The Tristan Tzara Challenge

[PandoraGlitters]

Right you are, Zoyd. I am indeed a Pynchonophiliac. And I agree about Pirate Prentice — a great character, though he fades into a metaverse rather sadly in part 4.

I think the girls around here would be fighting over who gets to be Katya. Not the least being our esteemed thread starter.

BJ can be Katya, but I get to be Y.T. I'll have to practice my skateboard chops though.

Champagne, I have tried a number of times and never made it through Gravity's Rainbow, though I do see its appeal. It is peopled by characters that men would relate to more than women, I think. Snow Crash is another story. That one you should definitely check out. Particularly if you are interested in Chomsky's theories on language development.

 

[Eluard]

BJ can be Katya, but I get to be Y.T. I'll have to practice my skateboard chops though.

Champagne, I have tried a number of times and never made it through Gravity's Rainbow, though I do see its appeal. It is peopled by characters that men would relate to more than women, I think. Snow Crash is another story. That one you should definitely check out. Particularly if you are interested in Chomsky's theories on language development.

Oh you are SO Y.T.!!

My only complaint about Snow Crash is that it doesn't really end properly. There are a lot of loose ends that are left hanging. I have a feeling that Stephenson had a deadline and rushed it.

 

[Blicero]

<ahem>That would be matronizing...

I thought that calling you all fully-fledged nerds would have been even worse than using "nerdling" as the noun. I apologize, next time I won't couch my expression .

Nerd qualifications, lemme see: <googling> <<< yes that is one.

I found an interesting discussion group called "The Nerd Academy". Now, what better venue to test anyone's nerd qualifications could I find? They even have an admissions standard where I found several common characteristics listed in a sort of curriculum vitae of nerdliness.

• You must be at least 60% male
• Know at least one episode's worth of dialogue from at least one animated television series
• Know that when someone says, wow, they're not astounded by you
• Been drunk at most 3 times your senior year of high school
• Play video games 3 hours of the 8 hours per day you spend on your computer (bonus if you do so while you're working)
• Know that there are 3 remakes of "I Am Legend" (to date in April 2008) with Ωmega Man being your fave
• Had more than 1 diploma course of Science and based your course selection on the level of fun you could have in the lab
• Understand that when I ask you to rewrite my html I really want foreplay
• Not know when to stop making a list listing nerd qualifications
• Your novels of preference include either computer/robot characters, dragons, nuclear fallout and sometimes tentacle sex but always tentacled aliens or a suitable combination of all of these
• Approve of the Star Wars trilogy now having 6 episodes and hope for more
• Was I supposed to quit?

I see I probably could have called you guys Nerds after all...

Alas!I fear I fail this test as both a nerd and a nerdling! Now if the questions involved knowing the films of Ray Harryhausen or knowing who was the nephew of the composer Nino Rota — or even knowing which novel gave birth to the name Starbucks, then I might have had a chance. But as it is, I'm afraid I must hand in my I Linux membership badge.

 

[Blicero]

BJ can be Katya, but I get to be Y.T. I'll have to practice my skateboard chops though.

Champagne, I have tried a number of times and never made it through Gravity's Rainbow, though I do see its appeal. It is peopled by characters that men would relate to more than women, I think. Snow Crash is another story. That one you should definitely check out. Particularly if you are interested in Chomsky's theories on language development.

I haven't read Snow Crash but see that I must if I'm ever to have any hope of understanding, let alone believing, Chomsky's theories.

(Isn't his view something like: language development is all a CIA/Western government plot?)

 

[unpredictablebijou]

I haven't read Snow Crash but see that I must if I'm ever to have any hope of understanding, let alone believing, Chomsky's theories.

(Isn't his view something like: language development is all a CIA/Western government plot?)

*laughing!*

Yeah, that's pretty much what I got...

HEre's the thing I noticed about nerds: each of them has a very particular definition of the term.

Make up your own list. It'll be just as true as any other, as long as you spend entirely too much time thinking about it and then writing it up and posting it as a blog somewhere.

My nerd score: Mate #1 actually started the first major Star Trek convention in our nearest metropolis. Mate #2 was actually on the set as a child when some of the episodes of original Trek were being shot. They both get a big fat LOL out of the line "What is it?" "I don't know... it's green."

she shoots, she SCORES.

bj

 

[Eluard]

*laughing!*

Yeah, that's pretty much what I got...

HEre's the thing I noticed about nerds: each of them has a very particular definition of the term.

Make up your own list. It'll be just as true as any other, as long as you spend entirely too much time thinking about it and then writing it up and posting it as a blog somewhere.

My nerd score: Mate #1 actually started the first major Star Trek convention in our nearest metropolis. Mate #2 was actually on the set as a child when some of the episodes of original Trek were being shot. They both get a big fat LOL out of the line "What is it?" "I don't know... it's green."

she shoots, she SCORES.

bj

This is exactly right — the real definition of nerd is: someone who loves the details.

 

[Blicero]

This is exactly right — the real definition of nerd is: someone who loves the details.

And loves talking about them with other people — which I do.

And Pandora Glitters: would they be your lips??

 

[Angeline]

The lively A-Train of jazz
will offer hope for all ages
with a connection to the Earth
ballet in Canada, Spain and Argentina:
a spectacle of newspapers,
food and medicine.

I urge participants
to decorate hats, live simply
and offer peaceful music.

Six dancers and drumming
little women from Neptune
will learn how to reduce
their carbon footprint
and explore momentum.

 

[Eluard]

The lively A-Train of jazz
will offer hope for all ages
with a connection to the Earth
ballet in Canada, Spain and Argentina:
a spectacle of newspapers,
food and medicine.

I urge participants
to decorate hats, live simply
and offer peaceful music.

Six dancers and drumming
little women from Neptune
will learn how to reduce
their carbon footprint
and explore momentum.

very nice: love the 'exploring momentum' line.

 

[Eluard]

Something appropriate for this thread. Desnos was the leading Surrealist poet.

They burned his final poems…

for Robert Desnos

Ooops! Contrary to a biographical note that I have Desnos didn't die in Buchenwald he was force-marched from there to Flossenbürg and then to Theresienstadt where he died a few days after the war ended.

One entire poem out the window!

 

[champagne1982]

<snip> Make up your own list. It'll be just as true as any other, as long as you spend entirely too much time thinking about it and then writing it up and posting it as a blog somewhere. <snip>

Oh lah ... I win!

 

[unpredictablebijou]

Oh lah ... I win!

That may be the greatest smiley icon ever.

bj

 

[champagne1982]

That may be the greatest smiley icon ever.

bj

Scoot on over to deviant art (through google, I just image searched nerd smiley's and there it was) to read the back story on that one. I lol'd; 'puter, star wars, book, LOTR/Gandalf, anime, gamer... beauteous indeed.

 

[Eluard]

*Quietly steals smiley icon, puts it in box*

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