Cartoon by Dave Walker.

It's Easter Monday. Yesterday was a blast even with our diminishing family (JimmyD in London, Red in Melbourne, ClareBear in Peru, Hannabananna in Townsville)

Still, we had Easter Egg hunts, poker, BabyBro's famous chili prawns and one of my best lasagne's yet, loads of good red and sparkling white and a lunch that lasted until 9:30pm, then a quick game of Need for Speed at which I suck intensely (yet even a vodka ridden DrummerBoy excels) before bouncing off the walls on my way to bed!

This morning after two cups of tea I'm feeling decidedly thick headed and seedy so I went searching for something funny, silly, light-hearted and vacuous to post that was remotely connected to the Easter weekend. Then, I found out what you probably already know:

Easter eggs! Not the chocolate kind but hidden features placed by programmers in software applications, operating systems, and even some hardware. When the hidden command sequence is found, an Easter-egged product will perform an action, such as displaying a message, a small animation or playing a sound. In Halo for instance, it inserts characters doing funny things, random monkey men or in Code of Conduct 4 you can hear oddball comments such as 'this is Sparta!" Here's one hidden inside Final Fantasy:

Slightly off topic, I had a discussion with a young Irish bloke the other day and he was horrified that I alluded to him as a Geek but confessed he was slightly Nerdy which he considered a more favourable label. Weird. Being a nerd down here means you're a bit of a sociopath, pale and uninteresting, with an aversion to fresh air and a penchant for playing Warhammer or chess. A geek on the other hand, has kudos, good IT knowledge, is similarly pale but interesting.

Nerds have above-average IQ and no gift for small talk and ordinary social rituals. They place little importance on their appearance. Nerds are often aware of their status, but they don't mind. In fact, many take pride in the putdown, as it means they're smart and not wrapped up in superficial worries.

Geek is a more specific term. Back in the day, geeks worked at carnivals, and (according to the dictionary) "bit the heads off live chickens." Thankfully, the term now has a different connotation. Geeks have chosen concentration rather than conformity; they pursue skill (especially technical skill) and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance. Geeks usually have a strong case of neophilia. These are the people you make fun of in high school and later work for as an adult.

Being called a dork however is the biggest insult of the three. There's no way you can spin it into something positive. After all, even the dictionary writes that dorks are "stupid" people. And to make matters worse, dorks assume they're cool. Oh, and they smell, too.

So, to sum things up, if someone calls you a geek or a nerd, thank them. If someone calls you a dork, consider going back to school and investing in some new deodorant.

There, that wasn't too hard really . . . hope you all had a happy and safe Easter break . . . now . . . coffee time!