Michael Louis Calvillo Must Be Destroyed

This whole Nerds Are Cool thing is pretty lame. Nerds aren’t cool. Nerds are socially awkward weirdo types who deserve a good trash canning. They dress funny, talk funny, and ruin grading curves. Now, if a nerd is a nerd because they are economically challenged (thrift shop high-waters) or because they are mentally challenged, I’d defend them to the death and stink eye any jerk for making fun, but if a nerd is a nerd because they embrace intellect and shun social relevance then, well, they’re kind of getting what they bargained for. This new nerd dawning, the dominance of things like Comicon and geek culture, takes the best bits of nerd-kind – superheroes and video games and genre fare – and feeds them to the mainstream for all to enjoy. This is cool. Pushing your glasses up the bridge of your nose while correcting someone’s grammar or reciting pointless facts is not. Embrace all that’s awesome about nerdiness, but kill that inner dork.

If you sit in public and play the Wizards of the Coast card game Magic: The Gathering, I might snicker and call you a doofus. If you play behind closed doors and make mention of it only when asked, then it’s cool, knock yourself out (you, dork).

Hey! Easy, easy!

I happen to be one of those that play Magic behind closed doors.

And you know what? My wife, who is superhot, plays too! (Take that geeky stereotypes!)

We don’t play regularly, but every so often we get a hankering for some nerdy goodness and dig out our cards. To be fair to Michelle, she only plays Magic because her husband plays Magic and she’s cool like that. If I dig something, however nerdy, she’s willing to give it a shot. We’ve even played RISK a couple of times over the years (which always amounts to evil - my girl is way too competitive and the game runs way too long, and by the end we are way too tired and way too frustrated).

(How can something that looks like this not be cool?)

I started playing Magic when I was about nineteen, twenty years old. I worked in a video game store (PS One, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, and Panasonic’s short lived 3D0, were the systems of the era) with this dude named Shawn. Shawn was what you’d call a classic nerd. He wore glasses and tucked his flannel shirts into his high water jeans. He was in his late twenties to early thirties. He loved video games. One day, during a slow afternoon, he taught me how to play Magic. I’d frown at the kids getting their game on at the back of the local comics shop, and I frowned at Shawn when he offered to show me what it was all about, but I liked the (PG-rated) Heavy Metal style artwork on the cards so I gave it a try.

Wow! Though a little complex at first, once you grasp the rules, the game rocks.

I taught most of my friends who taught most of their friends and we have all been playing ever since (though now that we are old men, we only get our games going once or twice a year).

(Hot Saturday night action!)

Michelle and I hit Target this evening and snagged four new Magic decks. It’s been a good, long while and we figured it’d be fun to stay in and play a few rounds (no new movies of interest to wile away the time). Once I’m finished blogging we are going to throw down. She beats me all the time - I mentored her and like any good Sith, she’s turned it on me (and gloats when she wins). Perhaps tonight will be my night?

Okay then, tomorrow we’ll get back to deconstructing The WORM (here’s Part One in case you missed it). Good night, Loyal Reader, send a prayer my way – the energy may give my wizarding ways that extra oomph.

R.I.P Ms. Winehouse. “We only said goodbye with words.” Great stuff…

This entry was posted on July 24, 2011 at 12:02 am and is filed under General . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.