Things I Don't Understand

[Luet]

@Mods: Can we just split all this crap into a new thread and lock it? I was really quite interested in discussing the OP, but this thread was already a complete train wreck by the time I opened it.

I second that request.

[Dr. Mobius]

I'll see what I can do (while I wait for the spotters to deliever my damn trailer). I haven't had a chance to play with the splitter yet, so this should be fun.

ETA: So after skimming the thread, are you guys talking about the Brony stuff that's on the first page or the more recent Cezen stuff? The Brony stuff is old and dead. The Cezen stuff, I think everyone just needs to calm down and change the subject.


Thing I don't understand: Why it takes the spotters four hours to move a trailer about a mile from one side of the plant to the other. Not that I'm complaining, I get to surf Pweb instead of unloading the thing...

[Eaquae Legit]

Chico, again, you're not a mod. Please don't touch the button.

If folks really want it split, I can do that, or we can just communally ignore the past two pages.

[starlooker]

I can ignore if other people can ignore.

I don't understand how I ended up here. In an existential sort of manner of speaking. Life just feels weird sometimes.

[Eaquae Legit]

I don't understand teenage rebellion. I don't remember angst, or fighting with my parents, or the need to break any rules.

This terrifies me because I know I'm in the tiny minority of human beings, and when my own kids become teenagers I won't even be able to "remember what it's like".

[Wind Swept]

I don't understand teenage rebellion. I don't remember angst, or fighting with my parents, or the need to break any rules.

I understand angst. I had plenty of it.

What I don't understand is why most of my high school classmates dealt with it by fighting with their parents and doing stupid and/or dangerous things. Most of my angst was funneled into rebelling against beurauecracies. Jumping through hoops and using the proper channels to get things done while dealing with stupid office politics did not seem to me a sensible way to operate our world, let alone my puny high school.

So, I did things like reviving the student newspaper as a blog when the funding got cut. This landed me in a heap of trouble with the principal because the administration wouldn't be able to censor "inappropriate" stories that might upset the school board if I was just posting everything on the Internet, as opposed to having a faculty advisor handle the printing.

[neo-dragon]

I don't understand teenage rebellion. I don't remember angst, or fighting with my parents, or the need to break any rules.

This terrifies me because I know I'm in the tiny minority of human beings, and when my own kids become teenagers I won't even be able to "remember what it's like".

Teenagers, by and large, are dumb. This explains much of what they do. That's the gist of what I got from my ed psych course back in teachers college.

[Eaquae Legit]

Yeah, but "stop being such a s***** and smarten up" isn't going to get me very far. It never did when I was a teenager, anyway...

[starlooker]

This terrifies me because I know I'm in the tiny minority of human beings, and when my own kids become teenagers I won't even be able to "remember what it's like".

Actually, that may be okay on account of nothing quite annoys many teens like their parents happily informing them that they know exactly what they are going through because they remember what it was like. (This is different from the occasional heart-to-heart where a parent recalls an experience that does relate in a non-dismissive-of-the-teen type of way.)

Anyhow, I remember angst quite well, even though I didn't rebel in a traditional sense. And it does scare me. Either that they'll go through something like I went through or that they'll go through something totally different from what I went through.

Here's the thing. You will have some rudimentary understanding of what's happening with the Wee One because he/she isn't going to be some strange teenager suddenly introduced to your life. You'll have a fundamental understanding of his/her personality to help out. Plus, you don't have to rely on your experience alone. You will likely have friends or relatives who have been through something similar and can help you understand it.

(And you can also cross your fingers and hope Tiny One gets your fabulous non-rebellious genes.)

[starlooker]

Yeah, but "stop being such a s***** and smarten up" isn't going to get me very far. It never did when I was a teenager, anyway...

Ah! So you did do some things that resulted in someone telling you that! You may be able to relate more than you thought.

[neo-dragon]

I thought she meant that's what she said to the other teens.

