Some links may be affiliate links. I may earn money if you buy something or take an action after clicking one of these links on this site.
Rob Knowlan is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Find Your Inner Nerd Day 2025
To make a soothing weekend that much more relaxing, it’s Find Your Inner Nerd Day. What does that mean? 🤓 Let’s dive in…
🤓 How You Love It 🤓
Being a nerd is not about what you love; it’s about how you love it. ~Wil Wheaton
The view from the inside is that 1 leads to 2. I’m telling you.
The funny thing is that among nerds who geek out on a given topic or collection of topics, the social demerits are social credits.
In-group, your ability to hold forth on the minutiae of one’s favorite anime, TV series, movie franchises, comic lines and graphic novels, whatever it is, it’s infinitely interesting.
You’re not boring to another nerd. You may repulse normies like a cross repels vampires, but that’s considered a plus.
If you scare the normies away, you won’t be in danger of being mocked for being interested in what you’re interested in.
If you scare the normies away, you’ll be free to geek the heck out on whatever you’ve got in common with other nerds.
This is why Comic Cons exist. This is what Discord is for. This is what Reddit was supposed to be before the psychos took over.
As Wil says, it’s about how you love it. When you love something like a toddler loves his mom, you’ve got an inkling of getting your nerd on.
Some people will spice their viewing with sci-fi or Marvel movies.
Some people will stop flipping channels when they see a spaceship, a cape or a suit of armor.
Some people will watch their favorite geek feed for better or worse, end to end and then back through to see if they missed details on the first pass.
Nerds will know the name of the military unit and its organizational structure when they spot the stormtroopers on Tatooine with the yellow shoulderplates that you never see on any other stormtroopers anywhere else in the franchise and they will be able to tell you why the snowtroopers on Hoth have those skirt things on.
Nerds love what they love with reckless abandon. When they find other nerds to marry, they have beautiful nerdy children.
I should know. Kelly and I love Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Josh Gates and an absolute cornucopia of gloriously nerdy things, not the least of which are our splendidly nerdy children.
Emmeline has been as far west as LA and as far east as Barcelona, just to see her favorite bands. She goes to theme parks and Disney in particular as if it was holy pilgrimage. She loves her dogs, her Ninja Turtles, her Star Wars and is a stalwart member of Team Edward.
Connor is a living encyclopedia of comic book lore, constructs Magic decks that absolutely slap and ingests sci-fi series like a cyborg hoovers up data.
Dorothy is a fun-horror nerd. She’s all about Wicked, A Nightmare Before Christmas and Halloweentown. She’s also well-versed in Star Trek, Star Wars, Smallville and Indiana Jones.
Allan is my rap-master. He’s got the inside track on decades of urban music, and you ought to see his shoe collection. Bro’s all about the drip, particularly where it comes to shoes.
Nerds love our subject matter as much as the air we breathe, but we love each other and our kids even more.
Nothing shows love like sharing your innermost joy with anyone who is receptive to it.
đź’– Appreciate your nerds, people. đź’– We are made out of blindingly bright love. đź’–
🤓 Inner 🤓
Find Your Inner Nerd Day
Sorry, there wasn’t too much available to work with on this topic.
I find this surprising.
Nerds are generally pretty good about tooting their own horns.
Even so, nerdiness isn’t about whether you eschew wearing the latest fashions (Allan excluded), sidestep the social graces or run circles around the in-crowd.
As stated above, being a nerd is how you love what you love without a filter.
This starts within. When what is so big within you that it can’t be kept inside, it shines brightly like an aura.
For people who can’t appreciate uninhibited joy, this aura acts as a repulsor field.
So much the better. Real nerds have no time for wet blankets. We’re too busy enjoying life to be held to artificial standards.
The depths of our inner worlds defy prescribed hierarchy. We are too overjoyed about our obsessions to be cowed by “normalcy”.
We don’t care. You can’t make us.
Sometimes, we’re almost crowded into a corner by the minions of mediocrity.
Sometimes, we’re almost shamed into conforming with the conventional hivemind.
And then…
We see the Fantastic Four on a box of Pop-Tarts.
We see Batman on a box of oatmeal.
We see blue milk in the grocery store fridge.
We see a Star Wars PEZ dispenser at the checkout line.
This makes us smile because we know we’re right.
If someone is spending money to create products to pander to us, we’re as mainstream as the people who think we’re fringe or should be cowed into normalcy.
Check y’all’s privilege.
If you can’t handle uninhibited joy, maybe you should get some therapy.
We’re happy being happy about being happy. Give it a try. It doesn’t hurt.
🤓 Nerd! 🤓
I’m a nerd. I’m a geek. I’m proud of it. ~Adam Savage
Hell, yeah! Me, too.
I’ve been known to unleash the Adam Savage mad scientist cackle at work.
When I’m completely geeking out about something, it radiates like pure joy.
I’m not there lately. It’s been kind of a slog.
