My Geeky Family

In light of the challenge presented by Lesley’s League of Geeks, I thought I’d present my own geeky credentials.

Firstly my parents –

Dad – Science Geek – retired physics teacher
Mum – Exercise Geek – retired PE teacher

My sisters and brother –

Sister J1 – arty sister who would never be sufficiently untrendy to be geeky about anything.
Brother F – Football Geek – PE teacher and soccer coach who lives in Florida.
Sister J2 – Music Geek – professional clarinet player

My husband – Electrical engineering and veggie-growing geek – PhD in Electrical machines, fanatical about growing veggies in back garden and allotment.

And me? I end up feeling a bit like a Geek of all trades (and mistress of none!), having an engineering degree and MSc in IT, and spending as much time as possible working on various crafty things. At work I spend my time translating between plain English and geeky IT speak, and vice versa. And I have one of those really geeky good memories for complete rubbish and a whole load of things I’d rather forget.

I'm the sort of person who chooses popular science books for my Dad's birthday based on what I'd like to read myself, but really don't have the time to concentrate on at the moment. Maybe one day, I'll be able to borrow them all back from him and read them myself. One of my favourite books is Simon Singh's The Code Book. Oh, and I can get really geeky about the Lord of the Rings too.

But now, most importantly, my secret weapon!

Alexander B, age 7
Lego geek, budding science geek and Mythbuster!

So, not only am I the daughter and wife of geeks, as well as having my own geeky credentials, but I would also appear to be the mother of one too. Which, in turn, makes me even geekier as I'm the one who generally tries to answer his questions.

We have fascinating geeky conversations, such as -

Alexander - What is water made of?
Me - Hydrogen and Oxygen
Alexander - Can you buy hydrogen and oxygen?
Me (not sure where this is going) - Ye-ess
Alexander - So can we buy some then and make some water?

While we were away on holiday last month, one evening he asked me how many countries there are in the world. That's not a number I know off the top of my head, but I told him there were several hundred. He then insisted that I name all the countries I knew..... I think I got to about 120 off the top of my head and with the help of the Olympics we made it to nearer 150 the following morning. But I know there are large areas where I missed a lot eg. central Africa, Pacific Ocean......

Over breakfast on Sunday morning, I had to explain the background to the Lord of the Rings and the history of the One Ring in no more than 15 minutes without giving away the entire story as Alexander had seen about 5 minutes of the Two Towers on Saturday evening before deciding it was too scary. I refuse to tell him everything as I insist that he will read the Lord of the Rings himself one day and I can remember how magical it seemed to me when I read it for the first time. However, at the moment, I'm struggling to get him to read Captain Underpants to himself, despite the larger type and short chapters - it's a boy thing (I think).

Oh, and I found this photo when browsing around the Craftzine blog yesterday. I wasn't looking for it, honest!

Mythbusters: Jamie and Adam
Originally uploaded by oddgumi