We are all nerds now

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Just out of curiosity... what's a Dren?

And to be honest... I notice a guy's looks first, but if he's none too smart... he's out of there. He's also got to be funny.

Fea

[Everdawn]

Ive never copped anything for liking Tolkien, my friends think its cool and we all have our own things.

What i have come across in the terms of "Nerd" are the guys who do nothing but leave the computer rooms at school and if you try to talk to them they are really nasty to you. There are some people who spend a lot of time at the computers, but they are nice, so the nerds are the nasty ones.

I started reading Tolkien becuase everyone else was reading Harry Potter, i am always wanting to be an individual, then everyone started reading Tolkien (good for him, but bad news for me, becuase my individuality was gone) so i started delving myself into the history.

It was really entertaining when i went and say ROTK with my friend Bekki, who i had to explain everything to and now she is obsessed with the Kings of Numenor. She was like "how do you know so much?" and i said. "I have the 'downs, i learn from people."

I reffer to 'our kind' as Fans not Nerds. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

[Orominuialwen]

Personally, I'm rather proud of my geekiness. I've never really fit in with people my own age. It's not so much that lots of people hate me, I just feel like people don't really want me around. But that's okay. I have 3 good friends my age, and I get along much better with adults than those my own age. I have one firend who's 18 years older than I am (she also has the same birthday as JRRT - I'm so jealous!). I find that if people dislike me because I'm into music that was cool when my parents were kids, or I dress differently than they do, or I have very different politics than almost everybody where I live, or I'm constantly talking about LotR, it's really their problem, not mine. I think my vocabulary of elvish insults helps, though! [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] I really think I have more friends here on the 'Downs than in "real life." Nobody's really mean or judgemental here. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[Em]

I really agree with you, i only know ONE person at my school who is a TRUE fan of lotr so when i found this site i was so relieved, i finally fit in somewhere. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[Annalaliath]

I got the coolest pin today, it says geek. I added this to my LOTR pins on my coat. Now I need to put my Zelda patch on it and it will be my official geek coat.

I also seem to spend alot of time at the animation staion in the mall and I am almost about to beat the Hobbit game. And it has taken my mother and me 3 days to halfway complete a Hobbit puzzle......

I am a Geek, or nerd which ever one.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 9:49 PM December 31, 2003: Message edited by: Annalaliath ]

[Finwe]

You might be a geek. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] Don't worry, I spent three hours playing LotR Trivial Pursuit with myself, the day that I got it. It didn't really help my bad habit of talking to myself. Now THAT is geeky!

[Em]

Whenever my mum catches me talking to my self she says that i'm not really talking to myself! (now thats something to get you thinking about!!!) Plus anytime you think you are a nred(geek, which ever) don't! we are the educated, intelectual people of society, and all of our critics will be working in our huge mansions, scrbbing toilets. if they are lucky and you are kind enough!!! [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img]

[Annalaliath]

Hey my Bible study involves transalting it to Elvish. It takes weeks just for two or three verses. Fun though. my problem is the fact I can't find my thesorus. And I am not the best at reading the Bilbe to begin with. I Guess this is a good way of conferming Geekyness and actually doing what I should have been doing for years..... Any other BDers out there who are christians interested... PM me... but anyway, I think this is like a christian trecky doing the same thing with clingon(SP?)....

[Lush]

One may object to stereotyping, labeling, put-downs, etc. One can even refuse to engage in the activities as payback to those who mistreat or mis-label or any-label them. That, however, will not keep others from labeling you. Get used to it.

One can learn to live with these things, but to stop protesting them? Never. This is why I go to the library in a mini.

I, for one, am intrigued by Lush's term 'vapid' and hereby label everyone else on this thread as VAPID. There is a label that will never die in my book!

Oh, but I didn't invent it.

And Lush, you are right, in that The Intelligent go for looks--if they can get them.

I, for one, go for looks because I don't want my future children to curse me for polluting my bloodline and leaving them without the advantages that good looks have to offer. Though the initial screening usually hints at great disappointment ahead, and in this, I have rallied my mind to go to war with biology. Hardy har har.

(Then again, Sartre was painful to look at, and we can't even begin to count all the women he got, nevermind his great contributions to world culture.)

And, speaking totally hypothetically, if I was interested in you, I would be looking at your bookshelf, and if I didn't find the right stuff there, I would quickly drop you as VAPID. (Regardless of my opinion of your good looks.)

Well, there's the LotR and Bible, but then again there's The Delta of Venus and my friends Nabokov and Joyce (both of whom were once banned for being scandalous).

