Post nerdy things you did when you were a child.

[FoBoT]

Reading encyclopaedias in bed under the covers with a flash light

listening to talk radio (larry king) at night

 

[Evadman]

I ran a 4 line BBS by the time I was 10.

 

[insect9]

D&D

 

[Leros]

Around 7 or 8, I lost interest in kids toys completely. I started asking for chemistry sets, rc cars, model rockets, tools, etc.

Didn't watch too many cartoons around the same age. Started watching discovery channel (this was before it became a motorcycle channel).

Taking things apart

After school math/science classes

Summer science classes at the local university (age 6-12)

I got obsessed with aquariums around age 13. I got deep into that hobby.

 

[vshah]

took apart my dad's computer (belonged to his work), to reset the bios password because i wanted to mess with the settings.

also this should explain well enough:
http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v50/51/1/4801548/n4801548_30580322_1170.jpg

 

[extide]

I was always interested in electronics, my dad taught me to solder by about age 6-7. I had one of those '100 in 1' electronics kits too, those things were cool, but I freid the transistors on mine heh. I did build a 2ch stereo amplifier and power supply for it when I was like 8-9 though. I think I still have that somewhere. My dad had this lil steam engine that you could run with a blow torch, I always loved to fire that thing up too. I had lots of r/c cars trucks boats, etc. Lots of 'modification' to those happened as well.

 

[bobdole369]

Spoke around the world on ham radio HF bands (licensed at 14, this was about 1993) Had a fan dipole in the attic for 40/20/15/10 meters. Was in a lot of 2meter stuff too.

Got into Packet radio and had an ax.25 tcp/ip node (with a real internet addressable IP address) running around 1994, before most of the world was aware of this here internet.

Earlier (89-92) my aunt ran a porn BBS and I was the one who actually got the thing working. I helped a neighbor - who also ran a BBS - connect his sat downlink up to receive 0 day warez. I did most of the cabling and pointing/signal stuff. I think I was like 11 or 12.

I read my parents encyclopedia set every single page in the summer between 1st and 2nd grade.

My dad worked in Biomedical - he fixes CAT scanners and MRI's, so I would come in with him to take care of his "light work" - fixing power supplies and changing backup reel-to-reel tapes.

I won a ton of free "tokens" in Club Caribe - That was a Q-Link add-on, basically a casino and now that I think about it, probably pretty illegal since you could cash in the tokens for money, simply by participating in the chat rooms there. I think it was between 6th-7th grade. Commodore 64 time.

Added memory to my 1541 disk drives so I could copy protected games. It involved piggyback soldering chips and did the same to the 128K expansion card (I upgraded to 512k, which back then was terribly expensive - I stripped the memory chips from some equipment I bought at the U of Mich property disposition sale)

I lived at the library when I wasn't dialed up to a BBS. Alas once 16 or so hit I found girls and didn't really do much nerdy stuff until I passed 21.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I used to make small scale electrical transmission lines using Knex and foil paper. Sometimes it would tip over while live, and turn all blue and shoot sparks. Yeah... 120 volts. lol I wanted to try 240 but I did not really have a readily source of that around where I was playing (basement was not done).

 

[Yax]

In 7th grade, I first learned how to use a commadore 64 in computer class. Then in 8th grade, the teacher selected me to be his 'lab tech' and I assisted other 7th graders in computer class while the rest of my 8th grade class took Home-Ec during that period.

 

[Arcadio]

I remember that I also joined the chess club and played videogames non-stop.

 

[SandEagle]

built spaceships out of those toilet paper roll holders and aluminum foil.

 

[threeringbinder]

i wonder....anyone making over or about 6 figures?

i wonder what early childhood activities would shape a person to make lots of $$$ in adulthood...and what their profession would be...

 

[Miklebud]

Played with Magic Cards

 

[fulltilt39]

what DIDNT i do that was nerdy? LOL

- in elementary school walked about 5 blocks to school and back each day and read the entire way. i'd barely look up to see if there were any cars when i crossed streets.
- ruined my eyes in 4th grade b/c i read so much under the covers with a flashlight when i was supposed to be asleep.
- grade 5/6 = chess club
- played Space Invaders on my Atari for hours every day after school. alone.
- even when i got into sports in jr. high, i'd listen to every single Lakers game of the season on a radio in my room and keep my own stats, even stats that nobody else kept. i could tell you every detail about every single game.
- when told in high school that i had to do Phys Ed with everyone else, i knew it would be too boring, so i got special permission to enroll in fencing classes at the local JC b/c it was much more intellectually challenging LOL

too much more to list...

