Trending: Chic to be geek

Honestly, I had absolutely no idea that NASA had been planning to send the rover called Curiosity to Mars. Perhaps I was perpetually in the dark on the subject, or I had other (more important) things to tend to.
Curiosity landed on Mars on August 6th. Unfortunately -- or fortunately, depending on how you look at it -- an epic soccer match was in progress.
The United States Women’s National Soccer Team was playing their last send off match against Canada before the Olympic games in London. For those of you interested, we won 4-3 in a hard fought game.
The only reason I was even aware that something happened on Mars was because of all the memes that started popping up on my newsfeed during the soccer game.
I have a tendency to ‘live blog’ during soccer games so I was on Facebook making ridiculous statuses that normally annoy any of my ‘friends’ who do not follow soccer.
On this day, my statuses were interrupted by the mars and mohawk related memes. I wasn’t upset, by any means, but I was curious. Ha, curious -- Curiosity. Get it? ...just me? Yeah, ok that was lame. I apologize. Back to business!
The memes that kept popping up on my news feed mostly included how a guy with a mohawk and stars shaved into the side of his head had become an internet sensation over the course of the landing.
The man in question is known to the internet and President Obama as Mohawk Guy. To NASA, he’s Bobak Ferdowsi, a flight director for the Mars rover, Curiosity. Apparently he’s changing the public face of NASA and taking geek chic to a whole new level.
Mohawk Guy has been appropriately named since he has been known to have a hair cut that resembles something space related while incorporating a mohawk in some form or fashion. At one point, he donned a rocket plume -- utilizing red, orange, and gold dye in his hair.
When interviewed by Los Angeles Times, Ferdowsi acknowledged that his haircut might be “a little bit of a shock” since most people still think of the serious, button-downed Apollo 13 NASA crew.
Ferdowsi also mentions how the environment he works in is very laid back. So in his office, the style Ferdowsi has is not unusual.
Some engineers come to work in Hawaiian shirts, shorts, and flip-flops. Others sport hippie hairstyles. His division of NASA, tends to embrace the university-like atmosphere -- just about anything goes as long as you’re wearing clothes.
Speaking of university-like atmosphere, the introduction of the hit TV show, Big Bang Theory has definitely allowed those who used to be considered ‘abnormal’ to be part of the ‘normal’ crowd.
At least there has been a definitive shift in what is considered normal now. People like Sheldon Cooper or Howard Wolowitz would have not been embraced the way they are now about ten years ago.
Sheldon’s erratic and obsessive behavior would not be generally accepted. Howard would not   be considered even remotley normal if one were to notice his  level of intellect, the way he dresses, and the jokes he makes.
However, now that more and more people are getting a college education, more and more people are becoming aware that people like Sheldon Cooper exist in the world and people like Howard Wolowitz are kind of normal in comparison.
Real world characters of Big Bang Theory, like Ferdowsi aka Mohawk Guy, definitely show that being educated and embracing your eccentricities is acceptable and actually encouraged.
The differences between those considered to be “normal” and the “geeks” are fading and becoming one in the same. If anything, hipsters are starting to look more and more like the quintessential geek.
It’s kind of cool to be hipster, but about 10 - 15 years ago it was not cool to be Steve Urkel. Take a look at pictures of Steve Urkel and compare them to pictures of hipsters.
It’s amazing how many similarities exist between the two. Who knew that Steve Urkel was a hipster before hipsters knew what hipsters were? Try to say that ten times fast.
Personally, this merge of two completely opposite cultures, Normal and Geek, is something to be excited about. I’ve always felt somewhere between the two groups, now I exist in an acceptable borderline mainstream group. Although, no matter what style of dress comes out of this new group, I will never give up my hoodies -- NEVER.

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