Supernero

I invented a new word this week. Andrew thinks it is ingenious simply because it happens to be the name of a Roman emperor.

He was talking to me all about computer stuff and I was mocking him in return. It's not that I'm not interested in computer stuff, it's just that I don't think he knows how little I understand of what he says. Sometimes when it's really late at night and he's trying to explain some macro to me or something like that I simply have to tell him to stop talking. My poor little brain can't handle it. In the morning when he explains it again (as he invariably will), and gives me a little tutorial of it, I usually get it. But late at night, we can't discuss computers. I do much better discussing the weather if it's past 11:00 than anything else.

So, there he was...telling me something about something and so I mocked him.

"You're my nero," I teased.

We were chatting on IM because he wasn't in the same vacinity as me, but I imagine that he would have thrown me a puzzled look had we been in the same room.

"Can I be your Ceasar, too?" he asked.

"It's a combination of nerd and hero. Nero." I explained.

Ever since then, he's been wanting to know how I ever thought of that word. Like it's difficult. Breakfast + Lunch = Brunch. Lion + Tiger = Liger. Nerd + Hero = Nero. It's as simple as that. No substantial amount of creativity necessary. Of course, I had to decide which word would come first in the portmanteau and which would come second. Putting hero first makes "herd" and that simply is not a good insult. Nero, on the other hand was perfect. That only took me a few split seconds to come up with because when flinging an insult, time is of the essence.

Well, that was on Wednesday, and ever since then we've been defining each other as neros.

I say, "I didn't know that the car wasn't unlocked." Andrew replies, "How would you parse that?" I shoot back, "Nero."

I say, "That would be cataclysmic," and then we discuss the use of cataclysmic verses cataclysmal. I look them up on the dictionary (yes, on the dictionary...it's online). That makes us both neros. The fact, however, that we then did a google fight to see which one is more "common" makes us superneros. Cataclysmic is more common, by the way...according to Google.

Nero, I think, is a good term because it is a positive insult, if such a thing can exist. Nerd has never been a real insult in our house. In fact, we enjoy the fact that we look words up in the dictionary for fun. However, calling someone a nerd and a hero using the same word makes being called a nerd ever so much better. That's what we're all about in our house, heroic acts of nerdiness.