If You've Ever Wondered About NJ. . .

So I was driving home Thursday from work and I was stopped behind a bus two blocks from my apartment. There was a big ad/poster on the back of the bus which said in big letters:

"1 in 200 Children in NJ has Tourette's Syndrome."

My first thought was not to read the rest of the ad, but was:

"God, that explains soooooo much about this state!"


No offense to any of my friends and family living here in NJ!

Edited to add:

My fiance says to me as I told of this post while driving home from a party yesterday, "Well, it's like a chicken and egg thing. I mean, maybe it was NJ that gave them Tourette's!"

My Questions for The Geek Test

So my soon-to-be brother-in-law, (ok, it's a year away but I like saying that instead of "my sister's fiance"), challenged me to a "Geek Test" on the rival networking site to Myspace, Facebook. It was a hundred question test with a variety of topics from computers, to science, to gaming, and such. Want to know my score?


Your Score:
99
You are geekier than:
100% of your Friends
99% of everyone on Facebook


Really?! Did this come as a surprise to any of you who know me or have been regular readers of my blog?!

The "100% of you Friends" means the 100+ friends I have on Facebook. But I am sure that is close to a real life percentage as well. I remember one night back in 2001 or 2002 as we were over Max Diablo's apartment as the "Nerd Herd" was there to watch Angel and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, my friend Brown starts talking about using hexidecimal math (Base 12) at work. I then start talking to him as if hexidecimal math was like a 2nd language to me; which it can be as I do have a degree in mathematics. He looks at me and said something to the effect of, "Holy shit, Spider!! I thought I was a major geek but you outgeek me by far!!"

So my soon-to-be brother-in-law writes to me, after I share my score with him, "It appears you have taken me to the cleaners. . . I thoroughly enjoyed the last question of, " Did you spend time thinking of other questions that would make this quiz better". (or something like that) That made me hang my head."

I wrote back to him that I did think of more questions, and here they are. How many can you answer yes to? (He only got 7)

1. Do you have a t-shirt or any paraphernalia, with the number 42 on it?

2. Have you ever bought clothing proclaiming your geekness?

3. Have you ever bought geek related clothing for your significant other?

4. Can you explain why the Empire would kick the shit out of the Federation?

5. Have you ever dreamed of being a Borg?

6. Can you explain Shroedinger's Cat?

7. Can you explain Occam's Razor?

8. Can you explain why the use of Occam's Razor at the end of the movie Contact was incorrect and you're pissed that Jodie Foster's character didn't point it out?

9. Can you explain the significance of knowing the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

10. Can explain the theory of Relativity beyond just defining E=mc^2?

11. Do you own a poster of Einstein or a book of quotes from him?

12. Have you ever taking the time to prove why calculus?

13. Have you taken more that two calculus classes and not failed them?

14. Do you sometimes gaze off into the distance because you are pondering math problems?

15. Would the topic of your thesis paper be lost on more than 85% of the population?

16. Have you ever not gotten laid because of your geekness?

17. Have you ever thought you were better than a nerd, but still felt some empathy because you understood them?

18. Have you ever posted 2 or more blog posts on your blog about being a geek? (Tales of A Pocket Spider readers know that I have!)

19. Do you know why you would need 1.21 gigawatts and why because of modern physics it really wouldn't matter?

20. Have you ever used math or physics to win a legal dispute?

21. Have you ever thought you could audition for "Beauty and The Geek"?

22. Has the song "The Geek Gets The Girl" by American HiFi ever applied to you?

22. Have you come up with 20 or more questions to add to the geek test?



How did you do? I'm sure I can come up with more questions. And I know that if you do a Google search you can find more in depth Geek Tests. I one time took a 500 question geek test. Yeah, I scored astromonically high on that one too. I guess my saving grace, and why I wasn't a member of Lambda Lambda Lambda in college, is that I score extremely low on any Purity Test that I take. (Those test answers are only given out when plied with copious amounts of alcohol!)

How did my future B.I.L score on the geek test? "I guess I will have to be content with being the number two geek of my friends. Congrats on the 99% of Facebook, I think I was around 75%. " At least he'll be in good company when he marries my sister!

Black Socks

So I was sitting outside the NY Hall of Science yesterday, in Corona Queens. I was waiting to meet up with my friend, and former roommate, who works there. It was a stunningly beautiful day. Warm, blue skies, low humidity. As I was sitting there a father walks pushing his child in a stroller. As I watch him I had this thought form in my head.

"What is it with the prevalence of Hispanic men wearing black socks with shorts?!"

I ask this as a Hispanic man and I know that my grandfather had this fashion affliction. ANd more recently, two of my Hispanic musician friends here in NYC have it. I have seen both of them on multiple occasions wear black socks with shorts and sneaker or shorts and sandals.

Didn't they, and we, learn from our grandfathers?!!! Black socks, pulled up on the calf (tight, mind you!) while wearing shorts doesn't look good!!

Ever!!!


Beyond that I really have no place making fashion comments. But I do know when the Fashion Police need to be called!

Heatwave, A Major and a Minor Accompliment

It's a heatwave here in the NYC Metro Area. It was mid 90's today with a similar forecast for the next 3 days. The weather people said we might get some relief Wednesday when it drops to 85. Ooooooh!!

Not complaining about the heat though. All day today, as I will be tomorrow, I've been stuck inside a darkened room giving massages in my last two days of required clinic hours at the Institute of Therapeutic Massage. Yes, I'm excited that I am finally done with massage therapy school. But damn, I really didn't want to spend this really first weekend of summer indoors!! The pool at my apartment building is free this weekend, as opposed the soon in effect $100 season pass that's normally required.

But I guess I have to be happy that I am done with massage school and the next step is to take and pass the national certification test. So I know it's a major accomplishment. (And before any of you poo-poo massage therapy school, know that my Anatomy and Physiology classes were college level in difficulty.)

The minor accomplishment today? I touched my toes in a standing stretch for the first time in like. . .years!! I've started getting back into doing power yoga for my fitness plan. (I need to lose 20 pounds by Oct. 1. I'll tell you why in a future post.) So yeah, it's something minor, but "Hello Toes!!"

Ok, off to finish laundering my sheets for tomorrow's day of massages. Just 4 more massages left!!!