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Geek Pride Day and Other Personal Holidays

Alex Libman's Photo Alex Libman 18 May 2010

The Geek Pride Day is just one week away!



Other major holidays on my calendar:

  • February 2nd - Philosophy Day (Ayn Rand's birthday).
  • March 25th - Positive Population Growth Day (Norman Borlaug's birthday).
  • September 13th - Programmers' Day (or September 12 on leap years - 256th day of the year), for me probably the biggest holiday of the year.
  • December 25th - Physics Day (Isaac Newton's birthday, Julian calendar).

Please post if you're doing anything for Geek Pride Day, and what other weird new holidays you celebrate.
Edited by Alex Libman, 18 May 2010 - 12:41 AM.
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niner's Photo niner 18 May 2010

I celebrated DNA day (4/23, of course) by getting $800 off on the purchase of two genome SNP scans from 23andMe!
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e Volution's Photo e Volution 18 May 2010

I celebrated DNA day (4/23, of course) by getting $800 off on the purchase of two genome SNP scans from 23andMe!

So lucky, still so sour I missed that!

For a couple years running now I have participated in Talk Like a Pirate Day and 4/20 and May the Force (May 4th) be with you day (Star Wars Day) ...I guess the upcoming nerd day is obligatory now
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Alex Libman's Photo Alex Libman 25 May 2010

HAPPY GEEK PRIDE DAY!

What, are you wondering how I made all those pretty colors? Very easy, actually, I just wrote this little function in Python to add the color codes for me:

def Colorize (s):
	AllLetterColors = [
		'green', 'blue', 'darkred', 'darkgreen', 'purple',
		'red', 'brown', 'navy', 'cyan', 'olive'
	]
	PunctColors = [
		'silver', 'gold', 'orange'
	]
	LetterColors = []
	LastLetterColor = ''
	Out = ''
	for c in s:
		if not LetterColors:
			LetterColors = AllLetterColors [ : ]
			random.shuffle (LetterColors)
			while LetterColors[-1] == LastLetterColor:
				random.shuffle (LetterColors)
		if c in string.punctuation:
			PunctColor = random.choice (PunctColors)
			c = '[color=%s]%s[/color]' % (PunctColor, c)
		elif c not in string.whitespace:
			LastLetterColor = LetterColors.pop()
			c = '[color=%s]%s[/color]' % (LastLetterColor, c)
		Out += c
	return Out

Total waste of time? Not really, it only took me a couple of minutes, and it helped me connect with my inner nerd / geek - and that's precisely how you celebrate the Geek Pride Day!

So, is anyone else doing anything special today?
:)
Edited by Alex Libman, 25 May 2010 - 07:17 PM.
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Shannon Vyff's Photo Shannon Vyff 25 May 2010

Wow, is there a nerd pride day too? I'm kinda sad, my kids call me a nerd and my husband a geek--so where is my day? :)
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niner's Photo niner 26 May 2010

Alex, that post rocked! Happy GPD!

Shannon, what's the difference between a geek and a nerd?
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Luna's Photo Luna 26 May 2010

nerds have glasses and things coming out of their nose. geeks are smart and waste their talent playing computer games all day :)

at least, that's how it is in the movies! Shannon breaks the theory ^^
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Alex Libman's Photo Alex Libman 26 May 2010

I think those terms are interchangeable. Notice that the title of that first YouTube video says "Nerd" while the Wikipedia entry says "Geek" Pride Day. Even if there is some distinction between those terms, I think this holiday should celebrate the full Nerd-Geek continuum, from infantile cartoons to "positronic" brain emulators to cutting-edge real-world science and engineering. Speaking of which, check out the links to 2010 celebrations, and these new vids:









Full spectrum indeed!


PS: Browncoats forever!
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Shannon Vyff's Photo Shannon Vyff 26 May 2010

Well, our definitions are that Geeks like gaming, D&D and know a lot of computer programming, hacking and such and Nerds know a lot about a wide variety of topics and are the snotty know-it-alls in group discussions or parties. Nerds know a lot of science and Geeks tend to know more cultural references, in particular in comedy, gaming & sci-fi. Nerds are a bit more social, Geeks are a bit more introverted. The terms are subjective though :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerd

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek
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