Meetings this week were enjoyable – i was learning new things, the overviews were fascinating, and i was stunned at how far the state-of-the-art has advanced while i wasn’t paying attention during my time in management*. But as the meeting progressed, we drilled in deeper on theory – and the flaming geek-behaviors began to surface. A few key observations…
Blinded by the light: Geeks love laser pointers. The brighter, the better. The more exotic the color? Major geek chubb! Blue ones are currently all the rage, inspiring techno-lust and admiration. There was a green one in the room with sufficient reflected power to produce temporary retinal burn. As well as pointer envy.
Is it ever ok? For an adult male to part his hair in the middle? Shortish, red hair. Straight. Unstyled, and most likely, unwashed. Doesn’t work… Unless you happen to be a Thin White Duke (sigh)…
Vintage or Creepy? The maroon polyester sport jacket was not attractive. If it had been worn by a young, thrift-store shopping hipster, it would still be unattractive. Especially when paired with a mint green dress shirt and a navy print tie. And Hush Puppies, with white socks. No wedding ring on this one. Is it any wonder?
Acronyms Can Have Multiple Meanings: One man’s “Schottky Barrier Diode” is an immature woman’s “Silent But Deadly”. i did not audibly snort when the passionate argument over the relative merits of SBDs raged among the experimentalists.
Geeks Are Funny**: Sometimes, they get it right… As part of the safety board on a lab tour, this was buried amid the dry, boring and legally required stuff:
Probably should have put this warning on the door of the conference room, given the “laser pointer directed energy warfare” underway…
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* i was detained in a supervisory position a few years back. A “detail”, which was promised to last only 6 months, stretched into 27 months… Fighting fire with fire, i accepted a “detail” in another organization, which forced my home organization to fill the old job. In the end, i was working in different realms for almost 3 years before i got my feet back on familiar turf. Tech shit moves fast… i continue to be blown away as i revisit my old stomping grounds.
** Not just the way they dress, smell, eat, walk, talk, dance, touch themselves inappropriately in public, crunch ice loudly while having a conversation or interact in any other way with their fellow humans…
Purple polyester? Big scary lasers? I’ve said it before, but you have the coolest job evah!
LOVE the warning sign 🙂
I read the headline as “Greeks” in their natural habitat. Which somewhat changed the reading of the rest.
Geeks GEEKS
It all makes sense now!
Alas I only have a red one – but it’s strong enough to fry an egg from thirty paces.
Makes me miss the days when I was an electronics tech doing prototype design in analog circuits. So much geeky goodness!
re: lasers, how can one NOT love them? I hacked a burning laser from an old DVD drive. Better than a magnifying glass (for burning things, anyway).
Geeks dance? *shudder*
What kind of position did you get detained in? Never mind; don’t answer that. I prefer to use my imagination.
Keith, that was a supervisory position not a submissive one….
My (naughty) younger brother used to spend hours mercilessly teasing our bewildered cocker spaniel – now sadly gone to the great kennel in the sky, and still very much missed – with a laser pointer. Watching him stalk it was truly comical, and almost as amusing as when he’d chase a snowball, then spend ages hunting for it amid drifts.
Cats also love laser pointers … it’s fun watching them climbing the walls. Have to admit I was always worried about inadvertently blinding them and so I stopped.
kyknoord – it’s a dream. hanging out with people who make me look like a movie star? an added bonus!
nm – i’ve seen other variations, but i liked that one a bunch!
dolceii – ah. that’s a post for a different day. Greeks can dance!
umdalum – red. stick with the classics. and crank up the volume to ’11’…
toby – “geeky goodness”… sums it up nicely!
az – think “Frog + Blender”
uncle keith – it did lead to an emergency room visit…
umdalum – i subjugated about 100 lesser mortals. oh, the power! the bootlicking worms….
cat – i suspect your pup loved the mystery of both the laser and the snowball…
az – important point: there is no such thing as an eye-safe laser…
snarf
What’s a laser pointer? Is that a dog breed? Mwha-ha-ha-ha-ha-hah-a-ha-ha!
Hey, I know a Single Bisexual Datemate who wears a maroon polyester jacket and parts his hair in the middle. But he does not have a laser pointer and he is rarely funny. Do you think he might be a geek?
manuel – just be glad you don’t have to deal with too many geeks in your place of business.
Stank – Miss you bunches! Can hear that laugh from 3000 miles away!
BB – might be a geek? the maroon jacket is the key discriminator. and not all geeks are funny…