Tag Archives: time travel

What are you a nerd about? Epic Weather & Time Travel

It was 103 degrees in Minneapolis on Tuesday. Right now, as I type this, it’s 57 degrees. Up four degrees from the morning’s 53. That’s fifty-degree temperature swing in two days. Minnesota weather is, indeed, epic. But don’t take my word for it, here one of our nerds explains what makes him a nerd and what he likes about Minneapolis. If you dig outrageous weather, time travel, or any other kind of nerdery you can imaging, you should come join us here.

2011 Time Traveler’s Calendar

As you know, nerds like time travel. So when I spotted the 2011 Time Traveler’s Calendar over at Laughing Squid, I knew I had to share it.

The calendar lays out 95 instances of time travel from popular culture (think video games, movies, TV shows) and places them on a single timeline. It’s pretty cool and sure beats that Dilbert calendar you hang in your cube every year.

Profiles in Nerdery: Matt Westerburg and the age-old question, Why Python?

• Astrological Sign: I’m with Kai on this one!
• Time at the Nerdery: I’ve been here since May of last year.
• Area of expertise: Python, Django, C/C++, Assembly
• When people ask you what you do, how do you respond: I’m a programmer that gets to utilize various languages and frameworks to accomplish a client’s needs.
• Favorite kinds of projects to work on: My favorite projects are offline projects. I enjoy web development, but my passion lies in systems programming, language design, embedded systems, and operating system design.
• What one thing about The Nerdery surprises people the most when you tell them about it: Definitely the dogs. People generally find it very cool that it is such a relaxed environment.
• Seven dream Jeopardy Categories: 1. Why Python!; 2.Design Patterns; 3. The Pitfalls of Object Oriented Programming; 4. History of Programming Languages; 5. History of Mathematics; 6. Thai Food; 7. MegaMan Bosses
• Favorite Fictional Nerd: The Time Traveller from H.G. Wells The Time Machine. He remains so nonchalant about the whole time travel thing.
• 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: I do, however I am far more interested in foreign language acquisition.

Profiles in Nerdery: Kai Esbensen, defying witty headlines

1. Astrological Sign: Astrology promotes a lack of critical thinking. Critical thinking saves lives. Ergo, astrology kills. Birthdays, by way of contrast, promote life — mine is St. Valentine’s Day.
2. Time at the Nerdery: At the time of this writing, just about exactly 20 megaseconds.
3. Area of expertise: Proper science test procedure, severe storm morphology, water vapor dynamics, sleep deprivation, and kittens.
4. When people ask you what you do, how do you respond: I cut them off, mid-sentence and say, “Oh yeah? Well, why don’t you tell me what YOU do?” And then before they can respond, I cut them off again and say, “Yeah, that’s what I THOUGHT.” Then we stare awkwardly at one another for a while, until one of us bursts into tears. Pretty soon someone’s mother is called. I forget what happens after that.
5. Favorite kinds of projects to work on: The kind of projects where there’s time travel, and you get to fly under your own power, and you come away from it having gained telekinetic abilities.
6. What one thing about The Nerdery surprises people the most when you tell them about it: The fact that everybody who works here gets their very own executive office suite overlooking the ocean.
7. Seven dream Jeopardy Categories: #1. Tornadoes. #2. Time Signatures and Polyrhythms. #3. Cats I Have Owned. #4. Parents I Have Had. #5. Things I Already Know. #6. Making Out. #7. Bubblemath.
8. Favorite Fictional Nerd: Jordan Cochran, from the movie “Real Genius”, as portrayed by Michelle Meyrink (see Jeopardy list item #6 above).
9. 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: That depends on what you mean by “disambiguation”. Are you talking about the musical group? The traditional dessert? The video game? Or the controversial concept overall, as discussed incessantly in theoretical linguistics?