Coming To Terms: “ass is the universal language”

Not unexpectedly, the search terms which land people at The Hurdled Nerd haven’t gotten any less bizarre. The round-up of most intriguing terms for March 2010 is as follows…

Episode 58: Geek Chic

Listen to the podcast HERE.

Mandi, Kathie and Jakob in their egg smoking den.
Photo: Makito Inomata, makito.ca

They say the clothes make the man. Do the clothes also make the nerd?

Yes. More than anything clothing is what separates the nerd wheat from the normie chaff. Or is it vice versa? Depends on which side of the wheat and chaff you fall, I suppose.

Above is the traditional popular conception of a nerd. You can buy this costume at Value Village at Halloween. The package will say something like “Authentic Nerd Costume.”  

You can buy that costume, but you won’t be a nerd. You’ll be a typical hipster. If you want to be a nerd, you have to buy a Darth Maul T-shirt and some stained sweatpants. You can also buy these at Value Village, but on the regular racks and not just at Halloween.

Although if you really want to look like a big nerd, you’ll want to pick up an Igor and The Banana T-shirt at the Nerd Hurdles store.

Toronto Meet-Up (Time confirmed)

When: Saturday, March 27th, 6pm-??
Where: www.victorycafe.ca
Who: Jakob and Mandi of Nerd Hurdles, Kennedy of Starbase 66 and YOU.
Why: Simply to meet other members of the Simply Syndicated forums! Not a member? Not a problem. Any listeners of Nerd Hurdles and Starbase 66 are welcome to attend!

Check back here, or email nerds@nerdhurdles.com, for up to date details. If you’re expecting to come, why not drop us a line to aid in our reservation with the establishment (not required).

Or read the forum topic link: www.simplysyndicated.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=1627

Episode 57 – Gag Reel 2: Electric Nerdaloo

Igor’s got some ‘splainin’ to do! 

While Jakob and Mandi were in Coombs, BC, their faithful manservant edited together this GAG REEL for your enjoyment.

Episode 56: Live Theatre

 Listen to the podcast HERE.

Going to the theatre—a theatre where the seats face living human actors on a stage and not images projected on a silver screen—is a hurdle for many people.

Even people who enjoy live theatre sometimes find it a hurdle. There’s a modicum of effort involved in just knowing what’s available to you, not to mention dragging yourself all the way downtown to some mouldering building with uncomfortable seats. Then there’s always a chance the play itself and the actors performances will be intolerably bad.

But the flip side of this Russian roulette is when the gamble pays off, it pays off big. The cinema can never quite achieve the same level of human connection with an audience as live theatre.

A few weeks agao we attended the Rhubarb Festival in Toronto. From our (uncomfortable) seats we connected with Mia van Leeuwen (pictured above) as she spewed blood, piss, shit and vomit on a garden gnome and Rae Spoon (seen below) as he sang about growing up transgendered in Calgary.

Toronto Simply Syndicated meet-up

When: Saturday, March 27th (Early evening? Check back here, or email nerds@nerdhurdles.com, for details as they emerge)
Where: www.victorycafe.ca
Who: Jakob and Mandi of Nerd Hurdles and Kennedy of Starbase 66 (to be confirmed).
Why: Simply to meet other members of the Simply Syndicated forums! Not a member? Not a problem.  Any listeners of Nerd Hurdles and Starbase 66 are welcome to attend!

Forum topic link: www.simplysyndicated.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=1627

Episode 55 – Flynn Lives in Tron-to

Listen to the podcast HERE.

This episode, where we report on the Tron Legacy trailer preview in Toronto last weekend, is the culmination of our series of Tron-related posts of late. It’ll (probably) be Tron-free business as usual until next december from here on in.

Mandi will be glad to hear that. She was so utterly broken by the event, it seems to have tainted this classic in her eyes forever. Though when she watched it for the (ahem) first time ever the night before, she didn’t seem too impressed.

Really, the shownotes for this episode have already been posted here, in a piece I wrote for our badass friends www.mediasaurs.com. If you got here via the link to “shownotes” on our Simply Syndicated episode page, sorry for redirecting you again. I know it’s a lot of work to click a mouse.

