self-proclaimed nerd.

My other two brothers, even worse than he.

However, despite that... I'm not a geek. Closest I guess would be a 'romantic', in both uses of the word. D&D is my kind of game because I'm a writer, not necessarily because I need an escape from reality or anything of that nature.

Misfit might also work. Not really any more comfortable with the geeks than the 'cool kids'.

Geek though? 'fraid not.

[Hell Puppi]

First gen geek, technically. My mom had a passing interest in Star Trek and that's about it. My brother's a gaming and Warhammer geek.

I blame my uncle. He showed me videogames and White Wolf books. :smalltongue:

[RebelRogue]

Totally first generation here. My parents are a carpenter and a tailor respectively. No geek credentials whatsoever. My baby brother played roleplaying games for a short while, but only because me and my friends did. My grandfather on my mother's side was a self-taught (amateur) musician just like me, although I think my approach to it is much more analytical in nature. But really, that's about it.

[Lykan]

The closest I get to being second gen is a mother who likes Dr. Who and a dad who likes Star Trek. Can't say it's not in my bloodline, though... Uncle is a programmer. I think it's a recessive gene or something, cuz my sister has an interest in anime and my brother plays M:tG, though neither are quite as nerdy as me. >.>

[Trobby]

Geekiness? Well, let's see...

Both my parents met at the same Theater institute (SUNY New Paltz), so that counts pretty heavily for something...and my dad was one of the guys in the government who did the first bits of coding when it was just starting to be widely-utilized, so quite a bit of computer nerd in there too..

I guess I'm second-gen, but not with a very heavy pedigree. <.<;

[Mando Knight]

My grandfather was an electrician that worked on the space shuttle.

Again, something worthy of Extra-dimensional HIGH FIVE! *High-fives VT's grandfather THROUGH SPACETIME* :smalltongue:

[Partof1]

Probably first gen here.
My parents enjoyed Star Wars, and introduced me to it, but they only knew the movies.
I know my mom like Monty Python, though won't outright admit it because my dad hates it.
Dad is in construction, but mom was in drafting before, so she was good at math, but I've known her as a stay at home mom.
Music-wise, I know nothing of what my mom likes, really, she hasn't been very clear. My dad is pretty knowledgable with 60's to 80's, and I'm picking stuff up.

Overall, they're not geeks, but I'm an honours student who doesn't play any organized sports, plays Star Wars Minis, video games, and owns two Mario shirts and a Yoda one.

My kids will either love or loathe me, I'm sure :smallbiggrin:

[Zevox]

Hm, I guess I qualify as a second-generation geek. My mom's simply a stay-at-home mom who picked up a part time job working lunches at the school my siblings and I attended from first through eighth grade. My dad though is big with computers, used to do a lot with vehicles (cars and a motorcycle), and is a Star Trek fan, and is generally interested in learning for its own sake.

I pretty much only share that last one with him though. I know enough about computers to use one proficiently, as long it uses Windows XP or something similar, but that's about it; and I know nothing about vehicles or Star Trek. My geekiness comes in Star Wars, fantasy novel, D&D, and video gaming flavors, along with some recently-acquired very minor comic book geekiness (recent Green Lantern only at this point). Though my parents did actually introduce me to video gaming way back when on their Atari 2600, which they used to like playing things like Centipede, Pac Man, and Space Invaders on. They haven't really done any gaming since we got rid of that thing (can't recall if it broke or we just sold it after getting a NES), though.

My video gaming geekiness is concentrated mostly in RPGs (particularly JRPGs), strategy games, action/adventure games, and Nintendo's first and second party series. Almost entirely on consoles and handhelds - I do very little computer gaming.

Zevox

[Blaine.Bush]

First-generation geek here. Ma's a nurse and Pa's a logger, no trace of geekery among them.

Edit: Well, I guess my mom's into science, but that doesn't quite qualify for full-fledged geek-hood.

[KingRexII]

Wow. Reading this thread makes me really really depressed. Both of my parents and disturbingly normal. My mother is a born-again, and the man I always thought of as my father can't handle any thought more intellectual than who won the last nascar race.

