I personally think that "eccentric" is more polite than "unusual," which could be either positive or negative. It's also better than "unique"; I mean, everyone is unique... Given Steve Yegge's hilarious, insightful, and somewhat cheeky rants (after learning Java for a few months, "Kingdom of Nouns" [1] expressed my nascent thoughts exactly), I think he would qualify for "eccentric." I bet he'd even like the term :)

[1] http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/03/execution-in-kingdom...