# Nerds, unite! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 24, 2001, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161 "2001-04-24T17:09:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TheNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/21 "2001-04-25T02:23:58Z")
_ahem_ ---
**Author:** ![AwSnappity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@AwSnappity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AwSnappity)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/22 "2001-04-25T03:07:09Z")
I’m not a computer weirdo as much as a certain boyfriend of mine, but I’m still a nerd. I realized it in 5th grade when my pants were 2.5" above my ankles when I sat down. I correct others’ grammar and spelling constantly. **Loverboy** and I are Star Wars fans, but he’s more into it than I am. I’m mostly into science. I was a big X-Phile for several years (I have Mulder and Scully action figures!), but I hate it now that Doggett’s on. Fortunately, **Loverboy** and I have grown out of our nerdy appearances, but we’re still dorks in all other aspects. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![A\_Friend\_of\_the\_Devil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@A\_Friend\_of\_the\_Devil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Friend_of_the_Devil)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/23 "2001-04-25T03:14:20Z")
I own a log-log slide rule (and still know how to use it I can work with tables of logarithms My calculator at work has an LED display… Wait a minute, maybe i’m not a geek. Maybe I’m just an antique collector… ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/24 "2001-04-25T03:28:48Z")
Yesssss! Geek Angels! That must be what we are. I mean we’re geeky, we hang out on the SDMB (so we must be smart… or insane… or both!) we probably have other things in common but I can’t think right now due to a headache and my brothers rap playing in the background… ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/25 "2001-04-25T14:17:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by slortar \* > **Sure, I’ve know for a long time that I’m always two steps away from horn rims and polo shirts** Maroon polo with brown polyester slacks that I shortened myself, but are still too long. Horn-rim safety glasses with STAINLESS STEEL SCREEN SIDE SHIELDS! (Better ventilation than plastic) I use them as my work/computer glasses because they’re cut to my close-up prescription. Next to useless beyond six feet. Butt ugly. Tandy Color Computer emulator hiding in a corner window. Two organizers and four calculators, including one programmable and one LED, on my desk. Social science degree I never use. An MS-DOS class away from a support certificate, but never took the class because I could have taught it. Can relate to the statement by a friend, “After your fifth operating system, it stops being fun.” Which explains my endless unix questions and complaints in chat. Fixation on women who wear glasses. Defining moment in which I accepted my fate was when I realized that the true revenge of the nerds is adult life. Our skills may have run counter to what made a “successful” high school student, but they are what is needed in real life. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/26 "2001-04-25T14:46:16Z")
Oh, good. I don’t feel quite so bad now. At least I have a pony tail. Nerds don’t have pony tails, do they? Um, right guys? _snivel_ ---
**Author:** ![VenusProbe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e495f1/32.png) [@VenusProbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VenusProbe)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/27 "2001-04-25T15:25:41Z")
4 Computer network at home, currently running only one OS but planning to add a Linux box real soon. Love RPGs(EQ), reading SF, TOST, STNG, Voyager and I want a laptop so I can download the data from my HP Rockets after each flight. My job title is Applications Engineer but I also admin the Oracle database, I regularly switch between the 2 computers in my cube an Win/NT box and a Sun/Solaris box. Oh yeah, The computer I use at home is better the the one I have at work and cost WAY more the the 1980 Honda Civic I drive. I my early 20s For fun a friend and I wirewrapped a motherboard for the NEW Z80 processor. My first program was written in Assembly. why yes, yes I am 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/28 "2001-04-25T15:46:33Z")
_slortar_ Only cool geeks have pony tails. And geeks aren’t all that traditional anymore. I’m not totally geeky looking (though I’m not that beautiful either) but yes… some geeks have ponytails. Like you. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/29 "2001-04-25T15:56:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rasa \* > \*\*Personally, I prefer the label geek. \*\* As do I. I wear it as a badge of honor. Makes Wife mad when I call myself or the kids that. She still has negative associations with the word. She should talk: HS rocket AND chess AND Spanish clubs. FORTRAN background. Chemist/rad tech/insurance investigator careers. Can field-strip, repair, and reassemble an x-ray machine in her sleep, but can’t set her alarm clock. Some people just can’t accept their destiny. ---
**Author:** ![jessicala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb9ed0/32.png) [@jessicala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jessicala)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/30 "2001-04-25T16:57:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rasa \* > **Personally, I prefer the label geek. And I am of a rare breed: girl geek. I was recently decreed a Geek Angel. Woo!** Oh yeah? I think I’ve got you beat - a couple years ago at a con I was declared and Awesome Geek Babe. (My friend, horrified, upon hearing about this: “Oh my god! He called you a geek!” Me: “No, he called me an Awesome Babe!”) Even better, I married another geek. The ratio of working computers to people in our household is at least 2:1 at any given time, greater depending on what hardware has been brought home from work. And don’t even get me started on the collection of gadgets … But my roleplaying has dropped off lately, and I haven’t had the time to program for fun, and I think I’ve been demoted from true geek to geek wannabe. Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![Elenfair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cc9497/32.png) [@Elenfair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elenfair)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/31 "2001-04-25T17:17:17Z")
Girl Geek here too. Read by the age of 2 and a half. Played piano from age 2 and a half. Passed my grade one piano exam at the concervatory at the ripe old age of 4. I was a weird kid, so I was identified as a freak from my first day of school. I knew a lot of stuff about all sorts of things. I explained to my classmates the origins of the screwdriver (we were talking about knights in shining armour… princesses… fairy tales…) The teacher didn’t quite know what to make of me, or what to do with me. I realised I was among the geek-brigade’s elite when I entered grade one and became everyone’s favourite scapegoat. That’s when I made the decision to take on the role of the class clown instead, and that has stuck until this very day… _sigh_… I was weird. Waydaminute… ::::pushing up thick rimmed glasses:::: ::::tapping pocket protector:::: I’m still weird. _sigh_… Yours in nerddom, E. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/32 "2001-04-25T20:30:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Elenfair \* > \*\*Girl Geek here too. > > Read by the age of 2 and a half. Played piano from age 2 and a half. Passed my grade one piano exam at the concervatory at the ripe old age of 4. > > I was a weird kid, so I was identified as a freak from my first day of school. > > (snip) > > \*\* _flips through Geek’s Handbook again_ No, I’m afraid that, technically speaking, you are a nerd. 🙂 Gosh, Flutterby thinks I’m cool. There is hope after all. I noticed that I have a 4:1 ratio of working computers to humans in my apartment. At any given time I’m within view of 4 to 5 monitors or screens. I’ve also used 10 OS’s over my lifespan. Maybe more, particularly if you count the ancient stuff like my current non-functioning vic-20. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/33 "2001-04-25T21:04:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by slortar \* > \*\*I noticed that I have a 4:1 ratio of working computers to humans in my apartment. At any given time I’m within view of 4 to 5 monitors or screens. I’ve also used 10 OS’s over my lifespan. Maybe more, particularly if you count the ancient stuff like my current non-functioning vic-20. \*\* Of course the Vic counts. You still have it? That could clinch your geekitude on its own. Remember the kid who hacked a Defense mainframe with his Vic and a 300-baud modem? Only a 2.4:1 ratio in my house, but most of them are mine. Just too damned many people to get the number up. I have a Lear Siegler ADM-3A terminal in the crawl space Just In Case I ever need a terminal. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/34 "2001-04-25T21:36:48Z")
Hmmmm… First programming class in 8th grade. Next one in HS. (And this was back in the 70s). At various times: science club, spanish club, and NRG (a club to discuss alternate energy sources) Honors English and American History. Psych major, CS minor. Programming for nearly 17 years. I make Unix jokes and I belly dance. Do I qualify? ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2001, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/35 "2001-04-25T21:46:45Z")
Oh, I forgot my biggest qualification. When I was in elementary/middle school, all the girls had a crush on Donny Osmond or that guy from the Partridge Family. I was had a crush on _Spock_. And Sherlock Holmes. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Sang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ee7513/32.png) [@Le\_Sang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Sang)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2001, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/36 "2001-04-26T02:31:04Z")
Let me see… Studying Electrical Engineering (and as everyone knows, you can’t spell geek without EE), program in 3 languages, play RPG’s about weekly (though I’ll have to take summer off, dammit), seriously into SciFi, play with computer graphics for fun, took a math class for my elective this term _and enjoyed it a lot_… yeah, I’d say geek fits - unless you prefer nerd, which works, too. As far as I know, I’ve always been one, and I always will… it’s just too fun to give it up 🙂 Le Sang ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2001, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/37 "2001-04-26T03:42:29Z")
Well, I don’t play RPGs, even though I can remember people playing the first generation of D&D. Never got into the Avalon Hill games, either, although I tried. ---
**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2001, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/38 "2001-04-26T03:47:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dropzone \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Rasa \* > > Personally, I prefer the label geek. > > As do I. I wear it as a badge of honor.\*\* Yeah, I can relate to that. I think I realized I was a _hopeless_ geek when my sister caught me doing math problems on my napkin in a restaurant when I was in high school. (I don’t know why she was so disgusted, it’s her fault…she’s the one who taught me arithmetic before I was in kindergarten.) Now I spend half my time studying hyperbolic geometry and the other half programming in C++ and Perl. Although I must admit my geekdom pales before others in this thread. (Or would that be, “My geekdom tans before others in this thread”?) ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2001, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/39 "2001-04-26T04:44:36Z")
I speak five languages, including Esperanto. I once had a boyfriend who was also Esperanto. We had sex in Esperanto, and during our relationship fought over nothing except grammar. I’ve been known to refer to a particular sound as a “voiceless glottal fricative” rather than an “h”. I have invented a language, and a culture to go with it. I know everything about the Montreal metro. I can rattle off all the stations in order and I know trivia about it that even transit corp. employees don’t know. I have total recall of Star Trek episodes, capitals of countries, and chemical elements. I enjoy animé. I have a big website. I wear glasses, and am socially inept. I am geek. Hear me roar. ---
**Author:** ![Sweet\_Walter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@Sweet\_Walter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweet_Walter)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2001, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161/40 "2001-04-26T12:21:49Z")
My first computer was a Sperry Univac DCT-9000, my second was a TRS-80, my third was a Sinclair (with an extra 256k of ram plugged into the back). Any of you Angels getting excited yet? 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-unite/63161.md?page=3)