I have never been one of the "cool" kids. I know there are friends out there who would say that I am plenty cool, but I disagree. I have always been, and probably will always be, a nerd. Now, when I say that I don't mean it in any sort of negative way, in fact, I very much enjoy being a nerd, and am not ashamed of it at all. It's just a fact of life that in our society, nerds are not "cool".
Why do I say I am a nerd? Well, growing up I always enjoyed such things as X-men and Star Trek. Now I know that in itself is not completely nerdy, although it is certainly on the edges of it. But I didn't just enjoy watching them or reading the comics, no. My friends and I would actually would frequently "act out" X-men type scenarios You might think of it as real-life role playing games. We would come up with our own mutant powers and then go out and fight the evil doers, which was usually one my friends, although sometimes it would be a pretend evil doer. That of course naturally lead into real role-playing games. You know, like Dungeon and Dragons, although we never actually played Dungeon and Dragons, but it was the same idea, with rolling dice and all. We actually played a Star Wars role playing game. We played this for years, and then eventually moved onto a more "grown-up" role playing game, set in a different world. This continued all the way through high-school. And of course I was into video games, what self-respecting nerd isn't? I've never was, nor am, that big of a computer game player, although I've had my share of sleepless nights playing, and of LAN parties.
That of course is all in the past, but as I said, I will probably always be a nerd. What proof can I offer of this? Well, for starters my favorite show is Battlestar Galactica, on the Scifi network, I also enjoy Stargate and Stargate Atlantis on the same fine network. But as I said earlier, watching shows is just kind of on the fringes of being a nerd. So what makes me a full-blown nerd today? Well, this fine Saturday morning I woke up and role-played with some friends for about 4 hours. Well, you might be wondering who I would do this with. My roommate? Some friends from college? No, the same friends I role-played with in my youth. Now you might be thinking that they are over in Tacoma and I am way over in Spokane, how could I do that? With the help of technology. We set up a video conversation and had a rousing session of role-playing with brand new characters, and we hope to do it again soon (with the same characters of course).
Of course being a nerd is not all fun and games, there are difficulties that come along with it. One is that I am constantly tempted to buy the newest, and therefore best, gadget or computer. That is a problem because I don't actually have anywhere near the money for such things. In fact, my current computer is over 4 years old. I have actually been hoping and praying that something serious would go wrong with it so I can feel justified in buying a new one. I could almost curse Toshiba for building such a long lasting computer. But alas, there is actually no reason for me to buy a new computer. Now, if I was in to gaming I could justify it, since my laptop couldn't possibly run any of the latest games, but since all I do is use the internet and Microsoft Office, (both things my computer does as well as any other computer out there), I am stuck with this old, obsolete computer. I have figured out away around this though. I have decided that I will build my own computer. Now you may be thinking, "How is that a justification?". See, I have been wanting to build my own computer for a few years now, mainly because I think it would be fun, and it would give me a better understanding of how it all works. So, if I build my own computer I essentially kill two birds with one stone. I fulfill my need for a newer computer while not feeling guilty about wasting money on a computer I don't need, because I am doing it for the education and experience of it.
Isn't it just great when you can justify doing something you probably shouldn't do?
