Geeks on Ice

[double3s]

A subconversation on the inside 3 turn thread has made me curious -

How many of you skaters are sciencey nerd/geeks? Not just computer geeks, or people who work in a technical field, or just the I'm not cool kind of nerd, but the kind of nerd/geek who reads science books for fun, or enjoys taking apart things to see how they work? The kind who has an analytical mind and applies to everything, including skating?

One of the things I love most about skating is that it engages my mind just as thoroughly as my body, and I'm never bored (like I am with pretty much any other form of exercise). As someone who lives so completely in her head, it's difficult for me to "just skate" or to "listen to my body" - I'm always analyzing, thinking (enjoying) all the detail of edge and force and mass and torque, etc. Very very rarely (usually when dancing with my coach) my head switches off and my feet take over and I just do it without thinking. It's exhilarating. (And then I spent ages analyzing why I was able to experience it without thinking about it!)

Anyway, just wondering - who else is a card carrying member of the geek squad??

[Rusty Blades]

Wanna seek my card?

I over-analyze everything - I know it, my coach knows it! The biggest challenge is to just DO it!

We have had threads like this in other places and there are an amazing number of the scientific types who figure skate.

[Sessy]

I am. I'm pretty geeky.

For fun, I took Latin, Internet&Liability, Law&Technology and Roman law, physics I took cuz it was easy. For fun, I read stuff like translation of papyrus of Ani or about the dynasties of ancient Egypt. I watched Stargate; SG1, Star Trek, Babylon, etc. I type HTML off the top of my head and I used to go to medieval fairs. Plus glasses of course (and I'm not a candidate for laser or lenses).

It's really helping me with the skating though. I take group lessons so you'd be surprised how much I figured out by myself.
I never have the problem with "just do it" though, it's just that something needs to click in my head first, and then I CAN just do-it.

[kayskate]

Okay. I'm in.

Kay

[PhysicistOnIce]

I normally lurk, but had to reply to this one.

I think the username says it all, really.

[blue111moon]

I guess I am, since I'm a USFS Accountant and employed in a technical field.

But compared to a lot of the accountants I've met, I'm probably only about a 4 or 5 on the Geek Scale. :)

[liz_on_ice]

Count me in. Especially the part about skating being the only exercise that doesn't get boring *fast*.

[Sessy]

Actually, dancing (ballroom, latin - not ballet) keeps the mind as occupied as skating does, and some years ago a bunch of researchers measured brain activity of dancers and came to the conclusion that the entire brain was working, unlike in other sports. I'm gonna guess the same is for skating.

[Derek]

I am up there too, career as an engineer, now working in a college, teaching electrical stuff. The thing I like about skating though, is how it seems to free my mind, but I can't help analysing everything that goes on.

[icedancer2]

Although I'm a veterinarian I would not say that I am your typical geek at all. (Probably the undergraduate Art History degree...) - but I like technical things to a certain degree, otherwise I would not be so successful in my career (!).

When it comes to skating I do like the technique, but the discussion of torque left me, well.... hanging...:giveup:

[fsk8r]

Another engineer who can analyse skating with the best of them, but i much prefer just doing it. There's a strange inner peace just doing edges and moves for hours.

[jazzpants]

How many of you skaters are sciencey nerd/geeks? Not just computer geeks, or people who work in a technical field, or just the I'm not cool kind of nerd...<fake shock of horror>WHA!?!?! I'm not geeky enough??? We computer science people go thru 3 semesters of college level calculus and 2 semesters of physics (with calculus) and engineering clases and we're not geeky enough? And all that just so I end up testing software for developers and being told I'm not geeky enough!?!?! 8O WELL, I never!!! :twisted: </fake shock of horror>

:lol: :lol: :lol:

BTW: I actually need a little bit of both to get me to learn skating. Yeah, I need the demonstration in order to see what's going on and try to mimick it. That's my primary coach's job! But I also need the analysis and having stuff broken down into small exercise I can practice to slowly get me to the point where I will finally do the jump, spin, 3turns, FO mohawks, etc. That's why I have a secondary coach...

