Vacation Time

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 10:54 pm

I've grown so used to being a part of the background that by now it doesn't bother me, too much.

It actually mystifies me as to why people would want attention and why everyone assumes you must be an unhappy and lonely person if you don't have a girlfriend.

Or, as I've had to tell well-meaning people who got a little too vigorous with trying to get me paired up with someone...
\
I'm fine. Yes, really. I'm fine. I'm not suffering. Nope, not a twinge, not a regret. Yep, most normal people find someone, guess what that must mean? Right, I'm not normal. Don't feel sorry for me, I kinda enjoy it. Don't give me that 'everybody needs somebody' crap...

And so on.

Count Arioch the 28th · Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:39 pm

I used to think that when I met "the right woman", she'd come to me first.

Now, I realize that you should be suspicious of a woman who comes up to you first. I know that certain guys don't have to try very hard for women to like them (Myself, I've never been the object of any crushes ever.) I'm not one of those guys.

What I learned from Neil Strauss is that I have to promote myself. No one is going to say how awesome I am, which means I have to say it or no one will realize that I am awesome.

(Of course, you don't SAY "I'm awesome" in a literal sense, although I do that too. You show it more than say it.)

Of course, I'm smarter than most people, I'm better looking than most people, I'm more cultured and worldy than most people. But no one is going to realize it if I sit around the house not doing anything.

People are starting to come around to how awesome I am. It's slow, but steady.

ubernoob · Post by **ubernoob** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:06 am

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:11 am

I would be surprised if someone posts to this site and wasn't a merit scholar or whatnot, ubernoob.

-Crissa

ubernoob · Post by **ubernoob** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:25 am

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:17 am

ubernoob wrote:Still not sure which I'll pick first.

Pick the one that most resembles a hot librarian.

And indeed, the Count has it. Put out that birdcall, man.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 2:51 am

Crissa wrote:I would be surprised if someone posts to this site and wasn't a merit scholar or whatnot, ubernoob.

By this site's standard's, I'm likely a complete moron. I completed high school with shit results because depression had basically crippled me. I later met one person with lower results than me, and he spent all of year 12 on PCP and cocaine - and enjoyed it to boot.

Moral of the story: not all drugs are good, some are GREAT!

I then attempted a TAFE (I guess it's similar to Community College - the University equivalent for those not smart enough for University, or as a bridge into it) course a couple of times, but failed the first time (largely due to depression - I was doing fine until the last couple of weeks) and pulled out the second time (physical health).

Since then I... completed a guild training course to be a Pharmacy Assistant. Sure, I hope to one day go through University and become a proper pharmacist, and if that stops being interesting then maybe even do it all again and become a drug-addicted, misanthropic doctor.

But as it stands, not much to be proud of in the scholarly field.

(Interesting note: I used to think I was stupid because I'd visit the WotC boards and see many phrases flung about (strawman, logical fallacy and all the rest) that I didn't understand. I then went and looked them up, at which point I discovered the posters using those terms also didn't understand.)

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 3:06 am

I'm borderline retarded, but my family is rich enough that I'll be able to spend enough semesters to graduate from college anyway. My girlfriend is a freaking science genius, and barely managed to graduate because she's dirt poor.

The American education system can be a real bitch sometimes.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 3:43 am

Just because I was one of 10% of my HS class that was a merit scholar...

...Doesn't mean I didn't graduate 37th of 38 in my class. Or get very far in college (actually, the top four in our class didn't finish college, mental breakdown, alcoholism, etc decimated us away from home).

-Crissa

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 3:53 am

Koumei wrote:
Crissa wrote:I would be surprised if someone posts to this site and wasn't a merit scholar or whatnot, ubernoob.
By this site's standard's, I'm likely a complete moron. I completed high school with shit results because depression had basically crippled me. I later met one person with lower results than me, and he spent all of year 12 on PCP and cocaine - and enjoyed it to boot.

Moral of the story: not all drugs are good, some are GREAT!