Jealous Raiki is jealous.

~R~

I too am jealous! All my parents taught me were good values. :smallwink: Still, I'd like to teach my children good values and good eye-hand coordination.


It's funny...

My grandfather was an electrician that worked on the space shuttle.

My Dad is a computer programming, Star Trek/Star Wars fancying, Dilbert-hanging, fantasy novel collecting, self-proclaimed nerd.

My other two brothers, even worse than he.

However, despite that... I'm not a geek. Closest I guess would be a 'romantic', in both uses of the word. D&D is my kind of game because I'm a writer, not necessarily because I need an escape from reality or anything of that nature.

Misfit might also work. Not really any more comfortable with the geeks than the 'cool kids'.

Geek though? 'fraid not.

Perhaps one day you'll immigrate. Become a FOB geek. The emigration laws are pretty lenient, though some of the locals can be a little snobbish or geekier-than-thou so watch out for them.

Well, it seems, at least, you vacation here from time to time. :smallbiggrin:

[Symmys]

I'm a second-generation geek on both sides. My mom used to play MtG and has passed that trait down to me. My dad is still friends with the people he played D&D with in high school, and also plays games like NWN, Diablo, and Dungeon Siege with them. Currently he plays Civilization. I've played all four of those games but as of yet have failed to convince him to DM a game of first edition (the only one we have handbooks for) for my sisters and I. *sigh*

[Trog]

First generation geek here. Still in the original packaging. Collect them all!

[cycoris]

I'm second gen.

Mother- loved Star Trek, holds degrees in English, Spanish, French, education, sociology, library science, and linguistics, most of them just for fun.

Father- computer and math geek of the most horrendous sort.

It's no wonder that their spawn turned out like this. :smallamused:

[Bonecrusher Doc]

First generation Geek here... so I'm very curious to see how my children will turn out!

[OverdrivePrime]

First gen here. My parents were both hippies in their younger days, though they heavily encouraged geeky pastimes and interests in me when I was growing up. I think they figured it'd keep me out of trouble.










And what they don't know won't hurt them. :smallcool:

[RandomNPC]

first gen here, Dad had a passing intrest in star trek, like most people have a passing intrest in one show or another at some point in time.

Even in trying to get my parents to relate and atleast try to spend time with me I got shut down in the geekery of things. Can't even get my dad to watch Firefly.

My son on the otherhand is doomed. I don't know what kind of D&D adventure is good for a 4 year old, but he's been demanding a character and it leaves me clueless.

[Timberwolf]

2nd gen for me. Dad did a uni course for fun when he retired.

In Latin and Ancient Greek...

[toasty]

Hmm... yes I would be a 2nd generation geek, come to think of it. My mom is, by profesison, a Medical Technologist. IE the person who sits in the lab looking at mold/viruses/bacteria grow under a microscope. She also loves video games. That's awesome to think about... actually.

My dad is a kinda geek... but not really. And he only just started watching anime, but he's useless with computers and is horrible at math.

My grandparents... just no. I could never, ever see them as geeks. Even when they were young. My paternal grandfather is a hick though. :smallbiggrin:

[Elder Tsofu]

First generation here.
Father's a carpenter and mother is a psychologist. (she got her education about our 9'th year in school).

I had a foundation built for myself, but it really took off when I realised this:
Doing interesting things are fun, and by doing interesting things you become a more interesting person - which is fun.
Win-win situation really. :smallsmile:

[LemonSkye]

While my family often makes me feel like a first-gen, the truth is that I'm not.

On my father's side...

Great-grandmother was a bit of a tinkerer; she owned a business repairing jukeboxes, cigarette vending machines, pinball machines, and the like. One of her daughters is a perpetual student (with several degrees in scientific fields; I've never met her, but I want to), and both of her sons followed her into the family business. My grandfather went on to actually get an engineering degree, and made a pretty good fortune as an inventor, using his flagship invention to start a business. My father worked for him in the machine shop, and is (and I swear I am in no way, shape, or form making this up) the most redneck computer geek I have ever known (and also the family oddball; the rest of his relatives all are pretty aristocratic).

On my mother's side...