[black]

a card carrying

You mean like... like... hardcopy?? 8O 8O :lol: :lol:

[2loop2loop]

Yup (patent attorney) :lol:

[renatele]

Count me in.

[blackmanskating]

A subconversation on the inside 3 turn thread has made me curious -

How many of you skaters are sciencey nerd/geeks? Not just computer geeks, or people who work in a technical field, or just the I'm not cool kind of nerd, but the kind of nerd/geek who reads science books for fun, or enjoys taking apart things to see how they work? The kind who has an analytical mind and applies to everything, including skating?

One of the things I love most about skating is that it engages my mind just as thoroughly as my body, and I'm never bored (like I am with pretty much any other form of exercise). As someone who lives so completely in her head, it's difficult for me to "just skate" or to "listen to my body" - I'm always analyzing, thinking (enjoying) all the detail of edge and force and mass and torque, etc. Very very rarely (usually when dancing with my coach) my head switches off and my feet take over and I just do it without thinking. It's exhilarating. (And then I spent ages analyzing why I was able to experience it without thinking about it!)

Anyway, just wondering - who else is a card carrying member of the geek squad??


I think I have my geek squad card in my wallet somewhere. LOL Most of my family thinks that I'm a nerd. I've always been a avid book reader and yes I am a computer geek. 8-) While I may not have suspenders and a pocket protector, I do have a very analytical mind. It's something that my coach constantly reminds me of. He knows me so well, he can tell when I am analyzing a skating element and cuts off my train of thought before I can finish it. Usually he does this by saying, "Now, I don't want you to think about it; just let your body feel the element." This is where I typically start to get frustrated because I have no clue what he means. But there are times when the body takes over the brain and I do things I never thought I could.


BlackManSkating

[sue123]

I picked up an old biochem text today, probably about 20-25 years old, just to see how much has changed. But in my defense, it was 5 book for $3.79 from the used book store, and I had found 4 books I wanted, so it didn't make sense to pay $4 for 4 books when the 5th one would make the whole thing cost less. But I think that may qualify me as a nerd.

[Isk8NYC]

I am a computer geek, but I love science fiction, food science (think Alton Brown) and fixing things. My DH refers to me as an engineer regularly. I'm the staff geek for the admissions department of an engineering university.

But, alas, I am no physics whiz - when I took my first high school class my bells never rang, the lights never lit. I'm terrified of electrical shocks, thanks to a careless brother who's an electrical engineer, so I use a lot of handtools. lol

[Sessy]

Blackmanskating, this one's for you: (and all the other geeks too!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw

[Bill_S]

Heh, I LIKE this question!

Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. Three patents under my belt when I left the field. Last title held in that field was Research Scientist while at Battelle Memorial Institute.

I'm typing this listening to a pair of loudspeakers and amplifiers I built this summer -- and they are VERY geeky speakers (look up Linkwitz Pluto loudspeakers).

I sharpen my own skates, measure how much metal is removed in a sharpening session, keep blade profile tracings to see if the rocker is being flattened, etc. I fuss over stainless steel mounting screws vs. cad plated, and order 100-count boxes of the right screws to have on hand.

I must admit that I've forgotten most of my calculus and differential equations, but golly, I STILL have the punch cards for the Fortran programs I wrote in college. (Yeah, I'm a packrat geek).

I still have a sliderule too. I'm a bona fide GEEK!

[Derek]

I must admit that I've forgotten most of my calculus and differential equations, but golly, I STILL have the punch cards for the Fortran programs I wrote in college. (Yeah, I'm a packrat geek).

I still have a sliderule too. I'm a bona fide GEEK!

Gosh you have got me going now ! When I was doing my apprenticeship, I was writing control software in octal on a Digital PDP8 computer thing, for analysing field data gathered off tractors (I was a mechanical engineer, not a computer person). This was in the UK, whilst some guy across the Atlantic was doing similar geeky stuff ... you may have heard of him - Bill Gates? Guess I was just in the wrong place ... :lol:

Never found a sliderule that worked in octal ...

