Socially Awkward

Recently I've had several discussions attempting to define the words "dork", "geek" and "nerd." Everyone I've talked to has had a different association with such words. I've always simply assumed they were synonymous. Even the dictionary seems to have a hard time identifying which is which. All things sci-fi, fantasy, comic book, mathmatical and computer-related I associate with those three words (yes, WoW and D&D players, I'm looking your direction).

So how, you ask, can we easily determine what these words signify?

Glad you asked.

I give you, for the first time ever, the How Socially Awkward Are You? Scorecard!! Tally up your scores to see what category you fall into. I'm basing the questions off the dictionary definitions and extending it to other pursuits outside the ones listed above.

* You are able to give an answer to any question regarding the Lord of the Rings and/or Harry Potter franchise. (Nerd)

* You spendmost of your free time researching - anything. (Geek)

* Much of your conversation is "correcting" someone else's conversation. (Geek)

* You don't mind eating anything as long as there's money involved. (Dork)

* When watching comicbook movies, you are not only annoyed or disappointed by the differences from the original comicbook, but you rant about them afterwards (even though you will buy them anyway). (Nerd)

* Your Amazon wishlist includes anything in the sci-fi genre and/or textbooks. (Nerd)

* Impressions of any "Austin Powers" character is in your standard repetoire. (Dork)

* When reading XKCD, you get most of the jokes (without using Google or feigning laughter). (Geek)

* Bathroom humor is your primary source of laughter. (Dork)

* You are able to use the words "Linux", "meme", "avatar" and "bytecode" properly in conversation. (Geek)

* You are unable to differentiate between they're/their/there or you're/your. (Dork)

* Improper grammatics annoy the crap out of you. (Geek)

* Your movie collection includes one or more Star Wars DVDs. (Nerd)

* Your movie collection includes anything with Sean William Scott. (Dork)

* You don't consider Orson Scott Card "true" sci-fi. (Nerd)

* You are more knowledgeable about another timeperiod than your own. (Geek)

* There is a shelf in your house/apartment/parents basement showcasing some kind of collection. (Nerd)

* You spent the better portion of your morning writing a blogpost analyzing the differences between nerds, geeks, and dorks. (Dork)

Score
Mostly Geek: While you are knowledgeable about computers, history, grammatics or math, its hard for you to talk to the opposite sex. On the bright side you can spell properly and will likely be richer than anyone you graduated with.

Mostly Nerd: People love you because you're fun...until you start talking about LOTR or the differences between Spiderman the comicbooks or Spiderman the movie. Even though you can sit through the entire series of Star Trek, I don't recommend it.

Mostly Dork: Geeks and nerds sometimes have a hard time with you, but you likely dated in highschool and can make anyone laugh. But please stop with the impressions - they're getting old.

After scoring myself, I'm mostly a geek, but am slowly gaining "nerd" characteristics. I think this was cemented last night when I excitedly opened an Amazon package and it contained the Firefly series. My "geek"-ness will be more established when my new commentaries come in the mail this week... And when I talk about how excited I am about these things in public, I solidify my dorkiness.

So how socially awkward are you? ;)



(And if you're offended by this, well, I just can't help you.)