Geek Love

I can't deny I'm pretty much obsessed with geek love. First there was iDating, a dating effort for people with iPhones, next there was a man who proposed marriage via a widget, and now, there's the first couple to have been married in the virtual world and the real world. That's right folks, players of the online game EverQuest II shared their love for gaming and each other at a live and in-game wedding ceremony hosted by Sony Online Entertainment. I heard about the ceremony, which took place at this month's Fan Faire held in Las Vegas, a while back, but didn't see the actual footage until this week. I'm speechless. Utterly speechless. Thank goodness I'm not the only person who thinks this is just too geeky!

During the ceremony, the couple exchanged vows in front of an audience of more than 1,600 fellow gamers (check out the Darth Vadar and Stormtroopers bridal party!), then 46 year-old Kelly Kane Davalos and 31 year-old Nathan Davalos sealed the deal through their EverQuest II avatars at computers perched on the altar. OMG. OMG.

Source: Techie Diva

Sure, we all knew the iPhone is sexy, but did you know it has powerful matchmaking abilities too? Word on the web is "iDating" parties have sprung up in my home base of San Francisco and while I haven't attended one, I'm pretty curious. Niko Atuna, who co-hosts events in SF, is quoted as saying: "iPhone makes speed dating more user-friendly, because you're rejecting a photo not a real person." Atuna's iPhone dating events cost $25 a person.
The iDating events serve the usual social lubricating spirits and bar snacks so fellow iPhone lovers can mix and mingle. When the meet up portion of the evening is completed, participants make dating selections individually from the iPhones displayed in a private area. A personal message is usually sent via iPhone to check out. You are allowed to accept or decline a request for a date after the event. I happen to think liking the iPhone isn't reason enough to date someone, but I suppose this is a geeky and anonymous way to test the dating waters. Would you do it?

Note: The people in this picture are not iDaters. They were just willing to humor me and let me take their picture.

Gone are the days of sending doves or hand written notes announcing your engagement and alive are the days of broadcasting your proposal, nuptials and honeymoon online for the whole world wide web to fawn over.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Wedding Web sites, or "Wed sites," were initially created as a way brides and grooms to be to notify guests of wedding dates, plans and gift registries. Today, the sites are far more personal, offering stories, videos, photos and even up to the big moment journal entries.

I've been talking about wedding websites for months (I even offered a tutorial for making one), but I have always thought of the more traditional sites with simple announcements, directions and registry information. Boy are those passé. If you're not turned off by the idea of proposing via a widget or commercial, consider what you'd feel like if you had a website with videos of your proposal, planning and wedding ceremony. According to the Wall Street Journal, more than 1,800 marriage proposals are on YouTube, which has to mean most people not only love the idea of the web publicity, but they plan on putting the video on a website.

To watch my favorite wedding video, read more

Oddly enough, most of the geeks I know are well adjusted, attractive people with plenty of luck in the dating and significant other arena, but there are still some people out there that need to be convinced of the inherent joy and satisfaction that go along with dating a geek.

7bits tipped me off to a fantastic list some anonymous person posted on Craigslist expounding Why Geeks and Nerds Are Worth It.

"In the wide world of dating, there are many options," says the anonymous geek lover. "Do you go for the flashy guy with the smooth smile, or the dude in the corner typing away on his laptop? The following are reasons why I think my fellow females should pay more attention to the quiet geeks and nerds, and less attention to the flashy boys."

For her top five reasons to date a geek, read more

Everyone wants their proposal to be so memorable and creative that it won't be painful to repeat it 5,000 times in a lifetime. That is not always the case, but a few great geeky guys pulled it off this year - making waves in the blogosphere and proving that when it comes to your proposal, geek can be chic.

geeksugar readers meet Bjorn, a Computer Science student at Trinity Western University who proposed to his girlfriend Jenny using a Mac Dashboard widget. Many of you may remember Bjorn's cute geek love story from earlier this year. Jenny detailed the story on her blog saying:

He gave me his computer and actually told me his password (no I will NOT repeat it!), which is kind of a big deal because we had an argument about how he never tells me his passwords! then tells me to press F12 like a true Computer science major, and up pops a picture of the ring he’d bought for me, and a little proposal. He then got on his knees and confessed his true love for me.

Awwwwww. There's another geeky proposal, read more

In this installment of Geeky Guys Do Crazy Things When They're In Love, Rand Fishkin had been wanting to propose to his girlfriend for a while and suddenly realized "this was the girl for me for now and forever." Being a huge NFL fan he figured the best way to do it would be to propose to her on the big game - in front of 130 million viewers. (In case you're wondering, that just happens to be the largest audience of witnesses to an engagement in history.)

Rand raised more than $75,000 from his website Super Proposal, but the Super Bowl ads for 2007 sold out and after a media blitz (it's beyond me how his girlfriend didn't find out) and offers from advertisers to make the proposal happen, he opted to air a homemade proposal video during Veronica Mars, which is his gal's favorite show. To see the video of her reacting, which may quite possibly change your life, read more