letting my geek flag fly! [geek girl tag]

While I'm not a YouTuber (can you imagine finding out your eighth grade English teacher vlogs?  I'd never live it down), I am subscribed to a ton of channels and couldn't resist the Geek Girl tag after watching this video by Kristin from My Life As a Teacup.  I was definitely a nerdy kid, but I don't think I really started to see myself as a geek until eighth grade when I finally found some friends who thought it was cool that I was a girl who liked Star Wars and Redwall, and also started to find friends online who had similarly geeky interests.  In college, I found friends I could geek out about Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer with. And now I have a wonderfully geeky husband who goes to all the Marvel movies with me.  I had to take the Geek Girl survey, and I really want to start sharing more of my geeky side here on the blog.

1. What is your must-have tech gadget?

My phone - ironically, because texting pretty much makes my teenage dream a reality: being able to communicate my ideas to my friends and family members in the way I am most skilled, via writing, rather than verbally.  AIM was my savior in high school.

2. Which house do you belong to in Hogwarts?

Hufflepuff.  Not only did my best HP-loving friend sort me into Hogwarts in college, pretty much every quiz I've ever taken, including the Pottermore quiz, had the same result.  As the Sorting Hat says, Hufflepuffs are fair, loyal, patient, and hard working.  I'm pretty sure those are all the qualities that make me a successful middle school teacher.  I'm not a super competitive person, I don't really get high on adrenaline, and I do feel like most of my success is the result of me working hard rather than being super intelligent.

3. Who (!) was your favorite Doctor?

I guess this makes me a bad geek, but I have never invested the time to really get into Doctor Who.  The only episodes I've seen had David Tennant and all I can think of when I see him is "Barty Crouch... JUNIOR!"  The show just seems cheesy to me, but my college friends and a lot of my students absolutely love the Doctor in all his incarnations.

4. If you could have dinner with any fictional character, who would it be?

I feel like Albus Dumbledore would be the most amazing conversationalist ever.  He could impart some amazing wisdom, tell some great jokes, and also make some off-the-wall nonsense comments, and I would love all of it.  Plus he's been alive for more than a century, so I could ask him questions about historical events and famous people he probably encountered.

5. What is your gaming system of choice?

I am not very talented at traditional video games.  When I was little, my friends made fun of me because I couldn't play Mario Bros. without actually moving my body the way the character would be moving.  Fast-forward to today, and I get to do that all the time - my gaming system of choice is my Wii!  I love dance games - Michael Jackson Experience helped me lose weight for my wedding and I collect the Just Dance series.

6. If you had a super power, what would it be?

In college, my answer to this question was being able to understand and speak all languages, and I still think that would be really cool!  However, now that I have had a few more difficult life experiences, I dream of being able to time travel and make situations better or just revisit certain people or moments again.

7. What is your favorite fantasy world?

Oh my goodness, this question is difficult, because all of the fantasy worlds I love also have some kind of horrible villain or evil force hanging over them and causing trouble, or scary monsters that I wouldn't want to mess with.  I have to say the Wizarding World created by J.K. Rowling, though, because I think she's such a genius.  I mean, I can tell you what the denziens of this world eat, how they travel, what they wear, what kind of music they listen to, what amazing animals they work with, what spells they use to do magic - and it all came from one woman's imagination coupled with an impressive amount of research and knowledge of folklore.  I'm also so blown away by the amount of creativity the Wizarding World has inspired - there is just a whole world of stuff inspired by Harry Potter's universe. It's definitely in the ranks with Star Wars, Star Trek and Lord of the Rings in terms of how passionate fans are and how much a part of popular culture it has become.

8. If you could be any fictional race, what would you be?

Can I be an Ewok?  Who wouldn't want to be a little bear-shaped person who runs around being adorable and singing and dancing around a campfire, but can also go Swiss Family Robinson on enemies when needed?

9. Star Trek or Star Wars?

Star Wars!  I resisted it for a long, long time and would roll my eyes at my dad when he tried to get me to watch his VHS copies of the original trilogy.  Finally, in the summer between fifth and sixth grade, it was like all of a sudden all my guy friends were into Star Wars, and I was like fine, dad, let's do this thing.  For the next two weekends, my Friday night plans were set - watching the original trilogy with my parents and loving every minute of it.  I love Star Wars because it describes a hero's journey, because it's a love story, and because it's a story about a group of stubborn, determined people coming together to form their own family.  I love the Force.  I love the idea of having a Droid.  I love the Jim Henson-ness of the original trilogy's practical effects.  I don't like the prequels, but I am excited to see what J.J. Abrams does with that rich universe now that he has the opportunity to put his own spin on George Lucas' creation.

10. List your top 5 geektastic movies or TV series.

• Harry Potter
• Star Wars
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• The MCU (Avengers, Thor, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. etc.)
• Firefly/Serenity

Honorable mentions:  X-Men, The Fifth Element, Final Fantasy VII, The Chronicles of Narnia, Syfy Alice, Inception, J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies, The Hunger Games, John Carter, City of Bones, Sherlock, Pacific Rim.

What are your favorite "geeky" interests?  Do you consider yourself a geek girl?

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