[MoriartyL]

You don't have to be like other nerds to be a nerd, do you? I hope not. If there were some requirement like that, I'd run away from the title. I'm speaking metaphorically, you understand. But then who would decide on such a requirement? Maybe there's a team of nerd overlords (The Overnerds) who deal with this sort of thing. Where could I find out if there is such a requirement? Is there some Usenet group which answers questions potential nerds might have about nerdiness? It could be a forum, I guess, but this sort of thing is always done by Usenet. If there is a newsgroup, I could ask politely to be exempt from the rule that I have to be like other nerds. But what if there isn't such a rule? See, this is the problem with putting a fourth wall between the players and the audience. I just was at a Haydn concert (No, really I was. Just an hour ago. It was really good- it was a string quartet, and the music was really nice and the second movement was just hilarious.), and the whole time, I couldn't stop thinking about how there really needs to be more inclusive music. I mean, it's not right that the audience should feel so alienated. It should be a real group activity. So obviously it would need to be over the internet, but then you've got the whole problem of interface. What kind of interface is so accessible that anyone could play good music on it? Well, I guess it wouldn't have to be so accessible- there could be a whole big single-player thing where you practice, and then until you get good enough you can only listen to the other players. And then when you play a multiplayer session, the music would have to change dynamically: The more accurately you play, the more prominent the role it gives you. So there's a whole challenge there, and a nice social context for music. I think I'd have fun there because I could practice so much I'd alienate everyone else and go all elitist and then I wouldn't have to consider myself like them because I don't really like belonging to a group, you know? Well, I do like belonging to the group, but more as a Third Pillar. Then again, the DS sort of sold out, so that's a bad analogy. So there would be all sorts of nerds and geeks playing this music, because who else would even hear about such a niche game and that brings me back to what I said earlier which was that I hope nerds don't have to be like other nerds. But that's assuming that I'm a nerd. And I don't like going into a category like that because boxes are closed on top and shipped overseas with the snails. And it's really cramped inside, too. But at least it's nice and dark in the box. So maybe I'm not a nerd at all.

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by RLacey

That would be geek as in...


... right?

I've learnt something today.

Um...how can it be a cannibal show if he's biting off the heads of chickens? He's not biting off the heads of people, after all.

Unless of course, the defintion of "cannibal" also changed.


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[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by MoriartyL

You don't have to be like other nerds to be a nerd, do you? I hope not. If there were some requirement like that, I'd run away from the title. I'm speaking metaphorically, you understand. But then who would decide on such a requirement? Maybe there's a team of nerd overlords (The Overnerds) who deal with this sort of thing. Where could I find out if there is such a requirement? Is there some Usenet group which answers questions potential nerds might have about nerdiness? It could be a forum, I guess, but this sort of thing is always done by Usenet. If there is a newsgroup, I could ask politely to be exempt from the rule that I have to be like other nerds. But what if there isn't such a rule? See, this is the problem with putting a fourth wall between the players and the audience. I just was at a Haydn concert (No, really I was. Just an hour ago. It was really good- it was a string quartet, and the music was really nice and the second movement was just hilarious.), and the whole time, I couldn't stop thinking about how there really needs to be more inclusive music. I mean, it's not right that the audience should feel so alienated. It should be a real group activity. So obviously it would need to be over the internet, but then you've got the whole problem of interface. What kind of interface is so accessible that anyone could play good music on it? Well, I guess it wouldn't have to be so accessible- there could be a whole big single-player thing where you practice, and then until you get good enough you can only listen to the other players. And then when you play a multiplayer session, the music would have to change dynamically: The more accurately you play, the more prominent the role it gives you. So there's a whole challenge there, and a nice social context for music. I think I'd have fun there because I could practice so much I'd alienate everyone else and go all elitist and then I wouldn't have to consider myself like them because I don't really like belonging to a group, you know? Well, I do like belonging to the group, but more as a Third Pillar. Then again, the DS sort of sold out, so that's a bad analogy. So there would be all sorts of nerds and geeks playing this music, because who else would even hear about such a niche game and that brings me back to what I said earlier which was that I hope nerds don't have to be like other nerds. But that's assuming that I'm a nerd. And I don't like going into a category like that because boxes are closed on top and shipped overseas with the snails. And it's really cramped inside, too. But at least it's nice and dark in the box. So maybe I'm not a nerd at all.

I like paragraphs.



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[RLacey]

Ditto. I like them so much, in fact, that my eyes glaze over when I don't see 'em .

[kuze]

*points at the signature of the evil shirt owner*

[Flyboy]

Originally Posted by Squinky

What bothers me is this: why would you ever need to suppress your geeky tendencies, if you really are as proud to be a geek as you claim you are? It's not like women aren't interested in geeks - unless, of course, you're going after the wrong kind of woman...