Sometimes a glance at my bookshelf confuses people. This is when I tell them to drop their silly stereotypes (if only we could do that as easily as, say, dropping our pants).

Mine is a foolishly idealistic quest, but at the very least, it grants me an aura of moral superiority and I recommend it highly to every thinking person, including all the members of this board, who have all, at one time or another, felt that they were being judged on sadly superficial terms. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 7:07 PM January 02, 2004: Message edited by: Lush ]

[Eruantalon]

hummm vary interesting topic....all I have to say is.


Measure me by my heart not your ideas of me. Becuse your ideas can lie.

[Dininziliel]

When TT opened, I was there at the first showing in the long line waiting to be let into the theatre. Since it was a week night, and since none of my good movie buddies are Tolkien fans, I was alone. The question of where to sit became moot as we all simply flowed into the theatre as one. I found myself sitting next to young boys of about 15. (I say "young" because I am 50.) "Is it okay if I sit here?" I asked, thinking they might cringe at the thought of sitting next to an "old lady." The reply was, "No, milady. Pray thee, have a seat." Charmed, I sat down and felt rather optimistic about my movie companions. "Are you here because you like the movies or the books?" I asked. "Milady, we are Tolkien geeks in every sense of the word." 'Nuff said, I thought (using my previous Marvel vernacular). We proceeded to watch TT and exchanged comments every so often--"Oh no!!! I can't believe it! Why did they . . .?" "Wow! they really nailed that scene down!" "Oh, they DID put that scene in the movie. Good!" and so on.

Since leaving the theatre that night, I've had many occasions to say to people, "I'm a Tolkien geek." And I was, and am, proud. Only I don't say it so much anymore because there were some looks of pity and, as most of you know, when you get looks of pity for being enthused about all things Tolkien, there's no point in explaining.

[the phantom]

I thnk the real question which impinges on the minds of many here is whether the Tolkienism of ourselves is offputting to the opposite sex.

Not that I've noticed in my personal experience. Sometimes it's been the exact opposite but I guess it ultimately depends on which crowd of the opposite sex you hang out with.

And, speaking totally hypothetically, if I was interested in you, I would be looking at your bookshelf, and if I didn't find the right stuff there, I would quickly drop you as VAPID.

I understand what you're saying but I would want more than just a "look" at her bookshelf. For example if I didn't see any fantasy or sci-fi I would ask her why that was. If she responded with some comment like "I think that stuff is stupid, it's not real life" or "I can never get into that stuff" that is when I'd bid her a hasty goodbye, better luck next time.

I, for one, go for looks because I don't want my future children to curse me for polluting my bloodline and leaving them without the advantages that good looks have to offer.

Same here! (but I'm also looking for height, 5'9" isn't terrible but I'd like to be taller but since I can't make myself taller the next best thing is to make sure my son is taller, it's not a must, but preferable)

But the geek part is a must. She doesn't have to be super geeky or even considered to be a geek, but she needs to at least be geeky enough to understand my geeky side and have intriguing interests unlike those vapid people who do nothing but go to clubs.

[Theron Bugtussle]

Originally posted by Lush
One can learn to live with these things, but to stop protesting them? Never. This is why I go to the library in a mini.

Mini:

• Van?
• Skirt?
• Cooper?
• Mood?
• Bus?

Oh, but I didn't invent it ["vapid"].

Well, duh, but I like it. It fits the stereotyping mold, but still sounds highbrow.

Sometimes a glance at my bookshelf confuses people. This is when I tell them to drop their silly stereotypes.

...and...

Originally posted by the phantom
I understand what you're saying but I would want more than just a "look" at her bookshelf. For example if I didn't see any fantasy or sci-fi I would ask her why that was. If she responded with some comment like "I think that stuff is stupid, it's not real life" or "I can never get into that stuff" that is when I'd bid her a hasty goodbye, better luck next time.

Well, okay, what is agreed is that a 'look' at the subject's bookshelf isn't enough. That gets a discussion started, and that is of prime importance to find out if this is a worthwhile companion material.

Originally posted by Lush
...have all... felt that they were being judged on sadly superficial terms.

Although, if your occasional results are positive, it can be okay to be judged on happily superficial terms.

[Thulorongil]

Wow, Feanor, I'm sorry! I was just checking back on this thread I really enjoyed, and I realized I never defined Dren for the world. My friends and I decided we needed a name for all those people in the world that had a problem with us being ourselves, or nerds. So with a little creative spark, we reversed the word Nerd and came up with a perfectly suitable solution. (It was either that or "keeg" which just sounds dumb.)

