December 14th, 2008
First contact sports
I was going to end this comic with a different line, insinuating that the person was less geeky than I thought. However, in my experience, most people tend to have hidden geeky tendencies, and so I figured it would be more accurate the other way around.
Which is just as well, since I couldn’t really think of anything you could discover about someone that would make them appear less of a geek… I could rely on clichés, such as having a girlfriend – but I know that not to be true as some of the geekiest people I know have, at least, one.
So that’s what I’m going to spend the next few days pondering – what would you have to discover about someone that would make them appear to be less of a geek?
Hmm, perhaps finding out that they play a rough contact sport. Like parrises squares.
Ha!
Sir, you’re a genius.
But the rule I go for is that if it didn’t work for the Crusher child, it isn’t going to work for anyone else.
Sometimes I think the type of computer programs a geek uses greatly influences their reputation. For instance, it’s less relevant now, but if I found out a supposed geek was using WindowsME their geek score would plummet in my mind.
To some extent now, somebody that uses Blogger is clearly less of a geek than somebody that uses Wordpress.
That would have worked, ‘I thought you were my geekqual, until I discovered you useed blogger’…
But that’s only relative geekery. I know a lot of people blog these days, but it still makes you a geek.
And let’s just take a moment of appreciation for the fantastic nature of Wordpress… I don’t think we’ve had a Wordpress love-in here yet, which is odd, since the site is powered by it, technically it too is a member of The Flowfield Unity.
I have found myself judging people by the e-mail client they use, actually, since that is inadvertently shown more often when in contact with someone. I automatically think less of someone’s computer prowess if they have a hotmail or yahoo account, and more of them if they have a gmail one. Un-identifiable accounts, like universities or indie-clients like uymail, are clearly either supergeeks or eccentrics, which is interesting. Individuals who have their own website as their e-mail suffix are clearly the elite of e-mail account geekery.
I actually registered my own name as a domain name for my email address. I can not look at other email addresses the same way anymore.
I hear ya on the hotmail. What about those who use their internet providers as email accounts?
That, my friend, is the ultimate in email account heresy.
Where does LiveJournal come in? or does it?
Not being the sort of fan that is into fanfic/fanart or thoerising. In my estimation that makes you less a ‘geek’ and more just a ‘fan’. Which is fine with me, really. My mum and fa are ‘fans’ of their respective fandoms (Mum: Harry Potter, Star Trek; Fa: Star Wars), not geeks like my sister and me.
I guess that can be reduced to if you interperet the characters as fictional in this universe… or real within their own.
Very poetic phrasing. I like it, Adam!
finding out that they’re a wine-and-cheese party socialite?
i considered spy, but you know those guys have to be really geeky
i just wanted to say, that’s a really great pun.
I don’t know, wine and cheese people have to be pretty geeky….
i suppose it depends on your definition of geeky, if it means having one deep passion to the exclusion (or neglect) of other activities, then probably just about anybody can fit the bill.
arrg, I’ve got finals starting tomorrow
I imagine you’ve probably started them by now, but I just wanted to wish you the best of luck… not that you’ll need it.
x
thanks, i finished today.
now we’re getting a new teacher for Japanese 201, it’s a little sad
I think that sums up the definition of geek, though I alter that definition slightly. You don’t have to exclude other activities, simply know a lot about a certain subject–any subject–without that knowledge being useful as far as making money. When you learn a lot about something of your own free will, for no other purpose than your own entertainment, then you are a geek, in my estimation.
I remember when I was growing up that the big joke was always about pocket protectors being super geeky, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen anyone use a pocket protector. So were pocket protectors just created as some sort of odd geeky fantasy or was there a time and place where they were actually used?
I’ve lost geek points there by not even knowing what a pocket protector is… after a brief search I found out, and I have to admit, they look quite cool.
Seriously, has anyone ever used one of these?
It’s like a tiny pencilcase in your pocket! I love it. It just needs to come in colours rather than nasty putty and clear.
Sanrio could make a mint with this, seriously.
So does it make me super cool here if I admit to using one in my lab-coat? (It was my special tie-dyed lab-coat, and it would have just killed me to get sharpie ink al over it. In the end though, the bleach spots from the HCl are what did it in though.)
On a different note, I’ve also used a slide rule, in real life. No calculators, at that school. I was just as happy to move on — not sure I could even remember how to use the thing now.
Roo you are my hero.
