Pinpoint Exact Moments When You "Leveled" Your Geekocity

[Boba Rhett]

Can you recall moments in your life where the skies parted above you, great gusts of wind seemingly arose from the very ground you stood upon, you looked at your clenched fists and realized that you had just climbed up one more rung on the long and winding ladder to the rank of Uber-Nerd?

 

In simpler words: "You Might Be A Nerd If"

 

Please share your stories here!

 

 

 

- 1997. The year I rang in the new years by fishing in OoT for five hours straight.

 

- When going through a drive through I often order a sandwich with the "default" toppings.

 

- In bed one late night the brunt of the festering question, "Why didn't the eagles just fly the ring to Mordor?" finally struck me.

 

- The moment I was sitting at my desk working on a Field Programmable Gate Array and I realized a less cycle-intensive way of dividing binary numbers is a simple right shift of the digits I clasped my hands together and yelled, "BOOYEAH!"

 

- While in a used game store I heard two ten year olds talking over an old snes game. One of them was insisting that it was released in 1967. Now, normally I'm opposed to slapping children but... come on. That deserves at least a backhanding.

 

- A student was explaining some observed effects on a hall effect sensor when he attempted to use the word Hysteresis. It's hys·ter·e·sis. It is not hi·stare·ice·is.

 

- Again, another student was wiring an Analog to Digital converter and was very unhappy that it was only a 12 bit resolution, because he needed it better than that for his thermometer. Pretty much anything higher than 12 bit on a non-shielded circuit is giving you complete junk on the bottom 4 bits of resolution due to noise coming from circuits other components. My nerd rage knew no bounds that day, my friends.

 

Aaaaaaand that's all I've got for now. Your turn!

[Pho3nix]

- When I waited 12h for Episode III tickets back in 2005.

 

Those were the days.

[Jeff]

I watched all 6 Star Wars in one day. I was on top of the geek world!

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

• I designed the invitations for my prom and stayed home and played CS:S instead of going to the prom
   
  
• I started writing code with a paper and pencil when I wasn't around a computer
   
  
• I stopped needing to do the math to convert between binary and decimal and decimal and hex
   
  
• I've started conversations with my friends at school with 'Hey did you see that thread on /b/ last night?'
  

[stingerhs]

- when i installed Linux on my own computer.

 

- there was this time when i could fervently debate the ATI vs Nvidia from both sides. then, i got an ATI card and converted to that side only.

 

- the first time i won a Mac vs. PC debate while debating from the Mac standpoint.

 

- when i got a job as a computer salesman/repairman.

 

- there was this time when i was helping a friend shop for a computer, and a salesman tried to recommend a computer for gaming that had an integrated GPU. after promptly correcting the salesman, i pointed out a system that had a slower CPU (an Athlon 2600 vs a P4 3GHz model), but it had a very nice ATI Radeon 9700 Pro installed on it to compensate. thats when the salesman tried to argue with me even though i could tell that he didn't know what he was talking about. if i remember correctly, the only reason he was trying to sell that other compy to my friend was because it was a big bundle of some kind, and it consequently cost almost $400 more than the compy i was recommending.

 

- the day that i simultaneously installed Vista on six computers while upgrading someone's CPU to a faster model with a stuck heat sink (the heat sink had somehow, erm, attached itself to the CPU). that includes dealing with the various driver issues with each computer that was trying to get Vista installed on it, and since i have a method of removing most of the hardware before a Vista install and add them after the Vista install, it takes time to say the least.

 

- there was this one time when me and a couple of friends got a laptop and started driving around various neighborhoods in search of unsecured wireless access points. the idea was to pinpoint the houses with the unsecured wireless points and stick a note on the front door that offered to secure their wireless for a mere $25 per router. total profit was about $600. not bad for a weeks worth of work.

