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.
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 :smack:
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 :smack:
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.
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.
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!!!
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.
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
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.
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.