Did you ever watch Beakman’s World?
Am I the only person who watched that show instead of Bill Nye?
Beakman’s World, Bill Nye, Mr. Wizard… I watched them all. I actually liked Beakman’s World the least, though (though I did still like it), because the lead man was an actor, not a scientist. Bill Nye, and Mr. Wizard both had science degrees.
Incidentally, my trailname on the Appalachian Trail was Mr. Wizard.
(Everyone goes by trailnames, not real names, no the AT — it’s sort of a community thing. Your trail name is given to you by others, not chosen, and that’s what you are called form that point on. Makes a lot of sense, when you think that you’re hiking off and on with these people for four to six months. I got mine because I was able to answer nearly any science question is great depth — it started with someone musing about all the caterpillars in a particular section of forest, and my supplying the information that they were actually an invasive species of Gypsy moth caterpillar, and they were particularly common in this section of forest because of the concentration of oak over maple trees, which they can digest more easily. After that, I’d get notes with science question in trail registers, or handed off by ridge-runners, from ADATO (An Other Day At The Office, who hiked wearing a button-down shirt with the arms ripped off, and a skinny tie) or Compass, that I’d answer, and then figure out how to get back up the trail to them, as they were hiking faster than us at the time. And the name stuck. So, to this day, I answer to the name of Mister Wizard.)
I liked Beakman because I wa sa damn wacky and frenetic little kid. Bill Nye was too focused on the ‘what’ and I was way past the ‘what’ and wanted to know the ‘why’ and the ‘when’. At least, that was my impression as a kid.
Wow, kudos for taking the trail.
I’m so jealous of people with nicknames. I never ever had a nickname. I was never around a group of people long enough, I guess.
What, “Melanthios” is your given name? Nicknames don’t have to be bestowed like a blessing, you can give yourself one.
Incidentally, I don’t ask that in pure jest: “Roo” isn’t my given name, but it might as well be at this point. It’s not just an internet handle, it’s my name. (”Werdnus” is my internet handle — and, if you’re good, from that and my name, you can figure out what my parents called me.)
Well, ‘Melanthios’ was my given name for a while. Since no one will pronounce the whole thing, I decided Benjamin was more suited for mundane life, and have resigned myself to being called ‘Ben’ even though I don’t like monosyllabic names in the least. I’m not certain what to do about my name anymore, really. Sometimes I just wish I could keep my birthname without people associating it with that stupid car company.
I’ve been pretty nameless since late 2006.
Huh, well there you go. I’m definitely calling you Melanthios if we ever meet in meat-space. Although the Odysseus connotations might be unfortunate. And “Ben” for Benjamin could be a nickname… though, personally, I’d totally insist they call you ‘Jamin instead.
^_^
O, I’m well aware of the connotations from the Odyssey and I find them quite awesome. Cheeky goatherd indeed. I’m rather cheeky, and we all know goats and Greece are clearly a sex symbol. I’m for this. Especially since the name literally means ‘dark flower’. Hohoho, there was some boysexin’ goin’ on there, I think we all know that.
Hahaha, awesome. I figured you were aware — I got the ‘dark flower’ but it hadn’t occured to me to connect that up with goats and get boysex. But it makes sense.
Well, I mean, boys were described as pretty things like flowers, at one point in time, and pan’s symbol is the goat, and the goatherd probably had dark hair….
Boysex is a perfectly reasonable and logical conlusion, I feel. XD
My name is actually Benjamin. I like it in some ways, Ben is easy to remember, spell and is common and ppl feel comfortable with it.
I was going to be called Xavier originally, which have been soooo cool.
Benjamin is also the name of my favourite founding father. And it has a j in it. A j. That is one of my favourite cursive letters, is lowercase j. Also capital B. And just…there aren’t a lot of sibilants.
I’m changing my middle name to Roy, and I wouldn’t mind being called Roy except it was my grandfather’s name so I don’t want to cause my family distress. Also I’ve been told I don’t look like a Roy. Not sure. Also, not sure how foppish a name ‘Roy’ is. XD
Ben, I’m calling you Xavier from now on. But the Spanish pronunciation, like someone from Oaxaca would say it: “kHHAviier!”
YAY!!!
i’ve been wondering, all the Christmas lights receive the same amount of energy, so are the red ones warmer because they absorb the higher energy wavelengths of light?
Erm….
I dunno, interesting question.
I would hazard an answer, based on knowledge of LED’s, which are generally not used in xmas lights.
