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Just as, according to Matthew, things and stuff have separate and distinct meanings--"things" are important, "stuff" isn’t--Al and I have also decided that geeks, nerds, and dorks are all different groups of people.
"Geeks" basically implies having the word "computer" in front of it, of course. Though a geek can also mean someone from any of these groups who's just cool. "Nerds" are people who are as fanatical about something as geeks are about computers--the something could be Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Shakespeare, old movies, collecting elephants, whatever. Usually the more you’re afraid of admitting that you like it, and the less other people know about it, the nerdier you are. "Dorks" are just people who are inept. Not all people who are inept, it just means someone who probably wants to be a nerd or a geek and isn’t very good at it. They're easily distinguishable because they try, usually too hard. They say they like Linux just because they know they’re not supposed to like Windows. They claim that Metropolis is an obscure movie. They pretend to know Old English.
I have at least a couple of friends of each type.
I spent some time today with the Lord of the Rings nerds (even excluding one of the most severe cases, who bailed out on The Two Towers this afternoon because she had a headache), and they're weird. More than I realized. And more of them! It’s spreading!
This was my second time seeing the movie and, just as when I saw Fellowship the second time in a theatre (these movies keep coming out during finals, so I see them when I go home for Christmas, with friends there, and then when we come back to school college people go, even though we've all seen it already because they're all such nerds!) I started to get fidgety about halfway through. They’re good movies, and all, but they’re long. And not always interesting to me. I just don't get it.
I barely like fantasy at all. I'm one of those people who doesn't like it when people think science fiction and fantasy are the same, because I love Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov and all that, but hate the dragons and the magic and the impossible (and impossible to follow) storylines...
And now I'm surrounded by people who are LotR nerds... People who hate me for how I act when I get bored with a movie: I heckle it (I was probably intolerable during the Aragron-and-Arwen stuff...but I found it intolerable! Come on! And why do Gimli and Pippin have Scottish accents?) And--though the other people wouldn't notice this, of course--my mind wanders and I start to think random useless things, like "what is Shadowfax doing when we don't see him?" and "if Elves are immortal, why do they keep having children? who keep looking younger than their parents look?"
(Having Al sitting next to me to giggle at my stupidity doesn't help all that much--that is a statement that’s probably also true for most of the English classes we shared. Such "encouragement" is very bad for me; it really does just perpetuate my inanities. The sad truth is, wherever I go, I am surrounded by silliness…)
"Geeks" basically implies having the word "computer" in front of it, of course. Though a geek can also mean someone from any of these groups who's just cool. "Nerds" are people who are as fanatical about something as geeks are about computers--the something could be Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Shakespeare, old movies, collecting elephants, whatever. Usually the more you’re afraid of admitting that you like it, and the less other people know about it, the nerdier you are. "Dorks" are just people who are inept. Not all people who are inept, it just means someone who probably wants to be a nerd or a geek and isn’t very good at it. They're easily distinguishable because they try, usually too hard. They say they like Linux just because they know they’re not supposed to like Windows. They claim that Metropolis is an obscure movie. They pretend to know Old English.
I have at least a couple of friends of each type.
I spent some time today with the Lord of the Rings nerds (even excluding one of the most severe cases, who bailed out on The Two Towers this afternoon because she had a headache), and they're weird. More than I realized. And more of them! It’s spreading!
This was my second time seeing the movie and, just as when I saw Fellowship the second time in a theatre (these movies keep coming out during finals, so I see them when I go home for Christmas, with friends there, and then when we come back to school college people go, even though we've all seen it already because they're all such nerds!) I started to get fidgety about halfway through. They’re good movies, and all, but they’re long. And not always interesting to me. I just don't get it.
I barely like fantasy at all. I'm one of those people who doesn't like it when people think science fiction and fantasy are the same, because I love Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov and all that, but hate the dragons and the magic and the impossible (and impossible to follow) storylines...
And now I'm surrounded by people who are LotR nerds... People who hate me for how I act when I get bored with a movie: I heckle it (I was probably intolerable during the Aragron-and-Arwen stuff...but I found it intolerable! Come on! And why do Gimli and Pippin have Scottish accents?) And--though the other people wouldn't notice this, of course--my mind wanders and I start to think random useless things, like "what is Shadowfax doing when we don't see him?" and "if Elves are immortal, why do they keep having children? who keep looking younger than their parents look?"
(Having Al sitting next to me to giggle at my stupidity doesn't help all that much--that is a statement that’s probably also true for most of the English classes we shared. Such "encouragement" is very bad for me; it really does just perpetuate my inanities. The sad truth is, wherever I go, I am surrounded by silliness…)