#nerds a manifesto

[cha-mij]

NERDS: A Manifesto | A Capella Science

I got a lyrical proclivity

Special like relativity

General knack of physics

Incredible rap ability

Feeling me? Don't tell me these glasses lack in virility

I'm physically intimate yo

Cause physics is into me

The cold open

Nerds from CERN to Hoboken

The soft spoken

When talking openly

Gets your nose broken

It's no joke and I'm

Not hoping to make light

Just throwing a rope

If you got no hope

To hang tight

Dang right

I know what high school life is like

Can't fight

When every bully is twice your height

Turning the pages fascinated up late nights

But stay bright little nerdling

Cause when the hard part's done you got the world on a string

Leaving home as a hobbit you'll return as a king

Cause modern life is brain boxing and you're lord of the ring

It goes

Nerds!

Our name since junior high

But now we're Doctor Last Name saving juniors' lives

It goes

Nerds!

We got pushed at the front of the class

But now we running banks pushing fat stacks of cash

It goes

Nerds!

Ears burnin but we never let it catch fire

Stayed calm built a dot com empire

Nerds!

So keep your pride with your face in the dirt

Cause it's no secret that the geek shall inherit the earth

I'm repping nerd rights

Because we're hotter than thermite

Sharper that any pencil

At the start of the term

Might I suggest

That next to any text a nerd writes

That Hollywood gossip whoring

Is boring like a termite

Cause we're the greats

From Shakespeare to Cape Fear

Oscar nom dot com bubbles in your great beer

Engineers need a mention here

For turning tension and stress

Into a professional career

Yeah we've learned to be relentless

So whether you're a chemist

Inventor of medicines

Or a dental hygienist

Apprentice in theoretical dietetics of lettuce

Just get up and represent;

You know the world has got a nerd fetish

So all my geeks in the closet living secretly

I see you sneaking nature docs on the BBC

No time to hide, take pride in our legacy

Cause it's a brand new world; 51 Pegasi

Nerds!

You say we're lame; are you kidding me?

Nerds!

You think great techs can't have great sex?

We study Wikipedia pages and type in LaTeX

Nerds!

Kept you blind, under cover like a peregrine

Sly enough to leave you Hufflepuffin' while we Slytherin

Nerds!

I never got to be fly as a kid

But my vocabulary gave me sick rhymes to spit

I studied science

Grew up to be a rhyme sayer

No Minnesota connection, one of a kind

Say you're pumping iron?

I'm pumping ions through this bilayer

You can't abide this myelin if you try, player

Mind greater than a giant Ghana land snail

Sign "theta" when I'm answering my fan mail

Rhymes get under your skin just like a hang nail

Wits make you dizzy better hold on to the handrail

I know my limits,

So don't you try to limit me

Won't be derivative

Spitting back what you're giving me

What matters is understanding patterns and symmetry

So I'll be integrating your factual data lyrically

OMG so OP These NERDs

Got the ATP to defeat all you NPCs

LCD to your CRT

TNG to your TMZ

ICBM to your TNT

Cause we're explosive like caesium

Bright like burning magnesium

Swallow you like amoebas

Enveloping paramecium

Fighters right in our element

Like a knight in Elysium

When we bridle the elements

Hell we make it look easy hon.

You think it looks easy? Umm.

Well how bout we face off?

Ignoring laboratory procedure?

You'll blow your face off

So keep your He-Man stats in your grey skull

Cause grey matter is power

That's the power of Grayskull

Nerds!

They called us ADHD, made us take pills

Now we're rippin 88 keys, rocking great skills

Nerds!

If you ever took band or theatre

Take a bow to the haters

And say "Calc-u-later!"

Nerd!

You don't appreciate this high tone

Tell me again how you would die without your iPhone

Nerd!

