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Weekly Wacko (31)

Revelations in Geekdom

Sticking with the trend of announcing that I do online dating – I’m going to announce a few other geeky facts about me. I hid these things from most people, but no more!

Maybe it’s that I work with uber-geeks, so these things almost seem normal to me … but here goes.

In elementary school, grades 3 through 6 actually, my favorite thing was heading to my friend Mike’s house and playing a Star Wars role-playing game (RPG to those in the know). This wasn’t a video game, this was actual dice. HELL YEAH!

Mike’s older brother would sort of MC the event, the ‘dungeon-master’ of sorts (yes, I just said dungeon master). We used Star Wars Micro Machines to set the stage visually. You know, roll the dice, you walk X spaces … move the little guy. Someone looks suspicious, I use my charisma (yep) and manage to find out they’ve got a thermal detonator (that’s right) in a bag. Apparently a Hutt (I went there) has that guy in a bind. Look at that, geekiness.

In fact I remember one night Mike had a group of guys over to spend the night. I was a year younger than Mike so that always made me feel out of place and uncomfortable, so David (the older brother) and I did this RPG game for a chunk of time. I could justify it by thinking, ‘well David was bored, I’m being nice and entertaining him.’ Really I just wanted to play Star Wars, and didn’t want to hang out with Mike’s friends. A win-win.

Seriously, playing that was a blast.

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A different topic, but still geekdom – I’ve dreamt code.

You see, if I am working on something a lot, and then I go to bed shortly after that – it gets into my dreams. Normally I don’t remember my dreams at all. It’s only if I wake up suddenly that anything occurs to me.

But one night in college, and for a while during this one thing I was working on in California (what a very specific description, huh?) – I dreamt code. It wasn’t anything good, and it didn’t make sense, but I would wake up and have visions of lines of code.

One night I woke up quite suddenly and very vividly this line was in my head: “the answer is k.” That night I dreamt about math equations.

Do you know how terrible it is to dream about math equations, and code?

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You are yourself, and you expect/hope to be normal – so I think my way of looking at things/thinking is how everyone works. I know now that this isn’t exactly true, but it still is beyond my mind to grasp how other people approach/see/analyze things. However, I really enjoy seeing the differences – which shows my non-engineering side.

My dad is an engineer also (am I technically an engineer? I don’t know. I’m computer science, so take that as you will) – so my family had a joke email file downloaded on our computer. I remember listening to this thing in either middle school or high school. It was a sound byte with a serious sounding man talking to a concerned mother. The mother was concerned about her son’s social skills.

“He has … the knack.”

Actually I was trying to remember this, and I figured ‘why not Google it?’ and wha-la! I found it! Apparently it was from Dilbert. See it here –

I don’t have the take stuff apart/figure out mechanical things really … but I do have the social aspect of it. And, if nothing else tells you I’m geeky, it’s that I found that Dilbert cartoon very funny.

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I’ll end with this little story. It’s a favorite of my family’s about me.

When I was X years old, I took all of my toys and … what else would an X year old do? I lined them up, in pairs, from biggest to smallest (generally not in size, but still the line was there) starting in my room and heading out to the hall.

I asked my mom to described this, since I don’t remember it, and she said, “oh, that was just the way you played – you were very … methodical. It wasn’t just trucks, it was everything  you had. They all had to line up.”

Also, we had a maid at that time. I apparently got very upset when she messed with my line of trucks/cars. From my mom, “she may not have understood your words – but she understood what you were after.” (i.e. Don’t mess with my line.)

See that? Doomed from a young age.

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Weekly Wacko (30)

My Name’s Brad Stanley, and I Meet People from the Internets

I had debated writing a post about this for the past little while. The hang-up, of course, is a bit of embarrassment. But I think it’s cool when people openly embrace the fact that yes, they use bitOFdesperate.com or whatever (that’s not a real ‘social networking’ or ‘dating’ site, as far as I know, but that would be cool).

I moved to California after graduating college, and I had high hopes of meeting some nice co-workers and making friends. And, after some time (read: dealing with baggage), I also had high hopes of meeting a lovely girl to date, or at the very least to spoon with.

Yes, I’m a spooner. The cat’s out of the bag!

My co-workers turned out to be about twice my age (they were great, but not big on me and my damn MTV). I signed up for a writing class at a local community college – it was canceled because too few people signed up. I signed up for another class at a local community college, the class was made up of middle-aged Middle-Eastern men. Not my target market. I went to some church youth group things and made a few semi-friends, but for the most part I never saw them.

At some point I heard about a free site called okcupid.com … which I have since heard called okstupid. I feel like that joke is obvious, but I like it.

I met a few oddballs, but also a few really awesome people in California using that site. I won’t out their names here – but I know one friend also met her boyfriend from okstupid, and both of them are cool. (Yeah, that’s right guys, I called you cool!)

Also, one person I met I still keep in touch with, though strictly through IM conversations. Our topics range from talking about our best and worst qualities when it comes to a relationship and when we’re feeling down we talk about how awesome we are and why don’t more people get that? The ego is a hungry friend.

Here’s a shocker, folks – the internets are much like real life!

You’ll meet some winners, some losers, and some so-so’s. There’s still a stigma with using the internet to meet/date people, and I’m guilty of subscribing to that and a little self-deprecation when it comes to that – but you know what? There are some attractive, fantastic people who use ‘dating’ sites (I say ‘dating’ because I have made very good friends from them).

When I found out I’d be moving to Houston I learned through the wonders of Facebook that I had a few semi-friends out here. I thought I could meet up with them and meet some people through them. I also hoped to meet people through work – though I didn’t hold my breath on that front. Ironically enough, I’ve made some good friends from work (three guys started right around the same time as me) and I have not met up with the people I already knew around here.

I figured I’d meet people the ‘normal’ ways – whatever that means. Work, happy hour, other (???). By people I of course mean girls. Little Foot (my stuffed animal) is great to cuddle with, but he talks too much. And he’s racist. Therefore, I like girls.

This isn’t really anything other than a rambling confession of my online ‘dating.’ I guess I’ll go so far as to say this is an endorsement of that (supporting online, not rambling). Sign up for a free site, write a stupid little profile, meet some people for lunch (yes, lunch – if you meet them for lunch it’s less date-like and you can be friends, or if there’s something you can try and up the ante).

When it comes to online, the key question is, why not? (Though if you’re a girl the key question may be: why not?, and, do I have my mace?)

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Weekly Wacko (29)

Kids These Days!

Note: This happened in California, and I wrote this while still living in California.

One day after work I decided I didn’t want to make any food. This is common enough. I also didn’t want to drive, so that limited me to one of the few fast food places within easy walking distance.

I left my apartment and was still on the street in my neighborhood. I live in a small apartment complex and am mostly surrounded by houses. This makes it feel more like the neighborhoods I’m used to, which is nice.

Three middle school-aged girls were walking in my direction. I was on the phone, calling my sister (she and I both will call each other to help kill time while walking somewhere or driving somewhere – though I do it much more often than she does. Sorry E$).

While passing me one of the girls yelled, “you’re cute!”

I thought this was pretty funny. Ah, to be young and loud and whatever else they are.

Unexpectedly, I heard a slight noise behind me and then –

SLAP!

One of the girls had doubled back, run up behind me and took it upon herself to slap me on the rear end. The old tuchus. After doing this she began to run away while the other girls giggled like hyenas. She yelled, while still running away, “I like your butt!”

Around that time my sister answer and tried to figure out why I was at the same time scared, amused, and more flattered than I’d care to admit.

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