Stories abound of my grandfather's childhood in Ethiopia; his favorites to tell are of the time he broke into an armory and almost blew himself up trying to get to the moon, and of the time one of his friends lost a finger and he planted it in a pot and tried to grow a person. He also claims to have come up with the idea for both the artificial heart and filtered cigarettes (and hates my grandmother's brother-in-law for supposedly stealing the latter from him). As you may have guessed, he has a strong tendency to embellish the truth (unreliable narrator (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UnreliableNarrator) doesn't begin to cover it), so it's hard to know what to believe. He does have a big interest in scientific pursuits, though.

My mother is a closet geek. She does not think of herself as one, and if she ever reads this, she will kill me, but she is a huge, huge huge fantasy geek. She loves ASoIaF, LotR, and other series I've never even heard of. She is completely enamored with the Zelda games (to the point where I can't play any if she's home, or else she'll start backseat gaming), and would probably like FF, as well. She's also a very avid reader. She didn't really groom me geek-wise, though (neither of my parents did)--that job went to my uncle. Comic books, DnD, SciFi--right down to the music I listen to, my interests parallel his. In some cases, they developed without having contact with him at all. I also inherited some of the mechanical ability from my dad's side, as well as his computer geekery.

So, to sum up: 4th gen on Dad's side, 3rd on Mom's.

[SilverSheriff]

First Generation Geek, mum's a narcissist and dad's a business man.

[Pocketa]

I'm related to Ursula LeGuin. She wrote the Earthsea Quartet. It was made into a movie by Hayao Miyazaki.

I'm a member of the Ames family. Their accomplishments include 2 libraries, an herbarium, and a court room (and related competition involving the Supreme Court ever year) at Harvard, cofounding the Birth Control League with Sanger, the Credit Mobilier Scandal, introducing and defining orchids to/in America, the Fresh Air Fund (sending inner city kids on vacation from NYC), Pick and Shovel Ames, Union Pacific Railroad, deans of Harvard Law School, a scholarship foundation, donation of 2 state parks, etc. On the Hooper side, I have a signer of the Declaration of Independence and some other interesting people. One of my relatives founded Life magazine.

My aunt was the costume designer for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and if I was to go to Hong Kong, I'd basically be a pop idol. My family was very important in China. (My Chinese grandmother married into an old American family, both important due to their own merit).

I've been in the AFP (oldest news agency in the world), due to my math and science work.

I've received a dedication in a New Zealand fantasy novel by my uncle.

My father was a dairy man, before he became a farmer, and revolutionized breeding of cattle, winning awards for his work with livestock. He's also in line to be a duke in England.

I've been published in local papers due to my community service (raising money for the Red Cross as a child, and currently, 120 hrs/yr since 7th grade with the elderly, 9 hrs/week this year as well, and 6 hrs/week last year) efforts.

I'm obviously not going to post links or proof because I do value privacy.

[Yarram]

I'm related to Ursula LeGuin. She wrote the Earthsea Quartet. It was made into a movie by Hayao Miyazaki.

I'm a member of the Ames family. Their accomplishments include 2 libraries, an herbarium, and a court room (and related competition involving the Supreme Court ever year) at Harvard, cofounding the Birth Control League with Sanger, the Credit Mobilier Scandal, introducing and defining orchids to/in America, the Fresh Air Fund (sending inner city kids on vacation from NYC), Pick and Shovel Ames, Union Pacific Railroad, deans of Harvard Law School, a scholarship foundation, donation of 2 state parks, etc. On the Hooper side, I have a signer of the Declaration of Independence and some other interesting people. One of my relatives founded Life magazine.

My aunt was the costume designer for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and if I was to go to Hong Kong, I'd basically be a pop idol. My family was very important in China. (My Chinese grandmother married into an old American family, both important due to their own merit).

I've been in the AFP (oldest news agency in the world), due to my math and science work.

I've received a dedication in a New Zealand fantasy novel by my uncle.

My father was a dairy man, before he became a farmer, and revolutionized breeding of cattle, winning awards for his work with livestock. He's also in line to be a duke in England.

