This state is both pleasurable and habit forming. And once you’re knocked out of it, it can take 20-30 minutes to get back into it, if you get back at all.

If you’re working at 3 AM, there’s less chance of a phone ringing, neighbor kids yelling, etc., and knocking you out of the zone.

It’s not about staying up for its own sake, it’s about working at your most efficient times. Staying up until 3 (or later) coding a program? Been there, done that. Staying up until 3 (or later) taking over the world in Civ? BTDT too. Staying up until 3 watching movies? Not since I was 19.

I tend to strive for counter-balance:
Ren-Fest counter-balances Def-Con
Sci-Fi counter-balances Fantasy
The stronger the control on technology, the greater the disorder in the house.
For me, an absolute certainty in a God is balanced by a total distrust in tradition religions.
The better the memory for technology, the greater the chance the bills get forgot.
The counter-balance expressed in XKCD is profound and yet easy for me to relate. Mathematics and Romance, Hard Science and Wistfulness, Technology and Relationships. It is a quirky counter-balance again.

As for being night-owls, many of us are addicted to Caffeine. Caffeine in the morning, noon, afternoon, and night. That does not promote sleep. Caffeine gives us productive time, our “precious”!

I have a fear of being boring. I can’t be popular so I make up for it by trying to be interesting. If I fail, I’ll be bizarre. Sometimes there is little difference in the two.

Many of us are “aspies”, as eye-of-horus indicates. But I believe it is a normal variation of the human condition, much like being a superjock or such. Frankly, if everyone was alike, and easy to understand, the world would be boring. I wish more “usual” people would realize that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome

Frankly, I don’t much love NTs (neuro-typicals). It’s they who are diseased — ill-mannered, overbearing, obnoxious, and just plain noxious.

eye-of-horus

Genius! I must remember this the next time I am asked why my place is a dump.

Comic books about serial fetus kills and adventures of the antichrist are immature, and you’re goofy if you think differently. They aren’t childish though. Reading comic books is “immature” much like coloring with crayons is. It’s essentially something that you can do with your head held high, but if you’re at a job interview it’s just best left out of conversation.

I read a few comics, and if someone said “what’s the last mature thing you did?” I wouldn’t answer with “read a comic book” but I might say, “Read about the theory of relativity.”

BTW, most mangas I read would’nt suit little girls: Berserk, Naruto, Hikaru No Go, Claymore.

Mangas and Anime are not childish !

But it’s striking that non-geeks think they are childish.

It may be linked to a lack of self confidence in geeks.

Oh, goody. Another “comics books are for kids” pinhead. I’ll just drop off this load of Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis, etc. books at the local daycare. I’m sure they’ll love reading about serial fetus killers and the adventures of the Antichrist.

Thanks for making me feel like I belong to a subculture.

I don’t know where this would fit in, but I see more and more geeks involved in physical activities that require extreme coordination – poi, contact staff, juggling, yo-yo, contact juggling…

and these are people that swear they have no rhythm and can’t dance or play any sports…

If you actually time traveled back to the middle ages, the first thing you would notice would be the pervasive stench, the feces everywhere, the people with rotting body parts from tertiary syphilis, the flies…

As for religions, that one’s easy to explain. In the USA, people will freak out if you say you’re an atheist, but if you say you’re religious there’s this bizarre belief that your religious beliefs instantly have to be treated with deference and respect. So religions like the Church of the SubGenius take advantage of that (stupid) attitude for the purposes of mockery.

In the case of the Church of the Subgenius, the ambition for the founders to make a few bucks no less dishonest than any other preacher who spouts nonsense was doubtless a further draw. Anyone who’s ever worn a necktie should understand looking ridiculous to get paid. That Subgenii are generally honest, open, good humored, and generally non-litigious about this (aside from objecting to “being silly” getting used as grounds to deny child custody) makes them more appealing than other notable SF-geek related attempts at this sort of enterprise.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is a bit of inspired political theatre, to insure that if Kansas schoolchildren get taught nonsense mixed in with their biology that they will sort through, they will also learn some unfamiliar nonsense in the process. Think of it as the modern religious crusades running smack into information warfare.

As for Discordianism, it can be blamed on one SF author having a lot of fun writing on drugs (mostly pot and LSD) during the 1960s, and one very talented and independent game writer taking the idea in the early 1980s and running with it. Hopefully, the Secret Service is less confused about all this lately, but they aren’t paid to have a sense of humor. Fnord.

The control freak/slob phenomenon is also described as the duality of geek organization. we exist in a quantum state of cleanliness.