 

- skipping my senior prom to go to work and then play CS when i got home later that night. of course, my reasoning will always be, "why spend a couple hundred of dollars on a meaningless night when you can earn a hundred at a meaningless job and still have fun when its all over."

 

i could probably keep going for another couple hundred situations, but i'll just stop here instead.

[Ray Jones]

I stopped needing to do the math to convert between binary and decimal and decimal and hex.

Exactly.

 

Plus:

 

I sometimes catch myself reading and understanding bar codes, unintentionally.

 

Sometimes I am not sure how to interpret words like "feed", "dead" or "ah".

 

I "put" my actions into code lines and start to optimize them.

[Ztalker]

When I got my Gamecube right at the release, I played Rogue Squadron for 8 hours straight, only taking brakes for food, drinks and bathroom visits

[Negative Sun]

- When you refer to Star Wars as actual events that are deep and meaningful.

- When you fake an eye illness (omg I can't see!) as a child to be able to stay home and play Zelda all day!

- When you've asked your mum for Zelda on GameBoy for your birthday, you wake up at about 6am on that day, open your present, surprise it's Zelda! And you start playing it until your parents get up and go: "Dude, wtf?"

- When you get pissed of at people calling the Turtles "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" instead of Ninja Turtles...

- When you quote random Star Wars stuff at the most inappropriate times.

- When you say:"My glasses! OMG I Can't see without my glasses!"

- When you can explain to someone what RAM and ROM stand for.

[tk102]

You guys aren't very exact.

 

Geek this:

June 22, 2006. Created a WinXP Portable Environment on my thumbdrive following these instructions.

 

April 14, 2004. Built my first "solar speeder" from a Solarbotics kit.

 

August 9, 2004. My neighbor is out working in his yard and says "Hey, how's it going. Did you do anything this weekend?" I answered, "I wrote a freeware application." "Oh..."

[Boba Rhett]

Wow, that's a cool little robot! What's the output of the cell on it? I wonder if you could throw a 2x3 ~3V-5V cell on there and maybe strap on some tiny 3V DC motors and really get that little guy moving.

 

 

- April 2nd 2007. Suggested modding solar robot to make it wicked fast.

 

- ~March 25th 2006. Assembled a Boe Bot Kit. His name is Davey and I'm modding him so he'll find magnets for me.

 

- ~Age 11. Assembled my first lightsaber, collapsible and all, out of Knex.

[Aash Li]

I learned the Russian alphabet as a kid, and since then, when reading russian (or rather reading the letters), Ill catch myself writing in russian letters afterwards.

 

I started learning Japanese simply so I could watch anime without subtitles.

 

I taught myself html and a bit of css be altering code from other sites to use on mine.

 

I installed linux on my computer... reformated to windows, reformatted to linux... gave up and went back to windows (need gaming ability xP)

 

I built my own computer from spare parts.

 

I modded my computer - its just pink and black with some internal lighted wiring.

 

Im a gamer-girl. ^_^

[HerbieZ]

I remember having a core-geek day watching Star Treks 2, 3 and 4 then recording myself doing Shatner impersonations and various other members of the Enterprise crew spouting technobabble from my Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual for the better part of an hour. Three months later, someone found my tape. I have not left my room since.

[Bimmerman]

-When I waited in line for a good fourteen hours for the Xbox 360 on its launch day.

 

-When I can quote and recognize movies with litte or no provocation

 

-I did NaNoWriMo just for kicks

 

-I reverse engineered a BMW engine in CAD and animated everything on it.

 

-I realized I know more about cars on sale than the salespeople and marketers.

 

-I recognize make, model, engine size, number of cylinders, redline, horsepower at rpm, torque at rpm, car weight, and skidpad g's pulled simply by seeing a car driving or hearing it.

 

-I bought a driving wheel for my comp with a gated six-speed shifter and a clutch pedal because I got sick of only having two pedals

 

-When my friends come to me for car purchase recommendations.

