Kevin's Watch

Is there a strict definition for geek vs. hobbyist?

deer of the dawn wrote:Perhaps geeking should by definition include a "next step". A few years ago i binge-watched the entire X-Files series. But I did not put up an "I Want To Believe" poster, or start eating David salted sunflower seeds (although my daughter did, lol!), or go to a Con.

Exactly. I love Star Wars but I don't own a Star Wars T-shirt or a plastic lightsabre. (My god, my Firefox spellchecker accepts "lightsabre" without a qualm... )

To geek must have some connotation with obsession, (mild or otherwise).

Sorus wrote:Is there a strict definition for geek vs. hobbyist?

Well, Google offers several definitions, but this is the one that probably fits here:

be or become extremely excited or enthusiastic about a subject, typically one of specialist or minority interest.

I think the key word there is extremely.

A hobbyist is merely

a person who pursues a particular hobby.

--A

Avatar wrote:Well, Google offers several definitions, but this is the one that probably fits here:

be or become extremely excited or enthusiastic about a subject, typically one of specialist or minority interest.

I think the key word there is extremely.

A hobbyist is merely

a person who pursues a particular hobby.

--A

Well I wouldn't describe the Mel Gibson audio commentry as extremely exciting. As a matter of fact he says very little, every 5-10 mins or so.
However, when he does speak what he says about the making of Braveheart is quite fascinating.

Personally, I think that audio commentaries are Geeky.
For example: in the first reel, when William Wallace's secret wife is trying to escape on horseback from the English guards she is whacked across the face with the shaft of a spear, unsaddling her and knocking her unconscious to the ground. A violent scene.
To get a realistic effect she was first filmed riding through the guards. Then she was filmed again at 28 frames per second sitting on someones shoulders. The shaft of the spear was made to look like it hit her, in slow motion. Then speeded up and edited back into film, with some frames deleted to give a more savage effect, the scene looks flawless. Even knowing how it was done I tried several times to see the trick, and still it looked as real as could be.

Geeky or what?

Tonight's movie, EX_MACHINA, has no audio commentary.

Hahaha, it's not whether what you do is exciting, it's whether you get excited about it.

--A

Rune wrote: Even knowing how it was done I tried several times to see the trick, and still it looked as real as could be.

That's pretty cool. I like knowing how things are done, though I probably would have just guessed it was a stunt double, if I'd thought about it.

Sorus wrote:Is there a strict definition for geek vs. hobbyist?

A hobbyist will pass time with his friends discussing what he enjoys.
A geek will pass up time with his friends to obsess on what he enjoys.

wayfriend wrote:

Sorus wrote:Is there a strict definition for geek vs. hobbyist?

A hobbyist will pass time with his friends discussing what he enjoys.
A geek will pass up time with his friends to obsess on what he enjoys.

What if the friends are geeks too?

For example, if I'm discussing WoW with friends who also play, and the conversation would be of zero interest to anyone who doesn't play, are we geeks or hobbyists?

Sorus wrote:For example, if I'm discussing WoW with friends who also play, and the conversation would be of zero interest to anyone who doesn't play, are we geeks or hobbyists?

It depends if you're in a bar having a beer, or on your couch speaking into a headset.

wayfriend wrote:

Sorus wrote:For example, if I'm discussing WoW with friends who also play, and the conversation would be of zero interest to anyone who doesn't play, are we geeks or hobbyists?

It depends if you're in a bar having a beer, or on your couch speaking into a headset.

Done both.

Sorus wrote: For example, if I'm discussing WoW with friends who also play, and the conversation would be of zero interest to anyone who doesn't play, are we geeks or hobbyists?

You know I've often read some of your thread conversations, (with Creator). And marveled at having completely no idea of what's being said!

Bloody WoW.

--A

Rune wrote:

Sorus wrote: For example, if I'm discussing WoW with friends who also play, and the conversation would be of zero interest to anyone who doesn't play, are we geeks or hobbyists?

You know I've often read some of your thread conversations, (with Creator). And marveled at having completely no idea of what's being said!

That can be remedied.

Don't you listen to him Dan,
he's a devil, not a man...

--A

I'm reminded of the scene in Incarnations of Immortality where Heaven and Hell are running conflicting billboard ads.

I may be heading into geek territory with the knitting and the concept of "souvenir yarn." I stumbled across a yarn shop about half a block from the convention center where World Fantasy Convention was held last fall. All I bought was a shawl pin, but it was a near thing. Now I'm starting to look up yarn shops in places I'm traveling to...

I walk by this place occasionally, and I've never been inside, but I always stop and look in the window and wish I knew how to knit because they have some really pretty yarn. Gorgeous colors and maybe I've been in merchandising too long, but it's really well displayed.

I should take a knitting class at the SPCA one of these days, but they're always on worknights and run too late for me. I may not have the mentality to knit, unless I could figure out a way to read at the same time, and I think I would need 3 hands for that, plus at least a few more to keep the yarn safe from multiple cats. So no knitting until I become an octopus, at which point I will need to learn since I won't be able to wear off-the-shelf clothes.

The GF taught herself to knit from YouTube videos. Seriously.

--A

Cool! Good for her.

I taught myself to crochet from books, a number of years ago. My grandmother laughed at the way I held the crochet hook.

Yarn shops, in general, are a feast for the eyes. (Which is why I get so annoyed when someone asks me to knit them something in black. All the freakin' colors of the rainbow to choose from, and you want me to knit with *black*? No. Just no.)

That store looks extremely dangerous, Sorus.

My mom both knitted and crocheted (and sewed and...), but she preferred crocheting to knitting, and I wasn't crazy about crochet. I ended up teaching myself to knit from a book. MagickMaker learned to knit from one of the women who worked in her school library, but she often uses YouTube to learn new techniques.