I am nerd, hear me roar

I am nerd, hear me roar
If I needed any verification of my utter nerdiness or geekiness, I went to the first signing stop in the Ken Jennings book tour (although he's been just all over TV plugging the book -- including a fun appearance on The Colbert Report on Wednesday).

An aside, what a strange 1-2 punch on Colbert: Ken on Wednesday, Bill Simmons on Thursday.

In many ways it was your basic book signing -- a couple of excerpts from the book were read aloud, some of the same stories he's told numerous times about his experiences on the show, a few of the usual questions about game shows and other assorted stuff from the crowd. (However, it's rather ironic that the signing took place at 7 p.m. -- when Jeopardy! airs in New York.)

But the crowd is where I knew that I was definitely in my element, which was comforting and scary at the same time. I ended up sitting in a row two of the players featured in Wordplay . So you've got the crossword puzzle people on one hand. During the Q&A, I heard from a former DC-area quizbowl player and game show fanatic.

And to round out the intersection of all these knowledge-based cabals, I ended up hanging out with a handful of people from the Jeopardy! message boards, even though I only knew the real names of a couple of the people. So yes, it was very odd to match faces to screennames -- if that doesn't just scream of geekiness, I don't what does. And hey, I'm in the middle of the whole thing, so what does that make me?

In the end, it was a fun little outing. That Barnes and Noble in Union Square is pretty cool (not used to a four-level B&N). I got the book and will probably be part of my commute reading very soon, and KJ even recognized me (he seemed to see a bunch of familiar faces in the crowd). I'll eventually have a review of the book up here. Not only do I have that book to read -- I need to grab the "other" Jeopardy! book not to mention the latest Klosterman book.