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May 24, 2005
Thoughts on Love/Nerds
Lately I have been fascinated with the cyclical nature of human relationships and why some are successful while others are not. In high school I was intertwined with a tight group from my church which slowly and imperceptibly disbanded at the onset of our experiences in higher education. College was a stage for even more fulfilling friendships and though they still exist, those relationships no longer function with the same daily acuteness of attachment that they did whilst at Messiah.
Though the aforementioned is not uncommon with most people, the inception of these relationships was wrought with the full assumption, though never implicitly implied, that they would last indefinitely. Their passing, and reflection henceforth, gives pause to question whether or not the energy used to foster them was invested wisely. I have found that it is entirely futile to attempt putting an empirical value on this sort of equation preferring rather to let myself enjoy the reverie of what it was like to experience another human consciousness with unrepentant abandon all the while remembering that my energies are finite and their wise investment in future endeavors would serve me well.
Finding an appropriate balance between conservative and liberal emotional investment is a difficult thing to do especially when one considers the outcome of either extreme; the first promises the potential for a happy marriage while the possibility for future loneliness (a la mid-life crisis) constantly looms on the horizon while the path to the other requires a dark wardrobe punctuated by thick plastic-rimmed plastic glasses, dingy Converse sneakers and perpetually soaked collars due to tears shed over the countless, brief, and intense relationships that all found a common termination in heartbreak. At this point in my life I find both prospects entirely unappealing preferring those sort of relationships that yield stimulating conversation while taking residence in a comfortable, platonic suburbia; far from the scary and fast paced high-rises characteristic of romance oriented city life.
In other news I've been annoyed with the whole geek-chic phenomenon. Since video games have risen to prominence (i.e. greater market share) it has all of a sudden become cool to be a nerd, though the pairing of that adjective with that noun is, in essence, a logical impossibility. If you love technology, own a treo, bleach your hair, dress like an extra from hackers and blog daily about the aforementioned subjects you aren't a nerd; you are a tool and take yourself entirely too seriously.
One of the central defining elements of geekdom is that you don't draw unnecessary attention to it, rather the life you live lays evidence to the delineation and, as a result, are slightly ashamed of the whole affair. It's not cool that I love Star Wars, it's not hip that I can work in quotes from a myriad of Sci-Fi sources to fit a diverse amount of male-dominated social situations and it certainly isn't groovy that I blog about any of it. I choose the internet for my forum of this type of discourse because your ingestion of this content is entirely voluntary. You can't call my nerd-dom out for scorn because you were here, reading a blog which instantly places you in the same demographic.
Xeni Jardin, Cory Doctorow (the two self-important members of the otherwise delightful Boing-Boing gang) and Wil Weaton are the biggest offenders in my opinion, acting as though we hang on their every word, desperate to know what they think of DRM, are interested in what pictures they posted on Flickr from E3 or care if they make an appearance on NPR. I appreciate Boing-Boing as a wonderful link farm but I don't want my steady diet of entertaining content interspersed with shameless self promotion. Blech.
For all you Star Wars fans: I came across this yesterday and thought Kevin's (we're on a first name basis now) take on the film was excellent. And thank the Lord this was brought to my attention.
Posted by Jon at May 24, 2005 03:39 AM