Badges of Geekness, Part 2 or 3

Based on the last post(s), I'm guessing that there's going to be a need to define the different Badges of Geekness that one can acquire. Off the top of my head, there's got to be one for "The Order of the Ring" (Tolkien) and "The Society of the Elder Things" (Lovecraft). These are two authors who have been embraced by gaming geeks en masse thanks to the various incarnations of their works/themes in role-playing games. We can also add "The Pittsburgh Assemblage" for Romero and his monstrous zombie efforts. There's plenty of other badge categories, but these are the ones that I personally would have a shot at wearing.

Now my knowledge of those topics above isn't very broad. The shards of information I possess on those topics were gained from my casual exposure to that particular genre. I have not spent hours memorizing every nameless horror introduced to this world by H.P., or tried to understand the Elven language of J.R.R. In fact, I've only read the Hobbit once and LOTR twice. I base my badge credentials on this one fact alone:

I can sit around a gaming table with a group of complete strangers and mutually enjoy the banter that flows forth from any one of the topics above.

A Badge of Geekness is like wearing a t-shirt from a place you've visited. You've been there, done that and want to share the excitement of the experience with other folks. Problem is that there aren't too many folks who have been to Middle Earth, Miskatonic U, or even to shopping mall chock full of zombies.

Geeks go to places that don't exist.

And all we get are these little badges...