Geeky Wednesday…

It’s no secret I’m a geek. I love my gadgets, my computer games, my comic books, fantasy novels, sci-fi movies and learning all sorts of technical stuff other (normal) people find boring. I simply have a thing for them. I am also the person my friends and relatives will come when it comes to finding answers to computer problems and issues. I’m not the best one there is and I do believe my knowledge in certain issues is limited, but in most cases I do know where to look for an answer (that’s the engineer in me).

By the way: what’s the difference between a ‘geek’ and a ‘nerd’? Which is worse?
I mentioned I am a geek and not a nerd because I do have a social life and I know how to behave with other human beings who haven’t watched ‘Star Wars’ a million times or aren’t a fan of ‘The big Bang theory’!

Anyway, this is my geek update.

This Christmas, I’ve purchased a new laptop. I got a Sony VAIO E series that is able to run games I couldn’t play before. So, I’ve recently restarted devoting some time to them again. Playing games is not such a high priority (as it used to be) and I do it only when I want to relax at home. I’m not addicted or anything. I still prefer spending time with friends and ‘JJ’ than sitting at home in front of a 15’’ screen.

Loving Strategy and RPG games, I bought ‘Starcraft II’, ‘Fallout 3’ and ‘Civilisation V’. I wasn’t disappointed by any of them. Starcraft II is amazing and lives up to the expectation of its predecessor. It took Blizzard 12 years to release the sequel to ‘Starcraft’, which is one of my favourite games, but it was worth it. It only has a single campaign, for humans, but there are quite a few battles to keep you happily occupied for a long time. The graphics, physics and tactics of the game are all very appealing. I can’t wait for the release of the rest of the campaigns.


’Fallout 3’ as well is extraordinary. The world it produces is massive and your character can evolve in so many different ways. There are many quests that can be completed in different ways, affecting the rest of the story, making the game very interesting. It looks a lot like ‘Oblivion’ since it uses the same graphic engine but the world is so different. ‘Civilisation V’ was a bit of a disappointment since I believe it’s not that good as the previous one. The graphics are nicer and some aspects have improved but in general I believe it has been simplified to appeal to console gamers. It can still offer some hours of fun but I’d prefer playing version ‘IV’ to ‘V’. I will now invest some time in ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ and maybe ‘Dead Space’.


On the fantasy book front, I’ve recently finished ‘A game of Thrones (A song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)’ by George R. R. Martin. This book was recommended to me by an acquaintance from a gay dating site a couple of years ago. (Yes, this is the topics I have when meeting someone new.) I had bought this book in autumn but I’ve now just managed to sit down and read it and I have to say I loved it. The characters are not single dimensional and the plot has quite a few interesting twists. I like fantasy books with a dark twist in them. I bought and read the book before learning about the US TV adaptation. If anyone has watched it, is it any good? Has it started yet?


I’m now reading the ‘The painted Man (Demon Trilogy)’ by Peter V. Brett aka ‘The Wicked Man’ in the States. I generally take a break between reading a book series not to get tired by the same heroes and stories. I’ll pick up the second book of the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ later. So, I’ve read the first 100 pages of ‘The Painted Man’ and I have to admit I like his way of writing. It’s a bit too soon to say though if the whole book is any good or not but for the moment, I quite enjoy it.