Originally posted by: bobsmith1492
Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
then stay the same its no skin off my back. lord knows we don't need more people like you on the planet so I'll be glad if you never reproduce
Wow... Icebergman, you need to simmer down there, buddy; that's kinda hard on Jeff. I feel ya, Jeff; I could have written exactly what you did your first post on here. So, Iceberger, if everyone in the world was just a partier/hangoutandchatallday person, who would get all the work done? Which dedicated person would invent your latest processor, design your car, or whatnot? Some people are not as gifted in the social graces, but there is no point in ripping into them. Advice is one thing, but some people (me?) just need time to get acclamated to the social world or may never enter it. You don't need a hundred friends to be a good one; in fact, it's often the quieter, more shy people who will end up being your best and longest-lasting friend if you get to know them.
P.S.: are you going into engineering by any chance, Jeff, if you're still around?
I know plenty of people like good old Icebergman there. They are arrogant, and know it, and they view it as an asset, so there's not much that can be done about them. It's like arguing the benefits of Playboy vs Huslter with a Christian or Islamic extremist - it's just totally futile, so there's no point in attempting an argument.
I have armored my personality fairly well against most people, though it seems to have the side effect of kind of making me feel a bit dead to the world. There are a few weak spots in the armor, but I've also learned that it's best not to indicate what those might be, nor even hint at them.
I agree with you too, bob, about the quality vs quantity argument with friends. Having a hundred "friends" is really kind of pointless if none of them
really gives a damn about you. Icebergslim, you strike me as the kind of friend who hears, "I've got cancer," and says "Goddamn, that sucks, but I'm glad I'm not you," gives a pat on the shoulder, and then leaves the table in search of longer-lived friends.
Social world is quite interesting. I think I regard it as some people look at computers. The average person is utterly clueless with computers. That which is intuitive to most people on this board is total nonsense to most other people. Which things get double clicked, and which are single-click? Why are they different? Why are there two buttons on the mouse? What's the little wheel for?
Meanwhile, in the social world, there's a similar problem at work. What does a certain stance mean? What does it mean when someone uses certain phrasings instead of others? When is a glare meant jokingly or angrily? When is a statement meant to be hurtful, or merely friendly ribbing? I have a feeling that some of the "being made fun of" throughout school might have been people attempting to get the shy quiet kid involved with the group. You know, comments about hair, gait, clothing, or anything - they might have been intended as jests, but I didn't know how to interpret it as such, so I took it at face value: The people hated who I was, how I dressed, how I walked, how I talked, how I wrote, anything.
The thing is, now I'm in college and I find myself using what I think of as considerable "processing time" in my mind to figure out and tell myself that people are just being funny or friendly. But I really don't know. Recently I was just walking back to my apartment, and ahead of me was a guy and girl, also just walking along. She said to me, "Hi person who looks interesting." I said "hi" back, not having any idea what more to say. What was her motivation for saying that? Why talk to me when I'm just minding my own business? Was it to get a cheap laugh at my response? (That has happened to me on numerous occasions - people trying to get me to talk, and no matter what I say, they'll like, laugh or high-five friends and walk away, like it's a bet to get me to speak.)
Yes, engineering, how'd you guess?
Mechanical Engineering Technology.
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