Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentines day to you all!

I know this day is way over marketed, as a way to sell chocolates, flowers, and skimpy unmentionables. Of course it serves a purpose, some people need to be reminded that if you love someone, you should let them know the other 364.24 days of the year, not just on this day. A reminder never hurts. I am also not one to turn down a holiday and if you have been reading this blog for very long, you know that we love to celebrate.

Geeks often get a bad rap for being overly analytical or anti-social. I can tell you that the analytical part might be true (sometimes), the anti-social thing is something else entirely and isn't unique to geeks. Geeks do have an advantage as a group though, when we love something, we love it passionately and obsessively. Two people who share interests, especially geeky ones, can talk for hours passionately and to an outside observer this looks like the cutest kind of love. Before I married my wife, in fact, before I was even dating her, (actually, in full disclosure, she wasn't interested in me at all and was engaged to someone else) we were good friends. We often had these kinds of deep, passionate, geeky discussions about anything and everything and I think it confused more than a few people. People often thought we were dating and I don't doubt it had a lot to do with why no one else seemed interested in dating me. They might not have been all wrong though, because here we are, together.

The point is when geeks love something, they love it a lot. As any actor in a Scifi show can tell you, this can be very scary at cons and there is another dark side to it. If you have ever heard of a WoW Widow or more recently a Skyrim Widow, you know that these passions for things (anything really) can turn into addictions and loved ones get pushed aside. This is especially harmful in relationships where a spouse doesn't share those same geeky interests. This is the same thing you see among car people, movie fanatics, and even sports fans. If you don't balance your passions, even if your spouse is included in them, you are pushing away people you love.

So this is a reminder to my friends and family (yes, even you Internet only ones). Take time to step back and tell the people you love and who love you that they are the most important things in your life. That's what Valentine's day should be celebrating and despite being turned away from the holiday due to the rampant commercialism, we geeks especially can use this day to remember to do that. Just try to remember the other 364.24 days too.

Credit for this awesome picture goes to this geeky artist.

Love passionately and obsessively, but try to direct that to the people in your life. If an object or a thing or an idea in your life becomes your precious, it's time to rethink priorities.


One more thing. What else do geeks do? Like Gollum up there, we make geeky jokes out of everything we love and reapply it to everything else society holds dear. Like these Valentine's Day cards.... Enjoy.  

Doctor Who Cards
http://www.bbcamerica.com/doctor-who/extras/valentines-day-ecards/

LOTR Cards
http://geekisawesome.com/3431/lord-of-the-rings-valentines-day-cards/

Star Trek Cards
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/exploringourmatrix/2012/02/star-trek-valentines.html

I could find dozens more. Star Wars was intentionally left off of this list, too many bad Luke-Leia jokes.



(Oh, and darling, with all the mess from re-arranging our daughter's bedroom and getting their obligatory school valentines and parties ready... I didn't get you any flowers, chocolates, or skimpy unmentionables.

So... Happy Valentine's Day! I got you a blog post. You can also read every one of those cards I linked above as if they are from me. Remember when we used to give each other virtual flower bouquets? They got cooler.)