[momsk8er]

Yep, geek here too. Love math, science fiction, computers, and reading. Very visual learner, but need the verbal, technical explanation to correct my mistakes. I'm an attorney biologist, or maybe a biologist attorney. Never sure.

[myste12]

You can put me on the geek list too.

Right now, I'm contemplating a double major in math and physics because I just can't decide which one is more fun!

I also have math books on my Christmas list. After all, I'll need something to keep me occupied between skating sessions over winter break...

[sexyskates]

I'm a veterinarian, so of course I have all the science background. I usually have to understand the physics involved in order to grasp a concept in figure skating. However, I love the artistic side, feeling the music, and the lovely costumes, so not really a geek - except that I read all my vet journals, and I always listen to lectures on diverse subjects while driving (the Great Courses tapes and CD's that you can take out of the library - everything from History of the Supreme Court to Philosophy or learning a foreign language) - is that geeky?

[Emberchyld]

Me too. Mechanical Engineer (in the medical device industry).

And if you want REAL proof of my geekiness... I've been to Star Trek conventions.... *shhhhhhh*8O

Skating's a real release because I have to concentrate soooooo hard on it that my brain isn't allowed to think about anything else. It's "mentally restful", in a way. But it peeves me to no end that I understand WHAT I have to do (physics-wise), but my body just won't do it!

[Rusty Blades]

... it peeves me to no end that I understand WHAT I have to do (physics-wise), but my body just won't do it!

Ok fellow geeks and geekettes, there we have a project - the translation of the "what" into action, bypassing the interface between the brain and the body's biomechanics!

[LilJen]

Saw the thread title and thought for sure it was now my dream come true--a whole ice show devoted to nerdiness!! (There was some discussion in another forum about which skaters were "nerds" or "geeks" after a post-Olympics fanvid came out with Matt Savoie described as "artsy and nerdy" or something like that.)

I don't know how science-y nerdy I am any more (had aspirations to become a vet but naah). I used to watch Nova all the time and I remember watching Carl Sagan's series "Cosmos" (is that what it was called?) with my mom, but physics was my least favorite scientific subject (human biology all the way!!!). However, I do read scientific studies for a living. I read my National Geographics cover to cover (unless an article is about insects or spiders). I've read many "great books" in the last several years just because I didn't get to read/study them in college and really wanted to. I married a total computer/tech geek. (Who hauled me to a sci-fi convention once, on a 'surprise date.' Wow, was that an eye-opener.)

Oh, and I play the violin.

Am I in the club?

I still want to see some elite skater do an exhibition to "White and Nerdy," by the way. Jeff Buttle would do : )

[Scarlett]

Raises hand. Count me in. I'm in a medical field, love to scuba dive, am a huge reader and actually enjoyed the renaissance festival this year after my engineer boyfriend dragged me there.

[kander]

[quote=Emberchyld;345020]
And if you want REAL proof of my geekiness... I've been to Star Trek conventions.... *shhhhhhh*8O

Heh heh, so have I 8-) Here are my qualifications:

1) I'm a computer engineer and work with rocket scientists (literally)
2) Star Trek and Star Wars were major influences on my life growing up
3) I own the very first copy of Justice League of America from 1962 as one of the jewels in a comic book collection that is worth around 7 or 8 grand
4) I strikeout with women
5) I've met and had my picture taken with:
5.1 William Shatner
5.2 Leonard Nimoy
5.3 Nichelle Nichols
5.4 George Takei
5.5 Walter Koenig
5.6 The guy who played "Jaws" in the James Bond movies
5.7 The chick who played the Romulan commander in the episode where Kirk steals the cloaking device
5.7 Last and certainly not least, I've met catwoman!!! Yes, Lee Meriweather. Meeee-ow!
6) I still have a commodore VIC 20
7) Superman is my hero (I have a superman figure in the backseat of my car at all times)
8) I too can get my hands on a slide rule
9) My cat is named "Tycho". The one before him was "Galileo". The next one will be "Hubble"
10) I enumerate my geeky qualities in logical fasion
11) When I visit new cities I head for the museums (and rinks) and not the bars or night spots.
12) I live on junk food (not quite sure how I'm still alive)
13) Did I mention I strikeout with women? When they aren't looking through me, they look at me and go, "Eeewwww, a geek!"
14) I have a 12 year old twinkie on my desk at work. It's sort of a science experiment.
15) I loved the movie, "Revenge of the Nerds". I know the lyrics to the title song by heart..."If they call you dork, a spaz or a geek stand up and be proud don't be meek! Hey beautiful people haven't you heard, the time has come for revenge of the nerds...."

