#15 Nerd Pride

Jakob wrote:

Roundapanda wrote:All the people I like know I'm a nerd... what do I do?

Tell people you don't like.

But I like everybody

Most people I know as well know that I'm a nerd. I talk about my nerdy things well not all the time, but I do make reference to them and get a little overly-excited when someone brings one of them up...Hmmm...I'm sure there has to be something though...

Not the best move! I've spent all week (god is it only Wednesday!!?) talking Red Dwarf to everyone. I now know that there are NO Dwarfers at Wastecycle in Nottingham. I also know that nobody will let me speak to them anymore.....some even return to work from thier dinner early to avoid me! I knew there was a reason I hadn't mentioned Red Dwarf at work!!

Tried again with another friend who already knew of my nerdity. But I found out he was a Star Trek movie nerd. He has a secret passion for the Next Gen films. He has watched a couple eps of TNG but never kept up with it. I told him to watch Wrath of Kahn as he had never seen it and he said he'll report back on to me with his opinions.

And thought I'd mention this, because it makes me laugh every time I look at it, but Mandi challenged me with a mini nerd task. To have a nerdier twitter background. I obliged, and this is the result:



Simple yet effective.

Yay, now I don't have to go through a work day without gazing upon the glorious nerdity!

Why I had to pause Nerd Hurdles episode 15: Laughing joyfully at Mandi's story about peddling uphill in honor of Jack Crusher. Tangential nerd confession, just for you, Mandi: When I went to take my driving test, I took my Dr. Crusher identification badge (the one I discuss with Kennedy on our collectibles episode) with me and kept it in the glove compartment. I didn't have enough Nerd Pride then to leave it where others could see it, but I knew it was there and I was convinced that it was going to bring me luck as I went through my 3-point turns and parallel parking.

Hmm. Just for shits and giggles, I should pull that badge out and wear it to work one day in place of my normal ID badge. I wonder if anyone would notice...

The Enterprise insignia is kind of a three point turn diagram...

Ro, if it wasn't for you, I don't think I would have told that story, so I'm glad that you were amused. I can't even believe the geeky shit I keep admitting to. God, I can remember pedaling up that hill so clearly. "This is for you, Jack. This is for you."

How easy is it to admit to "stuff" on podcasts forgetting that tens if not hundreds will hear it!!? My admission this week, as funny as it seems, has gotten me quite a bit of stick from fellow podcasters....luckily, I too can see the funny side!

That ... that's epic.

kumar is right
i should take notes while listening to your show
so many topics
hummingbirds jakob and mandi
flying around ideas that resonate
i want to reply...
but i forget...
no worries
that's what i love about your show
listening to natural conversation
twists and turns
oxbow lakes
love it

i have a pants story, btw
just at dinner right now
wifigoodbye

i was 19, living on my own for the first time
going to school about an hour from where i grew up
met a girl at school, we dated
one day she asked me
"why do you wear levi's? they are soooo outdated!"
i had no idea, i thought levi's were timeless
you know, gold rush 150 years ago type classic jeans
it was all my mom had ever bought for me
levi's were the first jean
all jeans thereafter were copies
but they weren't girbauds=i wasn't cool
the girl and i later broke up
but it wasn't really over the jeans

So... is poetry a hurdle for anyone?

I must confess, I am a lover of good poetry

I were the war poems they showed us in english what pulled me in (Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen FTW!)

Bad poetry however, makes me break out in hives

Well...I think my poetry has been a hurdle for many a girl I've foolishly tried to impress...

I have no poetry hurdle, personally. Just the general hurdle of what strikes me as bad art vs. good art, and that's a personally subjective divide, as it is for all individuals.

I am an uber fan of Edna St. Vincent Millay, particularly her 52-sonnet sequence "Fatal Interview".

Must admit that poetry is always avoided. I actually enjoyed a lot of the poetry we studied at school but have never felt as though I could read it for pleasure. A definate hurdle.

Also, Shakespeare. I did Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet at school and The Tempest at college. I loved all of them, especially The Tempest. Yet I can't clear the hurdle!

Roundapanda wrote:I were the war poems they showed us in english what pulled me in (Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen FTW!)

Wilfred Owen FTW indeed! He's very under-appreciated, that man.

Roundapanda wrote:Bad poetry however, makes me break out in hives

Read John Donne. You might puke.

kumarhk wrote:

Roundapanda wrote:I were the war poems they showed us in english what pulled me in (Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen FTW!)

Wilfred Owen FTW indeed! He's very under-appreciated, that man.

Roundapanda wrote:Bad poetry however, makes me break out in hives

Read John Donne. You might puke.

