TOP TEN SIGNS I AM A SECRET DORK
Goddamit, I am a dork and proud of it! I think doing geeky things is a sign of being comfortable in your own skin and not being ashamed of who you are. Long live the dorks!
1) I really like chess. I have read books on it. I know the phrase 'Ruy Lopez opening'. I can name more than two grand-masters.
2) I have met people 'IRL' that I knew off the internet (well, two).
3) I have a blog. I will often use dictionary.com to look up words I can't spell. I am pedantic about apostrophes.
4) I like to listen to the director's commentaries.
5) I have knitted an entire scarf. I knitted in public places and had a quota of rows I had to knit every day.
6) I make up elaborate season draws for my netball team and print them on coloured paper and put personalised stickers on them. I even look up new and exciting fonts to use. I love downloading fonts.
7) I enjoy bowling (lawn and ten-pin) and maths puzzles (like Sudoku).
8) I think a night at home with friends playing Trivial Pursuits is more fun to going to the pub.
9) I enjoy stationery. I have a whole mini-drawer-stack full of stationery (one drawer for pens, one for felts and one for miscellaneous).
10) I like watching spelling bees on TV. And shows on ball-room dancing.
11) I don't like the hip-hop. But I do like folk music and karaoke!
I know you all have your own.....
Ange: you wear long johns to bed and read cook-books for fun
Cass: you love the royal family and collect Simpson's figurines
Sam: I just need one word for you - 'aeroplanes'
Fish: you have too many to even start (maths geek and choir girl!)
Cass's brother: you had a blog before they were 'cool' and you like cartoons
Morgue: you are the king of the role players
Damon: you get pleasure out of geek-language
Chiphead: Ponytail and acrophobia playing
Svend: more bookshelves than wall-space (in a loose categorical arrangement, starting with science fiction)
These are things I love about you all :)
12 comments:
I have covered some of mine in my blog....
I may deign to reveal more.
My top 10 'Dork' List
1] I cringe at people's inappropriate use of typefaces. I know sad, but 'comics sans' is not a body type, its not even a san serif typeface god damn it, its a script font! Fuckin' typical Microsoft for creating the bastard of all fonts. I'm not the only one to feel this - check out www.bancomicsans.com. Note that you will never find comic sans used in a comic either. Comic artists have more integrity. The only thing 'comical' about it, is that it is even considered a typeface. Trust me, I could keep going on about this....
2] I bought the whole catalogue of the old Transformers series on DVD. I probably buy at least one DVD a week and go out of my way to order DVD's [and books] from overseas.
3] I would rather stay at home by myself than go out because I can't stand most people I encounter when they drink [or at times, those who don't drink]. My sister worries about my social ineptness, because she is the complete opposite and able to make friends at the drop of a hat.
4] I am addicted to most reality television - favourites would be Big Brother, Amazing Race, Rockstar, Survivor, project Runway and America's Next Top Model. I find group photos from each and cross them off as they get eliminated. As a side not I also circle everything in the the TV Guide at the beginning of the week that I intend to watch.
5] I collect vinyl figurines and have books on them and character design. I also collect in-adventure comics. Most people would term these 'graphic novels' which is a term despised by most comic artists - but basically those which are autobiographical and do not feature superheroes or aliens. I also have a few novelty lunch boxes. Wow what a chick magnet!
6] My thesis is on the design of the contemporary comic book page with a whole chapter dedicated to the use of typography
7] I have organized all my bookmark in my Safari browser [Mac browser] into detailed categories. I have over 500 pages bookmarked
8] I lose interest In things that I like once they become mainstream popular. I think though I'm good at finding cool things well before most people, even years before. My sisters can recount to you those things that I have discovered. I often become interested in things again, once the popularity dies down. I also become interested, and study up on things people I know like, just so I have something to talk to them about. [Often my interest in things could be describe more accurately as short-term obsessions]
8] I can quote some movies and TV episodes word-for-word, including Star Wars, Napolean Dynamite, Office Space and the entire Family Guy catalogue.
9] I did Art History and Theory to Post Graduate level but don't like going to Art Galleries
10] I spend heaps of time updating my blog [which I made for my 3rd year Design group], even though nobody else reads it.
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Some other things which perhaps don't qualify....
* Most of the music I listen to is hated by most people I know.
*I don't have a drivers license because I have no desire to drive or own a car. Most think I'm crazy because of it including my sister again. Is this dorky? Oh, the only reason why I have a cellphone also is because my sister gave me her old one.
I refuse to jump on the text messaging revolution and get fucked off at people who would rather play on their phones than talk to me. Perhaps this is more bitter than dorky?
"I am pedantic about apostrophes."
"Cass: you (...) collect Simpson's figurines"
Right.
Hmmm....The Simpsons. True. You are more pedantic and dorky than me, Chip. But I already knew that.
Hmmm, yes, Cassie's little brother is a dork too :)
Me and Ange like reality TV. We would sit in my room actually physically holding the antenae of my TV in a certain position so we could watch Big Brother one year (the series with Bree).
My old flat also printed out the faces of all the contestants, had a lottery so that we chose a third of the contestants each.... and then crossed people's faces out as they were eliminated. I won. By a lot (three of the final four were in my 'house').
The losers were supposed to go to the local video store (where they knew us by name) and get out pornos in their pjamas. They never did though. Losers.
I like typefaces too (is that the fancy word for 'fonts' these days?). You like them a lot. You should come and do our school magazine for me because I know nothing :) I agree with your comic-sans hatred, though for less technical reasons.