Kevin

[singerskates]

Blackmanskating, this one's for you: (and all the other geeks too!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw

One of you should skate to that music. It's really funny.

I never got past grade 9 science because well, at the time you had to take biology. I was allergic to the formaldehyde that was in the biology room and just couldn't breathe in there when I went to check out the subject, just before I was to decide what I would take for grade 10. I didn't know I was asthmatic then. They wouldn't let me take physics course without taking biology course first. Now they do but back then they wouldn't. I did have a A in science back in grade 9 without studying.

My brain does want to know the reason, cause and effect for each thing I do on the ice, especially when I make a mistake on the ice. My secondary coach is great in telling me all this. And it really helps.

I work on my computer to edit and remaster music. I play recorder, flute, guitar, electric bass, violin and keyboard.

The only way that made sense to me when learning to read was to add the letter sounds together because it was more like math. Also grammer is easy for me as well because grammer uses words/parts of speech to make sentences in the same way an equation uses numbers and/or letters.

I took university bound math in highschool even though I was only going to go to college just because I found the college bound math borring and too easy.

Accounting Certificate from college. If I didn't have children I was going to become a CGA (certified general accountant). I've two children.

Forgot to add: When I was dating my husband our song that we both like and to which we roller bladed was "She Blinded Me With Science" by Thomas Dolby. I dare any of you male geeks to use "She Blinded Me With Science" for your interpretive FS. Would love to see it too, if I could.

[Sessy]

Kander, I'll see your "major influence by Star Trek" on your life, and I'll raise with these photos of myself:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/117/280138776_a0346a51d9.jpg
Oh yeah I wanted to be like Janeway so much I wanted her hairdo and drew pics of her during classes:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/121/280152966_67015fee71.jpg
I also was a fan of the Robert Beltran messageboard...

My boyfriend and I recently discussed how to make a home stargate on the wall. We thought maybe build it against the wall, we thought put coloured LED-lights on the back of it so to project a water-ripple on the wall... ROTFLMAO. What do you guys think?

OH OH OH!!! Do any of you know Sev Trek?!!!!!

I'm loving this thread.

[tidesong]

Well I tend to think less of the word torque but I do analyze alot of things on the ice. Alot has become 3-D concepts in my head now. Like the state I should be in before a jump, during and after a jump.
I have two states on the ice. One where I do things with understanding, the other where I just do it. It is possible for me not to analyse but I am not sure which is better to be analytical or not.

[jazzpants]

And if you want REAL proof of my geekiness... I've been to Star Trek conventions.... *shhhhhhh*8O Pssst. Does getting dragged into Star Trek conventions b/c DH was a Trekker count? (Is "trekker" now the right term? I was told "trekkie" is passe?)

One of the two times I was dragged into going to a Star Trek convention by hubby was when Patrick Stewart was there! I didn't get to meet Patrick Stewart or get an autograph (it wasn't allowed), but I did get his attention -- I asked him during the Q&A "How does it feel to be a sex symbol?" (This erupted into HUGE amounts of applause, cheers and laugher. I *know* there was a section of women who thought that he's hot, even though he's bald. It's that d*** British accent, I tell 'ya!!!) When he was leaving, I waved a pen and a book. He politely declined with a "no" head shake. I get the "Shucks!!!" gesture and he just gives me smile like "Awwww, I'm so sorry!!!" I think the other time I got an autograph from Wil Wheaton and the actress who played Deanna Troy just as they were starting on the Next Generation.

