I’ve gone into Star Trek channels on mIRC just to say “Star Trek sux, Star Wars rulz!!!”
Based on tonight’s Enterprise, I’ve thought about going into space on the off-chance I’ll run into a lady Vulcan with a virus.
My friends and I spent a week this summer building a trebuchet out of scrap lumber (real nerds need no kits!). Unfortunately, very few circumstances in real life call for throwing water balloons a hundred yards.
When ever I’m trying to convince of something in a semi-serious way I do the whole Jedi Mind trick hand wave deal.
“You want to let me have a bite of your Sandwich.”
That and are random times and for no particular reason I’ll do the whole Street Fighter Ryu fireball move thingy, though luckily sans the cry. I also have a tendency to hit myself on the forehead rapidly, or bang my head against the wall when I’m feeling bored. But that’s less nerdy and just plain weird.
Another thing that comes to mind, is that when I was playing MUDs, or after an extended stint on message boards for a while afterwards when ever I say anything I kinda picture it appearing over my head as I say it letter by letter and when its really bad with accompanying keyboard clicking.
Though that’s more a mental thing than an overt show of nerdery.
And the crowning tendency, is when ever I learn a new interesting fact (interesting to me at least) I will for a while afterwards mention it to anyone for whom there is the slightest chance they too will find it interesting, and we’re talking a real slim chance here.
You are a god among nerd, may I worship you? I even have a corner of the house that is just crying for a shrine.
My dad keeps track of the issuing of lisence plates in California. He would seriously enjoy just walking through the parking lot at a stadium to see the plates that people have. At any time, he can tell you with pretty good accuracy what number the local DMV is up to in giving out new plates.
He’s tried to find the real number of feet in a light year so he can put a sign in his car window, showing how much of a light second it has gone.
He’s estimated how many helium molecules his mylar balloon is losing per second.
He’s estimated how many carbon-hydrogen pairs his tires are losing with every rotation on the street.
I post mathematical non-sequiturs in threads where something else is being discussed.
Laydeeees and gentlemen!!! We have a winner!!! Officially the nerdiest activity of all!!!
I’m not as nerdy as some out there, which is a source of anguish I suppose.
I have a few though. Like others here, I give money to cashiers so that I will get quarters back, causing more than a few to get really confused, and sometimes give me too much back.
The case to my computer hasn’t been on the computer for several months now. I have parts lying everywhere.
My most common though, is math. I do random math in my head. Most recently, I was driving along the highway, and got concerned that my speedometer might not be accurate, due to wear on the tires. I want to maximize my ability to get away with speeding, without exceeding the likely speed at which I would get a ticket. So I calculated the change in tire radius from new, and determined number of rotations per mile, then compared the results with my prior assessment of speedometer accuracy via handheld GPS. (noting, of course, the margins for error in each calculation and measurement).
Hell, I write it (slash) for Harry Potter (as should be made perfectly clear by my earlier reply to this thread). If you’re a nerd, what does that make me?
And while I’m here:
I love clocks with sweeping second hands. I can stand and watch one for hours. I don’t have one of my own, which is a good thing as I’d never get anything done.
This is one of my first posts here in a few months. I actually sat and agonised for a few moments about it. “Maybe no-one will remember me. Maybe they’ll think I’m a newbie and treat me accordingly. Maybe I’ll have forgotten all the in-jokes. Maybe they’ve made up new ones since I’ve been gone.”
God, I’m such a nerd.
Also, I don’t know if this counts, as my school make me do it, but I wear a set of tails.
I used to love watching the Disk Defragmenter in Windows 95/98 do its thing. Just moving around little blue boxes. One of the few things I dislike about XP is I can’t do that anymore.
Yesterday, I was at the computer and put a DVD into the player to watch on the TV (not the computer DVD drive). It took me several seconds to figure out why the DVD wouldn’t play when I double-clicked. I’ve also tried to left-click the TV to bring up a drop-list on more occasions than I care to admit.
~mixie
roxx222: You misunderstand. The categorizations mentioned in my prior post are simply the ways in which I may be defined as a nerd. There are many, many, many other ways to be a nerd. You can rest happy in the knowledge that you qualify for one of them.