Cassie used to be the ultimate social butterfly. I think being with Anthony is making her much more domestic :) I haven't got drunk with her in aaages.
My geeky things include:
I have sung in the same church choir since I was about 9. What's more, I enjoy singing the old fashioned stuff. We have a 9am service with guitars and modern music, but I still prefer psalms with chants and the classic hymns and 16th/17th century choral works
I play the clarinet, and at High School, I was in the 'Wind Band'. We played such classics as Watermelon Man, The Muppet Show Theme, and the theme from The Sweeney.
Speaking of The Muppet Show, I own Season 1 on DVD. I watched it all over about 3 days. With the commentary pop-ups.
I enjoy crosswords, IQ puzzles, logic puzzles and sudoku.
I have a collection of four Monty Python DVDs.
I am also a pedant when it comes to grammar and apostrophies. I am THE fussy report bitch. My Form Teachers dread me proofreading their reports.
I used to do cross-stitch for fun.
As I kid I had almost no free time. I used to learn ballet, did gym for a couple of years, was a member of the Hutt Swimming Club, went to Army Cadets, did Saturday music lessons, and was a Brownie, Guide and Venturer. I was far too busy to be cool.
Incidentally, I quite like comic sans and I use it on Maths worksheets all the time. What exactly is wrong with it?
Quoting from www.bancomicsans.com:
"Like the tone of a spoken voice, the characteristics of a typeface convey meaning. The design of the typeface is, in itself, its voice. Often this voice speaks louder than the text itself. Thus when designing a "Do Not Enter" sign the use of a heavy-stroked, attention-commanding font such as Impact or Arial Black is appropriate. Typesetting such a message in Comic Sans would be ludicrous. Though this is sort of misuse is frequent, it is unjustified. Clearly, Comic Sans as a voice conveys silliness, childish naivete, irreverence, and is far too casual for such a purpose. It is analogous to showing up for a black tie event in a clown costume."
Thus, I think comic-sans WOULD be appropriate for a maths worksheet. It disguises maths and makes it look childish and fun, tricky weary students in reading the work and then doing it..... In theory.
I am using a lot of arial these days, and arial narrow when I am trying not to spill onto two pages (photocopying ain't cheap).
Little bro, you wonder why I worry about you??? Hard core geek, but its all good I still love you :) He has introduced me to many a new band.Judge I invited you out with me and Ed last night on the turps for the rugby...you went home...whos the domestic one??? Lets have a drunken night next week...Im keen!
Why I am a geek/dork...ummm I collect a lot of things - stickers, royal family articles, erasers, teaspoons, small figurines (including The Simpsons the list could go on. Im a hoarder. Anthony also calls me a dork many a time - I have learnt that I dont have much of an internal dialogue and talk to myself out loud. I make a lot of stupid noises to describe motions and always imitate handbrakes when the car stops - yes Im also nuts...Ill stop there!
You collect royal family ARTICLES? Hard core.
Yes, you did invite me out... but I was already in town, dresses dorkily 'cause I'd been at Matt's (after a couple of months who still makes an effort???). I had my rain-jacket with me. I did not look fit to go into bars and clubs.
I went home by myself and had a shower and .... that was about it. Ange rang me up at midnight to discuss 'things'. I was a Saturday-night-dork! My boyfriend was playing Risk with his buddies. He was a Saturday-night-dork too, though they might have been drunk or something.
I can't think of ten things.
1. I make models. I'm not terrible at it. Not great either, but not terrible.
2. Seriously. I have just submitted a 'How I did it' article to a modelling website.
3. I actively contribute to an aviation forum, hopefully knowledgeably. It's linked on my blog. See if you can guess my identity if you dare.
4. Airshow photography is a hobby for me.
5. I have been known to travel great distances to attend an airshow (even overseas).
6. I read a 90-10% ratio of non-fiction to fiction.
7. I buy non fiction books with titles like "Lockheed SR-71: The secret missions exposed", and "The history of New Zealand Architecture". And I read them.
8. I'll trivial pursuit with you anywhere anytime. I outscored a 'Mastermind' contestant in his specialist subject when I was 14.
9. I spend more on CD's and magazines than I do on clothes.
10.
Told you I couldn't think of ten.
I'm a little behind, thanks to the Film Festival, but:
(1) My Film Festival marathon. I may not read Camus or have a goatee, but dammit, I can watch pretentious art-house films with the best of them.
(2) Really, really, really long emails. Both at work, and personal.
(3) Books; more books than I have time to read, about late 20th-century boat-building, the origins of industrial organic chemisty, and linguistics, as well as a fair amount of genre fiction (detective, murder mystery, F&SF, etc).
(4) I work in I.T. Nuff said.
(5) I enjoy terrible, terrible pun-based joked.
(6) Writing comedy musical numbers for a group I've never met; filking is probably the lowest form of composition. :)
(7) Roleplaying.
(8) Getting interested in roleplaying theory -- the different stances one can take (Actor, Director, Pawn, etc), how different people are more interested in the colour of the world or the mechanics of the system, how movie and television writing theory can inform roleplaying, the design of "indie" games and the hidden assumptions of traditional designs...
(9) Describing an aspect of a programming language as "really quite cool".
(10) Reading other people's course materials for fun, just because it looks interesting. (After all, it's a lot easier when you know you'll never be tested on the stuff.)
It would be very easy to continue... it's a good thing you limited this to ten.
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