Uncooperative Crickets

Visit

I had a successful family visit. We saw the sights of Boston on a trolley tour, went whale watching (and saw four humpback whales), went to Martha's Vineyard, saw The Simpsons Movie, and took a tour of Harvard/went to Salem. For more details, read Tsajz's weblog.

Ira Glass talked about "nerds" on This American Life this week. He said something that I have been internalizing for some time now: so many adults seem to categorize themselves as "nerds," or "dorks." Glass was talking about people reflecting on their youths. He said that people seem to identify their teenage selves as nerds if they were different in any way - even if they were popular. People wear this appellation as a badge of honor. This seems wrong to Ira and me somehow. Why does everyone get to be a nerd? Shouldn't people have to earn that title?

I don't consider myself to be/have been a nerd, even though I have a Ph.D. in math, like Buffy, and am currently reading comic books. I haven't earned it (nor do I want to).

Here is a cool video. It is eight minutes long, but stuff keeps happening, and so I recommend that you watch the whole thing.

posted by Dirk Awesome @ 11:47 AM