Blog #3 Reading Response

I chose the reading, “Nerds: The New Players” for my strong identity with this group of people. The brief article cites Tobey Maguire and Harry Potter as examples of the new nerds and states that it isn't just nerds versus everyone else nowadays. The line, “Now there's no way to tell who gets the last laugh” is one that I applaud. He goes on to cite Tina Fey and Bill Gates as examples of nerds who made it big. And he makes the point that not every nerd gets to be famous.

I am a nerd. I am now proud of the fact. I used to deny it. But I have seen every single Star Trek movie (and most TV episodes) and every single Star Wars movie, as well as read several ST and SW novels. I love The Lord Of The Rings and wish I could find a nice Dungeons and Dragons group to join. And I was even thinking of becoming a Math major my first week back at college. I am a nerd.

I came from David Douglas High School in suburban Portland in the late 70s where it was very black and white. Nerds were nerds and the “cool people” were into sports, cheerleading and being popular. Little did they know some nerd in California, the biggest one of all, was at that time developing the system that each one of these people would store their data on! Nerds got called names and they got outcast and beat up. The names were mean and usually were gay slurs. If you were in Drama you were most likely labeled gay, whether you were or not. Boy did I love it when I was in the Army and some of these tough guys dropped out of runs. And this 130lb dork that used to play barbies with his sister, hated fixing cars and didn't even have a girlfriend till I was 18 would just laugh and tough it out and finish the run.

So I am glad that nerds are now taking over. I can't see them all, but I see film trailers where groups of nerds are the good guys in the story. And they are not all skinny and handsome. I see groups of friends my fifteen year old nephew has and they seem very comfortable in their nerdiness. Which is very good news for me since I raised two mommies boy nerds. Video games help I guess. You can be a hero playing Guitar Hero on a piece of plastic. In my day, if I was seen playing my tennis racket to Kiss or Peter Frampton I would have been pounded. Nowadays you can go on youtube and end up with your own TV show for being goofy.