I can vouch for Kevin's comic book collection -- he used to always been on eBay going at those auctions!!! I think I contributed one of the Justice League comic once for Christmas. (And coin collection too! Don't forget that!!! NOTHING speaks nerd more than coin and stamp collecting.)

As for strikin' out with the women... Kevin, can't help 'ya there... though I did recall one of our mutual male friends slipping you his digits in your shoe at the rink, so you can't be all THAT bad! :twisted: :P :lol:

[patatty]

I'm pretty nerdy too - I'm a patent attorney with a chemistry degree, and my coach is alway telling me that I over-analyze everything. I would probably be a better skater if I could shut off my mind while skating!

[Geek Skater]

Geek And Proud Of It!

[flo]

Yup. Very much a geek - but a more feeling than technical skater.

[Rusty Blades]

.... REAL proof of my geekiness...

I read and UNDERSTOOD Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" 8O I wanted SO much to go into Physics but one can't make a living selling Quarks and electrons at a corner shop so I went into the related field of electronics. If I ever go back to university it will be for a degree in Physics!

[PhysicistOnIce]

I wanted SO much to go into Physics but one can't make a living selling Quarks and electrons at a corner shop so I went into the related field of electronics.

I'm not doing too badly selling muons and neutrinos, so there would appear to be a market out there somewhere. Its enough to keep me in skating lessons, anyway. :)

[jazzpants]

I'm not doing too badly selling muons and neutrinos, so there would appear to be a market out there somewhere. Its enough to keep me in skating lessons, anyway. :)
Then my DH is going into the wrong research in physics then. He can't get a job in physics either, so now he's a computer geek like me. (He studied astrophysics... and hates being in the computer field too, b/c it's BORING to him. Yeah, I don't blame him either! I'd rather be a musician myself but you know what they say about "starving musicians" and all.)

[Bill_S]

There are two other serious adult skaters here beside myself. Here's an excerpt from the resume of one of them. She's one of US!

Main Field: Theoretical Nuclear Physics

Current Research Interests:
Few-Nucleon Systems
Relativistic Effects in Few-Body Systems
Nuclear Reactions at Intermediate Energies
High Performance Computing

Selected Research Work:
Relativistic Three-Body Scattering
Operator form of 3H (3He) and its Spin Structure
Three-Body Scattering - Break-up Reactions
Study of Three-Body Forces in a Three-Body Bound State
Deuteron Spin Configurations
Incoherent Photoproduction of Eta-Meson from Deuterium near Threshold
Nuclear Reactions at Intermediate Energies

PhysicistOnIce: She's currently in Chicago where you are located doing research during her sabbatical. Have you seen another nuclear physicist on the ice with you? :lol: Is there a secret handshake?

[miraclegro]

I wouldn't call myself a geek as you all do, but i overanalyze EVERYTHING, and i am a part-time children's librarian, so when parents or kids see me at the rink, it totally throws them for a loop, so i thoroughly enjoy the look on their faces! It is pricesless!

[Rusty Blades]

There are two other serious adult skaters here beside myself. Here's an excerpt from the resume of one of them. She's one of US!

Main Field: Theoretical Nuclear Physics

OMG! How come none of my friends have the least interest in physics!?? I thought it wasn't that unusual for a teenage girl to build a 1.5 MeV linear accelerator out of junk in her parent's basement (circa 1967)! :roll:

[Sessy]

You did that?!

(I'm sure I left my jaw lying around here somewhere...)

[Rusty Blades]

You did that?!

I did. It was the greatest collection of "junk"! It started with the electron gun carefully salvaged from a TV picture tube and bits, pieces from an old dental X-ray unit (including a 136KV transformer), and an old refrigeration compressor as a vacuum pump. It grew to about 20 feet long with the addition of a number of high frequency accelerator stages before it out-grew my vacuum pump's ability to keep the atmosphere thin enough to get useful current at the target.

