What makes you a nerd?

[Elastigirl]

how old is your son? My 15 year old would be in HEAVEN...of course I have taught her well and she will likely never marry. (this is all joking people)

he's 20 so a bit old for her. Too bad since we live in Sasquatch (aka land of rain) too!

[AKLulu]

he's 20 so a bit old for her. Too bad since we live in Sasquatch (aka land of rain) too!

And too young for me *sigh* It hasn't been raining quite as much this year though!

[shutterpillar]

I think you can be a Glee nerd.... and I don't know if your nerdiness is defined by whether or not you like mainstream things... that seems more like the definition of a hipster to me. I think it should depend more on how much you know about/how big of a fan you are of the mainstream things. (Harry Potter, LOTR, Star Wars, Star Trek for example).

[Rosie]

Hmm I''m 27 and I LOVE glee. I agree with shutterpiller - Just because something is mainstream doesnt mean its not nerdy. I mean how many Harry Potter/Dr Who/ Star Trek/ Star wars/ LOTR etc fans out there? Probably millions! You could probably be a nerd about just about anything depending on how dedicated you are to it. For example - I consider myself an Arsenal FC fan as i watch a few games and support them when they play, however my friend is probably and Arsenal nerd since she knows pretty much everything there is to know about them!

[Book]

Yay! Thank you shutterpillar and Rosie! You guys expressed it much better than I managed.

[Morrigainz]

Read a lot of things I agree with in here - especially shutterpillar!

I think it can be hard, now that nerdy is becoming "cool" - Comic Book Men, anyone? - to retain our sense of nerd-dom. And since we're proud of our nerdiness, and wear it like a badge, we NEED that sense of being "other."

I think shows like The Big Bang Theory are another way of mainstreaming nerdiness.

Anyway, those are just some random thoughts before I've had a full mug of coffee.

[AKLulu]

I like the hipster comment too - that's a good point. We nerds like being different, but we don't strive for it quite as much as some of the hipsters do.

[BadWolf]

Aaaaaand a Dr. Who username! Truly an awesome nerd . And a Harry Potter wedding? How awesome is that?? Any chance of posting pictures? Not only that, but you're a fellow English major. I must fangirl. I'm a huge Potter geek myself ... I've completely lost track of the number of times I've re-read the books. I also love LOTR. We sort of had a LOTR theme wedding -- it was actually just generic medieval/fantasy, but Eowyn and Faramir were our cake toppers. And poor Faramir took a fall and ruined the cake, but it was all in good fun

Haha, thanks!

Yea, there's a ton of photos. Here's the short version: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marquesajen/sets/72157624240904451/

The whole load is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marquesajen/sets/72157624371825376/

[cline]

Do you re-enact dance scenes? Dress up your cats as favorite characters?

Then,no. Glee is what the cool kids watch.

[cline]

Yea, maybe it's only nerdy if you aren't a 13 year old girl, or if you take it to some extremes.

I just suffer from general Doctor Who/Harry Potter/ Lord of the Rings/ English major/ Red Dwarf/ Chronicles of Narnia/ etc... nerdiness. Just run of the mill! Oh, and I went to the first Tolkien Gathering in Toronto. Oh, oops, my wedding was Harry Potter inspired/themed.

Can I get a +1?

I went to the Doctor Who experience in London in dec. lol

[BadWolf]

I went to the Doctor Who experience in London in dec. lol

Ah! I'm jealous! I just got into watching DW before Christmas and I'm about to watch the last episode of Season 6 tonight! Not too mention re-watching all of the episodes in between. How did you like the "experience"?!

[cline]

was out of town for a bit - just catching up.

Took a pic in the Tardis! LOL - I look like I'm right on the bridge. Hilarious. Also took pics with all the alien enemies. So lame and nerdy. I loved every minute.

BTW, my friend just named his new cat River Song.

[Guest Eduard]

NOTE: I POSTED HERE READING ONLY THE TITLE, so I thought you were asking me to say what makes me a nerd. And I'm not deleting it, it took me a lot to write it!

I think I already said it in another thread, but...

1. Passion for web design.

2. Bodybuilding (yeah, not just fitness!), which is 10% of my life (80% web design, 10% bodybuilding, and 10% other stuff like the ones I'm gonna list next).

3. Medieval fantasy and superhero MMORPGs.

4. Gambling, card tricks and quality card decks.

5. Comedy. I don't really read, but I love to write funny stuff and I'm trying to be a funny presence both iRL and online.

6. I'm also a pet nerd, if this thing is possible. I have just 2 dogs right now, although I had even 4 at once. And also had many cats and hamster-thingies (such as Guinea pigs).

7. Superheroes, I love them all, and the comics too.

8. Fashion. All the stuff I'm wearing fits me well and makes me look as good as possible. And not just fashion, but overall appearance, like teeth, skin, etc.. I'm studying all this stuff A LOT and applying it on myself while avoiding to get girly.

9. Spirityality. I know there are religious nerds, I'm not religious, but I'm really spiritual and believe in a personal God about which I love to think, remember my goals through some kind of prayer (not like getting on my knees and saying a classic one, but before falling asleep I usually think about my goals and feel He helps me get there), ask to help me get one more rep (excellent spotter by the way), and play tennis with (sorta). Still not convinced that I'm a spiritual nerd? About a week ago I found a small bottle of holy water in my house and put my pre-workout in it. I have a pic if anyone's curious.

10. Hyper-organization. For example, whenever I make a list, I try to have a round number of points (5, 10 in this case, 25, 50, 100, 200, 250, 300, 400, 500, etc.).

LOVE YOU SEXIES!!!

