Tag Archives: nerds

Pentathanerd Snow Sculptors: You’re all winners

If you’re the one who hangs out at the finish line of marathons hours after the first runner finishes, all the while shouting, “You’re all winners,” please allow me to redirect you to The Pentathanerd Winter Games’ Snow Sculpture competition. Three entrees. Three medals. All winners. Top honors go to Gold medalist/Qbert sculptor Justin Hendrickson.

Having padded his total-points lead in accumulated events, Justin has to now be considered the clear favorite to win The Pentathanerd All-Around Award for the Winter Games. Let’s take a moment to view just some of the highlights that first established him as a popular yet polarizing Pentathanerd figure during The Summer Games:

Justin: A Pentathanerd Profile from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Kids, don’t eat the snow on or near Qbert.

LEGO Luge: Tough sledding at Winter Games

Day 3 of Our Winter Games marked the first outdoor event in Pentathanerd history. Fans and competitors bundled up and trekked across The Nerdery’s parking lot to a snow bank for the LEGO Luge event. Here’s how things went (about halfway) down:

LEGO Luge from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Except for the usual doping allegations and some fairly typical objections regarding sleighs with non-LEGO-ey features, it was a day of relatively good sportsmanship in and around Pentathanerd Village. No one’s talking about judging/scoring discrepancies – at least not on record. You get the sense, though, that more than a few Pentathanerd fans and competitors are still picking at lingering scabs from the Summer Games’ Rubixgate and Bogglegate).

Moving on, the Gold medal in LEGO Luge goes to Greg Wurm, who earned 920 points. Justin Hendrickson took Silver with 793 points and Matt Tonak wins the Bronze with 780 points. In overall Pentathanerd standings after three events, Justin is on top with 1473 points, followed closely by Manish with 1413 points.

Next up: The Winter Games will stay outside for the Pentathanerd Snow Sculpture competition. Not athletically inclined whatsoever? This one’s for you if you can follow these rules.

Shoot to thrill: Biathalon at Pentathanerd (and the winner is?)

The Biathalon was created by peace-loving/cross-country skiing/gun-toting Scandinavians. These are my people. Some purists of the sport shuddered when Pentathanerd’s non-skiing version was voted into the Winter Games (and not just as an exhibition; it counts) by The Nerdery. These too are my people. Watch them shoot paper plates with Nerf guns and walk briskly to retrieve ammo:

Gunplay at Pentathanerd Biathalon from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Now, while it’s reasonably certain that Manish Shrestha has won the Biathalon’s Bronze medal, there are conflicting accounts of final placement on the upper steps of the medal stand. Pentathanerd judges have noted that Mark Hurlburt’s strong showing doesn’t jibe with how he skipped training and has entered the first two events at the last minute – seemingly on a whim.

One high-placed Pentathnerd judge has also conceded that it was Hurlburt who posted the third-highest score in the Trivial Quiz, thus qualifying for the Friday finals. Still, some have wondered aloud, “Is he a serious competitor?” Others note that he’s kicking some serious ass regardless.

Anyway, the Gold and Silver for The Pentathanerd Winter Games Biathalon almost surely belong to Minh Vu and Hurlburt – but in what order?

We report. You decide.

Trivial, quizzical opening to Pentathanerd Winter Games

Sports fans: If you were worried about surviving the weeklong void between the Super Bowl and Those Other Winter Games, Pentathanerd has your back. Watch and wonder how they do it:

Trivial Pursuit of Pentathanerd Winter Games Glory from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Official results for Day One’s Trivial Quiz:

1^st: Jon Rexeisen – 340 points

2^nd: John Shimeck – 240 points

3^rd: Konr Ness – 190 points

Notably: Justin Hendrickson – negative 220 points

Top three finishers qualify for Friday’s championship round. In this Trivial Quiz Q&A, the answers appear to be redacted but you have a right to know; click on the far left side of the black “redaction” bar (or highlight it entirely) for final wisdom (courtesy of Penthathanerd founder Mark Seemann). The posted Pentathanerd rules are plain and simple and made to be broken.

Next up, Nerf bullets will fly as The Biathalon invades the Great Indoors (not in the face, Cheney.) Other events: LEGO Luge; Snow Sculpture/Snowflake Contest; Hardware Teardown/Rebuild; and Trivial Finals.

And until the mainstream media wakes up to what the people want, we will continue to provide exclusive coverage of The Pentathanerd Winter Games. Complete coverage at http://pentathanerd.com.

Perfect for your nerdy Valentine

Spotted over at Dingbat Press, and perfect for the nerd in your life (or the one you want in your life).

And one more:

From Pop + Shorty.

An infographic of famous high school film nerds

I, of course, just clipped out my favorite film nerd (Lloyd Dobbler from “Say Anything”) from this Time Line of Film’s Favorite High School Nerds. You’ll have to look at the whole graphic to see if your favorite is there. Did he/she make the cut?

Nerdery Class of 2009

(a few of our nerds were inadvertently excised thanks to a software glitch, but let’s not speak of that lest we bring up some deep-seated feelings of inferiority)

Yes, Linus, there is a Great Pumpkin

There is still time for you to feel the power of democracy and VOTE in our Nerdiest Pumpkin Contest.

The Great Pumpkin, Nerdery Style from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

The winner will be announced at 4:30 at our Friday Bottle Cap Talk. There are two ways to vote: be here at The Nerdery to stuff the ballot box, or, leave a comment below.

School of rock star computer scientists

The Nerdery is twice as picky about hiring programmers as Harvard is about admitting students, according to our fact sheet, making it true. Harvard’s acceptance rate is 8% while we hire about 4% of applicants, putting us in an Ivy League of our own. Still, we need more and more nerds.

We’re looking right at you, graduates of Neumont University. There will be no “What’s your major?” icebreaking banter, either; we know full well Neumont only offers computer science degrees through an accelerated two-and-a-half-year program. Our current Nerdery class will tell you that the gig here is an accelerated learning program in-and-of itself.

By 2016, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the need for more than 324,000 new software engineers. All we want is half. However, the Computer Research Association reported that major universities awarded just 10,000 computer science degrees last year. This Red Bull’s for you, Neumont.

“We don’t have sports, we don’t have some of the extras. If that’s a compromise, it’s one that results in a fast launch into an exciting career,” says Neumont president Ned Levine.

Pssst, hey kids, if you missed out on sports in college, the Pentathanerd Winter Games are coming (beware of the Ides of January).

The care and feeding of nerds

Just so you don’t think all we do is tinker with video games and train for Pentathanerd, for the record, we’re as busy building websites as we’ve ever been. Our sales staff is coming off of record month, which means this month developers are keeping strange hours (it also means we’re hiring). I came into The Nerdery the other morning to see programmers crashed-out on couches. This is home, these days, for about 60 ridiculously talented developers who’ll need some shut-eye before our next Overnight Website Challenge.

So this morning, our sales and marketing staff cobbled together the most important meal of the day as a small token of our appreciation for those who best personify The Nerdery. Then we showed no mercy by going back to the selling and marketing of The Nerdery.