Yes, I am a geek. Meredith taught me how to use Excel to compute my grades and I got REALLY excited. Not sexually excited, just extremely happy. So then I created other spreadsheets . . . one to compute how much I spent on book contests, one to track all my submissions. I spent a few hours creating spreadsheets of my classes and my writing portfolio.
When I was younger, my preference during play time was to fiddle with the computer instead of going outside with the neighborhood kids. Not much has really changed. I'm into all sorts of gadgetry. If it bleeps, clicks, buzzes, or hums, I'll want it. Hours, perhaps years, were spent in front of my Commodore 64 computer. That same side of me wants an Xbox or a Playstation 2. The reason why I don't go out and purchase one is that I know it'd be career-suicide. I'd never leave the house, never work, never eat. . . It's bad enough with the computer games I have installed on my Mac.
In other gadgetry news, I broke my iPod the other day while working out at the gym and it was like losing a fluffy dog. It was really strange. It was on my arm-band (another gadget), playing a track by Erland Oye. I leaned back into one of those fancy-schmancy Cybex work out machines, heard a *CLUNK* and felt the iPod on my armband shudder. The iPod didn't skip, but when I looked at it, I saw that the LCD screen had a discernable tear so that I couldn't read any of the text. I powered it off, then I powered it back on and still the LCD was broken. Heartbroken, I immediately went to a computer repair center after my half-hearted workout. The repair center called me a couple days later with bad news. The repair bill for the thing would be $300!!! That's about the cost of the darn thing in the first place.
So now I'm sans my favorite gadget and I'm yearning for another one. I do know how to calculate grades with Excel, though. At least that's something.
4 days ago
9 comments:
Commodore 64--wow.
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Well, you're not THAT big of a geek or you would have had your iPod in one of those crazy, vaguely paranoid super-padded holder thingys.
Sympathy, though, on the significant loss. I can't even work out without mine anymore.
Pat, you're an even bigger geek than I am because you know String commands. . . doh! I'm a bigger geek than YOU are because I recognized your String commands!!!
And Ver, the thing is that my iPod WAS in one of those super padded arm holder thingies.
*sigh* I'm a geek.
O, did you miss something? I've been using Excel to calculate grades since the first year at ASU as a TA.
I have to admit I'm becoming more and more geek-like working in IT. I was thinking 01101001 the other day, and I can't believe that I used to think 0xCF 0x8E 0x83 0xCB.
Ha! You don't want to know how much I actually remember of the C64.
just call me the newest member of geeks anonymous.
P
Hi, my name is Mark -- Patrick's brother. I must admit that I too am a geek. I grew up marveling at the fabulous full pike into a somersault dives when playing Summer Games on our Commodore 64. I remember thinking that our Odyssey game system was the coolest thing because my brother knew how to code in HEX on the system.
Now, i must com clean. I've fallen deep into geekdom reading my Flash Actionscript code to my 6-month old daughter at bedtime (And yes it puts her to sleep). I've recently looked up how much a full-size upright Galaga arcade game goes for on eBay (FYI -- they're $2495 + $200-300 shipping or pay $3000 for a new one at Fortunoff of all places). I've come to realize that wearing a T-shirt with the words "Mac Geek" isn't cool at family parties. Or any party for that matter.
So, Oliver, I can relate to you. I mourn for the loss of your iPod. HAHAH!!! May your new iPod be filled with gigabytes of geek stuff!!! Amen!!!! AHAHH!!!
obviously--obsession runs in the family.
The Rosals are FRIGHTENING. :-D
I had that Summer Olympics game on my C64 too, so I'm still up there in geekdom. Did you guys have Blue Max? That's an old Bi-plane strafing/bombing game. I loved that game! Heck, way back when, I wanted one of those Radio Shack Tandy computers with the flourescent green pixels.
And way way back, I remember trying to figure out how to program my cursor on Turtle Draw. Oy vey.
Sue, I never calculated my grades using Excel because I never bothered trying to figure out how to program the "average" into the older Excel versions. But this newer version has a hotkey that does it automatically, so I am happy and fabulously, I'm done with grading. Huzzah!
BLUE MAX!!!!! Bro, you know they make a number of C64 emulators for the Mac. i think you can also get USB joystick recognition software AND a cable to convert from USB to the old 1541 or 1571 floppy drives! So if you had your old disks (which I think I do!) you could conceivably copy those games on your mac's hard drive, run the emulator, and regress quicker than you can say Commodore 64 (of course, as eventual poets, we loved the machine too for its internal rhyme--but that is geekdom of another sort).
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