June 11, 2005
The Nerdiness Manifesto is an extremely funny read, and its first addendum more so.
I wonder if maybe the typical jocks-get-pretty-cheerleaders-and-pick-on-nerds phenomenon is specific to the United States. For instance, Norway isn't big on sports in school (we have annual tournaments, but they're not serious and we don't have cheerleaders in the organized fashion that American high schools seem to have them), so we don't have many typical jocks. Speaking for myself, I was never stuffed into a locker or locked in toilets or any such thing. During my first six years of school, I was bullied a lot and a few times I ran away from campus, crying. That wasn't particularly pleasant, but that type of bullying stopped after those six years, and grew much more subtle during the next three years of schooling; one of the things I damn myself for even now is that I was so weak as to not openly admit my nerddom in fear of being bullied, and the reason I was afraid, I firmly believe, is because I was friends with Niels-Henrik, who at the time was very skinny, wore patched-up spectacles whose glasses could withstand a 20-ton thermonuclear explosion, and did "weird things" such as being reclusive during breaks from classes and play Wolfenstein 3D on the computer in his classroom. This caused him to be severely bullied, and I still can't forgive myself for not standing up for him. Niels-Henrik and I are still friends (and very good ones, at that), so I don't think he holds any grudges.
What slightly bothers me (but not to such an extend as to actually affect me or anything) is that now that I'm unafraid of positively proclaiming my nerdiness, very few people bully me about it. That's a Good Thing, of course, so I guess what really bothers me is that I didn't have this attitude then, when I really needed it.
Oh well. Site-wise, I have acknowledged Even's transcendental artistic skills on the Colophon page.