I then attempted a TAFE (I guess it's similar to Community College - the University equivalent for those not smart enough for University, or as a bridge into it) course a couple of times, but failed the first time (largely due to depression - I was doing fine until the last couple of weeks) and pulled out the second time (physical health).

Since then I... completed a guild training course to be a Pharmacy Assistant. Sure, I hope to one day go through University and become a proper pharmacist, and if that stops being interesting then maybe even do it all again and become a drug-addicted, misanthropic doctor.

But as it stands, not much to be proud of in the scholarly field.

(Interesting note: I used to think I was stupid because I'd visit the WotC boards and see many phrases flung about (strawman, logical fallacy and all the rest) that I didn't understand. I then went and looked them up, at which point I discovered the posters using those terms also didn't understand.)

Koumei: From what I've noticed of the intelligence level of most of people on the board (I can't attest for everyone because I don't pay that close attention to everyone's posting I suppose), I'm pretty sure everyone has close to that 'merit scholar' status that Crissa mentioned. Now whether or not any specific person follows any particular method doesn't mean jack shit.

I for one, graduated in the 40% in my high school class due to laziness and felt like dropping out of college at least 70% of the time and finally graduated with close to a 2.4 GPA (bare minimum for non Americans). I don't think a specific education path or a career path or an academic society should ever tell you that you aren't effing smart. I've seen your ability to think logically in your posts around several subjects. You seem witty and you are damnably capable in what you do.

SO quit belittling yourself by calling yourself below the standard of most people on this board.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 4:22 am

Hah. I'm in college right now because I made a 30 on the ACT.

Basically, I'm really good at information retention/comprehension, but I suck hard at actually making things and I have poor attention to detail. This is rather important, because some of my required geology classes have (or will) require things like drawing a geological cross-section or doing an ungodly number of points of analysis on a thin section of rock--not mineral--rock

Naturally, I'm dreading classes like Petrology.

On the other hand, I was a fairly brilliant teaching assistant. Out of the three or four labs for the basic geology class , the one I worked in had the highest average.

Admittedly, all of the lab sessions and the tests were identifying rocks and minerals. The class could get up and wander around, and I basically had free reign to spring out at people and quiz them on what something was and, if they didn't know, how they could tell it apart from other stuff.

And then tests were, again, practical. The teacher would be inside, keeping an eye on the handfuls of students doled into the room, and grading answer sheets as they came, and I'd be outside with the specimen box, drilling people on the stuff.

It's rewarding to see someone who wasn't confidant at all about the test and actually be the last one to go into the room, make an 84 after you spend thirty or so minutes quizzing her repeatedly and even running down three flights of stairs to an office where they have a bowl of free candy to get her a Jolly Rancer to help take her mind off of test anxiety (yes, I'm nice, particularly to people who're really nervous)... I can understand why teachers teach.

ubernoob · Post by **ubernoob** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 4:38 am

Why aren't you studying to be a teacher, Maxus? Sounds like you enjoy it.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 5:33 am

ubernoob wrote:Why aren't you studying to be a teacher, Maxus? Sounds like you enjoy it.

I did for my first year, actually.

Then I did some soul-searching and decided I didn't have the patience necessary to deal with school-age kids as a superior. I'm not that impressive in person, actually, and me in a leadership position isn't that great an idea.

On the other hand, as a TA, I can keep things on equal terms, which works out pretty well.

It helps to joke around with people, and dare them to lick the halite (imagine a solid block of table salt as long and wide as your hand and an inch thick) and so on. I tried to make it clear that they could ask me anything about the class, or what future classes would be like, or basically anything related to life on campus, and I'd give them the best answer I could.

Edit: On an geology-related note, it probably shows my nerdery that I considered listing common minerals/rocks and what uses they'd have in DnD magic.

Chalk, for example, would probably be an extremely cost-effective in doing healing, because it's actually formed from organic material and, there, you could make a case that it's still a little bit alive.

Paradoxially, it'd also be great as a necromantic source material because it's made out of the bones of millions of little tiny dead creatures, and is therefore quite definitely dead.

