Battlemouth

Hello, and welcome to the first installment of Talk Nerdy to Me, Battlemouth’s resident geeky advice column. Today we have a question from an anonymous user, who asked:

How does one start up a relationship with a non-geek. Geek is in my blood, but she shares none of these qualities. How can I make this work??

The first thing you need to ask yourself is this: do you really WANT it to work, or even see it working? If she isn’t geeky, that means she probably shares very few interests with you. What sort of common ground would you have? Physical attraction only goes so far; if you’re going to end up with someone forever they’ll get old and wrinkly and it’s the conversation and common ground that truly matters. Sure, for a time, if you liked each other aesthetically enough you would ignore the fact that you have nothing in common, but it will get old pretty fast.
However, it’s another story if she’s actually interested in LEARNING about the things that you like. Perhaps she played Zelda as a kid, or read her big brother’s comic books. If she likes you enough, and is eager to be a part of your life, use these starting points as stepping stones. And if she IS willing to become part of your interests – don’t ignore her’s! You may really, REALLY hate the band that is her favorite, but at least respect that she loves the things she loves… because if it pans out right, she may just accept your action figures and WoW habit.
The best thing to do is to take it really, REALLY slow. Don’t jump into things. Take her out to dinner or drinks a couple of times – feel her out. See if she seems interested in your geeky topics or if she brushes them off to ramble about the latest celebrity gossip. If you find her conversation boring and find yourself staring at her boobs more than you’re looking into her eyes, you need to move on. There are plenty of adorable, geeky girls out there just waiting to delve into your comic book collection and get naked between your Star Wars sheets.

This question reminded me of a personal experience. Once upon a time I went on a couple of dates with a guy that really wasn’t my type – in the fact that his only experience with anything geeky was watching Ninja Turtles as a kid. But he seemed interested in my comic books and would pick my brain about my passions, so I thought I’d give him a couple more chances. I was growing a little bored by him after the second date or so, but the final straw was when he called me to ask me for tech support. The conversation went something like this:
Him: “I’m thinking of buying an external hard drive, but I’m not sure this one will work with my computer.”
Me: “I’m not sure why it wouldn’t; link it to me and I’ll take a look at it.”
He linked me to the external hard drive, which was a standard 500gig, USB plugin. Take note that in the photo it was plugged into a desktop PC.
Me: “Yeah, that’ll work. What were your concerns?”
Him: “Well, I own a laptop.”
Me: “Yeah…?”
Him: “In the picture it’s plugged into a PC. Doesn’t that mean it won’t work with my laptop?”
Me: /facepalm

As always, send me your geeky questions about ANYTHING – from how to talk your lady into giving you a BJ during WoW to what comic book you should pick up next Wednesday – to molly@battlemouth.com