Geek Week On Triple J

Adam and Wil were celebrating Geek Week on Triple J - and they have had some really interesting contenders in a competition. I listened to them on the Net this morning (am I a geek) and they had a Geek-off for a signed Scrabble scorecard from Andrew G and Adam Spencer. There were two main contenders and I would loved to have challenged them. One guy gave a recital of pi to 15 decimal places in morse code and the another guy proofread manuals and notified the publisher of errors, in different languages if necessary. He would go and find someone who spoke French or Korean and ask for their help. No wonder he was the prize geek.

Back in yr 10 Maths my teacher had an excerpt from Mad Magazine that defined people. It said that a nerd was only good if you wanted to know pi to 127 decimal places. I made it my goal in life to learn pi to 127 decimal places. This was used as an icebreaker when meeting people. Not too effectively but somewhat amusingly. Does that beat the geek who could recite pi to 15 decimal places in morse code? Anyway, somebody rang Triple J a short time later and said that the guy had made a mistake in his recital. Who is the bigger geek?

With regards to the manual proofreader - I read the Guinness Book of Records from front to back and catalogued six pages of mistakes and typos and sent it to them. I got my name in the acknowledgment section for my help!! And when I went to England I met the editor - Peter Matthews. I also visited the Guinness World of Records Museum and they offered me a job to stand in a booth with a microphone and let people ask me about any world record. They allowed me to have a look around the museum and afterwards asked me what I thought about the display. I proceeded to tell them all of the mistakes in the museum.

Pity I couldn't join the competition on Triple J. I guess by definition I am a nerd, not a geek. I did send the above information to the Triple J Guestbook. And the moderator allowed it to be posted.

There was another kid who sang a song about the Periodic Table and that was brilliant. That may just inspire me. I used to know the first 80 elements of the Periodic Table.