You Know that You Are a Nerd When... (Dedicated to Grad Students in Religion)
(Some of the following symptoms are limited to scholars of religion. Fear not--one may be certified in academic nerd-hood without meeting all qualifications...)
1. You have favorite books of the Bible--one each in Torah (the Five Books of Moses), Prophets, and Writings. (Mine are Exodus, Hosea, and either Ecclesiastes or Job--I waffle.) For Christians, add one Gospel and one Letter.
2. You lust for multi-volume book sets that you cannot (at the moment, and perhaps ever) afford: the OED, the JPS Bible Commentary or New Interpreter's Bible, a fancy Talmud set, etc.
3. You know more than ten people who can read three or more languages each.
4. There are languages in which you can read ancient texts but not engage in conversation with anyone currently living.
5. You know jokes that require knowledge not possessed by your significant other and/or best friend. (Yesterday, I heard an amazing joke about Philo. I'm going to have to place a long-distance call in order to tell it to good friend who will "get" it.)
6. You actually go back and read the notes you've made in the margins of books.
7. You own books with titles that cannot be understood without having read other books.
8. You can name two or more research databases.
9. You have looked at library holdings which require you to put on gloves and surrender all pens before approaching the book in question.
10. You are over 30, and the percentage of your life spent in school is over 66% and getting larger. (I personally have been in school for 83% of my life.)
11. You have taken an oral exam on material covered over the course of multiple years.
12. Most of what you read cannot be bought in a Barnes and Noble or Borders.
13. You have tried to purchase a book currently in print that is not carried by Amazon.com (and is not child pornography or a book that has been banned in the country in which you live).
14. You can define any two of the following terms: post-colonialism, heteronormative, hegemony, ontological.
15. You have contributed to, fact-checked, corrected, or edited an entry on Wikipedia.
ANY ADDITIONS, FRIENDS?
1. You have favorite books of the Bible--one each in Torah (the Five Books of Moses), Prophets, and Writings. (Mine are Exodus, Hosea, and either Ecclesiastes or Job--I waffle.) For Christians, add one Gospel and one Letter.
2. You lust for multi-volume book sets that you cannot (at the moment, and perhaps ever) afford: the OED, the JPS Bible Commentary or New Interpreter's Bible, a fancy Talmud set, etc.
3. You know more than ten people who can read three or more languages each.
4. There are languages in which you can read ancient texts but not engage in conversation with anyone currently living.
5. You know jokes that require knowledge not possessed by your significant other and/or best friend. (Yesterday, I heard an amazing joke about Philo. I'm going to have to place a long-distance call in order to tell it to good friend who will "get" it.)
6. You actually go back and read the notes you've made in the margins of books.
7. You own books with titles that cannot be understood without having read other books.
8. You can name two or more research databases.
9. You have looked at library holdings which require you to put on gloves and surrender all pens before approaching the book in question.
10. You are over 30, and the percentage of your life spent in school is over 66% and getting larger. (I personally have been in school for 83% of my life.)
11. You have taken an oral exam on material covered over the course of multiple years.
12. Most of what you read cannot be bought in a Barnes and Noble or Borders.
13. You have tried to purchase a book currently in print that is not carried by Amazon.com (and is not child pornography or a book that has been banned in the country in which you live).
14. You can define any two of the following terms: post-colonialism, heteronormative, hegemony, ontological.
15. You have contributed to, fact-checked, corrected, or edited an entry on Wikipedia.
ANY ADDITIONS, FRIENDS?
posted by Rochel Leah at
12:50 AM
3 Comments:
I can testify that numbers 5-8, 11, 13, and 15 apply to engineering nerds, too.
I would suggest one addition: When people ask you what you do, the short, basically correct answer is much better received than the "real" answer.
-Tait
By
Anonymous, at 12:13 PM
Come on. Now you HAVE to post the joke about Philo.
By
Adiv, at 1:16 PM
I may not be a grad student . . . OR an engineer. But I did spend all Sunday morning at the bi-annual meeting of the Bay Area Cruciverbalist club, dedicated to all things related to the New York Times crossword puzzle. The festivities involved included an impromptu speed tournament between the three competitive solvers, as well as a crossword contruction demonstration by famed NYT constructor Lee Glickstein.
My point? I am, indeed, a nerd. (And I haven't even mentioned that Anton made me a crossword-themed cheesecake for my birthday).
By
Anon, at 11:54 AM
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