The Joyful Moments of Being a GeekDad

So. I have a post over at GeekDad that describes a recent moment with my son:

I had a GeekDad moment a couple of days ago, my 9 year-old was happily playing on the iPad flicking through different apps. I was tinkering over at the TV hooking up my latest Commodore 64 console (because retro gaming is a thing in my head now). He then called out to me and said, "Hey Dad, Scribblenauts knows about Cthulhu". I headed over to the couch to take a look.

For those unaware, Scribblenauts is a very clever educational tool that is a combination of problem solving and the old text-based RPGs we used to play before graphics on computers existed. Basically you have to solve different levels by typing in words of things that might help you to solve the problem. For example, if you need to get to the top of a cliff you might type "wings" to give your character wings, or "aeroplane", or "pegasus". The vocabulary of the game is huge and extends to all types of items that when typed appear on the screen to be used.

Well, my 9 year old (who is yet to read any H. P. Lovecraft I might add) typed in "Cthulhu". And, the Great old One appeared in Scribblenauts and began to attack him! There was no mention of just how much sanity was lost, but all I could do was ruffle my boys hair and smile. "He typed 'Cthulhu,'" I kept repeating to myself over and over while shaking my head.

We all have special moments like that as GeekDads. I think we should share them.

Consider the thread open...let us get some of that beautiful GeekDad sharing going :)

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Permalink Reply by Jason Preu on October 4, 2012 at 12:30pm

My favorite recent moment: 4 1/2 year old and 6 year old in the backseat arguing for a good 10 minutes about who would win in a fight: Sauron or Voldemort. They decided on Voldemort because he had the power to make a new body, while Sauron only had a big eye.

Permalink Reply by Jamee Mikell on October 4, 2012 at 12:43pm

My son (12) is into Minecraft and Tekkit (a modded version of Minecraft). He's busily trying to set up his own Tekkit server, which can be exciting (he's hacking through this process of setting up a server) and annoying (when is he going to stop banging on about this server).

Recently,

Son: I need you to forward my server's port through the firewall. It's <port number>.

Me: @_@ (He knows about ports and port forwarding?) ... I think we need to work out some details first. And you really should figure out how to take what you've learned and get that running on the Linux machine because your laptop is seriously underpowered for a Minecraft server.

Son: Okay. (Scurries off to research.)

Me: @_@ ... He's actually researching it?

(Eventually, I'll probably have to help him--certainly when he wants access to the real Linux server--but for now, I'm letting him explore on his own and get it running on his ancient netbook.)

Permalink Reply by Dave Hale on October 4, 2012 at 1:36pm

The family and I are fairly new-comers to the Who-niverse, having only seen series 1-5 on Netflix while series 6 was airing on BBC (no cable, have to wait for Netflix/Amazon Prime). But, boy have we gotten into it. I have a Dr. Who soundboard app on my phone and when I play "Exterminate" they run screaming. Along those lines, last winter, my 3 year old daughter recited the entire "Don't Blink" quote from memory. That is a GeekDad moment. I even posted the video on YouTube, and I believe I posted it on the community as well.

Permalink Reply by Nathan Barry on October 4, 2012 at 2:35pm

My most recent one was when we were building the our games for Caine's Cardboard Challenge. I'd shown my 6.5 year old the videos and hoped it would inspire her and it sure did. After I'd suggested the basic kind of game we could make, she took it and ran with it - deciding how it should look, what we should call it, and finally inventing the 'super-mega-scoring' section by adding a tube to be the butterflies body, which also scored the most points if you got the ball down it.

It's so nice seeing those tiny cogs turning inside their little brains!

Permalink Reply by Jens Torell on October 4, 2012 at 3:11pm

Whenever my son (1 1/2) sees or hears something Star Wars related, he gets excited and starts talking about "D2D2" and "Bacca".  He loves reading the Star Wars Character Encyclopedia.

Permalink Reply by Mark Duignan on October 4, 2012 at 4:23pm

While I am not very religious, I went to Catholic school as do my sons now, mostly because it is the best school in our area.  The other day, my eight-year-old asked me something about Jesus.  He said, "Dad, when they say 'Christ will come again' do they mean he will re-spawn?"  After my laughter subsided I encouraged him not to ask that during religion class.

Permalink Reply by Troy Bird on November 10, 2012 at 11:37am

I would be considered to be religious, and personally I found his comment to be hilarious and awesome.  Thanks for sharing the smile.  :)

Permalink Reply by Jonathan H. Liu on October 4, 2012 at 5:54pm

I remember this from a couple years ago: I'd been playing random songs from my iPod in the car, and my daughter asked me to play some more of that "square music." I thought I knew what she was talking about, but I asked, "what's square music?" She said, well, that music that sounds like it should look like it's made of little squares. She was talking about some of the 8-bit stuff I'd been playing — I hadn't ever explained that it was chiptunes or 8-bit music, nor that it was inspired by old videogames, but she made the connection herself. I was so proud. :)

Permalink Reply by Thom on October 4, 2012 at 6:06pm
My son, having inherited his mother's musical ability, deciding one day to try and find a way to make a ska cover version of the original Lemmings theme song.
Permalink Reply by James Tyler on October 4, 2012 at 11:09pm

I haven't had many yet so far, but the one that I do remember was when my 3 older boys (ages 9, 8, and 7 at the time) were playing Super Mario Bros on the Wii and the middle one (who is the least gifted in all things electronic) decided that he was stuck and his brothers were starting to get upset because he was keeping them from moving on, so with myself and his mother sitting in the room (both video gamers) he decided that the best solution to his character being stuck was to hand the controller to his 4 year old little sister and we all proceeded to watch in amazement as she made the jump that he had been struggling with and caught up to where her big brothers were at.

Permalink Reply by Mike Bayer on October 5, 2012 at 3:45pm

I had my then 6-year old twin boys at Build-A-Bear one day.  Part of the process of building your stuffed animal is to take this little toy heart, make a wish and put it into the stuffing before the person working there sews it up for good.  So my one son is following instructions fine, and puts the heart in the bear.  Then he turns and looks me right in the eye, smiles, and grabs the heart out of the bear's open chest cavity yelling "Kali Ma!  Kali Ma Shkti De!".  I've never been more geek-proud.

Permalink Reply by Dave Hale on October 24, 2012 at 12:47pm

In a similar vein, a couple months ago, I took my 2 kids to Build A Bear to make one for their new brother that hadn't been born yet. The worker let them each put a heart in the bear so naturally, we started calling it a Time Lord Bear.

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