Hardly a week goes by when I don't see someone post on Facebook that The Big Bang Theory is one of the best shows on television.
While I watched it on occasion, recently I have come to agree with that assessment.
Over the past few weeks, I have caught up with seasons one through three on DVD. As for season four, my wife and I have been working our way through the recordings on the digital video recorder.
Come to think of it, this is all her fault. She was the one that got me interested in it. Perhaps that's because, oh, about 16 to 18 years ago, I could have been a cast member, or at least a guest star.
No, I was nowhere close to a doctorate in physics. I couldn't even pass calculus. But I, and my friends, were most definitely nerds of the stripe seen on Big Bang Theory.
In this column, their names shall be changed to protect the guilty. However, I'm sure they know who they are.
At the University of Saskatchewan, I, along with several of my classmates, were taking engineering/computer science double-degree programs. Uber-nerds, to the extreme.
One, who shall be known as "Dean," was something like Howard, except he actually had these things known as girlfriends. Note the plural form. He had several over the years, and never seemed to be lacking in that regard, unlike the rest of us.
However, he was also obsessive-compulsive when it came to computer games. He would go on three-day caffeine-infused benders playing some of the very first online first-person shooter games. He actually would take his desktop computer to the university newspaper office, which had the fastest Internet connection he could access, in order to play in online tournaments while occasionally doing some actual work on the newspaper. Dean washed out of computer science around the same time I flunked out of engineering, only to return and eventually complete a masters degree in computer science.
His current work is at the highest level of electronics design. He's not allowed to talk about it, but suffice it to say, in a very, very small way, he has a microscopic impact on most computers you touch today.
His wife, "Susie," is also a masters graduate, was the closest thing we had to Amy Farrah Fowler, girlfriend of Big Bang Theory's Sheldon. The similarities in mannerisms, especially 15 years ago, are striking. A microbiologist, she designs new forms of genetically modified food. I'm sure you've eaten some of it.
I actually have two "Sheldons" from those days. One, "Freddy," was in engineering/computer science double degree, but with the added difficulty of taking on the hardest discipline in the college - engineering physics. He did lab work on atom smashers, the type of stuff they talk about on Big Bang Theory, except in real life.
I once made the observation that if there were three objects in a room - a science fiction novel, a friend and his girlfriend, he would read the book first, talk to the friend, and then maybe notice his girlfriend. The man read 500 page sci-fi and fantasy novels in less than a day.
Freddy would go on to be one of the last men standing for Nortel. Recognized for his genius, despite Nortel's layoffs numbering in the tens of thousands, he was retained. One of the smartest men I have ever met, that Freddy.
The other Sheldon, "Bob," was tall, skinny and while not so scientifically inclined, had mannerisms that were on par with Sheldon. Argumentative and quirky, he was Sheldon before there was a Sheldon.
For instance, no matter where we went to eat, he would only eat a plain chicken burger. "Just the chicken and the bun."
It didn't matter if it was a rib joint or McDonalds. That was it. His wife is an angel, let me tell you.
Bob is now gaining nation-wide recognition on the subject of education, after his book on the education system came out last fall. He's also the most likely among our group to be elected to parliament, as he already holds elected office.
I guess I see myself as closest to Leonard, the loveable loser nerd. Well, I may not have been lovable, but I was lonely, and had about as much luck with women as he did. I was truly a nerd, but not to the extreme as some of my compatriots.
I think that's part of the attraction of Big Bang Theory - we all see ourselves as the protagonist, in the same way that everyone saw themselves as Luke Skywalker. We also all know a Sheldon.
Thinking back, all these quirky, very smart people (except for myself) have each gone on to actually have a small degree of impact on all of our lives today, be it computer, food, network or education system design. It reminds me of the old nerd joke:
"What do you a call a nerd 10 years after high school?"
"Boss."
- Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net.
