How nerdy are you?This week Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, died. A whole generation of pasty dice-obsessed nerds owes him big time. Me included.
So, in his honour, how nerdy were you? Are you still sunlight-averse? What are the sad little things you do that nobody else understands?
As an example, a B3ta regular who shall remain nameless told us, "I spent an entire school summer holiday getting my BBC Model B computer to produce filthy stories from an extensive database of names, nouns, adjectives, stock phrases and deviant sexual practices. It revolutionised the porn magazine dirty letter writing industry for ever.
Revel in your own nerdiness.
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chthonic, Thu 6 Mar 2008, 10:32)
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Nerdy enoughI have long had a love-hate relationship with my nerd self.
I have been playing computer games since I was 6, first on the old apples and then on the 286. Commander Keen we downloaded over a baud modem from the then mystical and wonderful Apogee site. I remember the first download (that game), and how interesting the little equals signs appearing one after the other were. My first major loading screen experience was so full of anticipation!!
Programming in Q-Basic when I was 8 was soon what I got on to. I created a birthday program for a friend.
When I was 14 I attempted Java, and when I was 15 I began my website business. Not actually knowing too much about the whole domain/hosting/ecommerce thing I still went boldly forward and got my first sale at the first place I went to. Unfortunately this was also an e-commerce site. Without much more than a little prior experience in QBasic, Java, and HTML I was given this amazingly complex task yet managed to get through it and provided the company with a reasonable rate of return.
I went on from there to do TAFE (IT), and Uni (IT). I played as many games as I could, spent most of my earnings on new computer parts (a result of which was that I didn't get a car or a license until I was 20), networked a new house we built, and learned assembly, PHP, MySQL, Javascript, CSS, AJAX, Ruby on Rails, and many more (mostly self-taught except for assembly) in the process.
Software and hardware hold absolutely no mystery to me and I am a strong advocate of Linux, though I don't mind Mac and Windows XP when I have to use them. I've installed Linux on most of my family's computers and refuse to give most of them XP except the ones who need it. I can access all their computers with SSH shell access and remotely administer them.
Not only this but I teach multimedia (2D Animation and Web Development) at the local TAFE now.
I am a fan of Firefly, Stargate, Buffy, Angel, Red Dwarf, and Weird al Yankovic.
Good going all this - you might think that I am the nerd many people think I am.
However! Hold your breath guys, because:
1. I steadfastly refuse to play RPGs or MMORPGs
2. I have never played Dungeons and Dragons nor do I wish to
3. I've seen but don't really want to watch Star Wars again, as I don't like it. I'm not interested in Star Trek either.
4. I am an avid surfer (love the beach), tennis player, jogger, soccer player, instrumentalist, swing dancer, and entrepreneur, and speaking to girls is not my problem. Working since I was 10 on several of my own businesses I quickly became used to rejection as one of my past-times was going door-to-door drumming up sales. It helps to swing dance too - you quickly lose the ability to choke up when holding many girls in one night and being given open slather to throw them about as you wish...
I am the kind of 'nerd' who can just as easily speak sports, cars, and girls with any of the guys, yet can also speak to the nerdiest guy you can find about the benefits of the transition from baud modems to the 28.8K.
So... what am I? Am I the new breed of nerd? Am I nerd in disguise, or a wannabe nerd?? Please people, help me answer these questions once and for all!!?!??
(, Sat 8 Mar 2008, 22:30, 4 replies)
Hrm...I don't think you're a nerd. Maybe just...a smart person.
(, Sun 9 Mar 2008, 10:15, closed)
testwell you say you are a buffy and angel fan(as am I). If you are a bit of a nerd then you will know they have continued the tv series of both buffy and angel in comic book form. You are a proper nerd if you have read them. I'd like to say that i'm normal and havn't read them, but then i'd just be lying(they are fucking awesome)
(, Sun 9 Mar 2008, 12:46, closed)
;)No such thing as a soccer player - just a bad football player. ;) !!
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whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Mon 10 Mar 2008, 12:13,
closed)
misc@CakeCat
Isn't the definition of a nerd someone who is interested in a wide variety of areas and tries to excel at them all though?
@apo-dap
Well I do know that they have comic books for Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, but I've only ever read the Firefly one.
@TheDirtyWeeker
So you might think, if you played football - until you started playing soccer and wondered where the ball went :P
(, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 11:23, closed)
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