*High five for the Wilfred Owne love*

I have to find some of this crappy John Donne poetry

Roundapanda wrote:

kumarhk wrote:

Roundapanda wrote:I were the war poems they showed us in english what pulled me in (Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen FTW!)

Wilfred Owen FTW indeed! He's very under-appreciated, that man.

Roundapanda wrote:Bad poetry however, makes me break out in hives

Read John Donne. You might puke.

*High five for the Wilfred Owne love*

I have to find some of this crappy John Donne poetry

There might be some poetry enthusiasts who would kill me for calling it crap. But, hey, it's soppier than any rom com you've ever seen.

Here's an example. This one is particularly lovey-dovey and sickly throughout.

THE GOOD MORROW
by John Donne

I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I
Did, till we lov'd? Were we not wean'd till then?
But suck'd on countrey pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the seaven sleepers den?
T'was so; But this, all pleasures fancies bee.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desir'd, and got, 'twas but a dreame of thee.

And now good morrow to our waking soules,
Which watch not one another out of feare;
For love, all love of other sights controules,
And makes one little roome, an every where.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let Maps to other, worlds on worlds have showne,
Let us possesse one world; each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appeares,
And true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest,
Where can we finde two better hemispheares
Without sharpe North, without declining West?
What ever dyes, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none doe slacken, none can die.

Source: http://www.unizar.es/departamentos/filologia_inglesa/garciala/publicaciones/donne.htm

Jakob wrote:So... is poetry a hurdle for anyone?

Armed with an English minor and a journalism major, poetry is a low and easy hurdle.

Current "other podcasts" include:
Introduction to Poetry podcast (which I like because it's old-school, not as much for the "intro" segments)
The LibriVox Poetry Podcast (unabridged)
IndieFeed: Performance Poetry (poetry slam, John S. Hall of King Missile, and Shappy Seasholtz, including his poem "I Am That Nerd")
http://www.indiefeedpp.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=324536

Others, more recent, that I simply love:
"Inner Ear" by T.R. Hummer - uses labyrinthitis as a reference point for surrealist memories
"The Hardness Scale" by Joyce Peseroff - includes her telling the man the poem is directed toward that he was "#11 on the hardness scale later that night" ... and who wouldn't want to hear that?!

ro karen wrote:Should I feel pride or shame over the fact that there is no one to whom I can out myself as a nerd? It'd be as anti-climactic as me walking up to someone and saying, "Yeah, you know I have red hair." Really?!

God, I'm a dork.

Actually, I think you get double points on this challenge if you start it retroactively by a couple of days.

#1 - just meeting my co-worker at lunch was an outing, as both nerd and podcaster, and that's a total stranger. But also, I hit target #1 at the same time because there's just no way to introduce your co-worker to a Starbase 66 podcaster without, well, coming out as a nerd on so many levels: Star Trek, podcasts, online forums, etc.

#2 - obsessions. Again, both of us proved able to quote chapter and verse on things that I'd bet most other people at the restaurant hold only a casual knowledge about.

#3 - yeah, I'm not hitting this one. Just a bit too introverted to be flashing the nerd gang signs on the street at anyone.

#4 - speaking for me, I'd say being a lay leader at church may qualify -- if you hold religion as nerddom -- as being a leader of a nerd pride.

#5 - won't be any mating with the alpha female. I'm not sure my wife would be at all happy about being regarded as Mrs. GAB -- at least not in the online forum sense.

By my scoring, I've got 1, 2, 4.
Ro Karen gets credit for 1, 2, and an assist on my #1.

(Also, it looks like I was wrong about my forecast to remain "1 forum only" too.)
http://www.entertonement.com/clips/42478/One-ping-only

kumarhk wrote:Here's an example. This one is particularly lovey-dovey and sickly throughout.

THE GOOD MORROW
by John Donne

I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I
Did, till we lov'd? Were we not wean'd till then?
But suck'd on countrey pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the seaven sleepers den?
T'was so; But this, all pleasures fancies bee.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desir'd, and got, 'twas but a dreame of thee.

And now good morrow to our waking soules,
Which watch not one another out of feare;
For love, all love of other sights controules,
And makes one little roome, an every where.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let Maps to other, worlds on worlds have showne,
Let us possesse one world; each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appeares,
And true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest,
Where can we finde two better hemispheares
Without sharpe North, without declining West?
What ever dyes, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none doe slacken, none can die.

Source: http://www.unizar.es/departamentos/filologia_inglesa/garciala/publicaciones/donne.htm

HIVES HIIIIIVES!!!!!

I like the rhyming of "soules" and "controules." That's pretty sweet.