I was kidding for the most part there (for one thing, I'm in a relationship, so there's no need to lure the ladies). As for this respectable geek concept, which you seem to take issue with, I'm simply saying that, of the many shades of grey that is geekdom, I like to thing that I fall somewhere in the middle. I'm a geek at heart, but I don't necessarily wear it on my sleeve and so I find it easier to mingle with and meet a wider range of people. I don't hide who I am. I love talking about adventure games and role playing games and whatnot, I just don't see myself as being trapped in a world that comprises of little more than fantasy.

And what's wrong with being respected anyway? I think it's a great achievement for nerds everywhere that we've become somewhat revered in today's society.

[Jazhara7]

Oh, by the way. Does that mean Ozzy Osbourne is a geek? I mean, he's bit off the heads of at least two flying animals at two different events.



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[Jelena]

Originally Posted by Jazhara7

Oh, by the way. Does that mean Ozzy Osbourne is a geek? I mean, he's bit off the heads of at least two flying animals at two different events.

Nah, he was stoned I guess.

[Squinky]

Originally Posted by Flyboy

...I just don't see myself as being trapped in a world that comprises of little more than fantasy.

Funny, because that's how I perceive popular culture.

Originally Posted by Flyboy

And what's wrong with being respected anyway? I think it's a great achievement for nerds everywhere that we've become somewhat revered in today's society.

The sort of respect we get, as with the respect that any fashionable group of people gets, is superficial in nature. It seems that a lot of people only like geeks because they're being told by society that it's good to like geeks - the same people who used to hate geeks because society told them it was bad to like them. I find it quite meaningless, and therefore, annoying.

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by Jazhara7

Oh, by the way. Does that mean Ozzy Osbourne is a geek? I mean, he's bit off the heads of at least two flying animals at two different events.



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I think that would depend on whether you think of an Ozzy show as a circus or carnival .

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by RLacey

I think that would depend on whether you think of an Ozzy show as a circus or carnival .

It's all the same to me.

Except that clowns are more freaky, despite being more normal.



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[Flyboy]

Originally Posted by Squinky

The sort of respect we get, as with the respect that any fashionable group of people gets, is superficial in nature.

Yes and no. I think the nerd holds a very different status than, say, 15 years ago. Locking yourself in your parents' basement and playing Contra all night wasn't anything to brag about. Today, there's a certain cachet to the video game market and games like half life, Halo and GTA are seen as pretty cool.

So in that respect, it's become more acceptible to do what was once dismissed as nerdy. Although I do understand your qualms with the hipification (thanks god that's not a word) of the nerd image. Geek sheek or whatever it's called. There's definitly a superficial air about those too-cool-for-school hipsters who walk around with cardigan vests and thick glasses. I agree that it's quite phony, but then true nerds will easily see through that.

[Huz]

It's twofold, really. Some of the things that used to be seen as geeky - playing computer games, for instance - aren't really thought of as such nowadays. At the same time, being a geek is far more socially acceptable than it used to be.

Ultimately though, who cares about all this labelling bollocks? As a kid I hated football and loved computers and Star Trek - and er, still basically do, except my love for Star Trek has morphed into the strongly held opinion that someone should have given Brannon & Braga lobotomies before they had the chance to create Voyager and Enterprise (though looking at the evidence to hand, maybe someone did) - so naturally I was labelled as a nerd. I'm all in favour of the fact that I can now quote Picard without people sidling away from me to talk to the group of guys whose overriding and single topic of conversation is football. That doesn't mean that I'll refuse to speak to those guys, though - I just won't know what I'm talking about.

[Henke]

Depends on your definition of the term "nerd". But I'm not the least bit technical I can tell you that.

[Squinky]

Originally Posted by Flyboy

So in that respect, it's become more acceptible to do what was once dismissed as nerdy. Although I do understand your qualms with the hipification (thanks god that's not a word) of the nerd image. Geek sheek or whatever it's called. There's definitly a superficial air about those too-cool-for-school hipsters who walk around with cardigan vests and thick glasses. I agree that it's quite phony, but then true nerds will easily see through that.

Too true.

Yet another thing that bothers me about nerds being cool, though: it seems to me to be more socially acceptable for guys to be geeky than for girls. I wonder why that is.

[Flyboy]

Originally Posted by Squinky

Yet another thing that bothers me about nerds being cool, though: it seems to me to be more socially acceptable for guys to be geeky than for girls. I wonder why that is.

Makes me think of the recent trend in sitcoms (I could be wrong about this because I don't really watch TV): beautiful obedient housewives married to overweight, unattractive lazy men. It seems like society is more willing to praise unflattering or alternate images of men (not to say that nerds are unflattering, but rather that they don't necessarily fit the "ideal" mold) than it is women. Couldn't tell you why though. I, for one, dig nerdy chicks.

[stepurhan]

Originally Posted by kuze

*points at the signature of the evil shirt owner*

Thanks for noticing. I guess I'll have to keep that one up for a while then.

Time for a musical interlude to all this geeky discussion.

Geeks in Love.