A Nerd Scale

Soon after my wife gets home from work, we try to find out how each other’s day had been. My days are pretty much the same and so is my answer: “good”. My wife does not share much about the actual work that she does but she will talk about a few things. I often wonder if she is employed by the NSA rather than Disney. I mean, I can't really think that the Mouse would be involved in any covert activities. I once held a secret security clearance, but I suppose that does not matter much to Iger. I do own several Disney hats and I even have a Mickey Mouse watch....all to no avail.

However, during our little talk the other night, Hollis was telling me about some MS Office Excel spreadsheets that she sent to a member of a volunteer organization she helps out. The other member could not open the document that was created with MS Office Excel 2007. Excel documents created with the file extension .xlsx will not open with earlier MS Excel software. I suppose my eyes rolled and I did make some small comments about skill sets and common knowledge. Seriously, what is Google for?

My expression and comments were not appreciated. Hollis stood up for people that do not know how to open a .docx file and she came close to shaming me. Well, that last part is a little off of the truth, she did shame me.

Hollis said that most people would not know how to open a .docx file and that I was a geek. “A GEEK ” ? I am not a geek nor am I a nerd. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being an IT expert, I might be a 6+. I don't even own a smart phone. My cell phone does have a browser, but I am not on a data plan with AT&T so I rarely use it. I can send a text but I prefer using a SMS service from my pc if I am home because my cell does not have a qwerty keyboard. If I need information while I am out and about, I have Google 411 and Google SMS that makes my little phone “Smart”. I am not a geek.

I also own and use a digital camera but I would assume that most Americans do too. I have a Digital 8 movie camera and you cannot beat its video quality. However, I do use an IEEE 1394 firewire to connect it to a laptop for converting. You are not geek if you can do this. My digital camera also takes high quality HD video. I do not have an 8 track player but I also do not own a Blue-Ray disk player. I converted a Dell desk top from Windows XP to a Linux OS because the Linux is better and faster for my needs. I can replace a graphics card and add memory but I have MS Office Access on another pc that I do not know how to use. I am knowledgeable. I am not a geek.

There is so much new technology available that it is hard and expensive to try and keep up with. I would not know how to use a BlackBerry, Droid or iPhone. There are a bunch of people that have these though. According to the Dallas Business Journal, over the past year, there have been 2 million downloads of Pizza Hut's iPhone application and that Pizza Hut has seen $7M in sales from the app. That is a lot of pizza. I can order a pizza from my phone too. I have Pizza Hut's number in my address book. This is smart. I am not a geek.

I took Wesli, our 8 year old daughter, to the Public Library yesterday and she had to show me how to look up books and how to check them out. I am used to a card catalog file and the Dewey Decimal system to find a book. I did miss having the librarian stamp the inside cover of the book for check out. I used to love watching a librarian hit a dozen books really fast with an ink stamper. This is about getting old. I am not a geek.

I am not hinting that being a geek or a nerd is a bad thing. I am just stating that Hollis is a bit (128) wrong and that I am not a geek. So when Hollis comes home tonight, I will start with some chips (not silicone) and dip and again, I will ask her how her day went. And then Hollis will ask about my day too. I will tell Hollis that I had a “good” day with a lot of Random Memories.

Godsspeed

To convert a .docx extension:http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/open-a-word-2007-document-in-an-earlier-version-of-word-HA010044473.aspx