What's the nerdiest thing about you?

[Fear Itself]

I like wearing suspenders. I have half a dozen different colors and styles.

[Napier]

3.14159265358979323846 from memory. It only counts if you demonstrate.

[Michael63129]

Originally Posted by Napier

3.14159265358979323846 from memory. It only counts if you demonstrate.

Yeah, but Google gives me 85,900 results for that number string. Heck, you can even find a million digits of pi here (note - direct link to large webpage).

[WordMan]

Originally Posted by Manda JO

My husband speaks to our 8-month old son exclusively in Latin, and has since the baby's birth. He's spent years training for this: hours of study a day, immersion conferences, and a collection of Latin children's literature that pretty much the complete set--much of which he had to order from overseas. At least 70 titles, if you count the Asterix as "children's lit".

But it doesn't get nerdy until you see all the preliminary work he's done to translate roleplaying systems into Latin. It's got to be ready to go when the boy is ready to roll up his first character, see.

So I guess the most nerdy thing about me is who I married.

Wow. A Montaigne fan? He was raised speaking only Latin until he was 6.

I can't compete on sheer nerdiness vs the posts here. I'm impressed.

[engineer_comp_geek]

I own a remote control Wall-E and R2D2.

[Indistinguishable]

Originally Posted by ftg

That's just the nerdy stuff I'm doing now. The stuff I did when I was a research professor in Computer Science is really over the edge.

Out of curiosity, if you don't mind me asking, what are you now?

[Indistinguishable]

Originally Posted by Chronos

The nerdiest? Let's see...

I once wrote a Turing-bot that got more romantic action than I did.

I'd vote for this as thread-winner. (But also, aw...)

My nerdy qualities are all just repeats of what others have said, but not as impressive... I'm a trained mathematician and computer scientist, but not an accomplished one. I also get little romantic action, but I never designed a machine that upstaged me.

On the other hand, I'm not particularly into sci-fi or fantasy or superheroes, I don't know anything about Star Wars, Star Trek, or the Star Brand (which I had to Google), have no interest in memorizing movies or digits, etc.

I always think of myself as nerdy because of the circles I hung out in when I was a kid, but now, I suppose, just as nerdiness has become cool, I no longer have any real claim on it. I'm just a guy who knows math, is a loser, and, uh... wears glasses.

[oreally]

I hang out on message boards like this. Yikes

[Aspidistra]

My nerdiness is as nothing compared to the nerdiness of some in this thread, of whom I am not worthy to sort and categorise the laces of their shoes. However, my kids have great nerd-credentials, especially the Taller Girl.

* Her first evening home after coming back from hospital was spent watching Episode 1 of Doctor Who (ok, she wasn't paying quite as much attention as me...)

* We used to soothe her to sleep with the background music from StarCraft (very ambient!)

*When she got a new set of facepaints last year almost her first action was to paint her whole face blue and say "Look! I'm a Drainei!"

*We've taught all the kids that the proper way to say goodbye is "Have fun storming the castle!" ("Do you think it'll work?" "It'd take a miracle") "Byeee!"

*Also, the Small Boy is probably the only four year old I know whose favourite pretend characters are "I am a creeper ... BOOM!" and "Mama, you Zombie, I chomp you ... CHOMP!"

[Number]

I have 60,000 Wikipedia edits. Most of them are little things like fixing spelling mistakes and ambiguous links. When I'm not doing that, I publish a humor blog. It's about Wikipedia.

My name is in the NetHack credits.

When I go to karaoke, I wear one of these t-shirts:

• LED graphic equalizer
• London Jets
• Flash Gordon
• Homsar
• SkyNet
• Blue Blaze Irregulars

Oh yeah, and I'm a Doper. On preview, I guess oreally beat me to that one.

[GuanoLad]

In comparison with even the average nerdy type, I am nothing particularly special so it's hard to say what is the nerdiest thing about me.

Maybe my extensive collection of Visual Effects books. Or my plan to make a steampunk short film. Or my frustration that Disney's Gummi Bears has only been partially released on DVD.

Eh. Not so nerdy.

[GuanoLad]

Oh wait, I know what makes me nerdy. One day when I win the lottery, my dream house will be designed to evoke a mediaeval castle, without being overtly fairy-tale cheesy.

