Reasons Why I am the Worst Computer Geek Ever

I originally titled this "Why I am the worst nerd ever," but then I realized that I still fit the nerd bill pretty well. I'm interested in academics, I read non-fiction for fun. As a matter of fact, that picture on my sidebar is me at the Fourth of July reading a discrete math textbook. Because nothing says holiday like discrete math. I have a compunction, instilled by my immediate family, to look up answers to questions that are pondered aloud. Adam thinks it's funny that he can go to my house and wonder about the origins of "dead ringer,"* and someone will inevitably get up and look it up on the internet, or in the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins.

So, all in all, I'm not a bad nerd. Which will definitely surprise many who know me. But I discover time and time again that I'm a bad computer geek. Not to say that computer geeks are all alike. I am one. I just don't adhere to many of the stereotypes.

1. I don't wear much black. From what I hear, CS majors in college are supposed to wear all black so that it doesn't show when they haven't taken a shower in a long time. I look dead in black. I don't really like looking dead.


2. I don't/haven't played very many video or computer games. No LAN parties for me. I was into Sierra computer games (Dr. Brain anyone?), but I never played any games with expansion packs or bonus levels that you could only get to by pressing "zoieufa" while the opening was playing.


3. I'm not really a technophile. There are plenty of computer geeks who also fall in this category, but I still sort of feel that it makes me a bad geek. I don't have an iPhone, I don't know off the top of my head the specs of the computer I'm running (though I could find out quickly enough), I don't have any desire to have an eBook, or whatever the latest-and-greatest is. I like cool tools (see I Love the Library), I appreciate innovation, but I'm not an early adopter.


4. I'm totally unaware of stinking code repositories. Maybe it's because, while my CS background is fine, my Software Engineering is a little lacking. Maybe it's because I'm just dense. But do yourself a favor, and if you're trying to write some code, go and see if there's a repository for the language you're using (hint: there's code out there for every language I've ever come across).


5. I have only once ever opened the case of a CPU. And here I am telling my husband that I can install a new hard drive in a computer we inherited, and I "haven't gotten around to it" because, even though it's been sitting in our office since we moved in, and I've gotten several relevant books from various library book sales, I don't know what I'm doing


6. I'm not really messy, and I'm not really neat. Most of the people that I think "Wow, they're hard core," at least with respect to computers are either fanatically neat or fantastically messy. They may have bags from Wendy's stacked three high beside their computers because they've been working/playing so hard that they haven't really emerged from their caves in ages. Or they may know where every scrap of paper and test program is, file structures in their drawers mirrored by their directory structures. I'm just sort of meh.
   

I'm sorry if some of the preceding was confusing.