Overly Positive

Update 8/11/10: Looks like this was manufactured by thechive.com.  Doesn’t seem like many people care, since it was sincerely funny. Bravo!

Most of the time, trying to mix an analog method with a geek method just doesn’t work at all. Using a pen to draw something on a computer screen? Employing a console controller to play a board game? It’s like oil and water, people.

But every so often, there’s a little neato combination that happens when you mix more traditional analog methods of communication with modernized geekery. Take the girl on the right, for example, whose swan song involved a simple little writeboard combined with digitally emailed photographs. If you want to check out the full post at thechive.com, you can do so. I’ll wait til you get back.

I’m not sure what’s cooler – the fact that a whiteboard was used 33 times for this project, that our girl’s expressions here are priceless, or that her boss is apparently a little too obsessed with Farmville. I do know that even though tech has invaded just about every portion of our life, that there are ways in which geeks can best express themselves through non-techy ways – and in fact that they should be encouraged to do so. I mean, would you rather take the effort to put together a PowerPoint or a slide show that your non-geek friends might have trouble understanding, much less opening, or do something like what this girl did with pretty pictures? I think the latter ensures some memorable moments – and links across the web.

Of course, the secondary lesson to be learned here is that your own geek tools can easily be turned against you. Installing monitoring software is all well and good, but all it takes is someone with just enough technology knowledge to be dangerous to outdo you. If you don’t keep your own nose clean when it comes to using geekery tech, especially where someone can get to it, then maybe you just might be better off with an abacus for a calculator and a stack of paper, envelopes, and stamps for sending mail to folks. At least you won’t get into trouble from random women with whiteboards.