When was the defining point in your life when you realized you were a hopeless geek?
Sure, I’ve know for a long time that I’m always two steps away from horn rims and polo shirts, but it didn’t really hit me until last night, when I found myself sitting in front of my PC, running a macintosh emulator, which was itself running a PC emulator, just to see if I could. I then realized that not only was I using a PC to imitate a macintosh imitating a PC, but I was also plotting ways to overclock the emulators for better performance…and enjoying it. gasp
It then occurred to me that some time over the past year, the average amount of time I spent in front of a PC, including work and home life had increased from 4 or 5 hours to damn near 15 on the average.
I realized how big of a nerd I was in third grade, when the teacher was instructing us in how to carry the one during subtraction.
As an example, she used something like 15 minus 8, and started out by saying, “Normally, we’d subtract the bottom right number from the top right number to begin with. But we can’t, because 8 is bigger than five and you can’t subtract a bigger number from a smaller number.”
My hand shot up. She called on me, “Yes, Bryan?”
“Wouldn’t 5 minus 8 be negative 3?”
I was teacher’s pet from that day on.
I don’t know if I’m a hopeless geek or not. I don’t know a whole lot about computers but I am learning (right now I’m taking Cisco Networking) and I LOVE Role Play of which I need a fix pretty much daily. My fix of the day being totally messed up due to switching servers to make the bandwidth faster which means they won’t be back up till after school and means I can’t get a fix till about 9 tonight when I manage to get on… if I’m allowed on.
Maybe just loving to RP makes me geeky… oh the horror! Oh well. is even wearing her Camarilla ankh right now
I’m a nerd for a living. Professional Assistant Nerd to the Office of the President of Nerds is my official title I think. ((Actually it’s Systems Analyst/Programmer but… close enough.))
I don’t “think” I’m a nerd in everyday social situations, but I do like Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels and movies, MST3K, and RPGs so…
Personally, I prefer the label geek. And I am of a rare breed: girl geek. I was recently decreed a Geek Angel. Woo!
I quote Dune and Star Wars/Trek in everyday conversation. When my mind wanders and I’m doing something non-computer related, I’ll find myself trying to do things with Unix commands. I tried to find out what was on TV by doing a ls -l with the remote (obviously, didn’t work). I never was a roleplaying geek, but just about all of my friends (who are just about all male) are, and I live vicariously through them. “Never play with a deck of many things” is a stock phrase of mine.
Just for S&G one time, my friends and I decided on the difference between a dork, a geek and a nerd.
Dork: Someone who is kinda stupid/clumsy. May dress funny.
Geek: Someone who knows a whole lot about one particular thing and is totally into that one thing. (For example, a computer geek, knows everything about computers. A Magic geek, well, they would know everything about the card game.) May dress funny.
Nerd: Someone who knows a whole lot about a lot of different things. Extremely intelligent and more than likely a guru in more than just two subjects. Will definitely dress funny.
I’n thinking Simetra’s definition of a nerd more applies to me. Though actually I don’t think of myself as smart … I do know a bit about different things and sometimes I think I dress funny. Well it’s funny when compared to what most people I know dress in. I go casual and just generally toss on whatever’s at hand. I decided awhile ago I was at the very least a JOAT (Jack Of All Trades)
Oh and as well… I really hate math. Right now I’m getting the best mark I’ve ever gotten in my history of math class but this is lower level math (Old Math 33) and I’ve been actually paying attention for once.
In the 6th or 7th grade the teacher asked “Who wants to be on the Audio Visual Crew this year?”
My hand shot up and the words spilled out “Ooo! Ooo! I do!”
Nerds have a the Holy Fire of Self the Righteous in thier eyes from an early age. I see it in my daughter and was near tears when she said “Dad, you can’t devide by zero”.
Back in grad school I realized that I was both a nerd, and white trash when it occured to me that my car was worth more than the trailer I lived in, and my computer was worth more than both combined.
I love it! We need to have a group of Geek Angels. Any other geek girls out there?
I’ve loved computers ever since the TRS-80. I love Science Fiction: I was the only girl in our sceince fiction class in college. I used to roleplay every weekend until I moved here.
I’m a programmer at work, and even though I just program pagers on various systems, I’m the closest thing to a geek in my department.
You mean there was a time when you guys didn’t know?! And The Geeks Angels sounds like a great gang name. Bunch of young calculator-carrying glasses-taping calculus-knowing ruffians get together, and start causing some trouble.
