So, Janet's thrown down the gauntlet, noting that "the time has come to see just how high those geek flags fly." She's already collected a bunch of them here, so for my own, I'll submit a few anecdotes. First, admittedly, I know jack shit about computers, so I absolutely lose in that category. But, I've already taught both of my kids how to swab their cheek cells and gram stain the collected bacteria, along with a bunch of other nerdy experiments I mentioned here.
Additionally, PZ added a second layer of competition--the nerd photo pic. He thinks this one (at the bottom) takes the cake. I scoff and remind readers of this pic (I'll repost it after the fold here as well, along with a few more anecdotes). Self-cut hair, giant glasses, rash, missing teeth and pajamas trumps 70s porn star moustache anyday as far as nerd pictures go.
(The worst part is that I think my high school glasses looked rather similar to those...)
So, additional data in support of my case:
-I find these kinds of things entertaining.
-As a kid, one reason my grandma liked to babysit me was because I'd hole up in a bedroom with a pile of books for the weekend; she hardly knew I was there.
-Those books included encyclopedias when I ran out of other stuff.
-Topics of papers for my English courses in high school included quack medicine, genetic engineering, and Ebola.
-I beat out all the older kids in a science competition as a 5th grader (against the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders) because I already knew random trivia, such as the names of Jupiter's larger moons, the distance from the earth to the sun and our moon, and could correctly label the organs of our digestive system. See point about encyclopedia reading above.
-I remember many of the questions from a science competition that was held around 20 years ago.
Oh yeah, baby. Where do I go to collect my prize?
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I see your nerdiness and raise you some dweebiness!
For consideration:
- President of high school chess club and astronomy club. Simultaneously. Science projects ranged from water transport in leaves to bacteriphages. Senior high school science project was to manufacture benzophenone from raw chemicals (enzene, acetone, aluminum chloride) using a Friedel-Crafts reaction. Reaction failed (aluminum chloride was decomposed).
- Have a slide-rule, and know how to use it.
- Read atlases in elementary school for fun.
- Leafed through entire Oxford English Dictionary, just to find goofy and weird words.
- Wanted (and got) plastic geometry set for my 9th birthday. Wanted, but did not get, chemistry set for my 10th.
- Missed major play during World Series because I was trying to calculate in my head how many times a photon could circle the bases in 1 second.
Bah! I solved high-level E-Mag problems involving gradients and complex field vectors during sex...
That only counts if you were have sex with (not in the presence of) another person.
You may have a slide-rule, but do you have one on your watch? (Because I DO! hah!)