 

-My roommate pointed out I had just filleted my ice cream(no, not like a fish)

 

-When I watched an entire season of Buffy on dvd in 24 hours. Don't do it!

 

-You know you're an engi-nerd when you see a physical object and try to figure how to model it in CAD.

 

That's all I can think of right now....

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

I "put" my actions into code lines and start to optimize them.

What like 'void eat_bagel(int nType, int nCreamCheese);'?

[Bob Lion54]

-When I watched an entire season of Buffy on dvd in 24 hours. Don't do it!

I've done the same thing... not recommended. I believe it was Season 3... its been a while though.

 

I also watched the entire Firefly series in one day. Its not as bad because it was only 14 episodes, but... yea. The really sad part was, after the final episode, I wanted more! heh, I ran to Best Buy and bought Serenity which I watched upon my return home. (I paused only long enough to order pizza.)

 

Onetime when I went to McDonald's drive through, I gave my order and the lady read it back to me. Without thinking I replied "10-4." (hehe, I worked as a dispatcher at the time, but I still think it counts.)

 

I got pulled over once for speeding. See, it wasn't really my fault... I happened to be listening to "Danger Zone."

[Achilles]

-Spring 1994: HS English teacher asked if anyone in the class knew what a muse was. I absently raised my hand then looked around to see who else had done so. Apparently only me. I correctly answered the question while the teach stared dumbfounded at me then said, "In all the years I've been teaching, you're the first person to ever answer that question".

 

-Summer 1997: Offered several corrections to my instructor during a college course on mythology.

 

-Spring 1998: Raised my hand after my conceptual physics professor asked if anyone could explain how a black hole is formed. I rattled off the process while he stared at me dumbfounded. His reply: "Well....uh....that was, uh, a little more answer than I was looking for, but very good"

 

-Summer 1998: Memorized all the PLUs for my employer's POS computers. Sadly, I haven't worked there in 7 years and that company hasn't had that system for 8 years, however I still remember most of the PLUs

 

-2003: Explained to parents the difference between 32-bit processing and 64-bit processing using dishwashing as a analogy.

 

-2005: Purchased 22-inch CRT monitor.

 

-2006: First LotR - Extended Edition marathon. Followed a few months later by the Second one.

 

I'm sure there are other juicy morsels, but they don't spring to mind at the moment.

[Commander Obi-Wan]

-2006: First LotR - Extended Edition marathon. Followed a few months later by the Second one.

 

Damn, you're my hero. I've yet to do that. I've always wanted to, but I've never had the time. Must try that soon.

[Achilles]

Next time you have 11 1/2 hours to kill and a surplus of adult diapers, you'll know what to do

[Darth InSidious]

Aside from modding and writing (bad) fanfics, I don't have the time, the inclination, or the organisational skill required to catalogue 'geeky' things in my life. It really doesn't bother me that much, TBH, but I suppose starting write fanfics, starting to post on here and learning to mod both count as 'turning-points' in this regard...

[Point Man]

May 1983: Went to a Boy Scout Camporee instead of my junior prom.

 

June 1984: Went to my high school graduation party listening to the Alan Parsons Project and carrying Dr. Pepper.

 

June 1986: Invited a girl over to my apartment to make cookies and we actually made cookies.

 

July 1986: While driving through southeastern Kansas to go see Man of La Mancha performed in Wichita, Kansas, my friends and I started singing the soundtrack to Chess in the voices of whatever farm animals we happened to pass.

 

December 1988: Came up with a pun for "magnolia."

 

April 1989: Wrote my first sonnet.

 

February 2005: Learned how to upgrade my computer's graphics card because it could not play my Incredibles game.

 

June 2005: Flew out to New York to audition for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

 

July 2005: My first all-nighter finishing up KotOR.

 

February 2006: Cheated to increase my score on the geek test.

[Jeff]

January 29, 2005. Joined Lucasforums.