Music, science and art, the trifecta

Kneel before the mighty pocket protector

[myosotisa]

some of y'all have seriously forgotten that Eddie is an absolute loser who doodles dragons on every single piece of paper he can get his hands on

[mellotronmkll]

Like I genuinely feel like a lot of fans of like late 70s/early 80s new wave and post-punk especially the 'weirder' and more artsy and high concept stuff would love early they might be giants Like can you not get enough of elements of the avant-garde in pop music do you love when music is sarcastic and irreverent and witty and surreal and absurd and DARK do you like when music sounds a bit scary and challenges and unsettles you do you like when its been made with DIY production on the cheapest crunchiest instruments and is performed in gritty underground clubs and presented to audiences in novel ways do you like when artists seek to play with and redefine the relationship between artist and audience or do you also just like when frontmen get down autistic silly and sensitive style and freak everyone out with the way they incorporate performance art into their live shows like just. please contact me so we can listen to the 1983 demo tape while holding hands and I tell you all about it and then I play you a bunch of hissy staticy recordings that were ripped off of an answering machine 40 years ago and you will be changed

[monstrousdesirestudy]

I’ve reached 400 followers :3 hellooooooo my beloved nerdy perverts 🫵👋

[cienie-isengardu]

Jaster & Tor

For me, one of the most hilarious and no less furious aspects of Jaster Mereel’s treatment in the sources is how he is hailed as the great figure in Mandalorian history that brought back honor between Mandalorian Mercs and all but like, not getting any real development for over two decades. Sure, he got here and there mini encyclopedia entries and some mention in regard to Jango Fett, but never anything truly expanding his characterization beyond the general image of “good” Mandalorian created by tie-in sources - an image I find a pretty bland one compared to retconned “The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett” (in which Jaster Mereel originated from) and Jango Fett: Open Seasons comics series.

This is hilarious, because Tor Vizsla got a personal entry in Fact Files - an article biased as hell but still acknowledging both him as character and his impact on Jango & Mandalorians - and a whole section of Bounty Hunter Code for himself and Death Watch. And though I will forever stand with Jango that the Manifesto doesn’t sound much like him (but I like the idea the Manifesto is based on Tor’s notes just edited by someone to be more reader-friendly), there is like 30 pages expanding history and his person while Jaster is once again reduced to small mention here and there. And look, it is hilarious to me that Vizsla and Death Watch is the Mandalorians that Lucas wanted to keep for The Clone Wars, throwing out of window the supposedly great Jaster Mereel and True Mandalorians without any second thought but good damn, it is so frustrating we can’t get any solid material on him even though Bounty Hunter Code was the perfect opportunity to bring him back, as it would make a perfect sense for Jango to keep Jaster’s notes if not the whole Codex.

It is also frustrating because Tor and Jaster are like the two Mandalorians officially writting down important stuff and apparently both were versed in Mandalorian history & lore and I for one would love to compare their notes to get the feeling of middle-ground and see their ideas from the proper perspective not from biased sources that clearly favores Jaster - even if in JF:OS, after making research and interrogating Jango’s allies, Dooku’s only conclusion was that for Mereel Mandalorians were “merely highly-paid soldiers”. Which is hardly the same as bringing work ethic to your group (not that it does cross out the possibility of having actual moral standards, but it does not automatically mean the same). It is frustrating, because we don’t get that often Mandalorians with literary tendencies - hell, we didn’t get any other Mandalorian like that for years because almost everything is about the oral culture which makes Tor Vizsla and Jaster Mereel’s existence even more hilarious, as the two literature nerds that at some point sit down and write their own input - Tor about history and political goals for new members of Death Watch, Jaster about work ethics for True Mandalorians. And it is even more hilarious than that, because Jango Fett presumably read both works and HE DOESN’T READ BOOKS BECAUSE HE THINKS THEY ARE WASTE OF TIME:

Boba's father didn't read much. "Books? A waste of time," he said. "Read maps, Boba. Instructions. Warnings. Important stuff." [Boba Fett Book 1: The Fight to Survive by Terry Bisson]

[zannenilsson]

I love old films, but I am not a “film nerd” or “film buff.” I am film trash.

A film nerd has some intellectual detachment from the films they love. But I do not.

A film buff has some level of respectability to their fandom. But I have never cared about being respectable.

I love my favorite films deeply and unapologetically, because I am film trash.

I have read and written fanfiction for films that came out long before I was born, because I am film trash.

I find joy in all the messy fan culture and fan works that have sprung up around my favorite films, because I am film trash.

I make silly memes and shitposts about movies that most people only encounter in a film studies course, because I am film trash.

I once attended a silent film screening in low-key cosplay, because I am film trash. (And I would do it again and again and again.)

