Do you remember when "Geek" was insult?

I do, but I am one anyway, and honestly, geek is now chic – especially when you live near Silicon Valley.

Geek is now a badge of honor, referring to people who are passionate about and skilled in an area of interest, usually technical or academic. 

Who else would come up with a fine art piece that's a Roman Pompeii, faux mosaic looking as though it had just been excavated from the ash of Mt. Vesuvius?

What makes me a geek? From middle school on I was a voracious reader of Sci-Fi. My favorite author is Lois McMaster Bujold.

Among the professions I considered are veterinary medicine and astronomy. (I was bitten by the Carl Sagan bug in high school). I spent 20 years writing technical documentation – the last 12 of which were at IBM working on relational and non-relational database. Yes, I can explain the differences to you.

When I transitioned into visual art, I still wanted to keep the geek in me fed. This was also about the time that pod-casts started becoming popular, and those, my friend, are addicting if you're interested in history and the sciences.

Here's a smattering of my subscriptions (in case you need something good to listen to):

• Hardcore History
• Star Talk Radio
• Science Now
• The Naked Scientists Podcast
• Naked Genetics
• Naked Astronomy

And of course, I love watching:

• History Detectives
• Nova
• Nature
• Secrets of the Dead
• Any good Sci-Fi

And all of the interest, of course, feeds my ideas for art subjects. It's a win-win.

What's your passion? How do you feed it? Drop me a note. I'd love to know.