September 2006 Archives

Which came first, the baby geek or the egg-shaped Geek Squad car?

(Technorati tags: geek koan, baby geek)

Kathy A. in comments on this week's GDN points out that there is an online Geek/Dork/Nerd test.

I took it, of course. My results:

Modern, Cool Nerd
69 % Nerd, 56% Geek, 17% Dork

Sounds about right.

(Technorati tags: geek, dork, nerd)

It’s Banned Books Week, that dubious celebration the American Library Association hosts each year in order to scold twits and ninnies who think that by limiting what people read they can keep us all from having sex, or something. From the ALA’s list of the most challenged books of the 21st century, here are Harry Potter, Captain Underpants, and Scary Stories. If you’ve been thinking of buying any of these books, now is the week to do it, and piss off all the bluestockings.

(Thanks to Bonnie-Ann Black for the topic suggestion.)

(Technorati tags: geek, dork, nerd, banned books week, Harry Potter, Captain Underpants, Scary Stories)

On the one hand, we have the rise of attitudes geeky enough so that the word “Orwellian” can be deployed without a second thought, on the assumption that even if the reader has not actually read 1984 -- which is pretty much always what people are referring to when they invoke Orwell -- they will at least understand that the reference implies all manner of science-fictional concepts, such as how language influences, controls, even narrows, our thinking. On the other hand, we have willful avoidance of reason, of a rational, commonsense approach to the many, many problems we face as a global society.

First, we have this, via South African news source IOL, a story about a proposed ban on trans fats in New York City restaurants:

Is the way of the warrior ever a drag?

(Technorati tags: geek koan, drag Xena)

Do robots dream of love, or do humans only dream of robots who dream of love?

(Technorati tags: geek koan, robot love)

Geek/Dork/Nerd is taking a little break this week, since I'm plum out of ideas for topics, at least at the moment. Feel free to use comments to offer suggestions of topics I might cover...

Gas prices aren’t the only thing falling in my neighborhood: we’ve lost more trees and more big branches off trees in the past week or two than in the four and a half years I’ve lived here. I’m talking big, old grandfather trees, the kind that -- even if the city comes and plants new ones, which it probably will -- cannot really be replaced.

Some of it is the result of stupid pruning:

So many beautiful old trees have been cut into a bizarre Y shape to accommodate above-ground wires (phone, electricity, cable) that invariably weakens the tree -- lots of arboreal Y arms fell this summer, and some trees that lost their Y arms eventually die altogether, and end up like this:

The government reported Thursday that 4.4 percent of baby boomers ages 50 to 59 indicated that they had used illicit drugs in the past month. It marks the third consecutive yearly increase recorded for that age group by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Meanwhile, illicit drug use among young teens went down for the third consecutive year — from 11.6 percent in 2002 to 9.9 percent in 2005.

[from the Associated Press via the Houston Chronicle]

And Xer drug use was juuussst right?

(Technorati tags: generation gap, Boomers, Millenials, drug use)

Where is the intersection of "after midnight" and "hit-and-run"?

(Technorati tags: geek koan, dead gremlin)

(Technorati tags: catblogging, cats)

Gas prices are suddenly in freefall in my neighborhood... and everywhere, apparently.

Funny how $2.89 a gallon suddenly looks damn good.

We’ll see how long it lasts.

(Technorati tags: gas prices)

“They call me MISTER Chewbacca!”

Oh dear god, this is worse than Chewie not getting a medal at the end of A New Hope. I just saw an ad on TV for the new Star Wars DVDs that’ll be out next Tuesday -- these are the individual discs of each of the first three movies, which are actually each two discs containing the original theatrical releases and the CGI-abomination versions; and also the first three movies are actually the last three movies; there are whole new realms of thereoretical mathematics to be found in the Lucasian system of counting.

Anyway, this ad starts out all charming and sweet and family and hugs, Dad talking about how he grew up with these movies and how he loves sharing them with his kids, the tykes saying famous lines from the films, Mom enthusing about how she loves the music, and so on. And then, the adorable blond Nazi Hitler Youth moppet of a daughter says:

I’d love to have a Wookiee as a pet!

A Wookiee as a pet. These are intelligent, sensitive, noble, moral, sentient beings we’re talking about, but hey, if Little Miss Aryan wants one for a pet, who are we to stop her?

It astonishes me that in this day and age, humor and cuteness continues to be mined from casual specieism. I intend to notify the Wookiee Anti-Defamation League and the Intergalactic Association for the Advancement of Wookiees.

(Technorati tags: Star Wars, Wookiee)

This time a year ago, I ran down the geek/dork/nerdery of students, and now it’s the teachers’ turn: Here’s Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller’s teacher; Gabe Kaplan’s Mr. Kotter; and Stephen Colbert’s Mr. Noblet, from Strangers with Candy.

(Technorati tags: geek, dork, nerd, Annie Sullivan, Mr Kotter, Gabe Kaplan, Mr Noblet, Stephen Colbert, teachers)

"If I'm going to die," Steve Irwin said in a 2002 interview, according to the Associated Press, "at least I want it filmed."

Of course he did. He was a Generation Xer. That's what we do: wild, crazy, dangerous shit, and if possible, we get a friend of ours to videotape it. Irwin was lucky enough to make a career of it -- his only true Xer peer may have been crazy skateboarder Tony Hawk (the more ordinary crossgenerational craziness of NASCAR racing and pro football don't count), or maybe that professional jackass Johnny Knoxville -- which only means he was at the far end of the risk-taking, entrepreneurial bell curve of Xer behavior.

Geeks of all generations are getting in on the video action now, throwing up video tributes to Irwin that are proliferating at an astonishing rate -- and getting in on the entrepreneurial action, too -- but of course it would come down to an Xer, Chicago Tribune Internet and TV critic Steve Johnson, to be the first to question the instant deification of Irwin. We Xers are nothing if not our own harshest critics. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Seen in the parking lot at Worldcon, interesting bumper stickers:

And even more interesting cars in their entirety, such as the automobile painted by the artisans of Lascaux:

Blogger and science fiction author John Scalzi -- brand-new Campbell Award winner for Best New Writer at this year’s Hugo Awards -- has some nice things to say about my new book The Totally Geeky Guide to The Princess Bride. (John is a pal of mine from SF conventions, and I gave him a copy of the book at Worldcon.) He says, in part:

It's a funny and fast overview about the things people love about Princess Bride; it nods towards deeper themes in the film and mostly appraoches the film affectionately and fondly, looking at what it is that makes that film more than just a pleasant way to spend 90 minutes or so. Personally speaking, I'm not as geeky about The Princess Bride as Johanson is, but her enthusiasm for the film is catching, and a kick to read.

Lots of dogs were in attendance at Worldcon, and the Hilton hotel allowed pooches in certain rooms, so pets got in on the fun too.

This is Rocky, below, wearing a Gryffindor scarf. His person insisted he wasn’t really a dog but was actually lycanthropic Professor Lupin.

This is Cocoa, whom I met in the con suite. This was her first convention, and she was enjoying all the attention her extreme cuteness was bringing:

(Technorati tags: Worldcon, dogs, dogblogging)