"Lights," I said softly. This had become my favorite word over the past week. In my mind, it had become synonymous with freedom.

I was one of the boys who made passes at girls who wore glasses. Any girl who was smarter than me - that was a huge turn-on.

You'd be amazed how much research you can get done when you have no life whatsoever.

No one in the world gets what they want and that is beautiful.

I’d designed my avatar’s face and body to look, more or less, like my own. My avatar had a slightly smaller nose than me, and he was taller. And thinner. And more muscular. And he didn’t have any teenage acne. But aside from these minor details, we looked more or less identical.

If I was feeling depressed or frustrated about my lot in life, all I had to do was tap the Player One button, and my worries would instantly slip away as my mind focused itself on the relentless pixelated onslaught on the screen in front of me. There, inside the game's two-dimensional universe, life was simple: It's just you against the machine. Move with your left hand, shoot with your right, and try to stay alive as long as possible.

I'm incredibly nostalgic for the '80s, because I think that's when Geek Culture really kicked in to high gear.