geeking, geeking, and geeking -- some of it more subtle than others
I just met a fascinating individual.
He was talking with Will in the cafeteria about politics. I ate and listened to the conversation - at first I thought he was talking about ancient Greece, but it turned out that the self-centered imperialist state he was pontificating about was America. He predicted that America had reached the point that all empires reach, where they’ve extended themselves so far that they’ll either collapse or draw back into themselves, shrink, regress, and then grow again. He was very intelligent: he compared it to history, bringing up examples, and had studied not just history but politics, political systems, and sociology as well.
He was a socialist, he said, but not a radical one. He didn’t intend to force a revolution or reform on the government. It had to come at an interpersonal level, because politics are a reflection of the people and their culture. So much of what he said made so much sense. Some of it reflected my own thoughts, especially about how careful balance is the best way to go, because that means that the most things work out the best for the most people.
He also explained how he had reached his mildly-socialist pacifistic worldview: he used to be a total douchebag, an imperialist of the worst kind, who had seen the British empire and other empires and felt that that was the natural way of things, and that was what America ought to be. He reflected this in his personal life: he built a network of carefully-subjugated “friends,” who he manipulated and pitted their dynamics against each other. His social position may have had something to do with this: for a short time, his mother had been reallllly prominent in the Republican Party, and for a while they were bringing home $100,000 a week. But then they were given bad tax advice, and they went down to the middle-class, and finally lower class. It seems to have given him a great deal of perspective. His mother was a die-hard Republican, and his father was a British socialist. He had his circle of "friends" from age 13 to age 18, but then that system -- and his worldview -- fell apart.
Externally, the war in Iraq made him re-think his RAH RAH AMERICA YAAAAAY, and internally, his circle of subjugated people collapsed, and there was a lot of heartbreak. He discovered humanity, he says, and realized that people should be treated like people, not coldly and rationally in terms of political systems. He realized that the individual human being was more important than “interests” and what benefits one can get from a situation.
He hopes to get more Americans thinking critically, and present another option, another way of doing things, to people on an individual basis, to catch them when capitalism collapses (which, he claims, it will). No bloody revolution or forced reform: it has to happen to the people individually before that is reflected in the government.
I think he was very smart.
I didn’t get his name.
ITEM TWO: GUESS WHO SCORED A COPY OF REVENGE OF THE FALLEN FOR $20~~~~ =D AND I PICKED UP THE MOULIN ROUGE SOUNDTRACK, AND A CD FULL OF SCIENCE SONGS BY THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS. IT'S KIDS' MUSIC BUT IS REALLY CATCHY AND FOR $13? WHY THE HELL NOT. AND MOULIN ROUGE WAS, WHAT, $9?
I'm such a loser, though. When the guy was taking the DVD out of the plastic case to keep me from stealing it, it stuck a little. He said, "Sorry, it's kinda tight. I don't want to damage it." Before I could stop myself, out of my mouth comes, "Oh, that's okay. I like my giant robots a little damaged." OTL I AM A DOOOORK
Aaaaaaaand item 3. So I was at work today. My job is to be the key-master~ to test all the keys we have in all the locks, and put together a spreadsheet of what keys work where. My boss stopped me in the hall to ask me --
PETE: Are you checking the locks to the conference room, too?
ME: Yep! I already got it!
PETE: Eeeexcellent.
He also tutors math on Tuesdays.
I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO THINK.
I now believe that Bob, the three-legged dog that comes to work with my boss, is actually Ravage. Kyle, the work-study student with the most superiority and who is involved in all sorts of higher-up theater programs, is Pete's traitorous lieutenant. As for me? ....I'm Shockwave. Quiet, logical, fading-into-the-background, always looking to the leader for direction and following his orders to the letter.
Oh, and I watched the first two or three episodes of Transformers: Animated. THE CHINS DEAR GOD THE CHIIIIIIIINS HOLY HELL. Animation style aside, I kind of like that Starscream. He's perfectly IC, and though his voice is a LITTLE less ridiculous than G1, he still sounds like he's been sucking helium or something. Megatron's voice, on the other hand.....oh my god why do I find it so sexy I swear I don't even It's weird seeing an Optimus Prime not voiced by Peter Cullen. I'm still formulating an opinion, tbh -- it's not my favorite continuity and probably never will be, but I kinda wanna see what they did with Shockwave. I blame the dear_mun players.
One final thing -- on Monday, Will and I got together and watched Hairspray. I hauled him up to my dorm room, turned the lights off, and we watched it.
The whole time, we were sitting on opposite sides of the couch. It was.....kind of funny, to be honest. I mean, I wasn't going to try anything, but I mean....most platonic movie-watching EVER.