That's another example of going out against the Drens. Our little group's name (the UNGG; see above) that came out of too much sugar and annoyance with drens in our bloodstream has stuck since the sixth grade. Now in the midst of high school, there's still drens, but we like to laugh at the truly stupid things they do. I've said before that it's simply a compliment to be called a nerd. I wonder what life must be like for the people I meet who'd be embarassed to go to the Renaissance Festival in full period-garb or would sneer at the idea of studying elvish or--gasp!--READING in their spare time. Well, I know one thing: they wouldn't be caught dead here!

Too bad for them.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

No problem, Thu, I'd forgotten about my dren query anyhow. Although, to reflect... I'm amazed that I didn't figure out 'dren' myself, being such a nerdy fan of word games.

And I've come to the conclusion that nerdity is in the eye of the beholder. Just this morning I had somebody tell me that my brother is "wicked cool". My brother is an active member here, also a member of a few G.I. Joe and other such forums. He's a Legend of Zelda enthusiest (as am I), he plays Magic (as I am soon to learn), and he writes comics books. He's also brilliant. To me, he's cool (not that I'd admit it to him), but he's also a big nerd (and truly proud to admit it). Like I said... nerdity is in the eye of the beholder.

Fea

PS- and Thu: my friends and I have our own names for people like drens. It's not nearly as nice.

[Saraphim]

Alas, my lack of employment makes it impossble for me to wear full period costumes to the said Renaissance Festival. I must be content to wear my Barrow-Downs shirt, and advertise to would-be Downers.

I recently was called a nerd by a friend who is one herself. I told her that I liked to copy notes in World History, and the rest is...well...history.

[One Axe to Rule them All]

Maybe you're the crazy ones.....

Seriously, I'm proud of my nerdiness, and I'm sure there's a godly nerdy woman out there in the world somewhere waiting just for me....

(Hey, I can dream, can't I?)

[Lush]

I'm back in Kiev right now, and most Tolkien fans you usually meet here are incredibly hot, intelligent, educated women that wear extremely nice shoes. Also, boys that would be cute if their haircuts weren't awful.

So go figure.

[One Axe to Rule them All]

Hold up a second. Hot, intelligent, educated, Tolkienite FEMALES?!?!(with nice shoes to boot?)

Where is this heavenly place, for my eyes so long to see it....

[Lush]

Like I said, it's Kiev.

[HerenIstarion]

Even if we are to doubt the greatness of number of those hot tolkienites, we may be sure of at least one falling into the category- that is, Lush herself currently in Kiev!

[One Axe to Rule them All]

Quite so, I doubt not that Lush herself falls into that heavenly denomination.

Now would anyone by chance know the way to Kiev from say, Texas?

[E. Fester]

Actually, I'm ... I'm quite proud of ... being a geek ... Sorry for all the ellipses, I just keep on ... keep on twitching. It reflects my ... current mood, I guess. But yeah, I'm very geeky. Nerdy. Weird. I get lots of different adjectives. No social skills; I tend to shut myself into rooms and headbang to loud music most of ... the time. My day comprises of waking up (a slow and painful process), drinking coffee, writing, headbanging, researching bands to a scary degree, and sleeping. It's a ... never-ending cycle, really *twitch* I'm not really a LotR geek; I just like forums . Although I have read the books, more than once. Apparently that's enough to condemn me ... But being a geek is a good thing, I think. The only ones I have a problem with are ... are the ones who pretend to be geeky for the sake of obtaining an image. But True Geeks are great people

[One Axe to Rule them All]

Oh yes, fear the fake geeks, for they are up to no good and intend to penetrate our fortress of geekiness!

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Hold up a second. Hot, intelligent, educated, Tolkienite FEMALES?!?!(with nice shoes to boot?)

Did you ever doubt it? Being one of these intelligent, educated, Tolkienite females (with nice shoes), I can assure you, we aren't as hard to find as you'd think. Just depends on your definition of hot, because, being half dead from the first hot day in a month (summer? HA!) and from just having gone out on my blades to burn energy, I can confirm extreme hotness. But perhaps that's not what Lush meant?

[Saraphim]

Well, OAtRTA, first you start out by going north. Then, once you get to Canada, take a sharp easterly turn. That should cover you for a while. Somewhere along the line you may run into flooded roadways, but if you stick to it you should be in Kiev in about three months.

Anyway. Back to that ol' topic...

I've noticed that if I wear clothes that are popular (read: uncomfortable), do something with my hair and stick my contacts in, I don't get called a nerd. I get attention from people that normally would ignore me, and all in all have a boring time. I don't do this very often, needless to say.

I'm much more comfortable being somewhere with other nerds. I'm looking forward to Comic-Con this weekend. Nerd City, that place is.