I need to find my joy again so I can get some stuff done.
That being said, I’ve put some thoughts together on this year’s Holiday Season Serial Romance.
I don’t have a working title, but I’m pivoting on a mentioned but not introduced character from The Lights of Pine Hollow.
Here’s the blurb:
“So, the families really are uniting in a big way.”
“Yes, we got our dads to bury the hatchet and it’s going to be amazing. Chmielewskis, Gajewskis, Murrays and Gallaghers, all one big happy family. Mind blowing, really.”
“So, the combined light show?”
“It was amazing. You should have seen it. They did the usual thing with the dancing lights synchronized to the music, remote controlled bells and to top it all off, a hundred-fifty drones.”
“It sounds fantastic. It didn’t win?”
“I was shocked. I’ve never seen such a thing and we learned that some guy with a donkey got the trophy. Both our dads were devastated.”
Dr. Wisler chuckled. “A donkey? How do you beat a drone show with a donkey?”
“Honestly, I have no idea. We saw the video, but there wasn’t any sound. I don’t really get it. The worst part was that Mr. Light had his daughter playing Mary.”
“Mr. Light?”
“Gary Light. He’s a mail carrier and he’s an EMHC at our church.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what that is.”
“Oh, I forget what it stands for, but he helps with the Eucharist. I’ll look it up and let you know.”
“That’s fine. I get it. What’s the matter with his daughter playing Mary?”
Grace looked side to side and leaned in to whisper, “She’s pregnant.”
“Okay?”
“No husband. His daughter is an unwed mother, and he’s got her being the Blessed Virgin Mary. I’d expect him to be in trouble with Father Tom, but instead he gets the Light Fight trophy.”
That’s how it turned out from Grace Chmielewski’s point of view. Dr. Wisler quickly calls her friend, who was the celebrity guest judge. Mr. Awesomeness fills in the blanks:
Grace left the office. Dr. Wisler waited for her to get a suitable distance down the hall before she jumped on her phone. “Hello, HEARTH. May I speak with Mr. Awesomeness?”
“M.A. here. It’s your dime.”
“Connor, nobody likes a wise guy.”
“I have copious evidence to the contrary. To what do I owe the extreme pleasure of your call?”
“My intern just got back and said you gave the trophy to some guy with a donkey. I’m dying to know how a donkey and an unwed mother beat a light show and drones?”
He cackled maniacally. “What’s it worth to you?”
“What kind of superhero resorts to blackmail?”
“Well now, nobody is blackmailing anybody. This is purely quid pro quo. I’ve got the quo if your quid is worth it.”
“What do you want?”
“Pizza and a movie?”
“Okay, hustler. Done. Now spill. She said there wasn’t any sound. The visuals must have been pretty striking for that to work.”
“No, the guy had parametric speakers set up, so the audio was transmitted right into your head with bone conduction. Big trucks driving past and we could hear perfectly.”
“That sounds interesting, but still.”
“The presentation was quite moving. That family up the cul-de-sac were ringers. The mayor said they’ve been passing that trophy back and forth for years. I wanted to see something other than dancing lights and pre-programmed drone cartoons in the sky.”
“Bone conduction?”
“Yeah, it was wild. Like having speakers inside of your head that environmental noise couldn’t sound over top of.”
“This business with the unwed mother seems to have caused a stir.” She checked her door to ensure nobody was coming to interrupt.
“I wasn’t going to judge–”
“That will be the day.”
“Okay, fair. I was judging the heck out of him. He’s an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion at the local church, so his daughter, being pregnant without being married, was making the grapevine jangle. He played it off as that she was going to be Mary one way or another, but Polka Pete figured he was trying to shame her for it by making her ride the donkey back and forth for the whole show.”
“Polka Pete? Who is Polka Pete?”
“Local DJ. Community icon. Very nice guy.”
“Okay, thanks for the inside scoop. See you… When?”
“I dread to ask, but when are you actually free?”
“Hmm, maybe Thursday?”
“HEARTH, book it before she backs out.”
“I’m hanging up now.”
“Love you.” He said and made kissing noises.
She hung up and covered her smile with Dr. Hu’s report.
So, with these two independent perspectives of the donkey ride and the seemingly villainous Gary Light, I’ve got the seed of this year’s story.
Who’s right? Was Gary actually shaming his daughter? Why would she tolerate it? Where did a mailman learn how to build bone conduction speakers?
The possibilities are virtually endless. I’ve had one book in Empire City, two in Laurel Ridge, two in Wyoming Pass and one in Pine Hollow.
This year, I’ll split the difference and start off in Empire City before returning to Pine Hollow with just a few scenes in the Horn of Africa.
One thing always leads to another in my Christmas RomComs, so stay tuned and don’t forget to go to Christmas All The Time on Thanksgiving Day for the intro.
That’s all for today. See you back on Wednesday for some lovely, fresh 🌞 Summer 🔥 🍑🍑🍑…