I don't know why, but whenever the lights went out, even if the whole town went out, my mom would holler down stairs and ask me what I did!

Nothing like the smell of ozone in the evening ..... :halo:

[PhysicistOnIce]

PhysicistOnIce: She's currently in Chicago where you are located doing research during her sabbatical. Have you seen another nuclear physicist on the ice with you? :lol: Is there a secret handshake?

I should update my profile, I'm now based back in the UK mostly full time.

My field is actually particle physics, so while I think I can guess where your friend works, I'm not sure that our paths have crossed.

A secret handshake sounds like a good idea!

[Kim to the Max]

Not a big geek, but a little geeky...I was a math major in undergrad along with another major in Sociology...I then got a masters in Education (Higher Education Administration). Last year, I had to stop myself from buying a calculus book from the bookstore...I enjoy the problem solving aspect of it...

I am planning on getting either a second masters or a Ph.D. If I do the second masters, I am thinking about Exercise Science and the Ph.D. would be in either Higher Education Administration or a program here called "Cultural Foundations of Education."

In terms of skating, I can be very technical in my execution (I'm thinking specifically about my moves in the field...brackets in the field and the slide chasse patterns), but I don't need to break everything down. And I'm so not technical and don't over analyze my freestyle....

[kander]

As for strikin' out with the women... Kevin, can't help 'ya there... though I did recall one of our mutual male friends slipping you his digits in your shoe at the rink, so you can't be all THAT bad! :twisted: :P :lol:

Guys don't count! 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O

[kander]

Kander, I'll see your "major influence by Star Trek" on your life, and I'll raise with these photos of myself:


I fold! I never dressed up. :lol: Although Nichelle Nichols once gave me the evil eye for walking out in the middle of a talk she was giving back in the 70s.

Have you ever made the ultimate fan trek to Las Vegas for the big convention they have at the Hilton?

Kevin

[jazzpants]

Guys don't count! 8O

http://www.cosgan.de/images/kao/frech/d030.gif http://www.cosgan.de/images/kao/frech/d015.gif http://www.cosgan.de/images/kao/frech/a055.gif http://www.cosgan.de/images/kao/frech/a010.gif http://www.cosgan.de/images/kao/frech/a025.gif

[Sessy]

I fold! I never dressed up. :lol: Although Nichelle Nichols once gave me the evil eye for walking out in the middle of a talk she was giving back in the 70s.

Have you ever made the ultimate fan trek to Las Vegas for the big convention they have at the Hilton?

Kevin

No, I've never been to America and as long as I keep skating, I doubt I'll have the money to, I think you guys understand! :lol:
(btw those ridges were home-made, I'm too cheap to buy anything - although I did have a Kazon fighter, the Liberty and the Enterprise as scale models before I gave them away when I moved from home to study).

RustyBlades:
You're like WHOA, you're better than McGuyver and Mythbusters combined, you should have your own tv show! AND you skate. McGuyver didn't skate!

[sk8pics]

Okay, I'm in. Research scientist, read science for fun sometimes, big Star Trek Fan. (And Jazzpants, yes, most of my life we have preferred Trekkers, not Trekkies. And Patrick Stewart is hot!)

[Morgail]

Wow! There are a lot science-math minded people here!

(And I'm definitely not one of them! Husband tries to engage me in physics conversations, but my brain cannot comprehend. :lol: I'm more of a history, languages and literature nerd.)

[Rusty Blades]

Guys don't count! 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O

OF COURSE GUYS COUNT! :halo:

[dbny]

I STILL have the punch cards for the Fortran programs I wrote in college. (Yeah, I'm a packrat geek).

I still have a sliderule too. I'm a bona fide GEEK!

I'm geekier than your average skater, but not so geeky as many of you. I took Fortran (offered before class in the AM, no credit, just for fun) in high school, majored in geology in college and spent 30+ years in various aspects of IT (programming, project management, disaster recovery...). I still have a ton of punch cards, high school slide rule, and hard copies of the filk (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/filk) two of our project members wrote on my first big project (great bunch of geeks and assorted oddballs on that one). I read science fiction and science as in the occasional Scientific American, various books on physics and other sciences, the Science Times, the BBC science/nature site (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/default.stm), etc. I just can't seem to connect skating with it though. Maybe it's because I was a skater as a kid and got my tech explanations then, so it's more intuitive now.

