Star Wars Fans in Line... at the Wrong Theater 618
Rollie Hawk writes "More than a month before the premiere of Revenge of the Sith, fans are already lining up. Outside Grauman's Chinese Theater, eleven diehard Star Wars fans (i.e. lifelong virgins) are waiting for tickets to go on sale. Unfortunately, it appears that the guys with girlfriends will have the last laugh as the Chinese Theater isn't even premiering the film."
It's the experience that's important! (Score:5, Insightful)
I saw Episodes 1/2 on opening day and waited in line about 6 minutes combined. So it's not like they NEED to camp out to get tickets. Which come to think of it makes the whole idea of them standing in line for tickets anywhere, let alone a theatre that isn't even showing the movie... downright sad.
What I'm looking forward to more than the movie is the comedy bit where Triumph the Insult Comic Dog shows up and tells the line camping nerds how nice they are... FOR HIM TO POOP ON!
Movie's already released... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's sad... (Score:5, Insightful)
erm (Score:3, Insightful)
If this is the case then please fuck off to somethingawful or whatever the hellhole is you hang out because here we're beyond judging people on how many women they have fucked or gone out with.
Nerd bashing on Slashdot? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:erm (Score:3, Insightful)
People have a fucked up idea of who to slag off.
Re:Triumph (Score:5, Insightful)
When Empire came out, people waited in line days in advance because it was the only sure way to get in on opening night.
Today, you can buy your tickets on-line in advance and show up just as the previews are starting. There is no reason to camp out for seats other than pretending to be as "hard core" of a fan as those who slept out for the original movies in '77, '80 and '83.
Hey, you in the Jedi robes! Here's a clue: Real nerds will have already seen the illegal torrent file of the movie before you even get in the theater anyway. There's no geek-cred to be won simply by being the "first" to see the new movie, and all of the prequels are lame anyway. Go home and take a shower.
Re:Suckers (Score:2, Insightful)
I would rather spend some time with my wife, who has been abroad for two weeks on business. When she got back on Monday, we really enjoyed being back with each other.
Even if someone GAVE me a ticket to watch Starwars on a preview, but would clash with the time my wife returns from her trip, i would not give up being with her.
The way I look at it, Starwars is a plain story, a fantasy. She is real.. I know what I would prefer given the choice.
Re:Suckers (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Suckers (Score:3, Insightful)
Nerds are the Slashdotters who put on their D&D dungeon master rode to feel empowered as they post on Slashdot and call everyone else in the world losers but themselves. I like geeks and dorks, I can't stand nerds.
Re:Not virgins... (Score:1, Insightful)
Dude come on. These people are lining up 1 month in advance. 1 month of their lives wasted just so they can see a movie before 98% of the rest of the population. You really think they have kids?
Re:The funniest bit (Score:3, Insightful)
People who wait in line outside the Chinese for the (shitty) prequels are doing so for the exact same reason kids went to "Woodstock 2" in spite of the fact that nearly all of the bands at the show sucked. They want to feel somehow connected to the phenomenon.
Ah, but then..... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Triumph (Score:3, Insightful)
Spock flipping them all of was pretty damn funny too.
Re:Triumph (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm guessing he can get his share of wicca trim at a typical Ren Fest.
Re:The funniest bit (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Not virgins... (Score:2, Insightful)
It's "news for nerds", not "news for geeks"!
Re:Suckers (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Triumph (Score:5, Insightful)
> There is no reason to camp out for seats other than pretending to be as "hard
> core"
Except, you know, because they want to socialize with Star Wars fans and play with lightsabers, and they think that's cool, despite the fact that it's not cool to the rest of us.
News flash: "geek cred" is a worthless currency, and has been ever since the dot-com bubble burst. It's now back to just being an oxymoron. You've reached a crossroads: If there's a group deriving value and status from somthing that you deem worthless, and then you proceed to deride them for not sharing your sense of what's worth doing -- then congratulations, you're no longer a nerd. You're a cool person.
> Go home and take a shower.
If I stay home and torrent the prequels I already know I'm supposed to hate, why bother showering?
Re:Not virgins... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:erm (Score:5, Insightful)
This is really a sad commentary on the position of slashdot readers in the social order, and I'll illustrate why with a anecdote from middle school: At recess I often used to watch the field behind the soccer goals, because it's where the social outcasts would go to pick on each other. Day after day they would battle to determine the pecking order of the bottom 5th percentile. Fights like those didn't go on in the upper levels, where looks, money, and prestige determined social rank. It was fascinating, and tragic. In the end, the winners gained nothing, and the stuggle only served to make their lives that much more miserable.
Now for those that didn't understand the moral, here it is; If you pick on the weakest people you can find, it is because you are yourself weak. If you are actually important or noteworthy in some way, you wouldn't have to point out failings in others to try and aggrandize yourself. Hugh Hefner doesn't need to scoff at other's sexual exploits, because he is legendary in that regard. If you do, you are obviously not.
So for everyone out there who felt the need to say, "har dee har, at least I'm not those guys", congratulations, but recess is over. So point your eyes back down at the floor and don't bump into anyone in the hall, because to everyone else, you're still at the bottom.
Re:Not virgins... (Score:1, Insightful)
Go to bed before you hurt yourself.
