I am a Nerd

I know the above to be true and have known it for a long time. Why you ask? I know it because I am interested in many things, a litany of geeky, nerdy things: science, chemistry, self-organization, synthesis, spectroscopy (IR, UV-Vis, NMR, single-crystal X-ray), kinetics, rate laws, activation energy, entropy, enthalpy, Gibb’s free energy, Slater determinants, orthonormal bases, Schrödinger equations, Heisenberg uncertainty principle, Pauli exclusion principle, Stoke shift, fluorescence, phosphorescence, vibrational and rotational relaxation, Franck-Condon principle, π* ← π transitions, d-d transitions, MLCT and LMCT transtions, paramagnetic versus diamagnetic, singlet, doublet, triplet, acid-base titrations, transitions metal chemistry, C&E News, physics, universe, Einstein’s space-time, relativity, particle accellerators, CERN, antimatter, gluons, photons, phonons, tau particles, neutrinos, tachions, quarks, cell biology, signal transduction pathways, G-proteins, kinases, phosphorylases, helicase, proteosome, ubiquitination, protein folding, amino acids, primary – quaternary structure of proteins, meiosis, mitosis, spindle apparatus, structural proteins, physiology, hormone activity, web publishing, HTML/XHTML, CSS, CSS hacks, CSS Zen Garden, PHP, WordPress, Geeklog, TextDrive, PhotoStack, Mozilla, SVG, JavaScript, AppleScript, Mac OS X, *NIX, CLI, SVN, .plists, fonts and typography, design, layout, print publishing, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, iPhoto, iTunes, SubEthaEdit, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, Pixadex, Pages, Keynote, Safari and the Acid2 Test, IMAP-SSL, X-509 Certificates, rsync, iSync, HDTV, Frontline, Lost, Star Trek (all), Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, West Wing, BitTorrent, MP3s, AIFFs, ACCs, M4As, JPGs, PDFs, PNGs, words, language, French, nuanced passages, books, Walt Whitman, Toni Morrison, Mark Twain, W.E.B. du Bois, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Dickenson, Jack London, Edith Wharton, E.E. Cummings, John Steinbeck, Billy Collins, math, calculus, integrals, derivatives, differential equations, linear algebra, matrices, LU, LDU, QR factorization, Cramer’s Rule, subspaces, nullspace, column space, row space, determinants, Macs, Apple Computer, iBook, iPod, iMac, PowerBook, PowerMac, Mac OS X Tiger v10.4, Spotlight, Dashboard, multi-part video conferencing over iChat, VPN, SSH, WDAV, SFTP, IP, AirPort, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 10/100/1000 Base-T, FireWire 400 and 800, USB 2, HD, RAM, DDR, PPC 970FX, PPC 970 GX, PPC 970 MP, ScienceDaily.com, SpaceRef.com, SpaceDaily.com, EET.com, Wired.com, /., baroque, classical, romantic and contemporary music, Bach Inventions and Sinfonias, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin’s Polonaises, Gershwin, M-Audio KeyStation Pro 88, piano, clarinet, french horn, Sennheiser 280 Pro headphones, GarageBand, politics, Karl Rove, Senators, Congressmen and women, Supreme Court justices, cabinet and its members, national security, NSA, FBI, NIMA, CIA, The New York Times crossword puzzle, beer, brewing beer, wine, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Bergundy, Bordeaux, Pau, Armagnac, Cognac, fromage, information, statistics …

I could spend a lifetime on that list, but those are the core points that make me a nerd/geek. (Is there a difference?) I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew it because I realized it last night as I was trying to learn Subversion (a versioning system similar to, but better than, CVS). Until I find a way to work it fluidly into my workflow, however, I think I will refrain from using it to manage various web sites. As I do not manage more than two or three at a time, I think I can use my fat brain to keep it all straight, for now.

I am a total nerd.