Today i was enjoying my daily routine in class, reading an OpenGL book, and drinking wawa coffee, as i always do when i have free time. Anyway, i am really into this book, so i didn't notice this cute blonde girl staring at me, at first. So i looked up at her, and she starts smiling.

When i asked her what she was smiling about, she stated, and i quote

"I never really took you to be a computer nerd."

I quickly responded with, "I never took you to care.", and the conversation was ended as quickly as it had begun. This doesn't happen often, and normally i would have forgot it even happend by now, but it actually got me to thinking....i know, brace yourself!

What is a computer nerd in todays day and age? I mean, there is a computer in almost every home, at least one, and almost everyone knows how to at least open AOL or Internet Explorer. Also, those with more than the common knowledge are given high paying or relatively easy jobs. So are we not Technicians? Specialists? Engineers?

Nerd is to me a word for someone who is considerd an outcast. Nerd was a term associated to the kid who strived to know more, who cut himself off from the world and spent hours in the green glow of his monochrome display in his parents basement all day long. Nerd was a metaphor for those who stood out for their knowledge of what was to come.

But it seems to me, until today, isn't Nerd a term as obsolete as those technologies it was established alongside of? Is nerd not a word that should hurt the heart of those who now fuel some of the technologies that the name - callers use daily and rely on?

I'm sorry if i am mistaken, but its in my opinion that the word Nerd has become an oxymoron. An obselete description of those who run the pc world. Now these "nerds" are good looking men and women who go to work in nice cars (for the most part) and help to run this technology-dependent world we have come to rely on!

Would a jock who slammed "nerds" in lockers refer to a wonderful looking woman behind a laptop as a nerd? Why no, so why us? You rely on us so greatly, we are the future, we are the present, and we are what keep your world going as it does today.

We are not nerds, we are humans. We are intelligent. And we, above all else, deserve your respect. If i am to be called a nerd, i will wear it proudly.

I, am an oxymoron.

[/RANT]