Nerds Unite!: Part 3

Now, before we get to the all-important task at hand, I would like to announce that we now have an RSS feed! Rejoice!

I actually have no idea what that is, but Leigh said it was good so I agreed.

And now, on with the Naming of the Nerds!

Yesterday, I promised that we would get to your suggestions, so here we are, in no particular order (apologies if names are misspelled).

Chris had several suggestions:
a conclave of nerds
a nerd alliance
a nerd array
a league of nerds

I rather like the ‘conclave’ of nerds. It makes us sound important.

Gillsing suggested ‘nerd-herd,’ which is catchy and rhyme-y.

Alexander Lex V. also had a number of suggestions:
a guild of nerds
a clan of nerds
a circuit of nerds
that bunch of virgins

I do like ‘a circuit of nerds’ though ‘that bunch of virgins’ is apt (though hard to say).

pixie_bit suggested ‘con’ in some fashion. This has advantages as it can be more specific as in a ‘Trek-Con of nerds’ or a ‘Gate-Con of nerds.’

An anonymous commenter suggested ‘Hash’ whilst another suggest ‘pod.’ I rather like Hash, though ‘pod’ is good as well (though it is already in use for whales).

And vonbek suggested a ‘googleplex.’ According to Wikipedia, a Googleplex is ‘a play on words, being a blend of Google and complex, and a reference to googolplex, the name given to the large number 10googol.’ A truly nerd-like word if I’ve ever heard one.

Well, what do you all think? Which of the terms of the last three days do you think best represents nerddom? I’ll post the winner later on and then we can see about getting it added to Wikipedia.

Cheers,
-Jason

Nerds Unite!: Part 2

And now, more terms!

An Acronym of Nerds
We nerds do love our acronyms. I was watching ST:NG the other day, when I realized I was late for my BRD run in WoW. The XP was great, but I totally LOL’d when the tank went AFK accidentally and died.

A Deathmatch of Nerds
Another popular pastime among we nerds is the FPS Deathmatch, where we use our brilliantly honed reflexes and ability to sit nigh-motionless for hours on end to blow each other’s avatars into very small chunks.
A QWERTY of Nerds
While nerds have existed for hundreds of thousands of years and computers are only a relatively recent invention, the two have become inextricably linked in the mass consciousness. Therefore, it seems appropriate to smoosh them even further together by naming a group of nerds after the standard keyboard setup.

A Dew of Nerds
I have a small confession: I don’t actually like Mountain Dew. However, with its high caffeine content, it seems to be the drink of choice among nerds. If there was one soda to represent all of nerdom, it should probably be the Dew.

A Federation of Nerds
Star Trek is probably the single greatest icon of nerds in the world and rightly so. Few subjects are as debated among nerds and ignored by others as Star Trek. Whether you’re a Trekkie, a Trekker, a Picard man or a Kirk supporter, you’ve probably spent more time arguing with other nerds about Star Trek than anything else. As such, it would seem only proper to include Star Trek in the formal classification of nerds.

I’ve already received some great ideas, so keep sending them in and I’ll list yours on Friday!

Tomorrow: Your Ideas!

Nerds Unite!: Part 1

This may come as a shock to some of you, but I am a nerd. I do not hide this. In fact, I wear the name proudly and rejoice in its unwashed glory.

Unless, of course, I’m talking to a woman. In which case, I’m a real estate agent who likes football, sweaters, and shoe shopping.

NOTE: This has never actually happened.

Anyhow, something fired in my brain today, leading me to wonder what a group of nerds is called. I scoured the internet, leaving no page unread to find the answer (read: I did a Google search) and as far as I can tell, there is no word to describe a gathering of nerds. Oh, and a group of toads is called a ‘knot.’ No kidding.

So, my nerdish brethren, I have taken it upon myself to come up with an appropriate word to describe a gathering of nerds. I will post my best thoughts over the next two days and on the third day, I will post any suggestions you may have and come up with a final decision. I may even put it on Wikipedia!

Here are my thoughts:

A Fellowship of Nerds
An obvious Tolkien reference, which is fitting as Tolkien is the spiritual father of nerddom as we know it. ‘Fellowship’ embodies many great qualities of nerds: courage, sacrifice, not bathing for long periods of time, and above all, groups of guys running around with nary a girl in sight.

An Int of Nerds
‘Int’ is short for ‘Integer,’ a common data type in computer programming. It speaks of our love of computers, our (general) abilities with math, and is sufficiently obscure that non-nerds will go ‘huh?’

A Party of Nerds
In RPGs, a group of PCs is generally referred to as a ‘party.’ It evokes images of Saturdays playing DnD, arguing about rules, eating Cheetos and BBQ potato chips, and pretending to actually talk to girls. It is truly a quintessential nerd word.

