box of Jack

Blah, blah. I shouldn’t be blogging. But I am because I just read this fantastic post by Rands called The Nerd Handbook and it describes me so well that I’m a little happy that other people out there share my personality and a little disappointed that I have to take my God complex down a notch because I’m not as unique as I thought.

I’m just going to rehash his points here:

A nerd needs a project because a nerd builds stuff. All the time. I have a pet obsession that I carry with me at all times. Right now? It is probably Xbox and more specifically Guitar Hero III. Sometimes I obsess about a blog redesign. Or just some tiny website that I am throwing together. Sometimes (but very rarely) I obsess about work. Sometimes it’s people: someone’s relationship trouble, a girl, a blogger that I’ve never even met before. Generally, these obsessions stop when I feel like I’ve learnt as much as I can with the resources I have in front of me.

Understand your nerd’s relation to the computer. I have my life on the computer. Period. Blog posts, photos, all the hard work I have ever done, IM conversations with some of my best friends, address book, email, everything. I also understand computers in the same way a mechanic understands cars; it’s magic to most people but to me there is this sort of X-ray vision and I can see all the parts moving in sync to make up the display of a dog riding a skateboard.

Your nerd has control issues. Absolutely. Look at the state of how I’ve organised my computers, my room and my desk. There is a system. Watch me push pixels around on a website, I’ve spent hours just trying to get two components to line up properly. How this translates into the real world, I’m still not entirely sure. I certainly have issues with control but it is not always a need to control everything. Sometimes, I just need to know someone is in control.

Your nerd has built himself a cave. My apartment is a delicious sanctuary. Whenever I am away for a long time, I need to build a new temporary home. Somewhere I can be without feeling social pressure where I am free to work on projects and everything is controlled through the computer.

Your nerd loves toys and puzzles. This one is easy enough to understand. I have my Xbox and I’ve been buying games at about 1 per month. Once I can’t go any further into a game, I just move on. I don’t just pick up a copy of Halo and Madden and then play that for 3 years straight.

Nerds are fucking funny. Gosh, I think so too.

Your nerd has an amazing appetite for information. When I hang out with new people, sometimes their eyes sort of widen as I recite information to them that is kind of relevant to the conversation. Like if they mention they’re thinking of buying a TV then I’ll start blabbing about the current TV technologies. If it is cars then I’ll start talking about all that I’ve read about car salesmen and their tricks. I’m not sure what the eyes widening means though. Sometimes they are listening intently, sometimes they are kind of scared because they feel dumb and sometimes they wish I would shut up so they can finish telling the funny anecdote.

Also, I spend like 15 hours on the internet every day.

Your nerd has built an annoyingly efficient relevancy engine in his head. I don’t know if this one is true. But I do tend to dismiss certain things really really quickly based on what strikes me. It’s something that happens so quickly and so subconsciously that I don’t notice. Someone will just say “blah blah baseball” and my brain literally shuts off. It is tough manual labour to get back into the conversation.

Your nerd might come off as not liking people. Absolutely hate small talk. I am completely afraid of people who want to make nothing but small talk. Think of the uncomfortable restlessness when your parents talk to you about sex; that is how much I squirm when I have to make small talk. Luckily, after reading this article, I feel like I can make a game of this small talk. I will need to study up and see how the best talkers quickly turn small talk into something interesting.

So that is it. Any one else fit these syptoms? I believe quite a few of my friends and former classmates might.