I am dorky, hear me roar.

I have never believed I was the coolest of cats. After all, I look more than a little disjointed any time I attempt a sport that involves a ball and I am predisposed toward scruffiness, so much so that when I try to dress to the nines, I usually only make it to the fives or sixes. Still, I never thought of myself as particularly dorky.

Until recently.

I was at a wedding a couple of weeks ago and was reintroduced to a guy I had known, tangentially, several years before.

"Oh, yeah," he said. "I remember you. The movie geek."

Although it was meant in the kindest sense of the word, I must admit to initially bristling at being called "movie geek." After a moment of reflection, it became clear that might be how I am seen. After all, I do pride myself on maintaining a one-movie-every-day diet, and look forward to the nearly meaningless Academy Awards far more than I do the Super Bowl. In fact, what I love about the Super Bowl is not the game, but the movie ads often included.

I keep a King Kong action figure on my bookcase. I believe that paying extra for a special-edition DVD is not only worth the money, but it's also irresponsible not to. I named my firstborn child after Ava Gardner and campaigned to name the second after Spencer Tracy. I would rather watch a great movie than eat a great meal, meet fantastic people or experience the satisfaction of a job well done.

I am a dork.

But here's the secret -- we are all dorks. Sure, not many get as awkwardly amped over movies as I do, but there is something in everyone's life that becomes such a passion, such an extension of who they are as a person that they cross the line from enthusiast to geek.

Sometimes it's noble and thereby difficult to apply the honorific "geek." I mean, who has ever been called a "volunteering at the soup kitchen geek" or "charitable giving geek," but the concept is still pretty clear.

All those folks collecting baseball statistics, or dolls, or muscle car paraphernalia are geeks. All those folks listening to music obsessively (I might qualify there as well) or doing community theater or playing pick-up basketball every weekend are geeks. Yes, even the soup kitchen and charitable giving folk are geeks.

It isn't a bad thing. Sure, it can get out of hand, but having these passions is human nature. I'm pretty sure the first geek had an awesome collection of cave paintings.

In the interest of embracing the geek in each of us, I'd like to put out a call. Clear the air and let people know what it is you are geeky about.

Let us all become one under the banner of our collective, if disparate, dorklike tendencies. E-mail steven.uhles@augusta chronicle.com.