I am film trash, and I won’t apologize for it.

[nightandflesh]

Who is interested in having a cyborg companion in the future where they can function and perform on high-levels?

Btw, I highly recommend reading Donna Haraway’s essay The Cyborg Manifesto — it’s one of my favorite piece of writing that establishes a radical feminist lens of the robotic / cyborg / android tropes in science fiction.

I will also be posting all the androids (female) from the outer limits (90s remake) and perhaps doing a poll or just writing a short piece about each one, starting with one of my favorite anti-heroine VALERIE 23

[greensparty]

Remembering Mojo Nixon 1957-2024

Funny cowpunk musician Mojo Nixon has died at 66. I first became aware of him in the late 80s with songs and videos like "Debbie Gibson is Pregnant with my Two-Headed Love Child" (which had Winona Ryder as Gibson in the video) and "Don Henley Must Die" (which Henley joined him onstage for once). He did a ton of MTV promos in the early 90s as well.

Rock 'n' Roll Comics did unauthorized bios of musicians in comic book form, but the issue they did on Mojo Nixon (his bio was featured in the ZZ Top issue) was the only one that was authorized and done in collaboration with Nixon. In 2005, he appeared in the documentary The Story of Rock 'n' Roll Comics and even contributed music to the doc.

He also was a DJ, a columnist, an activist, and he acted in quite a few movies. I didn't catch it at the 2022 IFFBoston, but the documentary The Mojo Manifesto: The Life and Times of Mojo Nixon played there.

The link above is the obit from Rolling Stone.

[signify-nothing]

My new favorite way to pass the time is to read classic literary criticism texts and then use them to analyze films. So far I’ve paired:

"Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence" by Adrienne Rich with The Birds (1963).

"A Cyborg Manifesto" by Donna Haraway and Titane (2021). *Got the idea for this from an essay on hyperallergenic.com. 

The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar and Little Women (2019).

Next I’m thinking of pairing The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry by Harold Bloom with Scream (1996). Any film/literary criticism nerds out there with other recommended pairings, please let me know your suggestions!

[howl-at--the-sun]

I feel very bad for my boyfriend's parent's friends who just had to hear me scream "Of course I missed the Ostend Manifesto!!!" at the top of my lungs

[epitome-of-an-openbook]

No, because people keep acting like Grace Chastity being consumed with a lust for the power that Lords in Black provided her doesn't count as a world ending Cataclysm - but it very much does. Not only has she shown little to no empathy for others throughout the entire show and only ever felt bad for lying to authority figures and being horny - but the final song of the Musical is essentially a reprise of Max's Murder Song/Manifesto which places her as a parallel to Max. Max sings about how he's going to kill ALL the Nerdy Prudes and not once but twice tells the audience that it doesn't matter if someone is actually a Nerdy Prude because he makes the rules and gets to decide who is or isn't a nerd etc etc. Grace's take is that she is going to kill all the Dirty Dudes but she's literally singing it to a guy who has, throughout the entire musical, done nothing to indicate he's a pervy/dirty dude and only kissed her after she asked him too. Like Max, Grace Chastity doesn't actually care if someone genuinely fits the framework of her stated victimology, because she has the power so she gets to make the rules.

Honestly it's like some people didn't think about the implications.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Tech workers spent a whole generation conceiving of themselves as entrepreneurs who bargained, nerd-to-nerd, with other entrepreneurs who needed workers as much as workers needed paychecks.

These workers allowed themselves to be convinced that being “extremely hardcore” — that is, working body- and mind-ruining hours (without overtime pay) was a badge of honor.

They let themselves believe that their bosses gave them gourmet cafeteria food, “on-campus” fitness centers and daycare because they were valued workers — and not because this created the conditions where workers could be induced to put in longer hours without additional pay.

They conceived of themselves as ascetic monks, a priesthood that labored every hour God sent to bring digitization to the world. Meanwhile, their bosses’ wealth soared, even as their own working conditions deteriorated.

Tech workers may be prone to the same rationalization and self-deception as the rest of us, but (like the rest of us), they aren’t fools. Anything that can’t go on forever will eventually stop.

As conditions and prospects worsened, tech workers’ identities as workers emerged from a generation-long coma. They penned manifestos, walked off the job, and formed unions.