Green LED’s are much more visible in dark rooms compared to red LED’s. So, I my theories are that we are more sensitive to green light then we are to red light or that green LED’s make more efficent use of the energy then red LED’s. So, to transfer this to xmas lights, which aren’t often LED’s, yes, the bulbs use the same amount of energy, the green bulbs emit more light then the reds, but the difference is too small to be percieved by our shitty eyes.
Humans have rather good eyes, actually. We can see a wide range of colours, unlike a lot of mammals.
LEDs are beginning to be used in Christmas lights, considering they save energy (and look like candy! That’s just my opinion, though). I love the look of old-fashioned ones, though.
Not really. Yeah, we can see better over a wider range then most animals, but, there are some serious flaws.
my physics teacher corroborated your ‘human eyes being more sensitive to green light’ theory, supposedly it’s because our sun releases a lot of light of that wavelength. he used to be an optical physicist, so you’re probably right.
i was wondering about differences in thermal energy, as a black object is much warmer in the sun from absorbing all the wavelengths of light as heat. would a blue object be cooler than a red object, because the blue object would be absorbing everything but higher-frequency blue light, while a red object would be absorbing everything but the lower-frequency redlight
Well, practical experience in handling many different colours of tin says no.
Darker colours get hotter and lighter colours are cooler.
Your theory sounds good, but I dunno. Maybe some thing else you need to consider is the amount of the spectrum being reflected. If the section of wavelengths being reflected is only narrow, then I guess more light would be asorbed.
Another thing is that it may be more then one colour. eg. the sky is actually violet, but we see the blue shades more easily, so it appears blue.
Probably be a question for your teacher to answer, there are alot of things that affect the apparent temp of an object.
unfortunately, he’s in thailand. his teaching contract there won’t be up until i’m off to college. even then he’ll probably stay out of the states, apparently he hates American children. –3–;; the other physics teacher doesn’t know her stuff.
Keeping a loaded firearm under the pillow?
Having never heard of Youtube?
And what if you have both a yahoo AND a uni email? Do I now have no email?
Ooh … good one … “Having no email address”
Ppl who keep guns under their pillows are worrying. Either they have a legitemate (Can’t be arsed speeling righ now) need or they have paranoia and both of those are dangerous.
It doesn’t really affect their geek score, but it does affect their weirdo/back-away-slowly-while-maintain-eye-contact score.
Yeah, that IS a good one… although entirely admirable.
Although geeks with guns are still geeks, just really scary ones.
I know a geek with no email address. Or cell phone, or computer at all, or shoes, really.
I live with a neo-Luddite named Sunshine, who’s awesome. He was a math and computer science major, at MIT, in the 60’s, and worked as a prorammer, back when programming involved punching holes in cards. But when computers turned away from main-frames to personal computers, he decided that such things were not for him, and sort of gave up technology. But he’s a total geek. I mean, he was the world tiddly-winking champion back in the 70’s, and can tell you any piece of game-show trivia you could ever want to know.
OMG you just described my Grandfather. Except for the tiddlywinks part. He was a zoology major.
I’m gonna be pedantic here and claim to not label ppl (blatant lie).
Well, to be honest, I am sooooo very bad at it that I am trying to stop.
I once stopped labeling people… then they all got mixed up and I forgot which was which.
It is a bad habit, I admit, but I do like it.
I find it always easier to remember someone’s label than their name. I know that’s bad, but I’m a more visual person so if you ask me about a particular person say “Bob” I’ll be lost, but if you says he’s the tall, middle-aged, bald guy with a funny mole on his chin, I’ll know exactly who you are talking about.
I’m also surprised how few of you have admitted, in an amnesty like fashion, to being in such a club at school… indeed, I hear the AV club has its fair share too.
School is not something I want to remember often. Especially the club part.
I was on the Math Team. And my “coach” from that (also my trig/precalc teacher) is on my Facebook friends list.
I was on a maths team in primary. Our school came third in the state, which was quite good.
We got a photo in the paper and a trophy.
I got targeted for bullying cos our team didn’t come first.
Ironically, the “bullies” were ppl that didn’t usually give a flying fuck about academia.
this is the only time i have ever regretted turning down the invitation i got to join our titration competition team
*gafaw!*
Star Trek is a step too far, especially anything from ‘The Next Generation’ onwards. These people have all of time and space to explore, and what do they do?
