If I wanted to get my geek quotient higher, I’d throw in these questions (this one’s for you, Max):
[ul]Mensa Stuff:
[li]Have you heard of the Hell’s Mensans?[/li][li] And joined them?[/li][li] And won a Party Animal award?[/li][li]Been to a Mensa RG?[/li][li]Been to more than one RG?[/li][li]Held an office at an RG?[/li][li] More than once?[/li][li]Confessed to being an RG junkie?[/li]Other Stuff:
Have you
[li]Heard of Pennsic?[/li][li]Been to Pennsic?[/li][li] More than once?[/li][li]Deliberately forgotten test scores because they were embarrassingly high?[/li][li]Routinely been the first person in the room to finish a test?[/li][li]Written software that retails for more than your salary?[/li][/ul]
I’m afraid I can answer yes to all of these questions. :o
CJ
Program Chair
Pittsburgh Mensa Regional Gathering
(By the way, if any of you geeks would like to do a program . . .)
What’s wrong with including work-related reading, just because it isn’t in a techie field? If your work requires you to keep up on these things, then you quite probably work in a geeky field, at least according to my definition of geek (the one above, which includes non-tech fields if they are complex and convoluted enough, with exacting enough requirements for entry and/or professional success).
What, are you ashamed of your geek tendencies or something? Personally, I’m proud of mine; I don’t consider “geek” to be an insult at all.
Also, cross-posted from an e-mail discussion with some insanely geeky old friends, one of whom is finishing up a math Ph.D. at Cal Tech in spite of never having actually gone past the 3rd semester of his B.S., and another of whom manufactures model hovercraft for a living:
How would you explain the difference between a geek and a nerd to a non-native English speaker? I’ve been trying to fine-tune this one for years. The best we’ve collectively come up with so far is that a nerd is a geek, minus the social skills, and perhaps also minus the personal hygiene, e.g. geeks actually go on dates, but nerds are too intimidated and prefer to stay in the basement gaming with their buddies.
36.29191% - Major Geek
I should have gotten some points for knowing Morse code, designing my own radio transmitter, redesigning and rebuilding several other pieces of radio gear, most far older than I am. And my slide rule collection should have counted for something, as well as the fact that I still remember how to use them.
Dammit-all, my cut-and-paste didn’t work and now I’ve already closed that tab in Mozilla, so I don’t even know the exact score. It was in the mid-40’s, though. Yeah, I’m a geek and proud of it! If I were more of a gamer, oh, god help me…