Also, spelling it "mediaeval" makes me nerdy.

[Sunspace]

There are nerd groupies?

I am not even close to being as mathematical as some in this thread, but I do speak Esperanto, and I'm writing a story based on a Minecraft world I made a few months ago.

[Gyrate]

An over-fondness for macaronic puns. Here's a favorite example:

Q. According to Sigmund Freud, what comes between fear and sex?
A. Fünf.

[Jman]

Gyrate, that's a great joke...I have to remember that.

Well, some of these are pretty funny. I guess I can add of few more of my nerdy qualities, aside from my one in the OP, though none but the first are likely to stand out at all here.

- I created my own writing system. It's in English, but is a different alphabet. It has evolved over the years, and is now pretty unique. There are 33 letters (with single letters for some combinations such as 'th' or 'ng'). Vowels have letters when used in acronyms or by themselves, but when used in words with consonants, all vowels become accent marks. So, a word will consist only of consonants with a bunch of accent marks surrounding them. This makes it have the appearance almost like a cross between Greek and Arabic. Also, double letters are written with a single letter and a specific accent mark below the letter.

- I build my own computers (I know this is likely very common here). My current machine is my 6th build, and I have motherboards and components from about 5 different machines shoved in various locations in my closet.

- I used to write elaborate calculator programs on my TI-85, including games and other such fun. I don't do that anymore, though.

- Lots of general nerdy things, like reading the encyclopedia for fun (now Wikipedia mostly), watching shows like How It's Made for fun (and wishing they went more in-depth), etc.

Note: I'm sort of a nerd in hiding: I don't look nerdy (I'm a big guy, bald with a goatee...)...I love sports and hiking and camping and those sorts of things...but talk to me for a few minutes and you'll see it come out in spades.

[Loach]

Originally Posted by Eliphalet

I run Science Fiction cons in my free time. I take more vacation for that than I do my actual free time travel.

Eli

You have free time travel? Can I get some? Wanna see some dinosaurs.

[interface2x]

I had a conversation with a friend at the end of 2010 over what our favorite movies of the year were. I had trouble thinking of what movies I had seen and got frustrated. As of January 1, 2011, I have kept a spreadsheet containing the name of every movie I've watched for the first time (only counting movies I watch in their entirety) along with a rating between 1 (awful) and 5 (amazing). I also have a few charts detailing the number of movies by rating and also by month.

I've seen 39 movies so far this year, none have gotten 5 stars. Only one got five stars last year (The King's Speech, if you're interested).

[Qadgop the Mercotan]

As a youngster, I enjoyed the Mushroom Planet books over Danny Dunn, and I thought Tom Swift's sister Sandy was hot.

I could quote Star Trek lines the day after the new episode aired, and wore an Evil Mr. Spock button (made on a Mad Fad buttonmaker machine) 4 weeks after that episode came out.

I could quote entire chapters of Everything you wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask.

In 11th grade, in the midst of Watergate, I did my US History class presentation on the Teapot Dome scandal.

I learned to program in FORTRAN that year.

[Hippy Hollow]

I guess my four game show victories with an undefeated record. I guess that's more "smart" than "nerdy." YMMV. I'm fairly athletically inept, though I enjoy watching sports.

I don't belong to any fandoms, retain only a cursory knowledge of HS and college Latin, and don't like sci-fi or fantasy stuff. Or roleplaying games. Maybe I'm not a nerd, then?

Nope, wait. My occupation: college professor. Guess I'm in the club.

[Algher]

Originally Posted by UncleRojelio

The website I maintain devoted to my ham radio activities.

You beat me - I just have the license (General class).

I listed Morse code, BASIC and Pascal as languages on my college applications.

[ftg]

Originally Posted by Indistinguishable

Out of curiosity, if you don't mind me asking, what are you now?

Retired. More or less. I still have a couple of things going on in the background.

--------------

All this WoW stuff is too ... normal. A couple days ago I played Nethack. Old style, in ASCII graphics. Got to the 10th level just futzing around. (I also know a guy, even published some papers with him, that's in the credits for the game.)

And another thing ... I have two working Betamax VCRs. How else am I supposed to watch my copy of Sebastian? (That's another nerd reference right there.)