-The proletarianization of tech workers: If there is hope, it is in the proles

[punkeropercyjackson]

Honestly why even bother making Jason afrolatino if you're not gonna write him as he is in canon when that's what actually'd make him work good rep for us.What i mean by this is

His ego is huge,he's super tough and an edgelord,has anger issues and brutal ass tactics and is a morally gray vigilante but he's ALSO a huge woman respecter to the point he thinks they're better than men,is extremely kind with a huge soft side and his exterior attitude and Red Hood are trauma responses that're framed as valid on his end so he's not the 'Scary Black Man' stereotype and with the exception of the vigilante part this is actually a pretty common personality type for irl black men-Important note that i don't fall under the attitude but i AM a black man(and woman)

He's been a huge nerd since he's debut in both meanings of it-He's a genius who was a star student in school and loves classical literature,theater and speaking articulately and poetically but just happens not to 24/7 since he's a comic book character,not a Shakespearen one

And his soft sunshine boy with hidden depths Robin self is a critical part of making him as black latino work-You can't go with the retcon of him as a mini thug because it's extremely dangerous stereotyping

Duke as his favorite brother-It's erasure with white gringo Jason but even worse and just stupid because both of them being black would it EVEN BETTER writing they're eachother's number one Batboy pick.Ain't no nigga picking Tim when the only other black guy in the factor is Right There and fuck ya aus,keep Jason white in them and leave afrolatino Jason out of your mess

He hasn't expressed a particular preference for girls he likes but HAS for the ones he dosen't and it's preppy perfect judgemental ones who try to 'tame' him so rip all y'all's white X Readers LMFAO.Worth noting that his canon girlfriends have been a half cambodian tomboy(Rose),an edgyptian butch(Artemis)and a darkskin black woman(Dana)and that he's actively rejected a white blonde girl on the basis of her being too normal(Isabel)and Kory post deblackification so i think it's obvious where his tastes lie

You CANNOT make him and Roy or Batcest a thing-I don't think i need to explain why pairing up a white man who knew an afrolatino since he was 14 and him grown with a daughter and putting him in incest is violently antiblack

Poverty is not inherently bad in black or latino characters and there was a point in canon where it was used as simply an element in Jason's story instead of demonization so use that edition.But making him a drunkard,a smoker or a sex fiend is 100% perpetuating stereotypes and he's canonically the opposite of all three so again,sometimes things that are canon are better

Him being tall and super jacked and intimidating looking can actually enchance it-He uses it to his advantage to get people he dosen't like to fuck off because they buy into the propaganda and gives him more deepness with the rest of his personality

This includes him being a real gamer and his neapolitan food addiction and your headcanons on his other tastes should follow their lead-His favorite characters should be black and latino ones(His favorite Marvel hero is Miles Morales,it's canon to ME),he should listen to black and latino artists,he should eat black and latino food and know how to make it for that matter,etc

Back to a Duke situation-You also can't make a white woman instead of Talia his adoptive mom for obvious reasons and imo if you're gonna make him and Stephanie besties,she should be black too for that black best friends and found siblings rep(She works as a black woman as much as he does a black man and i'll make a manifesto of that like i did him if asked).This applies to the Team Dad Jason take too in the sense that he should mentoring Damian and Nell and Tiffany since they're Batgirls instead of white kids

In summary what i'm trying to say is:If you're going to see Jason as an afrolatino man,you need to go beyond just the aesthetic and little bits you feel like including because you think they're appealing and actually write him as an afrolatino man,as Jason Todd and not some random guy

@nogender-onlystars @willieoo @mayameanderings @desi-pluto @insomniac-jay @vulnonapixes-dc-corner

[feroluce]

I have been informed by a mutual aid that you are a henghill enjoyer. You've single-handedly gotten me to care about Gepard and I would love to hear your thoughts on Cowborg Menace x Dragon That Can't Catch a Break

Aaaaaaaa I'm really flattered!! I have also been informed by a mutual aid that you have good taste (read: rvb enjoyer) and I need you to know that part of the reason I treat Gepard the way I do, like messing with him constantly, is because he makes me think of Wash. Poor dude was doomed the moment I got my grubby little mitts on him sksjkskdjd

But anyway yes, henghill! They really got me by the throat out of nowhere in 2.2. They're just. Surprisingly sweet?

