The nerd handbook
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Well, that was one of the funniest (and truthful) things I've read for a long time! I'm not usually one to say "OMG! I laughed out loud reading that!", but this time I actually did... really. The whole thing about appearing rude to people, is something my wife is always getting at me about. She's constantly accusing me of ignoring people but the fact is, I simply don't hear them! I'm not doing it on purpose - I hear the sounds, but they don't register. Does that sound rude? :~ My current project is building a back-wall for an archery range in my back-yard, so that me and the boy aren't going to accidentally kill the neighbors horses on Christmas afternoon. :cool: Anyway, I've forwarded a copy to my wife and I'm waiting for her to respond... :-D
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Miszou wrote:
Well, that was one of the funniest (and truthful) things I've read for a long time! I'm not usually one to say "OMG! I laughed out loud reading that!", but this time I actually did... really.
That was my exact reaction when I read it and apparently the reaction of nearly everyone else who read it judging by the comments under that article. No one has ever written a better description of the "nerd" that I've seen.
Miszou wrote:
My current project is building a back-wall for an archery range in my back-yard,
That's funny because I've been contemplating doing that ever since we bought our current house and property. My project a few summers ago was to build a "party pit" behind the house. Basically I used a rented Bobcat and dug out a 30 foot by 30 foot square depression behind our house which is on a hill. Everyone thought it was a swimming pool. After we had the party that inspired it there I thought about other uses for it and one was as part of an archery range. I used to be in the junior olympian program for archery as a kid and haven't touched a bow since. Maybe one day.
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
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I mentioned this excellent blog post (article?) in passing a few weeks ago but I don't think it got the proper prominence it deserves. It's a care and feeding guide for companions of nerds: http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbook.html[^] I am and always have been definitely about the "project". Right now the "project" is growing rare bamboo plants from seed (rare for around here anyway) In my "Cave" there are racks with large square panels covered in high intensity red and blue led light arrays suspended over small plant pots with all manner of bamboo in various stages from small seedlings to 8 inch high ones. My cave is rapdily turning into a jungle. See how many personal tendencies you recognize in that article.
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
heh. a lot of that described me, exactly. i thought: if i showed this to my wife, she'd laugh and point at me - "that's you!" the rest of it sounded nothing at all like me, and i found myself getting annoyed that the author was wasting so much time describing himself instead of talking about me some more. :)
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Well, that was one of the funniest (and truthful) things I've read for a long time! I'm not usually one to say "OMG! I laughed out loud reading that!", but this time I actually did... really. The whole thing about appearing rude to people, is something my wife is always getting at me about. She's constantly accusing me of ignoring people but the fact is, I simply don't hear them! I'm not doing it on purpose - I hear the sounds, but they don't register. Does that sound rude? :~ My current project is building a back-wall for an archery range in my back-yard, so that me and the boy aren't going to accidentally kill the neighbors horses on Christmas afternoon. :cool: Anyway, I've forwarded a copy to my wife and I'm waiting for her to respond... :-D
Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | The Windows Cheerleader
Miszou wrote:
I hear the sounds, but they don't register
I have that same problem, except my brain fills in the blanks. People are always looking at me funny because I'll raise my head and ask "did you just say _______________?" It's gotten me into some trouble because some of the things I hear can be pretty twisted at times.
[Insert Witty Sig Here]
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heh. a lot of that described me, exactly. i thought: if i showed this to my wife, she'd laugh and point at me - "that's you!" the rest of it sounded nothing at all like me, and i found myself getting annoyed that the author was wasting so much time describing himself instead of talking about me some more. :)
Well, enough about me. Let's talk about you for a while. :)
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heh. a lot of that described me, exactly. i thought: if i showed this to my wife, she'd laugh and point at me - "that's you!" the rest of it sounded nothing at all like me, and i found myself getting annoyed that the author was wasting so much time describing himself instead of talking about me some more. :)
Chris Losinger wrote:
describing himself instead of talking about me some more.
Ditto! I love public presentations! And the whole fear of change doesn't much apply to me either. The whole "loves ... puzzles" bit I can't relate to at all - I mostly find them annoying. People who get off on crossword puzzles or sudoku boggle my mind, I just don't have the patience.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
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heh. a lot of that described me, exactly. i thought: if i showed this to my wife, she'd laugh and point at me - "that's you!" the rest of it sounded nothing at all like me, and i found myself getting annoyed that the author was wasting so much time describing himself instead of talking about me some more. :)
Chris Losinger wrote:
the rest of it sounded nothing at all like me, and i found myself getting annoyed that the author was wasting so much time describing himself instead of talking about me some more.