Spend most of their time talking about their feelings and making simple-minded moral points, while stranded somewhere (which costs less in special effects).
Oh, and I _love_ the inter-specie miscegnation episodes (not). Talk about laying it on with a trowel!
Somebody’s bitter about something.
Oh, TNG and DS9 were so much better than the original. Shatner and his syllable abuse are comical. And most episodes were set up so that he could make out with Hot Alien Chick of the week.
Admittedly though, the syllable-abuse and transparency of the plots were what made the show awesome. Ya can’t beat cheesy shows.
I also MST TNG. Especially when Q is involved. Or the holodeck. Mostly Q.
I can’t stand Q because I met the actor in real life and he was a complete jerk. Granted, everyone has bad days. But I was ten years old and all I could think was, “ego, ahoy!”
…So what you’re saying is, basically he was like Q?
Hehe. Yeah, basically
live long and prosper
being a trekkie is the definition of geek is it not??? i mean shatner, nimoy = legends
*can’t wait to see sylar take on the role of spock*
i suppose you could find out that you’re ‘geekqual’ – that’s a really cute word by the way is putting it on, just to get your attention…something i would never do
je suis une geek through and through
Sylar as Spock=good. Simon Pegg as Scotty=amazing.
p.s is it geeky of me to want to kill Lucas/Speilberg for destroyin Indy and Ratner for butchering X3…in my eyes i’d be doing movies fans a service
That they have meaningful relationships with people of other genders? That they look in a mirror periodically? That they’ve never actually seen Star Trek, Blake’s 7, H2G2 (whoops…) …
Wait, so you’re saying that people attracted to their own gender are geeks by definition, if they don’t have close friends of another gender? What about people who shave? Don’t you have to look in a mirror periodically in order to shave? These are very poor criteria, I feel.
I’m sorry that my criteria disappoint you – just as we seemed to be getting on so well too. Note however that I wasn’t talking about people being attracted to their own gender – just rarely hitting it off, for whatever reason, with any other…
As for shaving, what’s that got to do with it? Not to stereotype, but when someone says ‘geek’. I’m seeing spots and/or straggly facial hair.
I’m an old person, incidentally. What’s the difference between a geek, a dweeb and a spoff?
That’s an excellent return of the word ’spoff’… I haven’t heard that since my internment in public school.
The differences tend to be related to where in the world as you are… so let’s assume our collective location is ‘the internet’.
The word ‘geek’ comes from an old circus term for the performer who would bite the heads off live chickens for entertainment. Now, it tends to be applied to someone with an in-depth knowledge of a particular subject area, particularly in relation to fringe interests such as sci-fi, computers, games and such… it’s not such a derogatory term any more, indeed it is almost a term of affection and respect amongst the communities concerned.
Geeks are quite harmless and are usually fairly friendly and may have quite good interpersonal skills, if only with other geeks.
Dweeb… as far as I understand it is the same as nerd, but without the knowlegebase.
‘Nerd’ is nearly interchangable with ‘geek’, more so in some circles than others, where it may also mean someone who is completely devoid of interpersonal skills and may also be agressive and or derogatory with respect to others knowlege of a subject area.
Spoff, I think is a homologue of any of the above…
Indeed, I think all of these terms may be interchangable depending upon location and social setting.
I always differentiated between ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ as ‘geek’ being someone who has intense knowledge of any subject (even history, movies, etc) added onto a fairly normal set of interpersonal skills, and a nerd being someone who has knowledge, but a below-average amount of interpersonal skills. Nerds also tend toward knowing very specific types of knowledge, types that don’t require having interpersonal skills.
I always thought ‘dweeb’ was simply a boy who was not considered ‘cool’, was not conventionally attractive, or had characteristics not considered traditionally masculine (such as non-aggressive nature, shyness, gentleness, etc). Dweeb is not something I’ve heard outside of schoolchildren.
Spoff is, of course, the sound a can makes when you’ve finished going ’round it with a can opener and the air-seal breaks.
A ‘Dork’ is a whale penis. So essentially a ‘dork’ is just someone who is so much a penis that they are not even the size of a human penis any more, they are too full of the assholery for that.
I think you’re right on dweeb but wrong on dork. I see these as pretty much interchangeable. Perhaps you’re thinking of ‘prong’ …
No, seriously. Dork is synonymous with dick. I’m not 100% sure on the whale angle anymore, since I can’t recall from where I heard it, but the etymology is definitely penis-based.