The two of them get along very well, they see eye to eye on a lot of matters and have some similar mannerisms, they can hold long conversations together, and they have a shockingly swift understanding of the other in a very small amount of time! Platonically or romantically, there's a lot to dig into there. ♡

And I do mean a lot this basically ended up becoming a big long ship manifesto I'm so sorry zmjzznkdjd

Like first of all they're both fucking nerds over each other. Boothill's adoration for the Xianzhou alliance is already well-documented in his About Dan Heng voice line, and is appropriately pointed out in the fandom as sounding gay as all hell.

We know what you are, Boothill.

But then! He further cements it by trying to use Xianzhou sayings in front of Dan Heng haha

Not only that, but Boothill was able to recognize the Jade Abacus of Allying Oath for what it was like immediately, and instantly took it as proof of Dan Heng's identity as a Nameless. The validation of the Xianzhou is clearly a huge deal to him.

And Dan Heng plays it cool but like. I don't think he's actually much better JFKLASJDKL

The in-game Data Bank, which is supposed to be written and maintained by Dan Heng himself, has a pretty positive glowing review of the Galaxy Rangers.

And I feel the need to point out that like. The Galaxy Rangers are essentially a vigilante justice group..."group" being a pretty loose term, there isn't a whole lot of organization in there. Not everyone has a very good view of them because they're outlaws and there's a pretty wide and wild variety of individuals in the mix there, Boothill even confirms it as such.

And that archive entry is a hilariously stark contrast to the one for the Masked Fools, who Dan Heng does NOT seem to respect. So you can tell he puts a lot of his own opinion into the data and you can really see where his preferences lie KFDLAJFKLD

He does let his fanboy slip when Boothill first announces himself as a Galaxy Ranger though, just a little bit haha:

They're like the equivalent of when your favorite big name fandom person follows you back, you feel me fjkdjasflkdjskal

Which. I feel like it does make sense that he would really idolize the Galaxy Rangers and see them as heroes. Dan Heng is someone who was a victim of centuries of wrongful imprisonment and political power plays, and it would have been way worse had Jing Yuan not gone above the preceptors to protect him. He is someone that the system failed, and horrifically so. Of course he would like the idea of righteous heroes who stand for justice and travel the cosmos freely to help people.

And as @hydrachea, CEO of Dan Heng Enterprises and Super Genius with Giant Wrinkly Brain pointed out, this background DOES lay the foundation for Dan Heng to relate to Boothill a lot. You see this displayed beautifully in his Keeping Up With Star Rail video, where Dan Heng gets really protective of him, I adored it so so much. ♡

In it, Dan Heng not only comments that he originally came because he thought he was giving a presentation on how to be friendly with Boothill, but every time the IPC tries to paint him as some violent dangerous ruthless criminal, Dan Heng speaks up to explain his way of thinking and to defend him. It was really sweet!

And Dan Heng is protective of people anyway. He serves as the Guard of the Astral Express for a reason. He had nothing and no one before Himeko took him in, and now that he's found companions to love he is viciously defensive of them. You see it in the way he guards March 7th during fights on Jarilo-IV, in how he goes out of his way to bring important info to the trailblazer, in how he left the safety of the Express and infiltrated the Luofu because he was terrified he was going to lose them. But there's maybe a little extra layer of Understanding in the way he so persistently speaks up in Boothill's defense.

And I'm sure that this is a part of him that Boothill really admires, too, because Dan Heng also displays these instincts in Penacony. He makes the decision not just once, but twice, to use the Jade Abacus to save the Express Crew. And we know from Boothill's earlier reaction to it that like. The Jade Abacus is a Big Fuckin' Deal. It is something of immense value. Even with everything that's at stake, Boothill urges him to really make sure he wants to use it.

And this was something that really got me in the heart later, because! In Ena's Dream, Dan Heng once again decides to use the Jade Abacus, and. I'm not quite sure I can effectively put it in words, but there is something just so so sweet in the way that Boothill tells him no, Dan Heng should keep it. This is a get out of jail free card that could save his life down the line, he wants him to have it in case he finds himself in danger again later.