[Eaquae Legit]

I thought she meant that's what she said to the other teens.

That.

(I didn't usually say it out loud, but I thought it very hard a lot.)

[neo-dragon]

I avoided that frustration by mostly hanging out with those rare teens who weren't dumb. In fact, they stuck us all in classes together and called us "gifted".

[Eaquae Legit]

We didn't have that. It took me a couple years to locate the handful of people I could connect to. And I got involved in the school trivia team. I was something of a dork.

[neo-dragon]

I was something of a dork.

You?! No!

[Gravity Defier]

I was something of a dork.

You?! No!

I'm finding it more incredulous that she used "was."

[Dr. Mobius]

I avoided that frustration by mostly hanging out with those rare teens who weren't dumb. In fact, they stuck us all in classes together and called us "gifted".

Ditto, except the gifted program got axed due to budget cuts when I was in the fourth grade after getting to know the smart kids from the other elementary school in the district for only one year. Then in high school it returned in the form of AP courses.

I'd like to believe that most kids aren't that dumb, but if that were the case schools wouldn't need to waste half of the fall semester reteaching what was supposedly forgotten over summer break. Which just screwed me up in a different way because I'd get into the bad habit of not studying during the easy stuff each fall and be in trouble when we'd start learning something that's actually new shortly before Christmas.

[VelvetElvis]

I was something of a dork.

You?! No!

I'm finding it more incredulous that she used "was."

Psh, like either of you have room to talk. This is the internet. Specifically, a fan forum for a science fiction novel.

[Luet]

I don't understand why about 10% of the time I forget to put detergent in when I do a load of laundry. I put the oxyclean in but forget the detergent. And then when I go to put it in the dryer, I notice that it doesn't really smell clean and that's when I think back and can't remember putting the detergent in. I chalk it up to the topamax and it's memory-loss side effects.

[Gravity Defier]

I was something of a dork.

You?! No!

I'm finding it more incredulous that she used "was."

Psh, like either of you have room to talk. This is the internet. Specifically, a fan forum for a science fiction novel.

Oh, I'm definitely a dork. Present tense. That's why I'm amused at the past tense of her post. If she isn't a dork still, I don't know what the hey she thinks she is.

[Dr. Mobius]

I'd say she's morphing into a mom with its own set of quirks. Motherhood is not mutually excusive from dorkdom, though.

[Gravity Defier]

I'd say she's morphing into a mom with its own set of quirks.

I know you added the second part but this part got a giant, disgusted "Ugh" from me. If becoming a mother means losing your identity as anything else, I'll be looking forward to never becoming one.

[Dr. Mobius]

Way to ignore what I said and pretend I said something else entirely, uberdork.

[Gravity Defier]

Way to ignore what I said and pretend I said something else entirely, uberdork.

It's a skill.


Okay, that implies pride over it. I'm not actually proud of that. But seriously, before getting to the second sentence, it just seemed to imply to me that this mother thing was the only thing she could now identify with, or maybe it should be the most important thing, and given it would never in a million years occur to me to even bring that fact into the equation of her being a dork or not, I didn't understand how else it could relate. I guess your second sentence should mean more than I gave it credit for.


ETA: Or please allow me to put it this way: I already feel disconnected from people, here and in meatspace, that I once felt close to because they're experiencing things that I just can't understand or be a real part of. I'd prefer not to turn every last thing I could identify with into another way of bringing up this difference.

[Noodle]

I was something of a dork.

You?! No!

I'm finding it more incredulous that she used "was."

Psh, like either of you have room to talk. This is the internet. Specifically, a fan forum for a science fiction novel.

I'm glad you added the "fan forum for a science fiction novel" part because saying "this is the internet" would have qualified you for dorkdom in 1993, but not anymore. I think this thing has caught on, and isn't just a passing fad.