Damn I did the same thing.
This blanket smells like ham
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I mentioned this excellent blog post (article?) in passing a few weeks ago but I don't think it got the proper prominence it deserves. It's a care and feeding guide for companions of nerds: http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbook.html[^] I am and always have been definitely about the "project". Right now the "project" is growing rare bamboo plants from seed (rare for around here anyway) In my "Cave" there are racks with large square panels covered in high intensity red and blue led light arrays suspended over small plant pots with all manner of bamboo in various stages from small seedlings to 8 inch high ones. My cave is rapdily turning into a jungle. See how many personal tendencies you recognize in that article.
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
Yeah, exercise is my current "project". I just went out and built a slosh pipe[^]. :-O
This blanket smells like ham
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Yeah, exercise is my current "project". I just went out and built a slosh pipe[^]. :-O
This blanket smells like ham
Andy Brummer wrote:
I just went out and built a slosh pipe[^]
Ok, you've just raised a NMI over my archery range. I'll have to service the Slosh Pipe before I can resume the range processing.
Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | The Windows Cheerleader
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Andy Brummer wrote:
I just went out and built a slosh pipe[^]
Ok, you've just raised a NMI over my archery range. I'll have to service the Slosh Pipe before I can resume the range processing.
Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | The Windows Cheerleader
At least the slosh pipe only takes a few hours to build. Keep in mind water goes in, pure evil comes out, and don't try to lift it near anything breakable. An added bonus is that you'll have a target for your range when you are done, though you might want to use something higher caliber then an arrow. :mad: BTW. Understanding NMI instantly doesn't make me a geek does it? :~
This blanket smells like ham
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I mentioned this excellent blog post (article?) in passing a few weeks ago but I don't think it got the proper prominence it deserves. It's a care and feeding guide for companions of nerds: http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbook.html[^] I am and always have been definitely about the "project". Right now the "project" is growing rare bamboo plants from seed (rare for around here anyway) In my "Cave" there are racks with large square panels covered in high intensity red and blue led light arrays suspended over small plant pots with all manner of bamboo in various stages from small seedlings to 8 inch high ones. My cave is rapdily turning into a jungle. See how many personal tendencies you recognize in that article.
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
John C wrote:
See how many personal tendencies you recognize in that article.
Is it too late to plead the 5th?? :laugh:
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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John C wrote:
See how many personal tendencies you recognize in that article.
Is it too late to plead the 5th?? :laugh:
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
If you plead a 5th of liquor and then drink it all you'll be able to hide from the ignominy for a few hours. :doh:
Otherwise [Microsoft is] toast in the long term no matter how much money they've got. They would be already if the Linux community didn't have it's head so firmly up it's own command line buffer that it looks like taking 15 years to find the desktop. -- Matthew Faithfull
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Chris Losinger wrote:
describing himself instead of talking about me some more.
Ditto! I love public presentations! And the whole fear of change doesn't much apply to me either. The whole "loves ... puzzles" bit I can't relate to at all - I mostly find them annoying. People who get off on crossword puzzles or sudoku boggle my mind, I just don't have the patience.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
Jim Crafton wrote:
The whole "loves ... puzzles" bit I can't relate to at all - I mostly find them annoying. People who get off on crossword puzzles or sudoku boggle my mind, I just don't have the patience.
Same with me. If I try really hard, my attentionspan expires in a few minutes, and I think "why do it, I have no use for it" ;)
- Anders
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Yeah, exercise is my current "project". I just went out and built a slosh pipe[^]. :-O
This blanket smells like ham
Cool! That is totally in my way of thinking about excercise. When I'm working around the yard hauling dead trees to burn and running wheelbarrows that are precariously overfilled and always need to be rebalanced while I'm walking I get a hell of a work out to all my muscles. Sitting in a gym doing the same rote set of precise excercises over and over again just seems unnatural to me. You see hockey players all the time training on these boards with a ball on the bottom so they have to balance constantly to not fall over while standing on it. This seems like the same theory and makes so much sense. In this way you have a nice set of muscles for the real world.
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
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If you plead a 5th of liquor and then drink it all you'll be able to hide from the ignominy for a few hours. :doh:
Otherwise [Microsoft is] toast in the long term no matter how much money they've got. They would be already if the Linux community didn't have it's head so firmly up it's own command line buffer that it looks like taking 15 years to find the desktop. -- Matthew Faithfull
dan neely wrote:
If you plead a 5th of liquor and then drink it all you'll be able to hide from the ignominy for a few hours.