We're going to do it again next Monday night, only he picks the movie this time. XD;
He was talking with Will in the cafeteria about politics. I ate and listened to the conversation - at first I thought he was talking about ancient Greece, but it turned out that the self-centered imperialist state he was pontificating about was America. He predicted that America had reached the point that all empires reach, where they’ve extended themselves so far that they’ll either collapse or draw back into themselves, shrink, regress, and then grow again. He was very intelligent: he compared it to history, bringing up examples, and had studied not just history but politics, political systems, and sociology as well.
He was a socialist, he said, but not a radical one. He didn’t intend to force a revolution or reform on the government. It had to come at an interpersonal level, because politics are a reflection of the people and their culture. So much of what he said made so much sense. Some of it reflected my own thoughts, especially about how careful balance is the best way to go, because that means that the most things work out the best for the most people.
He also explained how he had reached his mildly-socialist pacifistic worldview: he used to be a total douchebag, an imperialist of the worst kind, who had seen the British empire and other empires and felt that that was the natural way of things, and that was what America ought to be. He reflected this in his personal life: he built a network of carefully-subjugated “friends,” who he manipulated and pitted their dynamics against each other. His social position may have had something to do with this: for a short time, his mother had been reallllly prominent in the Republican Party, and for a while they were bringing home $100,000 a week. But then they were given bad tax advice, and they went down to the middle-class, and finally lower class. It seems to have given him a great deal of perspective. His mother was a die-hard Republican, and his father was a British socialist. He had his circle of "friends" from age 13 to age 18, but then that system -- and his worldview -- fell apart.
Externally, the war in Iraq made him re-think his RAH RAH AMERICA YAAAAAY, and internally, his circle of subjugated people collapsed, and there was a lot of heartbreak. He discovered humanity, he says, and realized that people should be treated like people, not coldly and rationally in terms of political systems. He realized that the individual human being was more important than “interests” and what benefits one can get from a situation.
He hopes to get more Americans thinking critically, and present another option, another way of doing things, to people on an individual basis, to catch them when capitalism collapses (which, he claims, it will). No bloody revolution or forced reform: it has to happen to the people individually before that is reflected in the government.
I think he was very smart.
I didn’t get his name.
ITEM TWO: GUESS WHO SCORED A COPY OF REVENGE OF THE FALLEN FOR $20~~~~ =D AND I PICKED UP THE MOULIN ROUGE SOUNDTRACK, AND A CD FULL OF SCIENCE SONGS BY THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS. IT'S KIDS' MUSIC BUT IS REALLY CATCHY AND FOR $13? WHY THE HELL NOT. AND MOULIN ROUGE WAS, WHAT, $9?
I'm such a loser, though. When the guy was taking the DVD out of the plastic case to keep me from stealing it, it stuck a little. He said, "Sorry, it's kinda tight. I don't want to damage it." Before I could stop myself, out of my mouth comes, "Oh, that's okay. I like my giant robots a little damaged." OTL I AM A DOOOORK
Aaaaaaaand item 3. So I was at work today. My job is to be the key-master~ to test all the keys we have in all the locks, and put together a spreadsheet of what keys work where. My boss stopped me in the hall to ask me --
PETE: Are you checking the locks to the conference room, too?
ME: Yep! I already got it!
PETE: Eeeexcellent.
He also tutors math on Tuesdays.
I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO THINK.
I now believe that Bob, the three-legged dog that comes to work with my boss, is actually Ravage. Kyle, the work-study student with the most superiority and who is involved in all sorts of higher-up theater programs, is Pete's traitorous lieutenant. As for me? ....I'm Shockwave. Quiet, logical, fading-into-the-background, always looking to the leader for direction and following his orders to the letter.
Oh, and I watched the first two or three episodes of Transformers: Animated. THE CHINS DEAR GOD THE CHIIIIIIIINS HOLY HELL. Animation style aside, I kind of like that Starscream. He's perfectly IC, and though his voice is a LITTLE less ridiculous than G1, he still sounds like he's been sucking helium or something. Megatron's voice, on the other hand.....oh my god why do I find it so sexy I swear I don't even It's weird seeing an Optimus Prime not voiced by Peter Cullen. I'm still formulating an opinion, tbh -- it's not my favorite continuity and probably never will be, but I kinda wanna see what they did with Shockwave. I blame the dear_mun players.
One final thing -- on Monday, Will and I got together and watched Hairspray. I hauled him up to my dorm room, turned the lights off, and we watched it.
The whole time, we were sitting on opposite sides of the couch. It was.....kind of funny, to be honest. I mean, I wasn't going to try anything, but I mean....most platonic movie-watching EVER.
We're going to do it again next Monday night, only he picks the movie this time. XD;