Day 15 – Earliest geek experience

What qualifies as a “geek experience”?

I have already posted about my first introduction to computers and so far I only concentrated on the computer side of my geek life.

But being a geek isn’t restricted to just computers.

I am also a geek when it comes to sci-fi and fantasy, though to a somewhat lesser degree than I am a computer geek.

Some of the earliest sci-fi I was introduced to is most likely Doctor Who.  I absolutely loved it, even though in my tender wee years when I first saw it, it scared the heck out of me.

I cannot remember how old I was when I first watched Doctor Who, but it must have before my teens as I remember watching lots of re-runs of Doctor Who during my early years in high school.  At that time, I was already conscious of already seeing episodes for the second time.

As for my first recollection of fantasy, it was most likely in the form of fighting fantasy books written by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone.  Actually I’m amazed I still remember their names.  I was probably around 9 or 10 years old again.

I enjoyed those choose you own adventure type books so much, for class assignments I’d create my own stories. Spending forever to map out story lines and chapter paths and passing it around my mates at school to read.  The stories tended to not be very long because it took so long to map it all out, but everybody seemed to enjoy my adventures.

So looking back and reminiscing about my early childhood, I am beginning to notice a pattern.  I don’t really remember much about my childhood with only a few fragments of flashbacks, but it definitely seems the early 80’s is when I began to get my geek groove on.