I've been published in local papers due to my community service (raising money for the Red Cross as a child, and currently, 120 hrs/yr since 7th grade with the elderly, 9 hrs/week this year as well, and 6 hrs/week last year) efforts.

I'm obviously not going to post links or proof because I do value privacy.
Yeah, but where's the Geek Pedigree? :smallbiggrin: We're talking direct line of descendants here.

Me, I got NOTHIN'! First Generation Geek. Both my parents are small time music teachers, and one Grandfather owned a Chemist shop, while the other taught. Both supporting their wives.
I guess my father got every computer model possible when recording software was first being written, but I know more about them than he does, so he can't have tried too hard. They also got the internet when it first came out too. And ordered wine.
Otherwise, unless you go back several generations on my mothers side... My great Grandfather was a Doctor of Law in Hungary, but had to flee the country during the Hungarian revolution because he was Anti-Russian and he helped Jews escape the country. When he got to Austalia, since he also studied to become an electrician when it got too dangerous for him to practice Law, he was skilled, but none of his qualifications were counted.
He was working on a perpetual motion machine at one stage. I guess that's pretty geeky... But that's old school geek.
Other than him... I got NOTHIN'!

[Pocketa]

It's a pedigree because it involves the scientist who basically formally scientifically "discovered" orchids. It involves the head of the Union Pacific railroad, an engineering marvel. I've had my name in scifi books, as well as in articles concerning math and science. The fact my aunt's fantasy novel got turned into a film by The Hayao Miyazaki of The Studio Ghibli doesn't count either, I suppose?

My father is an agricultural geneticist, focusing on practical dairy applications.
My mother is a computer scientist.
My grandfather revolutionized electronic stock exchange.

So yeah, geeky, but not neckbeard geeky, not DnD geeky, but Ivy geeky, geeky with aspirations, no offense to anyone else, but they geeked out in different ways.

[toasty]

So yeah, geeky, but not neckbeard geeky,

Neckbeards are just plain gross. :smallyuk: There is nothing geeky about them. :smallannoyed:

[Dallas-Dakota]

Pocketa: And you're worried about not getting into college?:smallconfused:
What. The. Heck?

[Pocketa]

Pocketa: And you're worried about not getting into college?:smallconfused:
What. The. Heck?

I'm not in yet. So I'm worried.

[wojonatior]

I think I am a 3rd generation, because my grandpa on my dads side has some geeky tendencies, and my dad, and stepmom are full-blown geeks, and my mom and stepdad are pretty geeky as well. My uncle has also had some very geeky influences on me.

[ApeofLight]

I'm a 2nd generation geek, possible third but unlikely.

My dad is a web designer and is fairly geeky. He continues to play both board games and video games while also knowing plenty about science, history, and mythology.

My mom not so much. Neither are her parents very geeky.

Grandpa on my dad's side though was a principal at a school so I don't know if that counts because he might just be considered smart.

[Perenelle]

neither of my parents were geeks. But my grandpa was, so I dunno whether that would make me a 2nd generation or a 3rd. :smalltongue:
but I'm a lot geekier than my grandpa was, so I guess I'm self taught. :smallamused:

[deuxhero]

Dad is an electrician (though he works as more or less tech support)

[MethosH]

My dad is the only PhD in his field in my country. And I learned about PC's from him when I was 2-3 years old. My grampa and my gramma (on the mother side) was a opera singer. My grampa on the fathers side was a airplane pilot for the military.

I may be a 3rd generation geek... Or at least a 2nd generation.

[Klose_the_Sith]

I come from only recent geekiness on my dads side (him and his brother) but on the other side ...

Well I'm told that we're in general a pretty long line of fairly academic people, with a proud history of pretty much always being university educated (I run the risk of being a combo breaker :smalltongue:) and those people seem to be tech obsessed. My granddad on that side in particular is obsessed with learning more and more code he can use, I think he wants to be a programmer?

So ... yeah.

2nd-3rd-nth? degree geek

[Lupy]

My (maternal) Grandfather was a Chemical Engineer, and is a geek. My mother played 1st Ed in college in the late 70s and early 80s. That makes me 3rd generation.