I'm a geek (was: No nerds here)

[SCAVard@aol.com]

Poster: SCAVard@aol.com

Lest anyone think I was passing judgement, I *am* as geeky as the next guy. 
Witness:

- In high school, I was captain of the chess club, I loved running the A/V 
equipment in class, I was a teacher's aide, an officer in the Junior ROTC, 
and I played first violin in the orchestra.  I played catcher for the 
baseball team, was waterboy for the basketball team, wore polyester slacks, 
had a Star Wars poster (from Burger King) in my bedroom, and I *dug* watching 
Battlestar Galactica on ABC.  During my senior year, instead of going to 
Florida or lounging around at home for spring break, I went on an AFS student 
exchange to Wisconcin and (get this) went to somebody else's school during my 
vacation.

- I went to college on an academic scholarship (geek!), and studied Math and 
Computer Science.  (Back then, Comp Sci was primarily "programming".  I can 
speak FORTRAN, COBOL and RPG II with the best of them!)  As part of that 
curriculum, I wrote an Analog Simulation Program for which I hold a 
documented copyright from the Library of Congress.  During my junior year, I 
was invited to the Missouri Academy of Science's annual convention to present 
work I performed analyzing the probabilities and the investment opportunities 
of the board game "Monopoly".  I was the only undergraduate Math student 
state-wide invited.  (If you play, buy the orange group!)  I took the 
Graduate Record Exam (GRE) my senior year because I wanted to go to Grad 
school.  I aced it, scoring high enough to be invited to join Mensa, which I 
did because I figured it would look good on my resume.

- 15+ years later, I'm a card-carrying member of the SCA, I am a charter 
member of the Maryland Babylon 5 Fan Club (B5MD) (including the B5-inspired 
"PSICORP" license plates for my car), and I have a photo on the wall of me 
and my dear (and dying) friend Doug Hall at Super Bowl XXIII, with me in my 
Bengal jersey, face paint, and orange-and-black afro-style fright wig. And 
I'm *finally* taking those grad classes, going to Johns Hopkins, geek-central.

Yes I am a geek, and I can spot a geek at 50 paces.  Based on the lack of a 
line in front of the Lexington Park Sony Cinemas this morning, I concluded 
that the geek-quotient here in Southern Maryland is much lower than many 
other places.  I stand by this observation.

(And this probably explains why Dun Carraig is hurting for new members.  Too 
rural, not enough geeks.)

-Vard, geek extraordinare!
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