Vain.Vapid. Materialistic. These are words I’ve heard tossed (and have tossed) around most of my life, but until just recently I didn’t exactly know anyone that could truthfully be described in such a way. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve hung around my share of tools and have indulged in such activities myself, but not until I watched a “Beauty and the Geek” marathon did I really, truly understand. I guess I had deluded myself that such people were myths.

Unfortunately, that’s not true and neither is the rumor that my beard houses a gnome colony.

For those of you who don’t watch as much television as I do, let me give a brief description of the premise of “Beauty and the Geek.”

The show matches up eight stunningly attractive young ladies with eight very intelligent, but socially awkward, lads.

In teams of two they embark on a journey that will, supposedly, change them both forever. The beauty will become more in touch with her intellectual side and the geek will become more confident with his social skills. Along the way they compete together against the other pairs in order to send a team home each week.

Oh yeah, and the winners get to split $250,000.

In the season I watched, the final pairs were Nate and Ceci against Scooter and Megan. Nate was a member of a “Star Wars” tribute band, Scooter a Harvard University grad, Ceci a bikini model and Megan a model for Playboy. All through the season, Nate and Ceci dominated the competition, winning challenge after challenge.

Many teams fell to the broad stroke of their competitive scythe. As much as I loved watching Nate, I did not enjoy watching Ceci.

She was self-righteous, pompous and very materialistic. She openly professed that money was more important to her than character and that any girl who thought a “nerd” could change her was “as stupid as she looks.”

Imagine how shocked she was when it was revealed that the winning team would be voted on by the other, previously eliminated, teams.

While most of the other teams expressed their affection for Nate, they also shared how much they disliked Ceci.

In the finale, Nate himself asked the other teams not to vote for his victory because he felt, quite rightly I feel, that his and Ceci’s victory would only serve to validate Ceci’s ignorance while a loss might be the only thing that helps her change.

In the end, Ceci and Nate lost and the only person upset about it was Ceci.

I guess I’m always shocked when I find out the world isn’t as full of chocolaty goodness as I wish it was.

People like Ceci really upset me. Their world is so shiny due to the mirrors, jewelry and whitened teeth that they miss out on the wonderful views of other people.

They miss out on relationships that form from true affection and caring. They miss out on some of the greatest pleasures in life like Monday evening Cici’s Pizza trips, late night “Clue” games or watching “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” with some great friends.

I wonder, do people like Ceci really have friends or do they surround themselves with others in order to look good?

I guess the reason it upsets me so much is that I simply don’t understand how a person can write off so much of the world simply because it isn’t “cute” or doesn’t improve their social standing.

I hope that by losing, Ceci learns her lesson, but I doubt it.

I think that for as long as humans reign, there will always be those that believe that things are more important than people and treat people like things.

I suppose that’s one of the many burdens of free will. I only hope that people take the advice of my mother and “make good choices.”