Re:Geek, nerd, etc. (Score:4, Insightful)
Geek: very smart with good people skills
Nerd: very smart with poor people skills
Dork: dumb with poor people skills
Re:Not virgins... (Score:5, Insightful)
Being modded as troll, but he's right. If you disagree, trace the the origins of the revision of the bible and you will see. Prior to the translation from Latin (King James version), only the elite could read the scriptures. When they translated them, they were the sole purveuors of religious thought in the UK. They were also men, bound by the weaknesses of men. They left out entire sections that they disagreed with, e.g. the book of Mary. Men at that didn't believe women had a place other than in the kitchen.
Each translation was an attempt to make a bible for the local population, written with the current environment in mind. If the exact same people were to sit down and do a translation today, it would be vastly different. It scares me that most religious people aren't open to the fact there are several hundred different versions of the bible. The one their church uses is the correct one, and that's the end of the discussion as far as they are concerned.
Re:Triumph (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:erm (Score:3, Insightful)
It's funny that they could do so much planning to go see a movie, and completely fail to check to see if the movie was showing there. It just is.
Oops, everyone laughs, and if they have a sense of humor, they will laugh as well and move to the right theater.
You'd probably be right there to make it a big f'ing deal though, and try to throw your baggage on top of them.
You think the people waiting for months outside a theater dont already have some thick skin and a healthy defense against some ridicule? You think they don't know exactly how they are perceived and dont give a sh!t because they are having fun? They do, trust me. I was IN that line standing right next to Elijah Wood (of course, we got there just a few hours before).
You should probably go down there and learn how they got over being the social outcasts and embraced who they are... you could learn something, amybe drop some baggage off too.
Re:Not virgins... (Score:3, Insightful)
She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" 41"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed.[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." "
That's pretty weak though, just one example, and the teaching you could take from is that earthly pursuits are not as important as spirtual ones. Nothing about women not belonging in the kitchen! ;-) There are countless example of women not being treated equally in the bible. Out of curiosity, did the unmarried men who weren't virgins get stonings? I'm not sure on that.
I'm not saying they rewrote it. But it was spun to conform with the times.
Don't understand why people find it so strange (Score:5, Insightful)
Still, I don't understand why people find it so strange that a small amount of hardcore fans dress each two years like their favorite hero but then, never make fun of the thousands of stupid jocks that paint their faces and go dressed in a clown looking way to their favorite football game every Sunday.
Re:Suckers (Score:3, Insightful)
A Geek is an engineer, or, barring that, one who obsessed with obtaining skill in something that really has no real world relevance, but sucks up time from interesting problems as a means of illusionary social superiority. These skills are mainly trivial, done by countless others, and are done in a way that collaboration is almost completely shunned. Examples are D&D, pseudo-religious flame wars (kind of like this), system administration, obtaining an MCSE, gaming, running debian, etc. This goes back to the Geeks of olde, circus geeks, who did horrifying and sometimes amazing acts that really had no utility outside of grossing people out and taking their money. As society has progressed the Geek personality has had to adapt, and now simply is the loner in his mom's basement who chats on IRC about how many bots he has running on his sid server while playing countless command-line MUDs, groaning about trolls and dice logistics. Help me out here dictionary:
geek geek (g=ek), n.
1. A performer in a carnival, often presented as a wild man, who performs grotesquely disgusting acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken or snake. PJCM
2. Hence: Any eccentric or strange person; an oddball; an eccentric.
The Dork is a more of a fun individual. He or She enjoys making people laugh and being the butt of many-a-jokes. They're fun to be around and generally amiable. When they're on, they're funny, when they're off, they're reserved.
The Nerd, on the other hand, is your average scientist. They are reserved, hard-minded, generally nice, think-a-holics. They're open minded and realize all of the basic fundamental human truths instinctively. They find average pursuits boring and tedious, feel that they are generally socially inferior, but know it doesn't matter.
Everyone has some combination of nerd/dork/geek in them. The main theme here, though, is social identity. Geeks think their "skills" make them socially superior to others. Dorks feel they are on the same level as everyone else. Nerds feel they are inferior, but realize it's all a crock of shit anyway. Your classic geek would be a Sports hero or a D&D player. Your classic Dork would be a comedian. Your classic Nerd would be a scientist. None of them are inherhently evil.
During the 90's you computer people decided to take back the term Geek and adopt it in a way that it had never been used before. Now "hackers" are considered Geeks. Well, they're not, though their followers certainly are. Hackers are nerds. They love thinking about interesting problems, solving them, and sharing them. The entire hacker and open source culture is built on top of Nerdom. However, most of slashdot is awash in geeks. Followers who feel the need to tout their skills, chime in with some so-called insightful statement that is really just a rehash of things said over and over again in the community:
"Competition is a Good Thing (tm)"
"Free as in Freedom not free as in Beer" [freebsd.org]
"Monopolies are Bad."
Etc, etc etc...
Infact, slashdot is built on the Geek model. That is, it's based on social advancement through subjective ratings, rather than pure openness and exchange of thoughts - be they flames or otherwise. It's trolls tend to be more insightful and commentative than it's serious posters, especially those post 600000 UID's. In other words - slashdot is designed, be it intentional or not, to bring out the worst element of the open source world - the Geek. The engineer that works in back rooms on a widget that his boss will then claim for his own. Owned by a company, building and toiling, giving shit back to society other than another magical product to pump to the masses, sold for more than it's really worth. But they're an engineer. That title makes them better than the rest of us! Or, they're a sys-admin or a dungeon master. All labels, titles that are created to make the individual feel superior in some meaningless way.
Re:erm (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Suckers (Score:2, Insightful)
If only one of the 6 was there because she enjoyed the game, then the other 5 were 'there because of their boyfriends'. By the pigeonhole principle, at least one nerd/geek must be doing very well indeed.