It really gives the feeling that Boothill actually wanted Dan Heng to not have to rely on this before, but there was no other way at the time. But now there IS something Boothill can do about it, and he wants to do something about it. A sorta-kinda "let me protect you this time"-ish feeling. If that makes any sense. He doesn't want Dan Heng to have to make that sacrifice.

Because I think Boothill would consider that a really admirable and respectable action, especially given his background. The IPC eradicated his homeplanet. He lost his parents, his siblings, his daughter, his home all in one fell swoop, and he has been on a fully dedicated revenge quest ever since. How could he not be a little awed by someone willing to give so much to protect his home and his family?

I think it's something the two of them understand in each other, because as it shows in the dialogue the first time Dan Heng decided to use the Jade Abacus, Boothill caught on immediately. He already knew what Dan Heng was planning before he even said so. And it's not even the first time he does that! Even as early as their initial entrance into the Reverie, Boothill is able to tell when Dan Heng is stressed, why he's stressed, and he backs off and gives him space without any fuss.

And it works! After the Express Crew are safe, they go from Dan Heng correcting him to more just kind of going with Boothill's flow, and I feel like this is a much better basis for their interactions.

Also I'm crying about Dan Heng blabbing that the trailblazer is a vessel of a Stellaron, gossipy little dragon fjdkasjfdklsaj

Like the two of them just GET each other! And so quickly and easily! It's ridiculous! Dan Heng is able to explain the methods behind Boothill's madness. Boothill is able to read Dan Heng like a book. They both had the same reaction to learning Acheron was a Self-Annihilator. They both really believe it's just fine and normal to have a weapon out if you don't trust someone yet- Boothill pulled his gun on Acheron the second he saw her, Dan Heng got his spear out and poked Sampo the first time he met him (valid). And they both act Like That because they're similar flavors of wary and cautious. They had to prove their identities to each other when they first met before either of them could relax.

They're both frank, and blunt, and will openly call shit out or question it when they see fit. They both believe in answering the call to action, and share a lot of their ideologies of The Hunt, like upholding justice and saving the innocent and protecting the weak. Boothill lives to fuck over the IPC and keep them from colonizing more planets like his, Dan Heng didn't even consider his own wants and asked to go to Edo Star to help the population there. They take their creeds seriously, and dedicate themselves to them, enough to be offended by imposters. Dan Heng dislikes Boothill claiming to be a Nameless, Boothill was literally hunting down Acheron for parading around as a Galaxy Ranger.

And all throughout 2.2, Boothill displays an immense knowledge of Paths and Aeons and even Emanators, and Dan Heng is a huge nerd an archiver and a collector of knowledge. The conversations these two could have!! They've both been to a lot of places and seen a lot of things, and I think Dan Heng especially would love listening to Boothill's stories and then adding them to the data bank. They can probably relate on rough travel, too- Boothill refers to the Astral Express as "bunkin' in luxury" and Pom-Pom once said Dan Heng was "used to sleeping on the rope." When March 7th takes the trailblazer to look for Dan Heng, she even phrases this as though he and Boothill have been talking together for quite a while!

Hell, even when they awaken in Ena's Dream, they arrive together:

They were together for almost the entirety of 2.2; literally the very first scene of it was their introduction. They only truly separated when Dan Heng went to help in the fight with The Great Septimus and Boothill to gather the Rangers (and then go shoot Aventurine full of holes fjkdlsajd) but! I'm really hoping we'll get to see more of them together in 2.3! They were a really cool duo, and it was so fun to watch them all through this update, I really want to see more of them now and explore their relationship dynamic more! ♡

[romanticizingmurder]

Anyway I think what's so strange to me about the "not everyone wants to treat fandom as a school essay!!" response to "I think meta should attempt to cite the text" is that for as long as I have been in fandom, and maybe this is just me getting old, meta has been for the nerds who want to write and debate school essays

Meta and ship manifestos were the domain of needs who wanted to write essays with footnotes and citations about their blorbos, and wanted to discuss and argue about it.

Headcanons and fic and art were the realm for pure creativity and throwing canon and the text out the door!

But like meta was the place for annoying canon nitpicking and deep reads and citations and it feels like increasingly people are using meta to mean "headcanon I take seriously" and not "literary analysis but in my freetime about my blorbos" and it's like...I react very differently to meta than to headcanons, because that was the fandom etiquette and expectations I grew up on.