Is 50 considered that old any more? Retro, perhaps, but surely not old.
50 is the perfect age for a silver fox. Mrowr!
It appears that I’ve pulled. Thanks, Flowfield Unity!
Comics, chat and now dating…
The Flowfield Enterprises expand to need.
No, not considered old at all, particularly now that I’m 51.
Thanks for the enlightenment, kid. I would only challenge a few particulars: Dweebs, I’m thinking, have the lesser knowledge base but also, importantly, fewer psychotic qualities. Friendly, vulnerable, easily crushed.
In the States, I believe ‘nerd’ and ‘nebbish’ are quite similar.
In the IT circles that I am occasionally obliged to drift through, ’spoff’ is quite popular, often used (though not by me) in an admiring way. See also ‘chinook’ (twin props).
Thanks for ‘homologue’. I will use it often. Is it synonymous with ’synonym’?
homologue – technically a mistake as synonym would be far more accurate in relation to words.
It’s a relic from my bio-science days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homology_(biology)
Like our limbs and bat wings…
If it makes you feel any better, Adam, I use ‘homologue’ and ‘analogue’ with relation to words all the time. Though, I think, this would be a case of analogy, wouldn’t it, since the word origins are different, but the function is the same?
Well, ‘nerd’ and ‘dork’ (and maybe ‘dweeb’? I’m less sure of the origin of that one) might be homologous, being words that originated as terms for male genitalia.
Right, I feel like such a geek.
chinook?
i thought that referred to canadians
or some kind of weather phenomena.
OMG how fully sick is Star Strek and their spoofy costumes, wicked plots and sick acting.
I bloody hate that show.
Do I lose some geek points? Am I banned again from the intertubes?
*ben is, once again, banned from the internet*
Majel Barrett Roddenberry died
Had the good fortune of spending a day around her when I was a child and she was a truly lovely person.
Tia:
geek = propellerhead
chinook = twin prop heavy lifting military helicopter
therefore
chinook = geek x 2
It just occurred to me that I can probably contribute a new word to this lexical discussion: “Twinkie.”
MIT/Boston slang, homologous with geek as well. It’s got some happy-crunchy-hippy contexts to it too though.
That means something entirely different over here… You’d better be careful who you refer to using it.
Interesting… what’s it mean on your side of the world? Or do I want to know?
You could always try searching for pitcures of them on google.co.uk
I think you’ve had me… are you actually talking about the Hostess Snack Cake, and not some horrible, fist-fight-worthy insult?
(As far as the MIT kids could tell me, the etymology of the term has to do with the colour of the Hostess snack, and the fact that it was originally used to describe geeky Asian students, though the term has shifted to encompass all demographics; it’s sort of like the way “oreo” is used as a derogatory term for geek African-Americans in the South (”black on the outside, white on the inside” — it’s actually a really deep insult in some circles, and goes to show how deeply entrenched racism is in the American South); Twinkie is, I’m told, a much more good-matured term, used affectionately.)
thanks.
So that is why I couldn’t get online this morning. I always thought the ban was just a symbolic thing, not actually a real banning.
No Ben, the force of our collective mind-rays kept you off-line.
…i know its not christmas yet…but i want to send you all a christmas message
unfoirtunately my damn scanner is up the left so you cant see it but
i drew a chibi yoda wearing a santa hat and the captian
“May the festive force be with you”
now is that not geeky?????
Hmmm… In the spirit of things, maybe I should re-caption this one:
“Put the ‘Cthulhu’ back in X-mas!”
Subtitled, ‘why settle for the lesser of two evils’.
I’ll be looking forward to seeing it when your scanner starts working properly.
Me tooooo!
And Adam, usually I’m not much for mixing religion and politics (wasn’t that Cthulhu’s election slogan?), but in this case, I think it just might be a good idea!
…my god! I’m doing an English degree…LEARN TO SPELL WOMAN!!!
correcting myself
captain = caption
unfoirtunately = remove the ‘i’
anyway, once i get my blog up and running and my scanner is fully functional i will put up all my random doodles…in the mean time if anyone is interested i have a deviantart page, which i may fill with my doodles first…sorry Adam shamelesss self promotion,
http://emeraldxtemptress.deviantart.com/
Anyone going to see the new Star Trek movie when it comes out? It looks really cool, but it also looks really weird. Like, different. I don’t know. I’ll probably go see it.