A l33t of Nerds
L33t speak for ‘elite,’ ‘l33t’ captures the fast-paced, competitive nature of the nerd at his most formidable: when he’s flaming noobs on the internet. Whether it’s correcting people in the Orgrimmar ‘General’ chat channel or proving your point about the Enterprise E’s maximum Warp Speed on a forum, all lesser nerds tremble before the l33t.

Got an idea for the word? Reply and let me know!

Tomorrow: More terms!

OW!

A buddy of mine sent me the following clip. It's apparently from a movie, the name of which I don't know.

Anyhow, it's very funny, in a violent sort of way. If you're adverse to fighting, I would not recommend it.

I could not find an embedded link, so here you go:

http://www.maniacworld.com/dont-show-off-before-a-fight.html

Cheers,
-Jason

And Now For The Weather

We have been tentatively schedule for the Tri-Cities Comic Con. I say 'tentatively' as we haven't gotten any notice yet, but they did cash the check, so I'm assuming that's a bit better than a 'maybe.'

In other news, it's wet. Very, very wet. And hot. Not terribly hot, just hot. Combine those two and you pretty much get muggy, which is not the most pleasant thing in the world. We don't have any mosquitos, though, so there's a plus.

It's kind of depressing, actually. We had a really, really long, cold winter and I was hoping for a few months of decent summer to make up for it. This is unusual, as I don't really care about the weather, other than that it doesn't actively try to kill me. Yet, the weather this year has been a giant ball of 'blah' with a side of 'yick.'

Wait, is it 'yick' or 'yich?' Oddly, enough, MS Word doesn't have that in the dictionary.

Anyway, we have another action-packed update this week and the usual blogs.

Cheers,
-Jason

Why?

The other day, I was minding my own business, beating a stuffed wombat with an inflatable tuba, when a coworker asked me why I end my blogs with ‘Cheers.’

NOTE: While beating a stuffed wombat with an inflatable tuba at work may seem odd, I will point out that it’s the only thing keeping the wombats in check.

It seemed a valid question, so I ceased my fruitless pummeling and endeavored to answer. In actuality, ‘cheers’ was not my first choice as a salutation. I originally planned on going with ‘Codpiece!’ but that seemed a little much. My second choice was ‘Surreptitiously,’ which was interesting, but hard to spell. My third choice was an unpronounceable symbol used to summon an Elder god of immense, cheese-related power. Unfortunately, Ariel doesn’t have that as part of its standard font package. I thought for sure Wingdings would have it, but again, no luck.

So, why ‘cheers?’ Frankly, it seemed like a nice way to kind of say ‘have a nice day’ or ‘wheee!’ or even ‘dude!’ I actually had a client at an old job who used it regularly and I liked it, so I adopted it for use in the blog. It just seemed like a good, all-purpose, non-denominational way to say ‘happiness.’

That being said, I will use it until I can find a font that has that unpronounceable symbol. Hopefully, the world won’t immediately end in a giant fondue fireball when I do use it.

Which would be damn cool.

Cheers,
-Jason

'Almost' Mail

There is a very large pile of mail on my kitchen counter. It is large enough that it pretty much obscures the counter, most of the sink, and part of the cabinet above it. I’m not exactly sure what’s under it. I seem to recall buying bananas two-odd months ago, they may still be there, somewhere. They may have actually merged with the mail, creating some sort of bizarre banana-message hybrid.

This would be pretty sweet. You get a banana, unpeel it to reveal the letter, and then eat it. It would be informative and nutritious! I will dub it the ‘Bananagram.’

You see, the kitchen counter is where I toss all my ‘almost’ mail. This is mail that isn’t junk and thus cannot be thrown away, but it isn’t quite important enough to actually peruse, like a bill or a new Victoria’s Secret catalog.

NOTE: Yes, I get Victoria’s Secret catalogs. A female friend thinks it’s funny to sign her male friends up for them. I complain occasionally, just so she keeps doing it.

So, I put the ‘almost’ mail on the counter, with full intention of reading it when I have more leisure time (ha!). Predictably, I never actually read the mail on the counter. I just continue to throw new stuff on top. Occasionally, say once a year, the mail either reaches critical mass and cascades onto the floor in an avalanche of letters or I actually want to cook something and need to counter, in which case the mail gets thrown away.

Yet, I feel guilty about it. I really, really did intend to read it one day, but sadly, never got around to it. It seems like there should somehow be a metaphor about life in there somewhere. Something about never finding the time to do what needs to be done.

Actually, forget the metaphor. Someone needs to write a country song about it.

Unopened mail
Just sittin’ by my sink.

Smells like bananas,
Man, I need a drink.

There’s bills an’ letters
An’ women in thongs.

My ‘almost’ pile o’ mail,
Why can’t we get along?

Something, something, something.

Cheers,
-Jason