[Jae Onasi]

1970-something--Played 'Haunted House' and 'Cat and Mouse' on the Magnavox Odyssey with my dad.

1974--while watching Wizard of Oz, decided tornadoes were really cool.

1976--decided to be either a paleontologist or a meteorologist. Wrote a fan letter to a local TV meteorologist (who took the time to answer back. I still have the letter.).

Played PONG on my aunt's PONG console.

1977--saw Star Wars, and have seen every SW movie since. Read Revelation in my Bible and decided it was very cool.

1978--learned shark skeletons are made out of cartilage

1980--saw Empire

1982--took Basic and programmed a little game for a TRS-80. Used up enough memory that my classmate couldn't put his game in, and he was mad he couldn't break my password (CloneWars). Wrote a term paper in physics on tornadoes.

1983--saw Return of the Jedi on release day. Learned Fortran. Wrote a Battle of the Planets fanfic. Beat my dad at Trivial Pursuit by remembering that shark skeletons are made out of cartilage. Had serious discussions with high school friends on what color Luke's lightsaber would be and who Yoda meant by 'no, there is another' prior to RotJ release.

1984--wrote an instructional manual on How to Have a Pillow Fight.

1986--learned to play D&D with my college buddies. Joined a history re-enactment group.

1987--watched the pilot episode of ST:TNG

1988--met a guy in the history re-enactment group who liked puns.

1989--decided to go on a date with the guy from the history re-enactment group who liked puns.

1990--married the guy from the history re-enactment group who liked puns. Received my first service award in the history re-enactment group, thus becoming a Lady. Graduated college with 196 semester hours. Decided to learn Arabic just for fun.

1991--studied history of medicine. Then decided I really wanted to do something medical and decided to become a doctor instead.

1993--watched the pilot of ST: DS9

1995--Watched the pilot of ST: Voyager. Graduated after 11 years of undergrad, grad, and professional school. Was introduced to MST:3k by Jimbo. Got a 'real' job.

1996--learned archery

1998--learned fencing

2001--began helping a friend revise a 70 page policy manual on the first aid corps in our history re-enactment group and actually thought this was fun, and became his emergency deputy as international medical director.

2003--got the highest service award in our history re-enactment group, because yes, I really am insane enough to do that much work.

2004--apparently was not insane enough, so decided to follow in my friend's footsteps and become the international medical director when he retired. Received Kotor for Christmas and went nuts playing it.

2005--pre-bought TSL. Picked it up release day. Played it for way too many hours. Joined LF and learned what 1337, teh, and WTF mean. Discovered mods and the fact that they do not blow up either the game or the computer.

2006--decided to write a Jolee fanfic. Was stunned that people actually liked reading it. Decided that Writing is Fun. Learned how to re-color those damn red shoes that Exile wears at the beginning of the game. Picked up a Nemesis. Decided my life wasn't crazy enough so accepted the mod post in CEC and later SWK.

2007--Spent way too much time playing NWN2 and VtM:B. Decided my life really wasn't crazy enough, so accepted the s-mod post. Learned how to Skype. Had a conversation on Skype _and_ my cell phone at the same time at one point.

[Prime]

When I dressed my daughter up for Halloween like this:

 

[Ray Jones]

What like 'void eat_bagel(int nType, int nCreamCheese);'?

Almost. But for a more practical aspect I prefer BASH and avoid the need to compile ****:

 

#!/bin/bash

dig_chick () {
[...]
}  

eat_bagel () {
[...]
   dig_chick selling_bagels
}  

while test "$1" != ""
do
   case $1 in
   eat_bagel=turkey_wcream) eat_bagel turkey wcream;;
   *) echo Huh?; dig_chick random;;
   esac
   shift
done

 

Like that.

[Rogue15]

ah,

 

1: when i learned how to make levels for jedi knight and mysteries of the sith....JED forever!!!!! that's the most geeky thing i ever did, but it was soooooo fun!!!