Night and Wordy.

Probably not too wordy.

I've got Pandora set with a few channels, and on one of them, Weird Al's White and Nerdy has played a lot. It got me to thinking--yes, Weird Al caused quasi-serious thought--about nerd culture and how so many people like the same sorts of things.

Chances are, if you could think of yourself as a nerd, you're at least comfortable with computers. You probably have some specialized knowledge, like programming. You probably have some sort of web-page dedicated to yourself or your projects. You may have at least tried D&D or another table-top RPG before, not to mention MMORPGs over the internet. You know who Weird Al is. You probably have a favorite comic book, even if you call it a graphic novel. Heck, you probably have a favorite comic book and a favorite graphic novel. You've seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and probably more Monty Python. You've at some point thought about and compared Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, and Battlestar Galactica.

Interesting trends. I suppose other sorts of people have their lists of interests, it just doesn't seem as wide and as specific as the interests of nerds. It may make us easy to identify, yes, but that's a plus, too--we can easily sense the presence of one of our own.

Nerd-dar. Yeah.

~j