While the geek lifestyle has become more or less accepted in this country and others, it's still slightly looked down upon, I feel. Are you secure about your choice of lifestyle?

Often, when meeting new people, they want to know what you do in your spare time. Then comes a choice. Do you respond with the generic, vague answer "Oh, I just do whatever.", and move along? Or do you reply honestly about your gaming and computer-ing habits? For most people, it probably depends on the appearance of the other person.

I'll admit, I'm in the middle. I'm vague until I've known the person for a few days. By that point, you can determine if they're going to give you any shit about it or simply avoid you because they find you boring. I dunno about you guys, but it seems that once a person has understood that I game, work on a site, repair computers, barely watch sports, never drink, smoke, or party, or act wild in any way, that person pretty much never willingly speaks to me again. On the one hand, I don't want to know someone so shallow, anyway. On the other, 90% of the people I meet follow this pattern.

You also have to factor in your location. For me, there just aren't many geeks in Kansas. In fact, I haven't found anyone even close to the degree of geekdom as myself, and I'm really not that extreme. I'm fairly low-end compared to many of the folks online. All I ever find here are people who casually dab into GTA and Halo, and can use Yahoo Instant Messenger. That's about it. In fact, it's really pissing me off in recent years. I was obviously born in the wrong place.

So am I happy about the interests I have? More or less. My hobbies keep me entertained, and even genuinely raise my spirit at times, and also simply keep my brain active. I'm not really depressed about it. Just indifferent about it.

I don't know what my aim of this post is, but every few years, I analyze what I do, and ask myself if I should try to conform to the population. I never find a good enough reason to do so. How do you guys feel?