You CAN be Nerdy/Geeky and Cool at the SAME time

Bill Gates. Filthy rich mofo. He lied, tricked and grinned his way to the pinnacle of pinnacles. Back when his competitors were still thinking in 8-bit terms his thoughts were in 128-bit. And guess what, he even dropped out of college. I mean, wow, dude! If I’d dropped out of college I would have ended up selling Portuguese egg tarts, fake Rolexes and savoury biscuits in Petaling Street. Yet, the only thing in common between me and Mr. Gates is this:

We are nerds.

We’re fascinated with things that make our lives simpler and more enjoyable. We are the reason why we have technology. While that may sound arrogant it is the truth. What the consumers want, we giveth. Nerds are so fascinated with the world that they forget the most important aspect that could alter their lives completely: that they’re actually a part of it too. Nerds are the people you want when your computer crashes. You want a nerd to tell you that your bank account has been terminated. You want a nerd to tell you that hey, your dog’s dead, I ran him over with my new radio-controlled Hummer. Why do you want a nerd for all the above you may ask? Simple! It’s because in the first case, you can shout at the nerd to hasten and repair your computer unless you want your boss all over your ass. Second case is that you can pound his sorry face with your bank book. And lastly, you can destroy his toy, trample on it and then trample him.

That was too much of me. I went overboard with the rhetoric and I sincerely apologise. But what I did was to illustrate that nerds help the world spin and are oft looked down. Why? Because it’s terribly easy to tease and mock them.

I am also a geek. I love computers even though I couldn’t be bothered with keeping up with the latest in technology these days, they end up being obsolete by the time I’m done reading the last paragraph anyway. I talk about Gundam from time to time and note how beautiful some of the models are. I gush over the latest McFarlane toys like a school kid seeing cleavage (hmm, I still do gush…).

And I still wear glasses when some of my contemporaries have gone the way of contacts (sounds kind of lame but I do love my Adidas glasses and I couldn’t be bothered with all the hassle wearing contacts entails). I wear dorky cargo pants when I go to the market. I couldn’t be bothered with making my hair stand so high as though I was aiming to skewer a lizard which decided to plummet unto my unintentional death-trap. Most of my working shirts are branded (cheap brands tend leave very tough stains) but always bought during sale. The only thing I’m willing to spend a lot is on footwear. There’s nothing like wearing a pair of good running shoes.

I am proud to be a nerd. But I also am a proud nerd that knows some bit of fashion and more often than when to put down the striped pink bicycle shorts. Nerds around the world, UNITE!

This is Chris, signing off.

PS: Nerdy girls are strangely attractive.

PPS: All right, I looked up the etymology of both Nerd and Geek and suffice it to say (I even looked this up) I'm going to add on a couple of things to the post, so, please check back again.* It's one of those things where you think you know but actually don't. TTFN.

* Thanks to Lia for pointing it out to me.

Addendum: After going through a research of sorts involving lots of Wikipedia's resources, I've come to the conclusion that a Nerd and a Geek are totally two different things. Personally, a nerd is someone who is really into something whereas a geek has a more practical approach to his hobbies. Of course, there are other factors to the equation but for the sake of simplicity, that's my take.

I sound like a dork now.
Have a great weekened, yo!