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#115324 11/08/03 11:10 PM
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Anna, you gave yourself 5 points for being a female geek? Although I am female, I didn't give myself any points for it since I don't consider myself a geek. To me, geek was the operative word there.

18.73767% - Geek


#115325 11/09/03 10:30 AM
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The test was definately skewed in favor of younger geeks/nerds,

[assuming that geekdom is desirable]
not really skewed, cos older geeks have access to modern technology whereas i have never even seen a slide rule, just read about them in old sci-fi books (though this has possibly more to do with my lack of education rather than my age, who knows?). if it was skewed i would say it was skewed in favour of american geeks. for example, there was no such thing as band camp or math camp in my childhood experience. i was going to say that geek is a modern american term so thats cool with me, but merriam webster has this to say:
Main Entry: geek
Pronunciation: 'gEk
Function: noun
Etymology: probably from English dialect geek, geck fool, from Low German geck, from Middle Low German
Date: 1914
1 : a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake
2 : a person often of an intellectual bent who is disapproved of
- geeky /'gE-kE/ adjective

**edit** just realised the above quote proves nothing, sorry



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yes, you're right, it does have an american (US) bias, and an middle class one too, since math camp --like all summer camps, is a middle class endevor.
my son went computer camp for 4 years-- the first year of camp, we sent him to a real camp,--a boy scout camp--hiking, outdoor activities, etc, but his alergey/asthma was a problem. computer camp was less likely to end with him in the emergency room, cyninotic! and he liked it just as much.

as a friend remarked last night, (while we were watching the show the moon was putting on)- PhD. are a middle class pursuit. --the rich (i.e., dubbleya) don't need them, and the poor can't afford to spend 8 years after HS going to school. geekishnes is also somewhat middle class, too.


#115327 11/09/03 01:16 PM
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I don't remember everything on the test, but I do remember there was a lot of RPG stuff that just wouldn't interest your older geek. Many, in fact would, by their very geekhood, disdain such.

My major problem with it was its inability to handle such things as helen's knitting of a klein bottle with Fibonacci stripes. There's really no way I can see for handling such things. You can't just allow geek wannabes to claim points for things not covered by the test; while knitting klein bottles should certainly count, I can easily imagine someone claiming his collection of vintage Bud cans. Grading suchlike would require human overseeing and a panel of judges, an endeavor that would that would be impossible given the constraints of the medium.


#115328 11/09/03 02:24 PM
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>You can't just allow geek wannabes to claim points for things not covered by the test..

actually®, I think it did just that -- down at the bottom where you could claim 5 points for being a grrl, hi ASp, there was another series of boxes you could check for (and I paraphrase from memory) I can think of more questions which should be on the test; I took that to mean 1 point for each question, up to five. [I only checked two or three, not wanting to overtax myself.]


#115329 11/11/03 11:12 PM
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To celebrate my first post here on A.W.A.D. i thought i would tell i scored 49.something percent which makes me a super geek. not sure why i'm telling you or how i feel about it but there we are


#115330 11/12/03 08:26 PM
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Welcome to ivy doodle.
And Dody Your post does prove that the test is missing something - I wonder how many points one should get for biting off chicken and snake heads? And would the snake be worth more than the chicken?


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