[scootergirl]

I'm not sure if this qualifies as nerdy. I am female almost 50 years old and love watching shows about cars such as Wheeler Dealer. If I see a car parked somewhere that I like - I take a picture of it with my cell phone. Last night I spent over an hour browsing at google images of Austin Healey models from the 60's and also MGB's ...late 60's early 70's. Does that make me a nerd? I have no idea.... I can easily do the same with scooters .

[Arrendajo]

I ride a scooter. And I play ukulele.

[gotpasswords]

Originally Posted by Qadgop the Mercotan

I learned to program in FORTRAN that year.

If you ever get tired of being a doctor, let me know. We have to teach would-be programmers FORTRAN as it's not being taught in schools.

[ThisSpaceForRent]

I am a "wannabe" nerd...so I hang out here being a devote to you ALL.

Two weeks a year though i earn my NERD pocket protector status. I take two weeks off EVERY year starting the first Saturday in March to intensively follow the Iditarod. I follow most other Long distance sled dog races every year but this is my (our) WorldSeriesSuperBowlFinalFourGrandSlam all wrapped up in a 1049 mile race.

I dont do a lot of number crunching (some) at work but during the race I can tell you the "run/rest cycle", time in/out of check points, and am pretty dang good at pulling up race stats from any of the 39 previous races...

So I guess two weeks a year I am an IditaNerd ®

[kushiel]

Originally Posted by rachelellogram

I'm not hot. I don't giggle. I have 12 13 85s (forgot about the DK I just dinged). And, I never cop to being a girl outside of my own guild, where it's hard to avoid, because Vent.

Does that help?
--
Mage: 3
Priest: 2
Paladin: 2
Druid
Warlock
Warrior
Hunter
DK
Shaman

I don't mean it's not nerdy for you in particular, I mean it isn't nerdy for anyone who plays it. When Hollywood hotties like Mila Kunis admit to playing it, it loses nerd cred. Playing WoW is about as nerdy as playing ultimate frisbee.

[ftg]

Originally Posted by gotpasswords

If you ever get tired of being a doctor, let me know. We have to teach would-be programmers FORTRAN as it's not being taught in schools.

Hey, I know FORTRAN! Um, err, FORTRAN II. Any jobs out there for that?

[Napier]

Originally Posted by Michael63129

Yeah, but Google gives me 85,900 results for that number string. Heck, you can even find a million digits of pi here (note - direct link to large webpage).

Your point is that Google is more of a nerd than I am? I don't know if that really counts.

[Enuma Elish]

I'm 49 years old and have a total level 2315 in Runescape.

[scootergirl]

Originally Posted by Arrendajo

I ride a scooter. And I play ukulele.

And you look damn sexy doing both, darling.

[Una Persson]

Originally Posted by ftg

Hey, I know FORTRAN! Um, err, FORTRAN II. Any jobs out there for that?

Until about two years ago, I would have hired a good FORTRAN programmer.

I used to be much more "nerdy" when I was young and into doing more projects. I once built an entire programmable thermostat from scratch, including writing assembly language programming for the IC, and including such things as a timer to allow the A/C compressor not to cycle on/off too fast, cooldown for the furnace with a second thermocouple to time when the fan should shut off, etc. It had pretty LED lights for status and everything.

I still track the energy use of our house monthly and correct for degree heating/cooling days to see how our energy efficiency is holding up.

I'm 425 pages into writing a non-fiction history book (which will probably end up being 600-700 pages), having a bibliography currently 513 sources long (having reviewed about 3,000 or more; I'm actually not sure) which I intend to self-publish next year and sell non-profit, including buying an ISBN and setting up a whole website devoted to the study of a tiny, almost ephemeral bit of history - just for the sake of trying to contribute to the common good.

Hey, and I'm Cecil's assistant, and aside from spending untold hours in libraries and at universities looking up references, has done experiments such as making and testing storm glasses to see if they could predict the weather (and I still have all six of them, still working), testing bacteria growth on pizza and growing bacteria on myself to test emergency antiseptics, as well as attempting to cook bacon and pork chops with a laser. And we have some more experiments in the planning stage - so that should darned well qualify.

[mage-girl]

I don't know why I resisted it so much, with so much evidence pointing at "Geek! Geek!"

