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[inuki42]

I've always considered myself a nerd. *points at icon* See? Homemade chainmail. Nerdy.

And I'm pretty sure that most of you are nerds too. (If you're not - what are you doing on my friends list? Scram, outsider! :)

So you should all go read thisAnd maybe we'll start an interesting discussion on nerdiness, education, boredom, and society in the

Comments

[scintilla72]

> For example, most people seem to consider the ability to draw as some kind of innate quality, like being tall.

What, it's not?!

[inuki42]

No, it really isn't. It's patience and practice and training, and learning to see the right way.

I can teach how to draw. I can teach how to shade, and color, and make things look right. I can't teach how to be tall, or how to be smart.

[flamingophoenix]

I can believe that--back in middle school, my friend Helen taught me how to shade. (Yay for Prismacolor pencils, incidentally!) I made a funny looking page full of shaded spheres--I then put in some silver stars and colored the negative space in black. It was fun, but I never really got into drawing. I just don't have the drive for it. I can embroider stuff that other people draw, but I'm not so good at making the pictures myself. It's really interesting how these things work.

[inuki42]

Mmm... Prismacolors.... *drools*

Yeah, see? You know what I mean. The people who have the drive for it are the ones everyone thinks can draw - the ones who enjoy it enough to spend the time improving their skills, and therefore the ones who become better at it. (Though "better" can be a relative term.)

I'm going to be an art teacher. Drawing can be taught. The will and drive to draw can't be, but the skills can be.

I will teach anyone who asks. I will do the best I can to help you improve, if you're willing to put in the time and effort yourself. Just ask. :)

[veyska]

> The problem is, the world these kids create for themselves is at first a very crude one. If you leave a bunch of eleven-year-olds to their own devices, what you get is Lord of the Flies. Like a lot of American kids, I read this book in school. Presumably it was not a coincidence. Presumably someone wanted to point out to us that we were savages, and that we had made ourselves a cruel and stupid world. This was too subtle for me. While the book seemed entirely believable, I didn't get the additional message. I wish they had just told us outright that we were savages and our world was stupid.
I too had to read that book in junior high, but I think I was already starting to figure out how stupid people were.

> We were a bit like an adult would be if he were thrust back into middle school. He wouldn't know the right clothes to wear, the right music to like, the right slang to use. He'd seem to the kids a complete alien. The thing is, he'd know enough not to care what they thought. We had no such confidence.The fact that I switched

[arti_absinthium]

I have to say that my high school was apparently really different. There are lots of reasons for this. It was a very small, Catholic school, with only 84 people in my graduating class. We, of course, wore uniforms, so a lot of the time the emphasis on clothes wasn't really there

nice mail

[stefficus]

i really, REALLY need to remember to work on my geekicon. *sigh

[mercuryfever]

Wow, Amy.. you really are a nerd :) (although, 'tis why i love you!) What the heck did you make that chainmail out of?

And for the record i'm not a nerd, i'm just a hardcore Dork!

Love Char

[inuki42]

*giggles* wanderingmage42 made it, to be completely accurate. He took copper wiring, stripped the insulation, wound it around a metal dowel, cut the links, and then put it together for me. Though I helped a lot - I got really good at stripping with my knife. So - it's just ordinary copper wire. Turns green after not very long at all.

He does all sorts of really fun things with chainmail, though. Out of better metals, too - steel, brass, aluminum (including colors!). And I get the random little leftover bits and bobs to play with. Good deal!

[mercuryfever]

I guess my eyes are going. In the picture it looks like you made it out of twizzler pieces *grin*

I also think it might be funny if you left it on your hand until it turns green... people would either think that you had a bad Henna tattoo, or that you had a horrible tropical disease *smirk*