Post by **fbmf** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:06 pm

Neeeek wrote:
Count_Arioch_the_28th wrote:This "friends with benefits" concept intrigues me. How do I go about getting such a thing?
Find a horny single woman who likes you, is either too busy for or just not interested in a relationship, and get together every so often and have lots of sex.

I tried that once. Wound up married to her.

Game On,
fbmf

Count Arioch the 28th · Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:02 pm

Man, you ruined a good thing. :twisted:

ubernoob · Post by **ubernoob** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 7:59 am

Before coming on this 'vacation' I predicted a family induced depression by the 9th. I managed to delay it until this evening. Hopefully hanging with friends on Sunday will swiftly cure it. In other news, I bowled a 188 yesterday. A personal best.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 9:01 am

Doesn't that mean you only knocked down half the pins?

-Crissa

ubernoob · Post by **ubernoob** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 9:08 am

Crissa wrote:Doesn't that mean you only knocked down half the pins?

-Crissa

No. A perfect game is 12 strikes. That game I left like 3 pins not hit, but had plenty of spares. Only like 6 strikes that game.

Count Arioch the 28th · Sat Jul 12, 2008 9:12 am

Crissa wrote:Doesn't that mean you only knocked down half the pins?

-Crissa

I'd like to hear your highest score bowling.

I play a lot of wii bowling, and 188 is a respectable score even in that venue. Actual bowling is a lot harder. (Got a 172 one time on wii bowling, which is my personal best.)

ubernoob · Post by **ubernoob** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 9:38 am

I was on my HS bowling team for a year and a half. I went from 60s to 120s. I don't know if I'll ever beat 188. I was *really* on my game.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:07 am

I do poorly on the rare occasion that I bowl. Although I'm pretty good at Wii bowling, thanks to the holy Bounce (Domains: Chaos, Air, Earth, Competition).

Seriously, rotate the aim a little to... the left, I think it was, then release the ball so late that it flies into the air and bounces, and you'll get more strikes than not.

Doing this in actual bowling alleys could probably get you ejected.

My best achievement in bowling wasn't in the bowling itself. Some friends and I would, while waiting for our turn, play the arcades there. Specifically, they had one of those "Put a coin in and try to time it right so as to win tickets. Trade tickets for shitty prizes." machines.

We were bored, and had a lot of loose change. In total, we had a thousand tickets. You could trade three tickets for a small candy/sweet. Yeah, we traded the tickets for 333 of them. Next time we went there, there was a sign saying "You may redeem tickets for no more than 3 of any one item per person."

Neeeek · Post by **Neeeek** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 8:38 pm

Koumei wrote: We were bored, and had a lot of loose change. In total, we had a thousand tickets. You could trade three tickets for a small candy/sweet. Yeah, we traded the tickets for 333 of them. Next time we went there, there was a sign saying "You may redeem tickets for no more than 3 of any one item per person."

I did that once. Except I got dice (I used to have around 400 6 sided dice, mostly from that), and they didn't put out a sign afterwords.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 9:50 pm

I was really good at dart games. They put up a 'one target per dart' rule at the World fairground in Spokane after I went through and was lining up two or more per dart.

*sigh*

I haven't bowled in twenty years. I don't really know what the numbers mean.

-Crissa

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 10:21 pm

I could do the Wii bowling Bounce after about 6 hours straight practice, but my best seems to be at pointing the stick straight down and then thrusting it forward like a rapier as I tilt it towards the TV. My brother and girlfriend have tried to copy the movement but it's just not the same.

Somehow this technique glitches the game into thinking I've thrown REALLY FUCKING FAST and it skitters so quickly that I get strikes every time I aim it correctly. The downside is that I must compensate for its vicious curve left every time.

The Bounce is great for flinging it in a straight line but I prefer The Rapier.

I golf as Adolf Hitler, too.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:13 pm

Now, the motion of the ball, that I know. It's physics.

You're putting a backwards spin upon the ball, which means upon striking the pins it releases potential energy perpendicular to the lane and forward motion of the ball, which is more likely to take out the side pins. It's a professional move.

We didn't have a bowling team in HS, but we did have a golf team ^-^ I was on it.

-Crissa