nerd moon

I'm not sure why some people prefer the designation of "geek" versus "nerd." It's like the difference between being a "Trekkie" and a "Trekker" - the only people who care to argue about the complex differences are all watching the same episodes as Captain Kirk/Picard/Janeway do their best to implement the "main directive."

Which renders the argument moot.

Actually, and I'm not saying this to escape the moniker, but the truth is that I've always lived on the periphery of geekdom. I am the moon that orbits around the planet of Nerd. I speak geek....but, with a discernible accent.


It probably started in high school, where my circle of friends were nearly all honor students. I only took one honors class in four years and I got through it by the skin of my teeth. One of my classmates would helpfully calculate how low I could score on that day's quiz/test/assignment and still make a passing grade. For the first time in my life, I was the very bottom of the bell curve. Still, out of all my time spent in high school, it was in this class that I first embraced my place on the strata.

Senior Year. Honors Biology. I love science! Especially the earthier ones where I didn't have to work out too many math problems. Physics? Hated it. Biology rocked. But this class? To this day I don't know if I was just psyching myself out - that I had finally gotten myself into the Honors Program - or if I just wasn't applying myself enough. Either way, I had a hard time in Mr. Lake's class.

Freshman year, I crapped out in my first semester of Algebra and I was nearly failing...it's like my teacher was speaking Greek to me. But, when she had to take a personal leave for several months, we got a new teacher. Suddenly, all the problems made sense. And by the end of the quarter, I was up to a high C and by the end of the year I was scrapping up against a low A. Me, 1, Teacher Who Sucks At Teaching, 0.

On the flipside, Mr. Lake was a really good teacher. Period. So, I knew this was a different root problem. That it was something about me, about my brain, my comprehension of the material. I couldn't figure out why I was crashing so badly in his class, when I was maintaining an A-B average in my other classes.

I took the bull by the horns and approached him after class. I wasn't crying or anything, I was just completely befuddled and frustrated.

Mr. Lake, a sweet, but extremely short-statured man (who was probably not much older than I am now) turned to me and said words that impacted me almost immediately, and probably steered much of how I viewed my progress throughout my college years and beyond.

"Would you rather be the smartest kid in the dumbest class, or the dumbest kid in the smartest class?

Which is what you are."

It was literally the "light bulb" moment.

I was the dumbest kid in the smartest class. The mere idea of the reverse sounded like a fate near to hell. Who would want to be King of the Idiots? I would spend the rest of my life surrounding myself with people who were smarter or more skilled than I was in just about every facet of my world. I've always been of the mind that the only way you challenge yourself is to learn from folks who are more deft at whatever subject you are working in.

That you raise your game around smarter people. That you learn both from them and in an effort to keep up with them.

Also, wearing glasses helps.

Once again, I was reminded about this yesterday at Quiz Night. Every now and then, there is theme to a category, which, if you figure it out can help you solve other questions you're unsure of in the round. One time, all the song titles in the music round had cities in their name. (Tulsa Time, NutBush City Limits, London Calling, etc.)

Last night, when it was known that there was a theme, after a couple songs, (Take On Me, Walk Like An Egyptian, Come On Eileen), one of our team members proclaimed, "I know the theme! All the titles are command statements!"

I turned to my sister, who's visiting and joined us for the night and said, "I told you we are the geek team."

Of course, the theme was the much less cerebral, "80's Hits!"

Although, up until our team divided into two factions over the fifth song - SuperFreak vs. U Can't Touch This - I was onboard with the "command theme." The correct answer was SuperFreak and as much as one might argue the point, SuperFreak is not a command. Fortunately, saner minds prevailed and we got a perfect (double) score that round. Unfortunately, we got killed in both the Sports and Geography/History round and ultimately came in 2nd. Again.


Hmmm...maybe that's why I don't get too riled when we finish second to...ahem, the number one Quizzo team in the country. Team DSP has taken a lot of time off - we've only gone a handful of times since June - and are currently tied for 5th place nationally.

Don't get me wrong. I want to beat them. Every game. In fact, it's no small victory that we won the revered "t-shirt" round last night. (We got the most questions right in that round out of the 12 teams playing.)

I find that playing against a smart team is what makes me a hungrier player. Makes me read just one more news article or listen to a few more minutes of NPR or read some weird "did you know" fact off a beer bottle.

Smart people make me raise my game. Because of smart people, I've read more, learned more and have remained open to more experiences. That's why I like hanging out with smart people. Smart people are the reason why, at my age, I'm still looking shit up so I can keep up.

The thing is, I'll never be a true geek. I will never look at two disparate objects and say, hey, if you put these together they equal [insert awesome discovery which helps to lessen the burden of humanity - like washing your hands with soap or creating a coalition of NerdFighters.] But, I do have the ability to keep my head above water with geek talk on the whole.

All I'm saying is that, I know where and when to throw down with a Schrödinger's Cat reference.

Being the dumbest kid in the smartest class?

It's working out pretty good.