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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I appear perfectly normal.I am a woman in my late twenties, good sense of style I think, and definitely look better with the years on me than ever before.
I am trained in graphic design, but work in events, very professional and down to earth. I get on well with my crew, the clients like me, I deeply enjoy my work.
I have friends I have known since nursery school, others since college, and so on. Lots of good, quality mates.
Again, I'm pretty normal.
I really scare people, particularly men for some reason, when they sneak a glimpse at the rest of it.
My brain accumulates crap. It always has done. Always will. So people are shocked when I know about D&D games, binary, extensive and extremely thorough knowledge of cult movies, science fiction, internet memes, obscure music (tragically, this involves jazz, I wish it didn't), comics, wilfully difficult music (which on Sunday alone scared a bloke I've known for 10 years who thought he alone knew what he knew), AV systems, sound rigging (I am particularly good in this area), and many, many, many, many more subjects that are too heady in number to list here.
I don't actually NEED any of it. It upsets me that stuff I actually HAVE to remember must be written down by my own hand before being processed and filed for use, whereas the useless dross throws itself onto my mental sofa, cracks open a beer and announces it's me it's been looking for all this time. And STAYS.
So it's all that stuff that most men that I like pride themselves on knowing, and as my just-finished long-term relationship has just proved, it's a matter of pride to most men that they know all the words to Empire Strikes Back, and they don't like to be corrected or laughed at when they mispronounce Calrissian or suchlike. And that's just a cursory sort of correction in my repotoire.
So whilst I outwardly have a front of "I read World of Interiors, enjoy the Tate and went to see Roisin Murphy on the weekend", all of which is true, I am also someone prepared to allocate a day in Forbidden Planet for browsing before dashing back home to dawdle here with fellow geeks.
Though looking here I'm not as geeky as some, which has made me feel marginally better.
Gosh, that was quite cathartic. Sorry about length but it felt good. Rather like an AA meeting.
(, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 13:08, 6 replies)
SympathyThe remains of my brain also have the ability to retain completely bloody useless items of information, but I can't remember to take stuff out of the freezer to defrost without writing myself a note.
Why do I need to know the specifications of virtually every aircraft built between 1914 and 1945, remember that Sir Joseph Blaine tipped his local crossing sweeper 4d per week, or that Sherlock Holmes carried a copy of The Origins of Tree Worship when disguised as a bookseller.
Why?
(, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 14:52, closed)
Sounds normal to meBut then I’m another one with a head full of random facts.
Great for a pub quiz team; but send me to the shops and I’ll forget what I’m there for….
(, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 15:58, closed)
@ ancrenneI do that! I put my keys in the fridge so I don't forget to take my sandwiches (or whatnot) with me...mind you it's pretty bloody useless if it's a book I've got to take....
I also used to leave notes for myself on the floor in front of the door - no good now as the kids and everyone else in the house would either throw them away or walk on them.
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chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 17:18,
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my godyou're perfect.
I can relate though, I know so much weird shit it pushes work stuff out. I know why american radio stations are named as they are, and the reasoning behind it. No one need ever know that unless they are they guy who allocates radio station names in the US. This pushed out the ability to consolidate my teams timesheets into a nicely formatted management reports. I have simply forgotten how to do it.
you remain though, my ideal woman of the day. Tomorrow? Rachel Bilson probably. Sorry.
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I have run out of coke is a little sweaty, Wed 12 Mar 2008, 13:36,
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aw, ta ihaverunoutofcokebut see now I need to know the answer to why american radio stations are named in crazy letters...
And to the others, thank you for the sympathy
(, Wed 12 Mar 2008, 16:27, closed)
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