Tag Archives: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Surprising things you can learn while editing the Periodic Table of Nerdery

If you want your child to grow up to be a nerd (and really who doesn’t?) a good first job might be as a bagboy or grocery store cashier, at least that’s what my research has discovered. Of the 79 nerds profiled for the Periodic Table of Nerdery, eight of them listed their first job as bagboy or grocery store clerk. Good things coming out those grocery stores, huh?

Some other interesting similarities?

• “Real Genius” was the movie the nerds cited most often for favorite fictional nerd.
• Oregon Trail swept the First Internet/Computer memory category, which is kind of awesome since our own John K worked on the program.
• The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were either a favorite Nintendo game, childhood heroes, or favorite fictional nerd (a shocking upset since I was sure MacGyver would sweep that one).
• No/Can’t was the most popular word/noise to hate, which should give you a lot of insight into the nerdy mindset.
• In the comicbook realm, Superman beat out both Batman and Spiderman for most childhood hero mentions. Batman does deserve some props for getting one fan to talk about “superpower-wielding sallys,” which totally made this blogger laugh out loud.

What have you learned from the Periodic Table of Nerdery that surprised or delighted you the most?

One of my favorites? The Scrooge McDuck quote as best advice.

Profiles in Nerdery: Jeff Klawiter, .NET ninja

Before we get started you should know Jeff is going to be speaking on April 4, 2009 (that’s Saturday, folks) at Twin Cities Code Camp. Jeff will be talking about Increasing Your Productivity with Visual Studio. Jeff will also be speaking May 14th at the Twin Cities Languages User Group on Small Basic.

Now, on with the show.

• Astrological Sign: Virgo and for some reason I tend to date Scorpio’s which are my worst match.
• Time at the Nerdery: 4 years, 2 months, 21 days since Jan 3rd 2005 (I’m an old fart)
• Area of expertise: If you asked any new programmers at Sierra Bravo they would say .NET, which is a large area itself. I could be considered an expert in .NET Compact Framework, WinForms and ASP.NET. Before being a .NET developer I worked for 6 years as a PHP developer which is how I started my career at Sierra Bravo. I’m also well versed in Linux and Windows administration and ran my own computer repair business for a while too.
• When people ask you what you do, how do you respond: I talk too much covering all the different things I do. Then I shut up and try to elaborate upon the cool things like vending machines that order themselves full. See Mark Seeman’s response for more detail.
• Favorite kinds of projects to work on: It changes, these days I’m really digging working with Rich Interactive Apps in Silverlight or on Surface. Normally I enjoy working on behind the scenes projects like tweaking a custom TCP protocol client or doing fancy things mining data from various sources.
• What one thing about The Nerdery surprises people the most when you tell them about it: I had some family over recently that were surprised we got any work done with all the toys laying around.
• Seven dream Jeopardy Categories: 1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; 2. RPG Video Games; 3. Astrophysics; 4. Anime; 5. Obscure Metal Bands; 6. Maple Syrup; and 7. Polish Cuisine.
• Favorite Fictional Nerd: Donatello, even the smart one can kick some ass.
• According to the Wikipedia entry on Nerd, some nerds show a pronounced interest in subjects which others tend to find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend, or overly mature for their age, especially topics related to science, disambiguation, mathematics and technology. Do you know what disambiguation is: Yes I do; The process of separating specific items out of a common term or group (yes, that’s my totally made up, trying to sound like a dictionary response).