Favorite Geeks

As a starter, I decided to list some of my favorite geeks of all time. Since this blog is about me and my geekiness, as well as the world around me, I thought it only appropriate to share some of my favorite geeks, be they historical, fictional, or anything else.

John Aaron

Possibly one of the geekiest on this list, John Aaron is a man who took his job incredibly seriously and threw himself into it entirely. For those not familiar with the story and who are too lazy to click on the wikipedia link, John Aaron was a flight controller and engineer for NASA. Working for NASA pretty much already makes you a geek, but this guy tops my list. He was made somewhat famous, and is getting put on this list, because of an incident involving the Apollo 12 mission. About 36 seconds after liftoff, the spacecraft was struck by lightning, causing all kinds of electrical problems. John Aaron was working at mission control and managed to keep his calm. He was a giant dork who had looked over most of the training manuals and knew almost everything there was to know about his job. The screens on the computers at mission control had all come up with weird patterns, and John recognized one of them. He remembered seeing it before in his extensive research. Knowing this, he knew that there was a switch labeled “SCE to AUX” that could be flipped, righting the problem. He said this over the microphone to the astronauts, most of whom had no idea what he was talking about. One did, and flipped the switch, correcting the problem. This geek goes down in history.

Gary Gygax

No list of great geeks is complete without the recently-deceased (RIP) Gary Gygax. He helped to co-create Dungeons and Dragons, something which has given many of us something incredibly fun to do on our weekends. Many of us can never think of dice the same way anymore, and spend hours arguing over rules thanks to this man. I don’t know what else to say, other than thank you Gary.

Bill Nye, the Science Guy

Never has one man taught me so much, such as the fact that inertia is a property of matter. Not only did his show have an incredibly catchy theme song, but it actually taught a generation of students quite a bit. In my senior physics class, we watched Bill Nye talk about various topics. It brings a smile to my face to know that he still works with the weather channel. It almost makes me want to start watching the weather channel.

Almost.

Anyways, Bill Nye is on this list because if your name has “The Science Guy” attached to it, let’s face it, you’re a geek.

Bill Haverchuck

The first fictional character to appear on the list, Bill appeared in the short-lived series “Freaks and Geeks”, which I highly reccommend if you haven’t seen it already. He was basically the stereotypical nerd – tall, gangly, big glasses, awkward around everyone, but he was also a great character that actually had more to him than just being a geek. If nothing else, he was possibly the only one of the geeks on that show who was really comfortable being a geek, and didn’t mind it at all. He’s on my list for just being a fun character to watch.

Professor Frink

From the Simpsons. If you don’t know who I’m talking about and why he’s on this list, you need to watch a lot more television.

Joss Whedon

Takes his love for all things geeky, creates three great television shows, writes comics, and still manages to be one of the coolest, laid-back guys around. This man has it made. I don’t know what else to say about him – he’s basically everything I wish I could be.

Randall Munroe

This guy manages to be both incredibly smart and incredibly funny, and finds a nice balance between the two. If you aren’t reading xkcd already, go, start now. It’s one of my favorite webcomics (perhaps that’s another list in the making…) and is worth perusing. Seriously, it’s wonderful and I don’t have enough good things to say about it.

These are some of my favorite geeks in history. Feel free to comment with your own, and perhaps at a later date I’ll do an updated list, adding more in.

-Pittsburgh Geek