That used to be pretty easy.... Now, I fear I haven't touched the sauce in nearly 20 years. Pretty scary. Though I just heard of the guy who drank his vodka rather than throw it away before getting on the plane... alcohol poisoning 5 minutes later. Still surprised that never happened to me. I was guzzling 180proof black label for a while, 2-3 pints at a time. People keep telling me I should be dead, I figure I got off lucky, and better not try it again. :-D I am not sure where the break is on alcohol to weight to know if they were telling me wrong or not, though I do keep hearing about the darwin candidates like that one for drinking to poisoning levels. Hate to say I was one once, but there you have it. At least my genes are permanently out of service anyhow! :laugh:
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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I mentioned this excellent blog post (article?) in passing a few weeks ago but I don't think it got the proper prominence it deserves. It's a care and feeding guide for companions of nerds: http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbook.html[^] I am and always have been definitely about the "project". Right now the "project" is growing rare bamboo plants from seed (rare for around here anyway) In my "Cave" there are racks with large square panels covered in high intensity red and blue led light arrays suspended over small plant pots with all manner of bamboo in various stages from small seedlings to 8 inch high ones. My cave is rapdily turning into a jungle. See how many personal tendencies you recognize in that article.
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
Good assessment, not perfect but pretty damn close! Cool! Mike
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. "George Carlin"
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Cool! That is totally in my way of thinking about excercise. When I'm working around the yard hauling dead trees to burn and running wheelbarrows that are precariously overfilled and always need to be rebalanced while I'm walking I get a hell of a work out to all my muscles. Sitting in a gym doing the same rote set of precise excercises over and over again just seems unnatural to me. You see hockey players all the time training on these boards with a ball on the bottom so they have to balance constantly to not fall over while standing on it. This seems like the same theory and makes so much sense. In this way you have a nice set of muscles for the real world.
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
John C wrote:
Sitting in a gym doing the same rote set of precise excercises over and over again just seems unnatural to me.
My understanding of things is that the gym machines were developed for body builders and rehabilitation. They are designed to isolate muscles to overcome injury or to develop a look. All my workouts include at least one full body exercise like burpes, woodchoppers, or sandbag cleans. I rarely work a specific muscle group. Pushups and squats are about as specific as I get.
John C wrote:
In this way you have a nice set of muscles for the real world.
That's my goal. My next project is to work on pulling exercises by adding a set of rings and a climbing rope to the mix.
This blanket smells like ham
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Chris Losinger wrote:
describing himself instead of talking about me some more.
Ditto! I love public presentations! And the whole fear of change doesn't much apply to me either. The whole "loves ... puzzles" bit I can't relate to at all - I mostly find them annoying. People who get off on crossword puzzles or sudoku boggle my mind, I just don't have the patience.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
Jim Crafton wrote:
People who get off on crossword puzzles or sudoku boggle my mind, I just don't have the patience.
I think there is no one stereotype for nerds. I do think there are those who fit the collective stereotype listed and there are some who don't. Each probably overlap in some areas, not in others. The author was definitely describing himself, and me, and a few others, but not all. He hasn't figured that out, probably because you were in the irrelevant category of his NADD. :laugh: I think back on the types of programmers listed a couple of months back that got everyone laughing, and then this article and I think the better way would be to isolate some of the different species of nerds rather than identify them all as the same. To the non-trained eye every hawk looks similar, but to an expert a red-tailed hawk looks very different from a harris hawk. So too, I think there are different species of nerds. I am the NADD, horribly NADD. I love puzzles, I eat cryptography for breakfast. I do crosswords and wordsearches on occasion, and bejeweled I get too involved in finding the most complex combinations rather than the fastest. I don't want to accidentally cause a chain reaction, I want to deliberately cause a chain reaction. I am the kid your mother never warned you about, but should have. ;) Why are you not supposed to mix clorox and amonia? ever ask that? I did, and I had to know. I HAD to know. Not just generally, "it releases a poisonous gas, it's dangerous, don't do it. yada, yada, yada." hmmmm, "what gas? what is left as a byproduct? is energy released, or gathered in the reaction?" and so I had the most effective insect killing jar in high school and the only person in the neighborhood who could kill fire-ants, and none of my beetles on the insect board ever "woke up" after being pinned. :laugh: Hey, knowledge is power! when used appropriately, of course! Once I knew the answer, I could use the answer too. When I got my first telescope, I didn't just have to know the moons of Jupiter, I had to plot them. I had to prove I was as good as Galileo and reproduce his calculations on the motions of the moons of Jupiter using the same data. I had to know. I HAD to know. It is an unquenchable search for knowledge, it is a thirst that never ends. It is its own end, and beginning and middle, it simply is, and is a part of me. It is not something that even can be described well. I can't do it, the author can't do it justice, tho
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Jim Crafton wrote:
People who get off on crossword puzzles or sudoku boggle my mind, I just don't have the patience.