[montanarose]

Another lifelong nerd here . . . majored in pre-med; earned my Ph.D. in neuropharmacology and did research before leaving the lab for the joys (?) of being an executive for a pharmaceutical manufacturer. But once a geek, always a geek. One of my fondest dreams is to one day see "Childhood's End" (Clarke's best IMHO) made into a movie (but if they ever try, I'm sure they'll manage to screw it up somehow).

montanarose

[Rusty Blades]

Oh, just thought of something - practical and effective geeking! :roll:

Where I live (WAY out in the back country) we all had dial-up Internet - like 10K thruput on a good day, 8 or 9 disconnects just trying to check your mail - so I got P.O.ed! The phone company refuse to clean up their lines and my ISP shrugged their shoulds and said "Nothing we can do." There ARE solutions!

I did a little research and found there are at least 4 Service Providers who have wireless sites between 12 and 20 miles away. Ran a path profile and determined that I SHOULD be able to get connectivity with enough height so I put up a 68 foot tower. Today the I.S.P.'s installer and I put up a 900 MHz radio on the tower and I now have 1,200 KB connectivity 8O 8O 8O

I have the equipment to set up an access point and distribute some of that bandwidth to my neighbours (on a co-op basis) so now I am busy learning router and access point programming.

GEEK POWER!

[Kim to the Max]

Maybe it's because I was a skater as a kid and got my tech explanations then, so it's more intuitive now.

I agree...I think things are more natural for me and don't need much technical explanation because I skated as a kid...

[jazzpants]

Rusty Blades: :bow: :bow: :bow:

(And yes, I remember the days of 300 bit/s Hayes modems too. I'm not THAT young!!!)

[Sessy]

Rusty Blades, reminds me of the way people way out in Siberia send text messages by wireless phones. They don't have a connection there, but if they throw the telephone way high, it's high up in the air exactly long enough to send a text message. They do it on a hay staple so the telephone won't break if they fail to catch it. Takes some practice but apparently works.
I've always been wondering why they didn't use a pole and raise the telephone by a rope like a flag.

[Emberchyld]

[QUOTE=kander;345103
Have you ever made the ultimate fan trek to Las Vegas for the big convention they have at the Hilton?
[/QUOTE]

Sessy, you win in terms of makeup (the most I've done is Trill makeup-- insanely simple).

Kevin, Vegas seems almost overwhelming! I'll stick to the smaller local cons (I went to cons years ago and, it's funny how the "face" of Trek has changed with some of us Enterprise fans. Very heavy on the # of female fans, esp those of us in, admittedly, snugger clothes. And especially on the days when any of the guys, esp Connor Trineer :yum: are slated to be there. I did get to speak to him for a short period of time, and what a sweetie!)

And, RustyBlades :bow: :bow: :bow: . You win the overall geek skater award. I still remember how you said that you laid out your programs on CAD (that was you, right?)

[Rusty Blades]

I still remember how you said that you laid out your programs on CAD ...

Still do. The coaches think I have some big-time professional choreographer doing my programs ;)

[Sessy]

As in, AutoCad?

[Rusty Blades]

As in, AutoCad?

You be'cha.

One layer for NHL size rink (with markings), one of Olympic, and layers for different parts of the program (so it doesn't get too confusing), layers for "presentation notes", music cues & time, element descriptions, etc. Then I can turn on specific layers for each plot and most 2 to 3 minute routines fit on 2 or 3 sheets.

I find it less confusing and easier to read than hand-scribbled diagrams.

[Sessy]

Wow! I'm jealous. :mrgreen:

I'm supposed to put another programme together myself so I downloaded video's of skaters from youtube, cut pieces of their programmes I liked, put it in a video file and put on different musics I liked to see which would work with it. Not sure if it's gonna work that well thought.

