Geek Profile: Paul Rj Muller – Geektoberfest
In the 3 years that I’ve known Paul, we have never met face-to-face. We have talked over phone, Skype and the Internet. The one thing I can say about him – He is passionate about his coffee.
Paul is a high-octane geek, with a show that is also high-octane. The Caffination Podcast is half tech, half coffee. And bacon. And Legos.
Name: Paul Rj Muller
Occupation: IT Systems Manager / Academic Technical Support
Show(s): The CaffiNation Podcast
Type of Geek you are: I’ma geek of all trades dork of none. I’m a coffee geek, a Tolkien geek and a video game geek, sci fi geek, Comic geek. You can geek it I’ll at least try it. I’d have to say I’m much more of a Tolkien and a Coffee geek than anything else. Most people find it pretty odd at just how much of a Tolkien geek I really am, The coffee geek is pretty much well know though. I love working on computers and coding when I get the chance, but really my interests are so many I don’t have time to geek out on everything!
What is the geekiest toy you DON’T own, but want: I’d have to say a replica of Bilbo / Frodo’s sword Sting, or the Dúnedain relic Narsil / Andúril. Possibly the Orin from the Never-ending story or Captain America’s Shield.
Do you consider yourself a Geek, Dork or Nerd: Oh I’m definitely a geek with nerdish tendencies. I spell things too badly to be a dork, and my math skills are not up to par to be a true nerd.
Quick paragraph on a time you felt your geekiest: If its a single moment about 3 months ago I got into an extended argument with a 9 year old about the color of lightsaber that jedi’s use. You see my son was told he wasn’t allowed to play because they didn’t have enough colors for everyone to be different, yet all the kids were using yellow wiffle ball bats. The kid insisted that Luke had a green lightsaber, and i told him it was also blue. This took a while. But my kid eventually was allowed to be a Sith, which is fine by me. Together we will rule the universe as father and son.
However I am often amazed that Whenever my friend Dave and I were play a board games with our wives when we breakdown into extended conversions on superheros powers, dungeon a dragon dice, constitution references and comic book quotes. Both of us usually end up laughing hysterically at off kilter jokes and bad puns. After a while we usually look across the table and find blank stares. And realize that we are very lucky to have kept the full extent of our geekery hidden until after the ladies had been acquired. Its hard to get a chick to dig you when you’re making saving roll jokes.
Anything else you can contribute to your Geek: I have a deep love of design and making information as beautiful as possible. I once spent a week working on an info-graphic detailing the history of coffee cultivation and its spread throughout the western world. Because I can.
One of the most rewarding and enjoyable aspects of being a proud geek is that raising a son, and a daughter I get the chance to mold the next generation of geeks, through discussion on dinosaurs proper names, the correct pronunciation of ethernet and espresso, and everything in between I have high hopes for the future. I guess that all the teasing and school stuff that came before being a grown up geek is worth it. And the current culture seems to be a bit kinder to the geekier children, not much but any little bit helps. In training geeks it also helps to teach them to be well adjusted geeks to boot. Besides that any doubters from the early years now have to come crawling back to me when they can’t print 😉