As if that response alone wasn't qualifier enough, I'll confirm that I'm a dork, actually more of a geek. Not a nerd though. OK maybe a little nerdy.

http://www.mentalfloss.com/difference/g ... d-vs-dork/


Though, according to this:
http://www.greatwhitesnark.com/2010/03/ ... n-diagram/ I'm a nerd.

[Dr. Mobius]

Oooh, can I be a dewdropping schnookle? That sounds really cool!

And I'm pretty sure the forum thing was a passing fad and enough to qualify us all as dorks regardless of the reason for it. I don't know of many people that are a member of a community like this that weren't already around before Facebook and social networking took over the wired world and quite a few who left for various reasons. Though I guess that could simply be a sign of the times. When we were young and first wading into the deep end of the digital pool, forums were where all the action was, whereas kids today are growing up in a Facebook dominated internet.

[Luet]

Actually, when i first got on the internet (early 1997, not that early, in the scheme of things), AOL was where all the action was.

[Noodle]

Oooh, can I be a dewdropping schnookle?

Consider it done.

I'm pretty sure the forum thing was a passing fad and enough to qualify us all as dorks regardless of the reason for it.

Fair enough. We're obsessive enough to cling to outdated technology (which was cutting edge when we started). But if you say the internet as a whole, it's clearly not a passing fad. The individual communication platforms will change. Facebook and twitter will inevitably go the way of the buffalo when some better communication platform comes along, much like bulletin boards, newsgroups, AOL chatrooms, Forums, IRC, and ICQ all have in the past. I guess at that point, the users who cling to twitter and facebook will be dorks like we are for clinging to forums.

[Dr. Mobius]

You know, as much as I teased my grandparents for never understanding computers (they barely managed to work out the satelite receiver and VCR out of sheer necessity and never owned any sort of optical disc player be it CDs or DVDs), I'm starting to realize that I'll probably be the same way with whatever eventually replaces the current generation of Facebook and Twitter. Hell, I'm already old school when it comes to video games with my reluctance towards Wii/Kinect motion stuff and am just now slowly joining the smartphone bandwagon.

[neo-dragon]

I was something of a dork.

You?! No!

I'm finding it more incredulous that she used "was."

Psh, like either of you have room to talk. This is the internet. Specifically, a fan forum for a science fiction novel.

According to the above, I'd say I'm more of a nerd, and to be fair, Ali is more of a geek than a dork.

[Gravity Defier]

slowly joining the smartphone bandwagon.

You'll never see me join this bandwagon on purpose. If my phone bites it and I can't get another phone like it, I'll let my account lapse most likely.

[Dr. Mobius]

slowly joining the smartphone bandwagon.

You'll never see me join this bandwagon on purpose. If my phone bites it and I can't get another phone like it, I'll let my account lapse most likely.

Honestly, the main reason I'm thinking of making my next phone an iPhone or maybe an iPod Touch if I keep this phone is that work can be boring sometimes and with 95% of the internet blocked by the corporate filter, it'd be nice to have something to play better and more variety of games on. The only things this phone can get are arcade and board game clones and cheesy movie tie-ins. (Plus, if I had an iPhone I could post on Pweb from work even when I don't have access to a computer.)

[steph]

We just got ourselves smart phones last night. Now brian can do stuff at work and we won't have to call my mom when we're downtown looking for something and have her google it for us.

[neo-dragon]

My mom and I got free iPhones when we renewed out contracts in July. I have to say, it's not bad. And if even my mom (the least tech savvy person I know, except maybe my dad) is surfing, checking her email, looking up directions, and texting on it, that says a lot.

[mr_thebrain]

i have a htc evo. it's my first smart phone. after having it about 2 months i can say that it's an awfully handy thing to have. mostly use it for texting and games, and apps. but have been using is as an actual phone more often lately. the one problem i thought i was going to have with a smart phone isn't a problem: the size, being a guy having a giant phone in my pocket is just uncomfortable and uncool. but it hasn't been a problem. it hasn't turned on in my pocket either. price isn't even too bad.