The nerdy life

Things I really like about being a nerd, from least awesome to most

• The ability to engage in activities that are generally considered immature, but which are fulfilling and/or lots of fun. This comic kinda sums it up.
  
• The semi-serious conversations about an eclectic range of topics, with no one looking down on you for knowing weird stuff. In fact they usually find it interesting. One thing I particuluarly enjoy about the roleplaying group I'm in is how often we add verisimilitude using our nerd knowledge. Like how I know that humans are endurance animals and horses are not. Or the time we had to move a boulder and Anton acted as physics/engineering advisor.
  
• The ability say more or less what you mean and not have to engage in nearly so many little social mind games
• The sheer creativity in the people I hang out with. So far we have: three people who write programs/come up with ideas for programs in their spare time, three people who make games, people who write songs and/or poetry.. and add to that the ability to have conversations about Serious Topics, like religion and philosophy and all those other things that people in polite company don't like talking about because it might cause *gasp* disagreement. I've been working 40 hour weeks lately and and the main thing I've been noticing in my coworkers is that the people who've been working the longest and the people who never went to university are the ones with the least interesting things to say. I've had loads of interesting conversations with some of the international students despite the language barrier, but almost none with the older people of the same language and racial background with me. More and more I can't help feeling like the real world (as defined by the majority) isn't a place I want to live in any more than I have to to support myself so I can go be nerdy on my own time.