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Star Wars Fans in Line... at the Wrong Theater
Rollie Hawk writes "More than a month before the premiere of Revenge of the Sith, fans are already lining up. Outside Grauman's Chinese Theater, eleven diehard Star Wars fans (i.e. lifelong virgins) are waiting for tickets to go on sale. Unfortunately, it appears that the guys with girlfriends will have the last laugh as the Chinese Theater isn't even premiering the film."
That segment was so damn funny.
"Which one of these buttons calls your parents to pick you up?"
Except for the LOTR kid. That was just kind of sad.
-William Shatner can be neither created nor destroyed.
Pundits and observers dispute the relationship of the terms "nerd" and "geek" to one another. Some view the geek as a less technically skilled nerd. Some factions maintain that "nerds" have both technical skills and social competence, whereas "geeks" display technical skills while socially incompetent; others hold an exactly reversed view, with "geek" serving as the socially competent counterpart of the socially incompetent "nerd", and call themselves "geeks" with pride (compare Geekcorps, an organization that sends people with technical skills to Third World countries to assist in computer infrastructure development).
Some regional differences may exist in the use of the words "nerd" and "geek". Some claim that on the North American west coast the population prefers the term "geek" to "nerd", while the North American east coast prefers the word "nerd" to "geek" (see Ellen Spertus's page on The Sexiest Geek Alive (http://www.mills.edu/ACAD_INFO/MCS/SPERTUS/Geek/) ). Others on the east coast dispute this, claiming that they have always found "nerd" used disparagingly and "geek" used in a positive light. In Britain, this latter view tends to apply -- "nerd" has more offensive connotations than "geek", which speakers of British English often use affectionately. Compare anorak.
Nerd appeared earlier and at a time when being good at school was not seen as "cool". Therefore nerd is a derogatory word (although some people now consider it a compliment), while geek appeared later and has thus avoided many of the negative conotations. Geek is a milder version and is also applied to to people who are socially insignificant, while nerd is used more with people who are socially inept.
I got through :)
It was pretty funny. Basically the guy was just telling me that they're not losers and that they have an organization for this kind of thing. They have a system of signing in and signing out and the amount of hours they accumulate indicates their position in line.
I still think they're a bit freaky, but whatever you find fun, you gotta do.
Actually, there was a study (which I saw a bit about on PBS... "Scientific American Frontiers" I think... anyway, the one with Alan Alda hosting it) which showed that when you watch somebody experience something, your brain reacts in almost exactly the same way as if you experienced it yourself.
This function of the way our brains are wired is what allows us to feel empathy.
The corollary to this phenomenon could also be the reason why voyeurs often become crossdressers.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.