But that’s in the spirit of the Flynn Lives treasure hunts. Imagine if I made you go on a scavenger hunt where you met up with an ”operative” who gave you a cell phone which lead you to codes which unlocked a website which allowed you to click on that link… Now imagine if there were only two sentences waiting for you at Mediasaurs after all the work I put you through… Yeah, you’re getting the picture of what the vibe was at the Flynn Lives screening in Toronto. Fortunately, I’m not Disney. I supply the goods.

If you’re curious to hear a completely different take on the Flynn Lives event, the Aussie podcast Chaotic Geek (www.chaoticgeek.com) gushes about the Melbourne screening here. They did get to see the trailer twice, but I’m still not sure I understand their level of enthusiasm. Though I do envy it .

Links: The awesome ENCOM dummy site.

Blue in ’82.

The only embedable version I could find of the much better Comic Con trailer (HD here).

There’s no GalacTALKa this week due to… well, we just didn’t feel like watching or talking about BSG. Not even for you. It wasn’t personal. We just needed some time apart.

Coming To Terms (February 2010)

Maybe it’s just me but either crazier people are finding the Hurdled Nerd via Google, or people are just getting crazier in general. Here’s a sample of the best search terms of the last month.

• zombie yawning — You wanted pictures of tired zombies? Zombies bored with the malaise of their own existence? Go here.
• whats right and wrong — We’re not qualified to tell you the answer. But the internet isn’t where you should be looking for it.
• i can do all things through him who strengthens me — I want to know which post connected this search term to our blog. So I can delete it.
• zombie kind — Compassionate zombies or makes and models of the walking dead? Be more specific in your search terms.
• wow people — As in “wow, people”? Or World of Warcraft players? I guess “like, wow, WoW people” makes sense.
• world map of rock music listeners — We don’t have it. But I’d like to see it.
• slash+”star trek” — Most people have a character preferences, but I guess any Trek slash will do for them.
• metaphysical anime — Oh my goddess, isn’t all anime metaphysical in some way?
• starbase 66 karen picture — Why do people keep getting to our blog when they search for Karen?
• march & beer — We gave up beer for Lent.
• stereotypes sometimes they just play the — same role over and over?
• how to draw tentacle anime — No.
• neil tennant fuck — Yes.
• nerd publisher — I hope they found one. And lets me know who they are. I got a book to flog.
• meat jesus — Yay! Someone searched for Baby Meat Jesus!
• baby meat — Ew… for the wrong reasons.
• star wars baby mobile death star — Sounds like something awesome and deadly a cat would drive.
• “you can’t take this guy from me” — Glad we’re not the only ones who mis-hear that lyric.
• christian youth forum — Boy did you come to the wrong place.
• starbase 66 karen’s blog — www.lobablanca.com
• twilight should end — We agree.
• coin collecting whores — Hookers who get paid in loonies or old men who’ll do anything for a silver denier.
• annoyed book — The book is annoyed? The book is about an annoyed character? The book makes the reader annoyed? Who can say? I’m annoyed.
• elementary stories about comedy of a nerd — We only have advanced stories about comedy of a nerd.
• “hoody fighter” jakob — I can’t believe someone other than myself has ever searched for this.
• blocks fit — Yes. Yes, they do. Like Lego.
• anakin and perseus — Is this some kind of bizarre cross-franchise slash?

Fan-Mix’d!

First fan-art and now fan-mixes. These are two glorious remixes of Nerd Hurdles by Mr. Brad Thornton of the UK. The first is strange, the second is just plain absurd. In the best sense of both adjectives. Somewhat like us. Fan mixes? What’s next?

Hurdled Nerds: http://tweetmysong.com/6cfj82

So I Married a Nerd Hurdle: http://tweetmysong.com/69j13t

More of Brad’s music here.

Flynn’d!

Nerd Hurdles were present at the Toronto location of the controversial, overhyped, mega-letdown, nerd-burn that was the latest Flynn Lives event. It was hard to tell if the new Tron Legacy trailer was any good through all the geek wrath and nerd ire. You’ll hear all about it in Episode 55.

But if you want to read what Jakob wrote about it right now, you have to go to that baddass website Mediasaurs.com.