I'm currently reading a book called American Nerd: The Story of My People. It's about nerds in America. It starts with the history of the nerd (the origins of the word, etc.), the politics of the nerd (stupid things like democrats versus republican), and personal anecdotes. It's well written and easy to read but it makes me uncomfortable.
According to this book, I'm a nerd. It seems I've always been one. Since I was what is now called a "tween". I've always read comic books, enjoy science-fiction, and learning about all and everything.
Yes, in high school I played in a punk rock band but I also played in the jazz band and was part of the pit band for the high school musical. Even my friends were less punk and more pop music nerds than anything else. We spent more time debating and arguing with each other than playing music. It was about who could find the most obscure/awesome new music. And mix tapes. And girls we couldn't talk to. Very middle class, not very punk.
Hell, even our shows were more "performance art" than music shows (not that we knew what performance art was. We just thought we were punk rock). I probably spent more time trying to throw pies in people's faces than playing music.
Even now, I'm still a nerd. I blog regularly, work in the history/political science section of a large corporate bookstore, and rarely engage in strenuous physical activity. My undergraduate degree is in semiotics and communication theory. I took philosophy courses not because I was good at it but because I enjoyed it. These are things I enjoy doing. I enjoy thinking. Does this make me a machine? Doubtful but then again anything is possible.
Like I'm fond of saying, I was only cool for five minutes in 1998 that was by accident. It had something to do with a punk rock show, potatoes, and almost all my friends.
Oh, and my girlfriend likes nerds... and Asian babies... and reading. She's a little bit of a nerd herself. It's kind of awesome.
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