In college I wrote a number of poems that were dumb funny (hey, I’m consistent in my approach). With a few I actually tried to be sweet, like to woo my then-girlfriend. I know I’m not a good poet, but I enjoy writing these little things. And I found this self-hating one funny. This one is called “Reaction” and it was a poem about my then-girlfriends reaction to all the bad poetry coming her way.
If I had to guess, this poem was probably written to get her to say she did like my poetry.
Reaction
I’m sick, sick, sick of your “poetry”
Great. Another five year old’s rhyme, written for me.
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Why do boyfriends think they’re unique?
Bad poems by a math guy? You made my week.
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Do me a favor, please, take your time.
It’s not necessarily good if you make it rhyme.
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Haven’t you noticed the hints when you read to me?
Big yawns, my staring at the clock, longingly!?
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It’s not just boredom, it’s even my health
My eyes have rolled so much I’m stuck looking at myself.
Sticking with the trend of announcing that I do online dating – I’m going to announce a few other geeky facts about me. I hid these things from most people, but no more!
Maybe it’s that I work with uber-geeks, so these things almost seem normal to me … but here goes.
In elementary school, grades 3 through 6 actually, my favorite thing was heading to my friend Mike’s house and playing a Star Wars role-playing game (RPG to those in the know). This wasn’t a video game, this was actual dice. HELL YEAH!
Mike’s older brother would sort of MC the event, the ‘dungeon-master’ of sorts (yes, I just said dungeon master). We used Star Wars Micro Machines to set the stage visually. You know, roll the dice, you walk X spaces … move the little guy. Someone looks suspicious, I use my charisma (yep) and manage to find out they’ve got a thermal detonator (that’s right) in a bag. Apparently a Hutt (I went there) has that guy in a bind. Look at that, geekiness.
In fact I remember one night Mike had a group of guys over to spend the night. I was a year younger than Mike so that always made me feel out of place and uncomfortable, so David (the older brother) and I did this RPG game for a chunk of time. I could justify it by thinking, ‘well David was bored, I’m being nice and entertaining him.’ Really I just wanted to play Star Wars, and didn’t want to hang out with Mike’s friends. A win-win.
Seriously, playing that was a blast.
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A different topic, but still geekdom – I’ve dreamt code.
You see, if I am working on something a lot, and then I go to bed shortly after that – it gets into my dreams. Normally I don’t remember my dreams at all. It’s only if I wake up suddenly that anything occurs to me.
But one night in college, and for a while during this one thing I was working on in California (what a very specific description, huh?) – I dreamt code. It wasn’t anything good, and it didn’t make sense, but I would wake up and have visions of lines of code.
One night I woke up quite suddenly and very vividly this line was in my head: “the answer is k.” That night I dreamt about math equations.
Do you know how terrible it is to dream about math equations, and code?
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You are yourself, and you expect/hope to be normal – so I think my way of looking at things/thinking is how everyone works. I know now that this isn’t exactly true, but it still is beyond my mind to grasp how other people approach/see/analyze things. However, I really enjoy seeing the differences – which shows my non-engineering side.
My dad is an engineer also (am I technically an engineer? I don’t know. I’m computer science, so take that as you will) – so my family had a joke email file downloaded on our computer. I remember listening to this thing in either middle school or high school. It was a sound byte with a serious sounding man talking to a concerned mother. The mother was concerned about her son’s social skills.
“He has … the knack.”
Actually I was trying to remember this, and I figured ‘why not Google it?’ and wha-la! I found it! Apparently it was from Dilbert. See it here –
I don’t have the take stuff apart/figure out mechanical things really … but I do have the social aspect of it. And, if nothing else tells you I’m geeky, it’s that I found that Dilbert cartoon very funny.
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I’ll end with this little story. It’s a favorite of my family’s about me.
When I was X years old, I took all of my toys and … what else would an X year old do? I lined them up, in pairs, from biggest to smallest (generally not in size, but still the line was there) starting in my room and heading out to the hall.
I asked my mom to described this, since I don’t remember it, and she said, “oh, that was just the way you played – you were very … methodical. It wasn’t just trucks, it was everything you had. They all had to line up.”
Also, we had a maid at that time. I apparently got very upset when she messed with my line of trucks/cars. From my mom, “she may not have understood your words – but she understood what you were after.” (i.e. Don’t mess with my line.)
DumbFunnery 