* Rented anime from Applause video (mid-80s)
* Called the Nintendo help line for assistance with a video game (Shadowgate); this was well before Gamefaqs was around
* One of the few female members in high school chess club. Note: I am a terrible chess player, I'm not sure what I was thinking
* Member of high school Academic Decathlon team. What bonuses I gave them in English and the arts may well have been negated by my lack of grasp of math and science. I clearly remember one of the mentors trying to explain a "simple" physics concept to me, realize I wasn't getting it, and everyone simultaneously looking like "Oh shit."
* Followed the X-Men, Excalibur, and New Mutants comics through high school and part of college
* Played pen-and-paper RPGs through college and for at least 5-7 years after.
* Game-mastered HERO system fantasy RPG for several years.
* Used to attend local anime nights at comic book shops. Stopped when I was able to get my own anime and had kind of a falling-out with the cute young comic book store employee I'd been pseudo-dating. First uncut/un-Americanized anime I saw: Kiki's Delivery Service. It's still one of my favorites.
* Purchased copy of Final Fantasy 7 before actually buying a PlayStation. I thought they might "run out" of the game. Ha!
* Watched Buffy from the beginning until it started to suck
* Cosplayed as Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service and Akane from Ranma 1/2
* Was a big Babylon 5 fan! But don't tell anyone I started watching mostly for Marcus Cole.
* Proud owner of a full set of Suikoden 3 manga (comic books based on the video game) - that is, if I can figure out where I put Vol 4
* Fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (don't judge me )
* Downloaded file for Super Famicom (SNES) game only released in Japan. Found file that translated text, menus, etc. Followed fiddly directions to "patch" the game with the English translation. I think this was the point where I finally realized I was a serious geek.

Whew!

[jerryp8472]

I'm thinking of naming my firstborn son Anaximander.

[Rich G7subs]

Originally Posted by scootergirl

I'm not sure if this qualifies as nerdy. I am female almost 50 years old and love watching shows about cars such as Wheeler Dealer. If I see a car parked somewhere that I like - I take a picture of it with my cell phone. Last night I spent over an hour browsing at google images of Austin Healey models from the 60's and also MGB's ...late 60's early 70's. Does that make me a nerd? I have no idea.... I can easily do the same with scooters .

Nope... being a car guy myself, that makes you my hero!

[Annie-Xmas]

Originally Posted by Rich G7subs

Umm... I secretly enjoy ABBA. There...I said it! I feel so relieved now!

I openly enjoy ABBA. And the brothers Lloyd Webber. Indeed, I know more about Andrew & Julian than they themselves do.

I have a fascination with colors & time. I catagorize everything by months and seasons. In my book, we are all just colors moving throught time.

[Irishman]

I don't have nearly the nerd cred of some of you.

My nerdiest credit: I helped form a science fiction/fantasy convention.

[L.mo5rg]

I'm not as nerdy as some of the others here but here are my nerd accomplishments:

*Got a chem set when I was younger, thought it was too basic and boring. I went on to get some high (for me at the time) level chem books from the library, and proceeded to make knockout gas and, well think I might be arrested for the other things I made lol.
*The librarian knew me, and made it so I could take more books out at a time (I think the max was usually 10, she made it 20 for me).
*I keep track of the amount of anime I watch in minutes.
*Me and my friends frequently discuss the science, physics mainly, behind super powers and create calculations to prove our theories.
*On my last date I explained to her how even a fantasy has to be internally consistent, so if they have a superpower that doesn't automatically void all the laws of physics.
*Me and my friends create experiments and studies we would do if we had the money/authority.
*I used to correct my teachers' maths and science up to about year 8.
*I read books about maths and science in my spare time, and discus the theories with my friends.

Guess I'm a borderline nerd.

[Nzinga, Seated]

Originally Posted by L.mo5rg

...*On my last date...

You're not a nerd.

[L.mo5rg]

Originally Posted by Nzinga, Seated

You're not a nerd.

Have I mentioned I'm super excited about how close we are to (maybe) discovering the higgs boson, a physics professor told me he thinks it will be announced on wednesday!! Super-hyped!!!

[Irishman]

Originally Posted by Nzinga, Seated

You're not a nerd.

