Wil Wheaton - Why it's awesome to be a nerd

My transcription on the following answer by Wil Wheaton on the question "Why it's awesome to be a nerd?"

Hi Violet, my name is Wil Wheaton. It’s 2013 and you have just joined us recently on planet Earth, so welcome. I’m an actor, and I’m a writer, and I’m a dad, and your mother asked me to tell you why it’s awesome to be a nerd. And that’s an easy thing for me to do, because that’s who I am.

I don’t know how the world will be like by the time you understand this. I don’t know what’s going to meant to be a nerd when you’re a young grown woman. For me, when I was growing up, being a nerd meant that I liked things that were a little weird, that took a lot of effort to appreciate and understand. It meant that I loved science and I loved playing board games and reading books and really understanding what went on in the world instead of just kinda [riding] the planet through space. And when I was a little boy, people really teased us about that, and made us feel like there was something wrong about us for loving those things. Now that I’m an adult, I’m kind of a professional nerd, and the world has changed a lot, and I think a lot of us have realize that being a nerd, or being a geek is another word you’ll hear and I should use the words interchangeably. It’s not about what you love, it’s about how you love it.

So there’s gonna be a thing in your life that you love. And I don’t know what it’s gonna be. It might be sports, it might be science, it might be reading, it might be fashion design, it might be building things, it might be telling stories or getting pictures. It doesn’t matter what it is. The way you love that, and the way that you find other people who love it the way you do is what makes being a nerd awesome. The defining characteristic, of us, the people in this room, and I’m gonna ask your mom to turn this camera around in a minute. Go there go on. The defining characteristic that ties us all together is that we love things. And some of us love Firefly, and some of us love Game of Thrones, and some of us love this things you’ll be able to go to see in your history books. [] Star Trek, or Star Wars, or anime, or games, or fantasy, or science fiction. Some of us love completely different things, but we all love those things, so much, that we travel for thousands of miles, which is probably easier for you but it’s still [] for us. We’re still on fossil fuel, I don’t know what are you going to be []. And it’s difficult... we come from all over some cases all over the world so we can be around people who love the things that we love the way that we love them. And that’s why being a nerd is awesome. And don’t ever let anyone tell you that that thing that you love, is a thing that you can’t love. Don’t ever let anyone tell you “You can’t love that, that's for boys. You have to love this because you’re a girl.”. You find the things that you love, and you love them the most that you can.

And listen, this is really important. I want you to be honest, honorable, kind. I want you to work hard, because everything worth doing is hard. And I want you to be awesome. And I’m going to do my very best, to leave you a planet that you can still live on.

Como perderse con estilo

Hay maneras y maneras de perderse en una ciudad intentanto llegar de un punto a otro. En este caso particular, hoy intentaba llegar desde el punto A al punto C (ver mapa). La trayectoria es bastante directa si uno va por el camino simple.

Pero para hacer el trayecto más entretenido e interesante, decidí hacer parte del trayecto curzando a través del parque. Sin saber bien por donde iba, me adentré cada vez más con mi bicicleta por el parque hasta que terminé en el punto B detrás del estadio de Colonia.

Trayectoria aproximada Ver mapa más grande

He de decir que como andaba con tiempo de sobra a disposición, no me preocupé y disfruté del paisaje por el parque/bosque con árboles y lagunas. Al final no me quedó más alternativa que devolverme y reubicarme en la ciudad para utilizar el camino simple y poder llegar a destino.

Espero para la próxima cruzar por el parque pero no desviarme tanto de mi camino, en particular si efectivamente tengo que llegar a una hora determinada.

Germany the right place?

Many times I wonder whether I'm in the right place. Every now and then I have strong doubts about that. Although I know this is a good enough place.

For example, on the 30th of March, the first international tabletop gaming day (link) was organized by a Youtube channel Geek & Sundry. In the following pictures, a map of activities being held in USA and in Uk+Germany shows the lame amount of them in Germany.

Sure, the channel is English oriented as it's based in the USA, but even in the Netherlands with far less population they have a decent number of activities registered.

Just four lame events registered in Germany.

It just make me wonder...

Post Scriptum: I've been learning that Germany is nowadays not as great as everybody thinks. There are a lot of details that maybe some day I'll address here.

Riverside - I Believe

Riverside - I Believe

I learn to understand
Getting harder to pretend is ok with me

In this moment I believe
And I want it so much
In spite of everything

You make me so real
I don't have to shut myself in this cage of me
I see what I haven't seen
I wanna share my place to hide
My place to feel
With You

In this moment I believe
And I want it so much
In spite of everything

I learn to understand
If only I was worth waiting for...

Un pueblo llamado Colonia

© Raimond Spekking / CC-BY-SA-3.0

Cuando uno viene de una ciudad como Santiago, que según el último censo realizado el año 2012 cifra su población en casi 6.7 millones de personas, venir a una ciudad de 1 millón de habitantes la hace sentir en muchas instancis como un pueblo.

Una de las evidencias más grandes al respecto, es la tasa con la que me encuentro con gente visualmente familiar de forma aleatoria. Y no hablo de toparme con las mismas personas en lugares comunes, como lo sería en un bus, sino que en distintos puntos de la ciudad y en distintas instancias.

Hace poco me encontraba en la búsqueda de una nueva habitación para vivir. En un par de ocaciones me tocó ir a entrevistas grupales, donde varios de los que estábamos interesados en la habitación nos encontrábamos al mismo tiempo conversando con las personas que nos tocaría convivir. En una de estas instancias, había una mujer la cual nunca había visto antes. La razón porque individualizo a esta persona, es que ese mismo día la ví horas más tarde en el transporte público. Y eso no se detiene allí, pero en las últimas semanas la he visto caminando por la calle en el sector universitario. Eso no es tan extraño ya que probablemente es una estudiante, pero aún así es una persona que he reconocido entre la multitud anónima de una ciudad.

Este no es el único caso que he experimentado. Hay más similares, como por ejemplo reconocer a una persona que he visto previamente en algún concierto, pero este es uno que aún tengo fresco en mi memoria anecdótica.

Definitivamente Colonia es una ciudad la que para estándares alemanes es grande tanto en población como extensión, pero aún tiene ciertos elementos que la hacen sentir como un pueblo... y eso es interesante.