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Why The Geeky Lingo?


GixxerUT

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The advantage to the term "muggle" is that it can be used as both a noun and a verb with specific meaning. Muggle and muggled. Onlooker and onlooked? Onlooker and raided? How about normals as in "I had to wait until the normals went away to find the cache." and "The cache was normalized."?

 

OK, perhaps it is a stretch. I think muggle is going to stay.

 

B.T.W. The story of JK Rowling being sued over the term muggle has something to do with a children's book only published on a small scale in the US and not even nation-wide. Muggles were small elf-type creatures. It turns out that way before the book was published the term "muggle" referred to marijuana cigarettes.

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I work for a medical school. When my wife and I are out and meet up with someone from the medical school, she refers to them as "Borg".

 

I think the "muggle" term is silly and juvenile and therefore don't use it. But its the same as calling other UNMC employees Borg.

This post reminds me of last week, when I was returning to the office after lunch. Several of us were walking down the sidewalk towards the door and one guy started singing "Welcome to the Machine". I heard others laugh and join in. I wonder what the muggles (provide your definition here) would have thought. The song kind of stuck with me for part of the day. Then I realized I wouldn't get much work done if I kept thinking about the song, so I switched my thoughts to geocaching. :o

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Dear GixxerUT,

 

This is your notice:

 

Geek Up if you want to be a Geocacher.

 

Pretending not to be a geek if you geocache is very bad form.

 

What else might you be lying to yourself about your status in the world?

 

Go buy some Dumbo sneakers, a goofy hat, zinc-oxide for your nose and wear all of them on your next outing.

 

Just trying to help you gain a positive self-image.

 

Your Counselor,

 

T of TandS

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Do you want to know what I've discovered since I graduated high school in 1994? It is not fun to NOT be a geek.

 

I laughed my butt off when I learned that 'non-cachers' are referred to as 'muggles'. It is great; it suggests we have some sort of magic.

 

Every hobby has its lingo, and it is usually geeky to people who don't understand.

 

Life is much more fun if you don't worry whether you're geeky or not. BTW, I ride too. My Concours is a bit more geeky than a 'Gixxer', (geeky lingo) but I still ride. Some people probably consider me a geek for that. I guess motorcycling and snowboarding are not as geeky as geocaching, since you go fast and lean a lot.

 

Now that I've read this thread for a while, I realize what a skillful troll I've just fallen for. Hats off to Gixxer, as he has baited us but good!

 

I wonder if I should start a thread now entitled: "Magellen Sucks" and watch the mayhem? :D

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B.T.W. The story of JK Rowling being sued over the term muggle has something to do with a children's book only published on a small scale in the US and not even nation-wide. Muggles were small elf-type creatures. It turns out that way before the book was published the term "muggle" referred to marijuana cigarettes.

I knew I'd heard it somewhere. Couldn't recall the details though. I remember it seemed rather unlikely at the time that she would have heard of it (I also doubt that she had heard of marijuana cigarettes reffered to as muggles either...)

Just seems like one of those terms that flows naturally from many other sources.

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Don't forget, this is the new millenium, being geek, nerd, dork is now cool- sort of. Heck, geeks have a huge presence now in popular culture, otherwise, how would you explain the popularity of the recent comic movie hits such as the X-Men, Spiderman?

I totaly agree. 'Course I'm a little one sided on the subject.....

 

X

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geocaching is for geeks, nerds and dorks! we stand united and proud! with our pocket calculators and thick-rimmed glasses, we will someday conquer the world!

 

geek.jpg

I couldn't agree more. The kids I teach call me a geek and nerd. I wear those titles with pride. If caching makes me more so, I love it! Just remember that the biggest nerd in the world is also the richest--Bill Gates.

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Has anyone yet coined a term such as "Vacaching"?

 

That seems like a simple geeky way to refer to those trips taken for the sole purpose of logging caches. (I had a mini-vacachion today and doubled my cache log) :rolleyes:

 

I'd love to enter this arena in true form, with some type of geekish offering.

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Some people have mentioned that the first word in "muggle" is "mug." Highly appropriate considering what some of these folks do to caches they find accidentally.

 

Others have pointed out that jargon like "muggle" create a certain bond among people "in the know." True. However, it's important to remember such terms also serve to exclude those who are not "in the know."

 

As for the designation "Geeks," what else would you call people who wander around in a remote area receiving sattelite signals on handheld electronic devices? "Extraterrestrials?"

 

Recently I was out for 6 hours in the snow to find a single 4.5 star multi. (Stop right there--"geek" is a better term than "idiot.") My companions were a tax accountant and a life member of MENSA. Every hour on the hour, our watches all beeped in chorus. So who's a geek?

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dork ( P ) Pronunciation Key (dôrk)

n. Slang.

 

A stupid, inept, or foolish person

 

It would seem that the difference between geek and nerd is appearance and clumsiness, and Harry Potter isn't really unattractive. I'm not sure about his clumsiness. He's probably more of a dork then a geek or nerd, although that description probably doesn't fit well either.

 

Imagine Napoleon Dynamite caching . . . . .

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I was never a geek or nerd.(that's my story, and I'm sticking to it)

On a cold Missouri January day, my son and I were caching in the snow and wind. He asked, "where do I get a pocket protector?" HE WAS SERIOUS. Geek?- let's see- Pager,radios, cell phone, mapquest and EasyGPS on two computers, two PDA's- My gosh I'm a techno geek. I found myself wandering around in weather for free, when Uncle Sam used to pay me, and I was loving the "hunt".

 

Hey who cares= I'm almost 50, raising a family, spent my money not my folks-If I have a heart attack geocaching, that's a better way than some others I can think of. Most folks I've met caching don't care what others think.

 

Let's try to come up with more geeky lingo and have fun just for fun's sake. Every sport or hobby has it's own language. Let's have our own.

 

How about "Geo-geek speak",""gps-anese(jeeps-a-nese)","long-lat-in(lonj-latin)"

"gpsr-sian(jeep-persian)","cache-ish(cash-ish). Okay, I'll stop." :D

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