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Permalink Reply by Timothy Gentle on February 2, 2011 at 5:22am

It seems to me that the natural leader types with brains tend to be of the larger variety. I have two friends in particular in mind when thinking of this and they are some of the most awesome people i know. I find that looking slim often leads people to be channeled into a style of life that's effectively template based. They get pampered thanks to their looks and often don't develop much personality.

 

Ever thought of opera? Size need not be an issue there so much, it would be similar to your 14 year old ambitions... But I'm still all for the cult idea.

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Permalink Reply by Jonel Burge on February 2, 2011 at 11:29am

 I find that looking slim often leads people to be channeled into a style of life that's effectively template based. They get pampered thanks to their looks and often don't develop much personality.

And if you -ever- suggest it to them that they got ahead with something other than brains, they will get super-offended and upset.

This has happened more than once to me. But people don't quite realize how much looks affect how everyone treats you, and as well, how you treat everyone else.

My personality is "quirky" at best. I tend to be nicer than I should be to people, and will often keep my mouth shut when I'm unhappy with something to try to keep the peace.

 

Opera....hrm. I'm a half-decent singer, but I've never really looked into it. I don't know how popular it is or isn't, the only foreign languages I know are snippets of Japanese(hoo boy I'm a nerd) and currently am studying Spanish. Usually you need to know Italian--but I learn fast.

 

The Cult idea is born of the fascination I have with cults. I've done a ton of research on them, outside of University classes and such where I've focused on things like health and social underpinnings--the human wish to be 'special', the small hunter-gatherer bands, the ability to turn everything over to someone else who makes decisions, the way humans are gullible and prone to coercion, especially from attractive or well-spoken people. And then the really creepy-awesome side effects, like a lack of sickness and the effect cults have on brain patterns. Cults are normal religion and status markers, turned up to freaking 11, they give me the creeps, but as well, they are kind of an odd little facet of humanity. You can also have cults centering around science, rather than religion. Religious ones just get the most press.

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Permalink Reply by Timothy Gentle on February 2, 2011 at 1:13pm

Yep, I've noticed the 'offended' thing myself... I feel I have to mention at this point that whilst I don't judge my own looks, I can't be fat by any means. I have the inverse of what you have, the 'skinny geek' effect.

 

Being nice to people is all very well but finding an adult way to deal with conflicting opinions is good because then you can progress as a whole. Bottling it up tends to lead to outbursts...

 

As to opera itself, there are quite a few people who like it. Admittedly of my generation (I'm 20) it seems to be more the gothy types, but a large dominant figure can be a very strong stage-presence. Then again... what do I know about opera? XD

 

Finally... Nothing wrong with being a nerd or a geek or anything so long as you're comfortable with it. I know I'm a geek myself and occasionally find myself expressing numbers in binary. In everyday conversation...

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Permalink Reply by Jonel Burge on February 2, 2011 at 4:23pm

Ah. Yes. The tall and lanky geek. I think geekery selects for the strange body types because we tend to be the ones who are outcasts whenever partners are selected.

So I see a lot of short, tall, fat, extremely thin, geeks. The only thing it doesn't select for is race/subculture. So it's mostly white people. It does have an inordinate amount of homosexual or bisexual females, though. At least here.

  I am comfortable among the nerds. I'm socially inept as are most of them, they tend to be accepting of odd people and have better inside jokes.

 If only I could make a living setting up nerd socials.

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Permalink Reply by Jonel Burge on February 2, 2011 at 4:42pm

yeah, that's why I've been looking at computer science. I tinker with technology on my own--I've built two desktops, total, and set up a media center for my sister(using Boxee). I've repaired two ipods and replaced a harddrive that stopped turning on the family desktop. I've set up the family desktop to handle 3 different ipods, all with different music. I replaced a broken screen on my previous phone myself, I've jailbroken my iphone for the express purpose of tinkering with it and using experimental stuff. I am constantly finding new software for my use--I have one program set up so I can play music on my desktop and control it using a special link, which works on my phone or my laptop. I've played around with Boxee on my own computer and I totally recommend it if you want an easy to set up media center software set. Also: Logitech touch app on iphone. So fun to move the cursor from across the room. It even has a keyboard for text fields.

Most of the knowledge, I have, though, is available via an afternoon on google. I've built a few basic websites and I set up a pair of forums once for a friend, custom graphics and all. I have finagled with photoshop so I can do at least basic stuff on it.

I'm not a jack of all trades, I'm more like...fruit salad. Of Computers. A little bit of everything, most of it useful information and stuff I've researched when I wanted to know about it.

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Permalink Reply by Gregor Basić on February 1, 2011 at 5:39pm

I was a big SF fan so I had unrealistic (?) dreams about building a city on the surface of Mars, I was obsessed with Mars, astronomy and so forth.

If you're thinking of realistic dreams I wanted to be a pilot so I can see the world as it really is until I started do loose good eyesight, than I returned to SF and started to dream of building an AI to prove that conciousness can be artificial, that there is no "soul" and that having conciousness doesn't make you more special than a worm or a jellyfish.

Now, if evolution and reason permits, I would like to be an SF writer.

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Permalink Reply by Kirk Holden on February 1, 2011 at 5:43pm

Genetics and environment programed me to be an electrical engineer. I dream too. But that is not why I am who i am.

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Permalink Reply by Julien on February 1, 2011 at 7:23pm

What are/were your dreams then?

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Permalink Reply by Julien on February 1, 2011 at 7:32pm

I had a lot of dreams too, not just one, but many of them I can't even remember anymore.

I do remember at one point wanting to join the army, because I thought fighting for your country was the bravest thing. I still think it is, when you're defending all the things and people you have left in this world (not going and killing and raping civilians) but I don't want to join the army anymore, because now I support a more intellectual and peaceful solution for any problem we have.

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Permalink Reply by Timothy Gentle on February 1, 2011 at 8:03pm

I just got woken by my flatmates from a dream. I awoke to silence. They were shouting in the dream... O.o

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Permalink Reply by Julien on February 1, 2011 at 8:50pm

We're talking about a different kind of dreams here. :)

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Permalink Reply by Julien on February 1, 2011 at 8:50pm

What are you studying and why?

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