My Geeky Moment

This afternoon, I actually watched an hour of the National Spelling Bee coverage on ESPN. Wait, I have a good reason for doing so! I er.. ehm.. ok fine, I do not have one. It's just so interesting to watch 250 nerdy home-schooled overachieving kids try to spell words normal people like us would never ever think of using in our lifetime. Words like "rheotropism", "pygopodous" and my personal favourite, "sardoodledom".

Don't get me wrong though, I am actually VERY impressed by the participant's efforts. I could neither spell nor even pronounce half the words given, and they are ONLY 14 years old! One thing I found rather amusing though is how the announcers would refer to the participants as "spellers". The organisers may think it's cool but whenever the announcers mention "SPELLERS!", I could see the entire bench of participating kids roll their eyes. Can you imagine what these kids have to go through in school?

(The scene: School recess. Two students got beaten up by a gang of school bullies and then thrown together into a nearby dumpster)

Boy 1: Hey there. I'm Sheldon.

Boy 2: Hello. My name is Dexter.

Sheldon: We both have geeky names. What else are you in for?

Dexter: I take up ballet and bake cookies with my sister.

Sheldon: Bummer.

Dexter: What about you?

Sheldon: I'm a speller.

Dexter: AHAHAHAHA WHAT A LOSER!! *starts slapping Sheldon with a rotten banana peal*

Speaking of geeky activities, I remember representing my secondary school in a scrabble competition.

(Pause)

Yes. A Scrabble competition. I was a "Scrabbler". Oh god, just thinking about it makes my stomach turn. To make it sound cooler, I shall now call it, The Letter Arranging Game. Well in my defense, I was 16 and I was a er.. ehm.. geek. Hm, not much of a defense there. I remembered getting knocked out on the first round because of a silly incident:

(During the The Letter Arranging Game competition)

Ben: "CTROVNJO" [What the hell am I going to make out of this?]

Referee: Benjamin, you have 1 minute to come up with a word.

Ben: Yes, maam. [TIR? VOT? NIT? JOON? ... TOON.. TOON!]

Referee: 30 seconds has passed.

Ben: I have a word! *fixes up "TOON" on the board*

Referee: That is not a word.

Ben: Yes it is.

Referee: No, IT IS NOT!

Ben: Look at the dictionary!!

Referee: *flips* There's no "toon" in the dictionary. I told you. Where did you get that silly word from?

Ben: Cartoon Network.

Referee: Well there are "cartoons" but no "toons". Ben, I'm gonna have to disqualify you if you do not have a word.

Ben: I er.. wait! I DO have another word! *fixes up "ORC" on the board*

Referee: And where is this word from?

Ben: Warcraft.

Referee: You're out.

Yes, I know I could have formed better words with my set. What can I say? I panicked.