I think there is no one stereotype for nerds. I do think there are those who fit the collective stereotype listed and there are some who don't. Each probably overlap in some areas, not in others. The author was definitely describing himself, and me, and a few others, but not all. He hasn't figured that out, probably because you were in the irrelevant category of his NADD. :laugh: I think back on the types of programmers listed a couple of months back that got everyone laughing, and then this article and I think the better way would be to isolate some of the different species of nerds rather than identify them all as the same. To the non-trained eye every hawk looks similar, but to an expert a red-tailed hawk looks very different from a harris hawk. So too, I think there are different species of nerds. I am the NADD, horribly NADD. I love puzzles, I eat cryptography for breakfast. I do crosswords and wordsearches on occasion, and bejeweled I get too involved in finding the most complex combinations rather than the fastest. I don't want to accidentally cause a chain reaction, I want to deliberately cause a chain reaction. I am the kid your mother never warned you about, but should have. ;) Why are you not supposed to mix clorox and amonia? ever ask that? I did, and I had to know. I HAD to know. Not just generally, "it releases a poisonous gas, it's dangerous, don't do it. yada, yada, yada." hmmmm, "what gas? what is left as a byproduct? is energy released, or gathered in the reaction?" and so I had the most effective insect killing jar in high school and the only person in the neighborhood who could kill fire-ants, and none of my beetles on the insect board ever "woke up" after being pinned. :laugh: Hey, knowledge is power! when used appropriately, of course! Once I knew the answer, I could use the answer too. When I got my first telescope, I didn't just have to know the moons of Jupiter, I had to plot them. I had to prove I was as good as Galileo and reproduce his calculations on the motions of the moons of Jupiter using the same data. I had to know. I HAD to know. It is an unquenchable search for knowledge, it is a thirst that never ends. It is its own end, and beginning and middle, it simply is, and is a part of me. It is not something that even can be described well. I can't do it, the author can't do it justice, tho
El Corazon wrote:
He hasn't figured that out, probably because you were in the irrelevant category of his NADD. :laugh:
5 for that! :-D
El Corazon wrote:
It is an unquenchable search for knowledge, it is a thirst that never ends. It is its own end, and beginning and middle, it simply is, and is a part of me.
And that's the essence of what distinguishes nerds from others. Different nerds are nerds about different subjects, but they all have a thirst for knowledge for the sake of knowing, that outweighs the things that "normal" people generally find most important.
--Justin, Microsoft MVP, C#
C# / DHTML / VG.net / MyXaml expert available for consulting work[^] Get Quality Portraits Drawn From Your Photos[^]
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El Corazon wrote:
He hasn't figured that out, probably because you were in the irrelevant category of his NADD. :laugh:
5 for that! :-D
El Corazon wrote:
It is an unquenchable search for knowledge, it is a thirst that never ends. It is its own end, and beginning and middle, it simply is, and is a part of me.
And that's the essence of what distinguishes nerds from others. Different nerds are nerds about different subjects, but they all have a thirst for knowledge for the sake of knowing, that outweighs the things that "normal" people generally find most important.
--Justin, Microsoft MVP, C#
C# / DHTML / VG.net / MyXaml expert available for consulting work[^] Get Quality Portraits Drawn From Your Photos[^]
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John C wrote:
Sitting in a gym doing the same rote set of precise excercises over and over again just seems unnatural to me.
My understanding of things is that the gym machines were developed for body builders and rehabilitation. They are designed to isolate muscles to overcome injury or to develop a look. All my workouts include at least one full body exercise like burpes, woodchoppers, or sandbag cleans. I rarely work a specific muscle group. Pushups and squats are about as specific as I get.
John C wrote:
In this way you have a nice set of muscles for the real world.
That's my goal. My next project is to work on pulling exercises by adding a set of rings and a climbing rope to the mix.
This blanket smells like ham
Shit, no need to do that Andy we have about 24 tons of road crush gravel that needs to be wheelbarrowed all over our property for the trails we're building; we also have a fine collection of refrigerator sized boulders and 100 pound chunks of a 50 foot Douglas Fir tree that blew down this fall that need to be moved around. I'm sure we can have you puking in less than an hour. :)
When everyone is a hero no one is a hero.