I have thought of some other specific examples. I actually sat through the movie Cube 2: The Hypercube, all the while yelling at the screen, “the tesseract only has eight cells, you bloody fools!” just to see if they would say anything mathematically accurate.
I went to a costume party once. A friend and I dressed up as an obscure literary reference that no one understood. I wore a fuschia crushed-velvet dress, and a stuffed dragon on my shoulder. My friend wore cardboard armor with a badge, and carried a hip flask of cola and a packet of cigars, which he attempted to light using my stuffed dragon. Guess who?
I once watched the X-Files movie upside down, to see if I could notice anything relevant that I hadn’t before. Mostly, Scully just has really tall shoes.
I also wear cloaks a lot. I made them. One of them is a practical cut for everyday.
I attempted to figure out the layout of Hogwarts castle.
I have an online pen pal. We discuss the nature of the universe in general, communication in particular. It usually comes to the point where one of us is trying to prove that nothing can be proven, because the very nature of communication is flawed, so there’s really no point in writing anything at all.
And I recently became addicted to the Annotated Pratchett File.
On a similar note, my second cousin goes to MIT, where he built a cannon that could shoot a lime through a piece of 3/4-inch plywood. Once some people there broke all the windows in a stairwell, using a lit candle and a container of powdered coffee creamer.
My old roommate’s fiancee works for AOL. My dad is a computer programmer. My mom wrote a fifth Harry Potter book because the wait was too long, and now she’s writing an entire version of LOTR as if written by J. K. Rowling. My sister went to a website of visualizations of four-dimensionl mathematical forms, found an error, emailed the creator, and was credited for the correction when it came out. My other sister’s favorite book was Jane Eyre when she was ten.
I was raised by mad scientists. The nerdiness is affecting my brain. I’ve been absolutely stewed in it.
I’ll be back. I can tell. My brain is stewing with ideas for even more references to my nerdiness.
It moves around a lot.
If you check the Harry Potter Lexicon, I believe they have almost finished their layout for Hogwarts. They have also done Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, and have other fascinating stuff. They’re the best!
I’m dying to make myself a full Jedi outfit.
And a lightsaber.
Sort of surprised that this hasn’t been posted yet.
I’m not as nerdy as most of these people, mainly because I suck at doing math in my head.
I used to read fanfic, until Roswell got cancelled.
I snap my fingers to make the light change, even when there’s no one else in the car with me.
Currently, about 85% of my leisure reading is sci-fi or fantasy. Though I’m trying to read more classics.
I’ve read just about every single Star Wars future book, not counting novelizations of the movies, up to the trilogy where Chewbacca dies.
There are times when I would have responded more readily to my screen name than my regular name.
When I cross the street, I try to do so diagonally so I can cover the least distance.
I’m a total Scrabble nut, but that at least is inherited from my parents.
I’m sure I do other stuff, but that’s all I can think of for now.
I just got a brand-new computer. I wouldn’t let my sister borrow my old one because I wanted a back-up just in case my new one crashes.
Yeah, I’m a nerd and a pretty selfish one at that.:o
This hasn’t been brought up yet, but I wonder how many self-confessed nerds alphabetize and/or categorized their computer porn.
The extraneous “d” in the above post brought to you at no additional charge.
I play RPGs (Role Playing Games), both IRL and online, as frequently as possible.
I play and truly enjoy the Harry Potter card game.
I taught myself to read at two. I can’t remember not knowing how.
I can still list the Periodic Table of Elements- and I’ve been out of high school for nearly ten years.
I relish anime made for young children. (Ex. “My Neighbor Totoro.”)
I enjoy rolling spare change and taking it to the bank.
I’ve been known to play The Sims for up to six hours without a break.
I enjoy cleaning. I’ll clean almost anything, actually.
I watch the History, Discovery and National Geographic Channels- almost exclusively.
I love to make lists. I’ll make one for anything. If I don’t complete them before going to bed, I can’t sleep.
Dear Og! d_redguy is right! I’m a nerd!
And here I’ve been disputing it for years…