People that hang around game stores

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Are you talking to Gem or me?

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

anyone who'll listen. but about you and denial.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

if its me I say they are in denial because of the words definition.

Geek:
A person regarded as foolish, inept, or clumsy.
A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.
A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

there is no honorific in the word geek.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

feh. Definition in the ENglish language relies on usage. and a large population uses it the way I presented it, so any dictionary not including that usage is incomplete. Especially since almost no one uses that insipid carnival performer definition.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Feh, its still denial, its the whole Im rubber your glue defense, if I pretend its not a hateful word then it really isn't. The problem is that it still is, when most people use it to describe someone they dont use the word in a positive way. the fact that a small percentage of people use it as a postive is easily comparable to the people who use the n word positively.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I rarely hear the term geek anymore. It's not a cool insult word.

And it's not denial, it's corrective. It's seeking for a change.

Tell people at /. or the customers of THinkGeek that "geek" is an insult.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Ok, I will.

[JP Dogberry]

I recently conducted a study on this for my English class.

"Geek" is a person who bites the heads of chickens, but this definition no longer applies, as the word has been appropriated to people who tend to obsess over a single topic and know it inside out, are intelligent, have poor social skills, and usually means a computer person. This word, as far as I use it, has been approprated by Geeks in a similar manner to "Nigger" by African-Americans, or "Queer" by Homosexuals. If a non-geek is to use the word, it is an insult, but if a geek uses it, it is an observation or compliment.

Nerd originated from a Dr. Seuss book, and came into use to describe nerds in a similar way to geek. It is used to same way, although the differences between Nerd and Geek are often debated. I've heard everything from "Nerd is RPG's, Geek is computers", "A geek is a Nerd who transcends Nerddom, and actually has social skills" to "A Geek is Basically a Nerd, but not as good, they're not smart or haveNerd Talents"

Make up your own mind, but I'll be nothing but honoured if you call me either geek or nerd...as long as you are a geek or nerd yourself.

BTW, a Stormtrooper would murder an Orc.  It has a gun, and it's a little known fact that Stormtroopers can shoot straight, they were just under orders not to in the movies. Darth Vader wanted to Dual Skywalker, so he made sure they gave him a challenge but let him live.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

feh, there is no evidence stormtroopers can shoot straight. What about Han and Chewie before they knew who Luke was? What about Lando?

Ok, but on the geek/nerd thing:

Christian
Yankee
Mormon

All these are terms that were originally used as insults. with the arguable exception of "yankee" in certain regions of the country, none of these groups take offense at the term, and most of the representatives glory in it. It would be foolish to say that "Christian" is insulting when it is used to identify someone who believes in Christ.

Also, look at how "geek" is popularly used. Thinkgeek.com is a site for people to buy shirts and toys and bits and pieces they think are cool. They have hats making reference to programming and system administration. They have shirts talking about playing FPS games. Is anyone insulted? no. Again, an even bigger and more visible use: CompUSA calls their repair team "the Geek Squad." Are they insulting their own employees? No, in fact, they try to make sure that the geeks in their ads look cool, dressed in black like MIB or Matrix or something. They definitely make it look like these are hip people who are here to help you (we'll ignore the golf shirts they actually wear). It's my argument that this is typical, not unusual.

[JP Dogberry]

Yeah, kind of what I said in a roundabout way.  It's a word that used to be insulting, but not anymore.

Oh, and Stormtroopers can shoot straight. When ordered by Darth Vader to capture Leia, they use the stun mode (for the only time) and it first shot.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

yeah, but that was a broad beam. It fillled the whole hall. The only way he could have missed would have been if he were holding it backward (which would not have been surprising).

[JP Dogberry]

So I ask, why didn't they just use the Broad Beam all the time, stun them, and then shoot them when they're down.

I guess that puts a Stormtrooper on the same intellectual level as the orc. Which means it boild down to who's faster on the trigger/axe.

Now Stormtroopers are all clones of Jango Fett right? Being a top bounty hunter, I'd guess that's pretty fast reactions. So the orc runs in, the stormtrooper fires...and misses. Oh, Sod it.

Point conceded. The orc would have him in a second.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I think it's arguable whether they're all clones of Jango. Sure, the clone troopers were, but there must be some genetic deficiency that creeps in if the same blood is suplying all the stormtroopers.

Either that or their training methods start to REALLY SUCK.

[JP Dogberry]

It's really quite simple.

Say you have a videotape, and you record it. Then, you record the recording. Do it again. The quality deteriorates each time.

Now, since Jango Fett is rather cruicially dead, they must be making new stormtroopers by cloning the old ones, thus creating errors each time.