Not all Nerds are Made Equal (Thankfully)

The "Know Your Nerds" Threadless tee I ordered has finally arrived.  While gushing over it, I realized how true it is, that there really are different nerd types.  This realization struck me as my husband pored over the shirt's design (should I tell him that the stats are fake?).

For us, what sets the distinction is this: there's "like" and then there's "nerd out on". They're very different.

If we use just the identified nerd types on the shirt, this is how it works: he goes full nerd with music, movies, comic books, and video games.  For me, it's with computer and movies.  Does social media fall under "computer"?  Let's say it does.

It's a good thing that, although we're both geeks, we don't necessarily have the same interests.  We learn from each other that way.

It's also nice that even on the things we're both interested in, we're not on the same nerd level.  With our common ground, i.e., movies -- which is the primary reason why we might need a server pretty soon (guess who will build it?) --  I reach a certain high level on the nerd meter, but when it comes to geek flicks, my husband shoots for the moon.

Take for instance his current flavor-of-the-month: TRON.  When the news broke about a remake being in the works, I told him that he has to watch the original movie before we go see the new one.  He finally did, just last night.  Needless to say, it blew his mind.  So much that he watched even the commentaries, then proceeded to read up on almost everything TRON.  We've just seen TRON: Legacy yesterday.  Upon arriving home, guess what he did?  He began playing Space Paranoids and Lightcyle.  From time to time, he'd turn to me and gush about TRON trivia (like those "The Dude" references in TRON: Legacy).

I can't stop myself from showing some annoyance at times like these, and I feel a bit bad when a smirk sneaks past my fake appreciative grin because, I know that he also has to put up with my own uncontrolled geek-outs.

So I'm also thankful for the few nerdy stuff we equally like in every way, like the holiday rom-com Love Actually.  We guffaw at the same parts (Hugh Grant's goofy dance to the Pointer Sisters' "Jump") and quote the same lines ("I am Colin, the god of sex.  I'm just on the wrong continent, that's all.").

At the end of the day, this geekette is happy about this one truth: she married a nerd :-)