[chowskates]

Wow, this thread has made me realise how normal I am!
I do completely ordinary stuff, like...
- love sci-fi and fantasy novels
- find organic chemistry extremely interesting!
- have a BA and an MS in Math - would have done a PhD but... its a complicated story
- work as an operations research analyst
- program excel to optimise points for the IJS
- explain the concept of CG, trajectories & Newton's Third Law to my students (skating students, that is) though I really don't know how much of that they absorbed.

Oh and I have been trying to teach my baby-to-be how to count, add and multiply. DH says she will pop out with a 3-line solution to Fermat's Last Theorem!

~ Chow

[chowskates]

Blackmanskating, this one's for you: (and all the other geeks too!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw

And for the Star Wars fans... this is brilliant!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-gi4Nt_xxg

[sue123]

Blackmanskating, this one's for you: (and all the other geeks too!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw

I can't ever hear that song without replacing his lyrics with this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y8G4s1yxi0

I found it amusing, my mom just didn't get it.

[Sessy]

LOL! I was talking to a lab assistent who worked at the morgue just yesterday, we were discussing the possibilities of having some people who drink and drive wake up in the morgue between some real bodies.

Is it just me or are people who work in morgues usually kinda disturbed? And do they get that way before, or after?

[rlichtefeld]

I guess I have to be counted in this category also.

I'm currently the Director of Software Development at a small software company, which means I'm the chief programmer. I have a Masters in Industrial Engineering.

I mostly read non-fiction or fantasy - not a lot in between except when combined like Michael Crichton.

I watch most of the geek shows on TV: Bones, Numbers, and Big Bang Theory.

I highly recommend the last for the true geeks. One of the discussions in the pilot episode was whether you'd be upset if you donated sperm to create a child that didn't know whether to use differential or integral calculus to find the area under a curve!

Rob

[GordonSk8erBoi]

Count me in... BS in computer engineering, MS in electrical, been in the computer biz for 22 years almost (eek!). Collect old computers but had to part with many of them in my last move, so I'm down to 25 or 30.

I'm very analytical in my skating and it sometimes drives my coach nuts, but she's very patient. Still, I tend to think it often gets in the way, it's hard to just relax and skate sometimes.

[chowskates]

I watch most of the geek shows on TV: Bones, Numbers, and Big Bang Theory.

I highly recommend the last for the true geeks. One of the discussions in the pilot episode was whether you'd be upset if you donated sperm to create a child that didn't know whether to use differential or integral calculus to find the area under a curve!

Rob

Also, if you catch The IT Crowd - it is hilarious!

[Query]

I fuss over stainless steel mounting screws vs. cad plated.

And I thought titanium screws were where it was at. :D

I'm guilty of prompting this discussion by making a post with a little too much physics:

http://skatingforums.com/showpost.php?p=344581&postcount=10

But you Real Nerds have it all over me. I burned out in college, somehow scraped by with a BA in physics. They said you need another 6 years in grad school and a few more as a post-doc, to get a physics job. Yuk. So I copped out and became a computer geek.

I wrote code for data acquisition and control, optical simulation, ground data processing, orbits, data compression and decompression, lidar, Synthetic Aperture Radar, hyperspectral optical work, and such like. Used various dialects of FORTRAN, Assembly, BASIC, FORTH, APL, IDL, PV-WAVE, and C. Got my name on a few papers - but I was always just writing code.

Some of my stuff ran on ships, airplanes, balloons, blimps and a satellite, so that should make me just as spacey as the Trekkies.

To top off my insanity, I do things a nerd should know better than to try, like skating. Fool! Wish I was good enough to teach it for money. What a great part time job!

Now I'm unemployed. Gotta learn web design to pay the bills. Most of the money that used to pay for "scientific programmers", and scientific research in general, is going to The Current Crusade, which I want nothing to do with.

Unless anyone knows a scientific programming job (part time is fine - more time to skate, etc.) that stays away from that?