We had a guy work with us for about 2 weeks. He asked us to call him "Thorn". We found out soon that His 'full' name was "Thorn Briar". This is not the name his parents gave him, it's the name he and his D&D friends use when they play Dungeons and Dragons. Yes, old-school D&D without a computer. Nerds sitting around a table spinning a tale of adventure!
He was rarely seen without his D&D "sourcebook", which is a book about the size of a large magazine, that outlines all the rules. He claims that anything you can imagine actually exists. He also claims to regularly have out-of-body experiences, and is working on personal levitation through rigorous meditation. When he was young, he turned into a white Siberian tiger and mauled a friend so bad that the friend nearly died. Oh, and he claims to be a "Pixie". Maybe he meant to infer that he was a member of the 80's-90's alternative band.
Anyways, Thorn had BO that would gag a European teenager! This guy was rank. You couldn't be within 10 feet of him without wanting to move. Tabletop gamers, and to some extent all gamers, are notorious for not bathing enough.
So, our boss politely asked him to bathe, which he did, and the next day was fine. But that was possibly the last time he cleaned himself. About a half week later he was punishing our noses again. So the boss told him that he has to bathe regularly, which he refused to do, so he was asked not to return.
I thought that his reason for no longer working there was stupid office rumor, but two days ago we were talking about him with the boss, and it was confirmed.
Now I know that I'm not entirely "mainstream". I embrace the title of "gamer". But how out of touch with reality do you have to be to not have social basics down, like bathing?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I love that one of your tags was "Thorn" for this post.
I did that in case I have the need to look up this post at some future time.
The poor guy. I imagine that he's somewhat popular in his "crowd" (but never popular in any other crowd).
I can empathize though. People look at you different when they find out you're a gaming nerd. Most of us have come to terms with it, some of us embrace it.
But know this: there are different levels of nerdism. The upper levels are well off financially and have all the gadgets that the rest of us covet. The middle levels consist of programmers and (some) gamers. And the lowest of the levels are reserved for table-top gamers. Old-school Dungeons&Dragons nerds that make the rest of us cringe because they drag down the public opinion for all of us.
If you ever want to see the dredges of nerddom, go to a comic book shop, and find the gaming room. You will see chubby too-old-to-be-doing-this guys hunched over papers and maps, waiting for their turn to "roll initiative" (they all have expensive dice).
I would advise females to only go there with a man to protect you from their awkward advances. They aren't used to the ladies, it will be a sad sight watching them compete for your attention. Especially sad are the things they try to impress you with. Flaunting electronic gadgets, for nerds, is roughly the equivalent of a birds plumage. These guys will brag about their lvl 12 thief (who only exists on paper, mind you). They might also show off their D20 (that's dice).
Post a Comment