Nerd's the Word

In a society that is booming now with "geek culture" and "nerd culture" the question has come up: What is the difference between a geek and a nerd? Is there even a difference? Well according to dictionary.com they are similar but not the same:

Nerd

Noun

A foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious: "one of those nerds who never asked a girl to dance". An intelligent, single-minded expert in a particular technical discipline or profession.

Geek

Noun

1. An unfashionable or socially inept person.
2. A person with an eccentric devotion to a particular interest: "a computer geek"

So basically the same except that according to this definition a nerd is considered to be an expert where a geek is just extremely devoted but they are essentially the same thing. I opened the question up on my Facebook page and I got some pretty interesting answers if you follow the link: http://www.facebook.com/scurtin89.

What is my take on this? Well I have always used them interchangeably though if you notice I am more likely to call myself a nerd rather than a geek. Now what are my qualifications you ask? Well it's funny because there are times when Grant and I have competitions to see who is the bigger geek/nerd (the cake above is the one he wants for the wedding). For me at a young age I was obsessed with learning so I buried myself in books, museums, history channel specials, you name it. Though I was also a jock growing up (have played softball my whole life and am obsessed with working out) so Grant thinks that is a strike against me in the competition.

My nerd qualities really took off in Middle School when I started writing fan fiction of my favorite books and shows as well as started cosplaying (the picture to the left is my cosplay from Comic Con of last year). My obsession at that time was anything to do with Lord of the Rings (LOTR) or Harry Potter. It was especially with LOTR since it was one of the few book series like it that we were allowed to read and do reports on at Christian School (don't worry the next blog post is going to be ALL about that). My friends and I even dresses up on the release day of the movies. We even found that we could use band aids to make elf ears! 

In high school my nerdom really took off when I started to get into web and graphic design. By junior year I was assistant webmaster of our school's website and by senior year was running the website, designing tickets for the school plays, and still cosplaying whenever I could. In high school I also became even more obsessed with literature and especially Shakespeare. For many of my English classes we would make our own versions of Shakespeare plays and film them. My favorite: Much Ado About Nothing.

Of course I can't talk about my nerdiness without talking about the man who I devote it to: Joss Whedon. When Buffy first came out I was actually on 7 but it didn't take me long to get into it. By age 9 I was almost obsessed as I am now. Then the spin-off Angel started and I became even more obsessed, then Firefly and Dollhouse and Dr. Horrible and my Whedony nerdiness took off completely with no sight in coming down. The most recent bout of this: the release yesterday of the Muco Ado trailer (which don't worry once again I will do a full blog post on). I brought new meaning to the term "fangirling" as I squealed and bounced in my seat through the entire trailer and after. My coworkers though are quite used to my nerdiness bubbling over at times.

So now it's my turn to ask you: What makes you a geek/nerd?