I braved the pouring rain on Monday night and went to a local bar’s New Year’s Eve party.  They had an open bar, a DJ, and a place to take pictures to post to social media.  The three cool people responsible for the bar and the party atmosphere were attractive and energetic.  They made sure they posted many interesting pictures to Instagram and Facebook.  They encouraged the patrons to have a good time. 

The whole night I looked around.  They had 2 dart boards that couldn’t be used, a foosball table being used as a place for drinks, and 3 TVs set to various programs.  All of those things are kinda crappy in a crowded bar.  The fact that I was there with a date, meant that I wasn’t there to “hook-up.” What I did see was that almost half of the people were on their phones.  In a loud, packed bar, sometimes it’s easier to connect with your phone than to talk over the music.  I totally get that!

Sometime before midnight it struck me that this was like a party that the Alpha Beta’s would have thrown in the movie “Revenge of the Nerds.”  The focus of the party was to get fucked up and pose to be seen.  There they were, a bunch of beautiful people with no idea how to have fun!  I looked around the bar and wondered how a nerd would solve this problem? Was technology the answer to the problem of cool people being boring?  I came up with a few ideas that my nerd side needed to voice:

1.        Utilize social media within the bar to give drink specials or to accrue loyalty reward points to a free drink or a bar/club t-shirt.

2.       Systems like the Nintendo DS can be linked to allow 2, 4, or, for some games, 8 players.  This could be a quick and easy way to bring the group gaming experience to a crowded location.

3.       Virtual game platforms allow people to meet a virtual table top to play any prepared game.  Individuals would need to join one of the many free platforms, and there, any number of players can play prepared games.

4.       Have a TV/monitor show the pictures being taken inside the bar on social media in real time.

5.       Allow patrons the ability to order drinks without having to go up to the bar and scream their orders.

6.       Lastly, legalize recreational cannabis and allow us to party like the Nerds of Tri-Lamda!