Wired.com has a short interview with Patton Oswalt, who voices the lead rat in the new Pixar film, Ratatouille. Oswalt, whom you may recognize from the TV sitcom The King of Queens, is a self-proclaimed geek who is proud of the fact that his midlife crisis consists of taking up Dungeons and Dragons instead of buying a sports car. I like how he differentiates between nerds and geeks:

A lot of nerds aren’t aware they’re nerds. A geek has thrown his hands up to the universe and gone, “I speak Klingon — who am I fooling? You win! I’m just gonna openly like what I like.” Geeks tend to be a little happier with themselves.

Based on his definition of the term, I think I’ve finally reached the geek stage. During the past ten years, it seems like I’ve been constantly debating non-geeks and even fellow fanboys over the things that matter to me — for example, you can search this blog for my entries on Battlestar Galactica and read the comment-war I had with a detractor of the original series — and I’ve finally reached the point where I’m sick of feeling like I have to defend the stuff I love. I love the crap that I love. I admit it, and I’m not so worried about trying to justify it anymore.

Patton is right: I feel much better now…