[meirad]

Hmm... I suppose i'm semi-nerdy. I like , Harry Potter, X-men, Batman, and just about any dark creepy stories and poetry. I love technology but i'm a minimalist and i'm addicted to pixar movies lol. I suppose i'm more of an academic nerd too, just got into Phi Theta Kappa. Does believing in the paranormal make you nerdy? Oh and i'm a collector of all that is Apple; macbook pro etc. within reason; It tends to conflict with my minimalist side.

[Bean]

I am a book nerd. Before I do anything I always read the book about it. Yeah - have read starting strength cover to cover twice. First time before I even ventured into the free weights area - and only did this because of NF. Except of course for manuals - don't think I have ever read one of those.

Prefer to communicate via email rather than an actual face-to-face conversation - OK that makes me an introvert more than a nerd.

Know all the rules of every sport I watch - and the more complex the rules the better.

Does being a huge fan of Sid Meiers Civ series count? I have every version and expansion ever made. I still go back to pay Civ IV at least once a month.

And, as for my children, I am far more concerned about their grades than I am about their participation in sport. I take them swimming regularly to ensure they remain in shape.

[BadWolf]

was out of town for a bit - just catching up.

Took a pic in the Tardis! LOL - I look like I'm right on the bridge. Hilarious. Also took pics with all the alien enemies. So lame and nerdy. I loved every minute.

BTW, my friend just named his new cat River Song.

Cat names are the best way to express nerdiness Ours is called Remus (from hp) and my mom's is Weasley (ditto). I think my next cat should be called Raxacoricofallapatorius, or Rax for short.

[AKLulu]

Cat names are the best way to express nerdiness Ours is called Remus (from hp) and my mom's is Weasley (ditto). I think my next cat should be called Raxacoricofallapatorius, or Rax for short.

I've decided if I ever get cats, I want to get two Abyssinians and name them Hikaru and Kaoru. They're mischievous twins from an anime that I love....

Also, I don't have any gaming consoles since I moved (The game systems in our family are all back home at Mom and Dad's house and I'm bummed that I didn't get to finish Skyward Sword during the holidays!) and I've been debating about getting a Wii or XBOX 360... and I just got an email from Microsoft for pre-ordering the limited edition Star Wars Kinect bundle.... and I want it. BAD. I mean, who WOULDN'T want an XBOX that looks like R2-D2 and a control that's as shiny as C-3PO? *dream*

[So Late So Soon]

I remember really specific details about most nerdy things I've seen, read, or played. And I read Warhammer lore so that really puts me in the nerd category i think haha

[gymell]

I have many nerd credentials.

-I'm a computer programmer (my first computer was a Commodore 64).

-I once attended a Star Trek movie marathon where I saw all 6 (at the time) movies in a row. And since I was living in Germany, they were all dubbed in German

-Even though I was a music major in college, I took classes like calculus and astronomy just for fun. My advisor used to get after me for taking stuff not related to my major. Oh, and I spent 5 years in graduate school. Because I just liked school.

-I'm seriously into birding, but I've taken that to new levels of nerdiness. I set up a big feeder station in my back yard where I aim my StarDot netcam so I can watch my birds all day while I'm at work. The camera runs an embedded Linux OS (uClinux), and I wrote some scripts to call over to my Davis weather station via wget (scheduled a cron job), grab and parse (sed and awk) the weather data which I then overlay on the netcam image. Top that, nerds!!

Shameless plug for my Feeder Cam: http://www.feedercam.overlookcircle.org/

[Guest Gemeaux]

I'm really into space , archaeology and science . I love reading about random facts and telling people about it .

I love star wars and other scifi movies , shows etc . I want to get into reading comics..

[HorrorGeek]

I love to learn and always have a new topic. I don't do anything until I've read at least 10 web (creditable) resources and 5 books. (My knowledge of running was ridiculous before I even took a single running step.)

I also forget that most other people do not give a damn about learning new things, so when I spout out this knowledge, I become known as the Know It All B!tch.

I spent the 80's watching television and movies, and the 90's listening to the radio. This makes me very handy with pop culture trivia. I know a ridiculous amount of insanely stupid things.

I watch far more horror than should probably be legal. Which is funny because gore disgusts me and I have to look away during particularly violent things, like Achilles heel slashing *shudder*. But I still love it and am on an eternal quest to be scared. It's rare that a movie scares me, but when it does, it's a truly wonderful thing in my world.

I read. A Lot. When not researching the topic of interest du jour, I'm mostly reading horror (but I'm sure you figured that out by now) and mysteries. But I also love Harry Potter, so it sorta balances out.

I have no patience for stupidity and tend to be a grammar Nazi.

I can quote John Hughes movies at length.

[Guest Gemeaux]

I'm a lot like that horror !

[unicornassassin]

I recently discovered the true pain of being a nerd: Thinking that something is so incredibly awesome, and realizing that no one else gives a crap about it. Or, that no one else cares nearly as much as you do, and don't want to talk to you about it.

So, if you're so pumped about Glee that you bore other people, yes, you are a nerd.

[Guest Gemeaux]

You should talk to my friend Shane . He is obsessed with glee . He even created a fan page " gay gleeks "

[Artinum]

I saw a few bits of Glee. Definitely not to my tastes. I fear watching an entire episode may lead to me vomiting blood.

Like Bean, I tend to devour books. I recall one Christmas I got a new computer game (anyone here remember "Frontier: Elite II"?) and I was halfway through reading the manual before my mother gently reminded me that I had other presents to open. Today one of my talents - an evolution of Lego, I think - is assembling flatpack furniture. And I always start by counting out the pieces and reading through the instructions. This is just sensible to me but seems to baffle the "norms"!