Some of my friends are complete nerds. And they would proudly choose such a title. A recent email conversation:
P. 1: Are you the commenter called “P. Ruckman” on Adam Bailie’s blog? I always wanted to be friends with P. Ruckman.
P. 2: In the literal grammatical sense of the normal space/time continuum we traditionally think of as "reality" (yes, I know, we arbitrarily define it according to our own finite perceptions and our own intricately warped worldviews), no. But that's just the problem. You're thinking in the traditional Western either/or mindset. And look where that worldview brought us. Auschwitz, the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, the nuclear bomb, Fred Phelps, the Stonewall riots. Posit the existence of both/and reality. Am I P. Ruckman? Are you P. Ruckman? Am I not P. Ruckman? Shall I project a reality? You see, everything is interrelated. I am P. Ruckman, you are P. Ruckman, all is one, all is everything, all is nothing, all is P. Ruckman. You can be, you are, friends with P. Ruckman. So, since you've always wanted to be friends with me (P. Ruckman), does that mean you're buying me coffee today?
P. 1: I'm not buying you coffee today, but P. Ruckman is buying for all/both/each/you/Barbra Walters/us.
P. 2: I'm not falling for that. Are you or are you not buying?
P. 1: You are falling into that same Western mindset that you spoke so derisively of minute ago. Your question, "are you or are not buying?" almost seems to imply that there is objective truth. I'm sure that's not what you meant to imply, we both know that the law of non-contradiction is only for fundamentalists.
Your question also implies that there is a fundamental difference between me and coffee--utter foolishness! Seriously, you know that we're all part of the great mother spirit. She doesn't like it when we rip her apart with sentences like "are you buying me coffee?" Hear: I am coffee, you are coffee, your mother is coffee. We are all one, you know that, so no more silly questions.
P. 2: You take the Ryan’s Steakhouse buffet approach to philosophy. You pick and choose ideas. It makes us purists sick. Sick, you hear me? You're just using ideas to get what you want. You don't really love philosophy or believe in any of it. You're just trying to get out of buying me coffee.
P. 1: Listen—could I buy you something that's already yours? The earth is our mother and she's not stingy.
P. 2: You're right. But are the snackshop workers going to be open-minded? They are, after all, caught up in the throes of rank consumerism. They are all white middle-class Westerners firmly rooted in Judeo-Christian tradition. That's a lot of philosophical baggage they're carrying. They're going to want us to trade paper and/or steel ore for the fruit of the coffee trees.
P. 1: Yeah, well we’ll teach them about the mother spirit if they happen to notice that we're not paying
and another celebration of the anniversary of my birth has come and gone. in an attempt to justify my existence I have compiled the following list of my accomplishments from the past year.
lose 10 pounds over Christmas break
be wrestled to the floor by my baby brother (despite my modest size advantage)
visit Canada, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic
start double bass lessons
neglect to ever practice my double bass
use the word “Bunbury” as a verb
make a complete fool of myself on numerous occasions, with witnesses and written records to prove it
rearrange my room for better feng shui
be told that if I have what it takes to look like Napoleon Dynamite
enter a new year without making a single resolution
reread Strunk & White Elements of Style
severely hamper my ability to enjoy complete commitment-less freedom by signing two 2-yr contracts (for phone and for a future job)
use the words “sweet” and “rad” on regular basis
keep going well over a year without ever adding any design elements to my blog
Yes, I'm aware that adding links to other people's blogs isn't really blogging. It's a dismaying lack of creativity, it's shameful, etc. etc. But I really like this entry, from the blog of Jeremy Huggins. His blog, like many blogs, is blocked by the BJU filter. You should be able to get to this though.