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Nerd jokes are always more amusing when you’re trashed

After several weeks of high-tension work, unfortunate deadlines, and all-nighters in gdb, I finally had some time to unwind this weekend, mostly involving a very enjoyable night on the town with friends.

Maybe it’s the onset of maturity, something I hoped I’d never live to see, but I’ve lost my zest for nightclubs of late. The lines, the music, the smoke, the having-to-get-drunk-enough-to-forget-you’re-white to enable dancing, the fauxhawks and ironic mullets… I can do without the lot, so I’ve come to enjoy the classy mid-thirties bars all the more. Last night saw us in the CBD, starting at the Belgian Beer Café (Hoegaarden on tap), Box Deli (very decent martinis of the French [for the ladies] and Dirty [for myself] varieties), and Carnegies (not as classy, but it’s hard to dislike a bar with such shelves of spirits that the staff must fetch them by ladder).

We were out with the Sex & the City gang sans Samantha Emma, when Miranda Paris and I were introduced for the first time (who, incidentally, is more of an Angelina Jolie than her New York doppelgänger would suggest).

Paris
So, what are you studying?
Chris
I move between an interesting major and a boring one.
Paris
And they are?
Chris
Linguistics and Computer Science.
Paris
So Computer Science is the really interesting one.
Chris
Hah, sure.
Paris
So you’re a linguist? Lemme show you something. [Removing a bracelet and showing me her wrist] My family are Celtic pagans, I had this tattooed on my wrist; it means ‘free’.
Chris
Free as in speech? Or free as in beer?
Paris
Huh?
Chris
Never mind.