Nerdism: Frak!

This all-purpose euphemism hails from the Sci-Fi Channel's reboot of Glen Larson's Battlestar Galactica. Sci-Fi replaced the original show's 1970's disco-tastic trappings with alcoholism, violence, sex, and a multitude of identity crises.

Don't confuse frak with frack. The latter has become a common diminutive reference to hydraulic fracturing, but Battlestar's frak (without the "c") predates the common use of frack by a few years.

Frak is like the Swiss army knife of euphemisms. It can be used as a verb, noun, adjective, or interjection and replaces the equally versatile yet less welcome “f-word” that teachers don't want you to use in class.

Nerd Q&A: How Do I Get a Nerd To Go Out With Me?

Pierre Willemin - Nerd Power

Here's a question I would like to see more often.

I'm a very outgoing woman but I'm attracted to a shy, awkward nerd: how do I get him to go out with me...and maybe take things further?

You may have noticed this already: the majority of nerds are, as you put it, shy and awkward. A lot of nerds don't realize they're attractive, or they're simply insecure, which means they misinterpret signals that other people easily pick up, so they don't typically make the first move.

Nerdism: Meatspace

Sergey Galyonkin - Orlovsky & Occulus Rift

Meatspace -- Refers to real-life, as opposed to the virtual world including social networks, gaming, chat and streaming video.

Meatspace is a fun word that plays on the growing irony of how we have to define our realities. The term originates in science fiction (particularly cyberpunk) as the antonym of cyberspace. We don't use the word cyberspace much anymore, but nerds still like to toy with accepted convention by bending terminology to our whims. Until this century, virtual reality was a science fiction concept, and the most advanced examples of it were clunky toys that no one took seriously. 20th century humans didn't have to preface a meeting with non-virtual, but 21st century people spend a significant amount of time immersed in some sort of digital facsimile of life.

This nerdism hasn't broken into the mainstream yet, but it's more and more applicable every year as people regularly use online services for making friends, chatting, gaming, dating and nearly any other interaction that used to happen only when two people were within touching distance of each other. We're already at a point where it is sometimes necessary to clarify if something happened online or in meatspace, and it's likely we'll soon have to specify that our friends join us at the Starbucks in meatspace, rather than using their smartphone or Oculus Rift.

Nerd Entertainment: Games

Thomas Quine - Games Table

Games have been around as long as people, possibly longer, since even animals play, and everyone is familiar with how much fun (and how frustrating) games can be, but nerds often become heavily involved in games that other people may not have even heard of. Sometimes this involvement can seem obsessive, but there’s a deeply rewarding aspect of gaming that encourages this level of involvement, and games provide a safe context for social interaction that can grow beyond the playing surface.

All games have certain characteristics that make them appealing, even if they might look odd at first glance. If you're willing to give them a chance, you might find that you enjoy the same things your nerd friend does. There is a solid sense of achievement when you beat a game's level, or manage to overcome the obstacles and win, something that is less tangible in real life. Story is a large part of many of the games nerds prefer—although the plot might be thin in some of the tabletop games or paintball—and it's the sense of progression from one plot point to the next (again, often difficult to find in real life) that adds to the sense of achievement. Games that involve multiple players offer an opportunity to socialize around a common interest, and compete without fear of long term fallout. Of course, plain old fun is a huge part of the attraction.

Nerdism: One of us. One of us.

Still from Tod Browning's Freaks

It can be a little creepy to find yourself surrounded by a table full of nerds clacking their cutlery and chanting “one of us” but this eerie ritual is usually intended as a sign of acceptance, a way for the group to embrace a new member.

While it’s entirely benign, when done properly the chant should raise goosebumps, for good reason. It originates from the bizarre 1932 horror film Freaks, a movie that illustrates the gaping chasm separating the beautiful people from the weirdos. Which explains why nerds have co-opted the mantra. 

The film stars a cadre of real life side-show performers who portray an ersatz family of circus freaks. When the beautiful trapeze artist Cleo marries one of the circus midgets, the rest of the freaks welcome her into their midst during an unforgettable wedding banquet scene. The freaks begin tapping their knives and forks on the table and chanting

One of us, one of us.

Unfortunately, Cleo doesn’t want to be a freak and throws a glass of champagne at them.

(It’s probably best if you don’t follow her example.)

If you want to impress your companions, chant along:

One of us, one of us.
Gooble gobble, Gooble gobble.
We accept her, we accept her.
One of us, one of us.

The chant has shown up repeatedly in popular culture, finding its way into The Simpsons, South Park, Orange is the New Black and even The Wolf of Wall Street, so  you might have seen it in passing, but now you know its secret origins.

One of us…