[ftg]

Originally Posted by L.mo5rg

*I used to correct my teachers' maths and science up to about year 8.

I never stopped. In college, the E&M* prof was bad at DiffEQ*, and being the only Math-ish person in the class, I helped him out ... a lot. He got used to calling on me to check his work. Problem: He kept calling me by the wrong name. (That's where the "G" comes from in FtG.) Lot's of yucks from my classmates. So I didn't correct him on that.

Later, when I became a prof., I was surprised by how rarely students pointed out my errors. I never had "me" as a student. Which I would have enjoyed.

I'd notice that I had a subscript wrong on something I put down 15 minutes earlier and then ask the students "Didn't any of you notice this?!". Usually they didn't and if someone did they'd say they thought it was supposed to be like that and just assumed they didn't understand it. But then why didn't they ask for an explanation???? Bumps on a log, most of them.

(Also experience most of the rest of the list.)

* If you don't know what these mean, your nerd cred is low.

[MeanOldLady]

Originally Posted by Nzinga, Seated

You're not a nerd.

To be fair, that date was in 1997.

[Princhester]

Originally Posted by Aspidistra

*Also, the Small Boy is probably the only four year old I know whose favourite pretend characters are "I am a creeper ... BOOM!" and "Mama, you Zombie, I chomp you ... CHOMP!"

He may be the only one you know but I know another.

[Locrian]

Originally Posted by Philster

I'm on the SDMB.

Eggs-actly. If you were a member, but never posted, you're an even bigger nerd, or a voyeur/stalker.

I personally work in captions/subtitles and script prep. My favorite show I work with is Antiques Road Show - BBC.

AND.... I personally know Tim Busfield.

I am also a very proud and happy iPhone owner. GO ANGRY BIRDS!!

[Gleena]

The inscription on my wedding ring (and the one on his) are in Dwarvish. Because Elvish is common.

I stopped hardcore raiding in WoW to go to law school.

Although still in law school, I scheduled my study around getting to play DIII.

The first gifts my husband ever gave me were Heroes of M&M 5 and the original Neverwinter Nights game. I knew I was in love.....

I have been to the Global Atheist Conference, twice. I (and others) got PZ Myers drunk at the first one.

I just literally about five minutes ago had a tense discussion with my husband over the merits of a Civ 5 strategy. We have just e-mailed each other a list of links that supports our various positions.

I met my husband on talk.origins on Usenet, and the relationship spilled over into alt.atheism

I have sent ICQ messages (now FB chat messages) to my husband when we are in the same room

[Sir T-Cups]

Originally Posted by Gleena

The inscription on my wedding ring (and the one on his) are in Dwarvish. Because Elvish is common.

I stopped hardcore raiding in WoW to go to law school.

Although still in law school, I scheduled my study around getting to play DIII.

The first gifts my husband ever gave me were Heroes of M&M 5 and the original Neverwinter Nights game. I knew I was in love.....

I have been to the Global Atheist Conference, twice. I (and others) got PZ Myers drunk at the first one.

I just literally about five minutes ago had a tense discussion with my husband over the merits of a Civ 5 strategy. We have just e-mailed each other a list of links that supports our various positions.

I met my husband on talk.origins on Usenet, and the relationship spilled over into alt.atheism

I have sent ICQ messages (now FB chat messages) to my husband when we are in the same room

As has been noted upthread: All of these are moot because you're married

[Irishman]

My buddy's nerd cred is much higher than mine.

Not only was he one of the main driving forces in creating the convention I mentioned, he builds business applications using XL. That's his day job - tinkering with vB to create tools his company uses.

For fun, he decided to build an application for convention planning and organization. He has a freeware application using XL for convention hosting. Actually, I'm not sure if anyone is currently using it. I was trying to pay attention for a while, but didn't have the interest to dig into it that deep.

[Gedd]

I helped start the Gamming Society at my college. It was mostly Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragon, Axis and Allies, with a bit of Mage Knight. Upon reflection I probably get bonus points for spending dozens of hours watching other people play those games too.

I also go to the Renaissance Festival every year in costume.

[iamthewalrus(:3=]

I am a Magic the Gathering Judge.

[Number]

Originally Posted by Gedd

I helped start the Gamming Society at my college.

Just how many gams does that involve?