 

[Ken g6]

When I was about 5, I was stringing audio cables through the house. This led my parents to buy me one of those electronics kits. I eventually had about 5 different ones; one with solar panels, one with an integrated circuit, etc. Only fried one transistor (somehow without completing a circuit! ) but many, many LEDs.

 

[her209]

I played Magic: The Gathering. This was before the game creators fucked everything up with the 4th edition.

 

[RichUK]

I wasn't a nerd when I was a child...

 

[nanette1985]

A lot of that sounds familiar. At least you guys are - well, guys. I was always the only girl in chess club, rocket club, science club, astronomy club, electronics club, etc. I'm old enough that back when I got a chemistry set, there were real chemicals in it. I did every single experiment. Some of them were really fun, smelly, loud, dangerous.

One of the nerdiest things I did helped a lot when I was older. I was a piano performance major at my conservatory, and it's always difficult to get access to rehearsal rooms at busy times. I was a little kid who took things apart. Once I took apart a piano just to see how it worked. And, put it back together. So, come college, I knew how to disassemble a piano just enough to make it unusable. And I carried the repair parts with me. HA! I always had a practice room!

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I built a solar refrigerator in HS. A punk rode his bike over the parabolic mirror powering it and broke it. I then spent the next 3 months building another larger parabolic mirror with a 40 foot focal point, hauled it to the roof of the school and, used it to blow out his car tires as he leaned against the car below.

 

[IronWing]

Found a case of ~60 pocket mirrors in the trash (they were promotional items with expired calendars on the back). Set them up all over the house seeing how far and around how many corners I could shine a flashlight. Too bad there were no laser pointers back then.

What's with microscopes being considered nerdy? We have three of them in the house (stereo, petrographic, and a projector scope). Doesn't everybody have at least a stereo microscope in the house? If not, you should.

 

[Slew Foot]

God god what didnt I do?

I made D&D style games out of Star Wars/Star Trek board games. Played loads of MTG and video games. Programmed my own Star Wars and Doom text based video games. Amassed a humongous collection of baseball cards. Blasted crap into space with my model rockets.

Come to think of it, I still do a lot of that stuff.

 

[irishScott]

lol where do I start.

Microscope Kit
Telescope Kit
Rock Collection
Crystal Growing Kit
Science Kit that Involved a 3D model of Ant Anatomy
Multiple Dinosaur Skeletons
Multiple Science Books
Adhesive glow-in-the-dark planets and stars on my ceiling
Played computer games since I was 3
Several Thousand Magic The Gathering Cards
Pokemon Cards
Had a ridiculously detailed chess game PDA that included 132 levels of difficulty and AIs designed to emulate Grand Masters. Over $100
Watched Star Trek Since Age 5

And that's just off the top of my head.

 

[Leros]

i wonder....anyone making over or about 6 figures?

i wonder what early childhood activities would shape a person to make lots of $$$ in adulthood...and what their profession would be...

My tinkering and nerdiness as a kid has driven me into a career of computer engineering. I'm getting ready to graduate college and I'm getting some really really good offers. I think 6 figures is realistic not too far down the road.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

When I was in second grade I used a train transformer and two test tubes inverted and filled with water to get hydrogen and oxygen.

When I was in third grade, I electroplated a bunch of pennies with nickle and sold them at a profit.

Fourth grade I made a model rocket that used ion propulsion. It didn't have enough thrust to overcome gravity, but I did have it mounted on a rod with a counterweight. It spun in a circle when powered by a car battery.

Then I did stuff better not mentioned

 

[Toastedlightly]

I helped my dad take apart lawn mowers. There is some video somewhere of me at the age of 5 (I think, perhaps it was 4) trying to take apart a junk lawnmower that was "mine". You can say that I do love working with my hands today