Maybe this can close this off-topic thread. Here is a geek free dating service.<div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.plentyoffish.com/?dating=1freqani&gclid=CJaHrpu_7JwCFVhh2godJDz1kg">http://www.plentyoffish.com/?dating=1freqani&gclid=CJaHrpu_7JwCFVhh2godJDz1kg</a></div>
<div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.plentyoffish.com/?dating=1freqani&gclid=CJaHrpu_7JwCFVhh2godJDz1kg"></a><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Sep 12, 2009 at 11:33 AM, Ben Wong <span dir="ltr"><<a href="http://lists.openmoko.org">lists.openmoko.org</a>@<a href="http://wongs.net">wongs.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">Hello Brolin,<br>
<br>
Wow. That's quite a bit of information.<br>
<br>
I have many thoughts about your specific endeavours, moving out,<br>
priority inversion, social anxiety, finding a geek girl, but I think<br>
there may be a broader, more important goal that you're missing. It<br>
occurs to me that you may find it helpful to learn moderation and<br>
appreciation of imperfection. Western culture doesn't have a long<br>
tradition of doing that, so I recommend studying Eastern philosophies.<br>
Particularly, Buddhism, wabisabi, and mindfulness meditation.<br>
<br>
Mindfulness meditation is the art of focusing one's mind on what is<br>
actually present now and letting go of thoughts. For example, try<br>
sitting still and just paying attention to the sensations in your<br>
body, such as your breath going in and out, without thinking, without<br>
judging. It's a lot harder than it sounds, but it is a skill that can<br>
be learned, and it can be valuable for people like us who can get lost<br>
in our "head-space".<br>
<br>
--Ben<br>
<br>
<br>
On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 1:12 PM, Brolin Empey <<a href="mailto:brolin@brolin.be">brolin@brolin.be</a>> wrote:<br>
> Hello list,<br>
><br>
> Like most of the members of this list (AFAICT from the first names I<br>
> recognise as sex/gender-specific), I am male. I am 22 and still live with<br>
> my parents. I have never lived away from my parents. I am planning to hire<br>
> a support worker to help me live away from my parents (I have another<br>
> meeting later today) because I continue to indefinitely defer trying to live<br>
> away from my parents. I named my form of procrastination “priority<br>
> inversion” because what is, in practical terms, my lowest priority, becomes<br>
> my highest priority. For example, I choose to spend my free time playing<br>
> with my computers, including my FreeRunner, instead of learning about human<br>
> biology and/or nutrition, which will affect me every day of my life, and at<br>
> least trying to live away from my parents. When I say I play with my<br>
> computers, I do not mean gaming: I almost never play games anymore. Even<br>
> when I decide I want to play a game again, I spend all of my time reading<br>
> about games, viewing screenshots and videos, and trying to decide which of<br>
> the endless games I should play (or rather, obtain if I do not already have<br>
> a copy and make work on my PC) instead of actually playing a game. I feel<br>
> like I am always overwhelmed and/or overloaded with information and<br>
> stimulation in the Too Much Information Age. I always feel like the NET<br>
> Effect is that there is Never Enough Time because time flies faster than<br>
> ever because I am always overthinking, overwhelmed with overchoice, etc. I<br>
> recognise my mind is a word and pattern recognition engine, which is<br>
> constantly adding new stimulations/experiences to its database. I have<br>
> Asperger’s Syndrome, but can function much better, at least in terms of<br>
> interacting with people in person, than when I was in high school, for<br>
> example. I used to often feel like I had social anxiety disorder because I<br>
> would get so anxious and/or worried even when calling someone on the phone<br>
> (on my parents’s landline because I did not have a cell phone until 2008)<br>
> that I could not speak clearly enough for the person on the other end to<br>
> understand me, so I would always have to repeat myself at least once for<br>
> every turn of the conversation. I am a purist and have been called the most<br>
> pedantic person in the world by Jamie Zawinski, of Lucid Emacs/XEmacs and<br>
> Netscape/Mozilla fame. :) Imprecise usage and redundancy bothers me even if<br>
> know what is meant from the context. For example, I am bothered by people<br>
> mentioning a “standard” transmission in a vehicle (it is a manual<br>
> transmission. Standard depends on the vehicle. Automatic is standard for<br>
> some vehicles.), calling an LCD monitor (a flat panel) a “flat screen”<br>
> (high-end CRTs have flat glass too!), common redundancies, such as PIN<br>
> number, ATM machine, LCD display, people who assume all cars use crappy<br>
> gasoline engines and use fuel-specific terms, such as gas station (it is a<br>
> service station), gas tank (it is a fuel tank), gas pedal (it is an<br>
> accellerator), gas pump (I have used a diesel pump at Shell that told me to<br>
> “select octane” instead of “select ctane” (sp?) or “select fuel grade”. My<br>
> car has a diesel, not gasoline, engine. I have been highly influenced by my<br>
> father, Brian Empey. Brian is a Professional Engineer (Electrical<br>
> Engineering). He founded Technical Solutions Inc. (Techsol) in 1996 with<br>
> his second wife (my step-mom), Karen Empey (nee Schellenberg). Techsol is<br>
> an embedded computer hardware company specialising in Linux on ARM<br>
> architecture. I am very fortunate to be able to work at Techsol. I am a<br>
> Linux + Windows System Administrator/Web master/IT person/general computer<br>
> person. I think my responsibiles are more important than my title(s). I<br>
> know I am very dependent on my parents, but at least I own my own car (which<br>
> I bought from my dad), have a Class 7 driver’s licence (the Novice stage of<br>
> the Graduated Licensing Program in British Columbia, Canada. I live in the<br>
> Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada), my own credit union account,<br>
> debit (Interac) card, MasterCard credit card, personal cheques (not<br>
> checks!), which I almost never use (I think I have written a total of 3<br>
> cheques in my life), cell phones (Nokia 6103b + FreeRunner), PayPal account,<br>
> domain names (<a href="http://brolin.be" target="_blank">brolin.be</a> + others), Virtual Private Server (VPS), which hosts<br>
> my personal Web site, PCs and peripherals, far too many original/boxed PC<br>
> games, which I almost never play anymore, bicycle, ... I am definitely a<br>
> relatively rich/wealthy person in Canada and extremely wealthy compared to<br>
> less fortunate people in both developed and developing countries. I know I<br>
> should not complain because I am very fortunate; I know my life could<br>
> always be much worse, even if I lack much first-hand experience of how much<br>
> worse it could be.<br>
><br>
> Anyway, enough rambling. I need to finally address the Subject of this<br>
> message (I hope at least 1 person actually read this far!). How/where can I<br>
> meet a female companion in person with similar interests and personality?<br>
> Someone who can appreciate my word associations, puns, sexual innuendo,<br>
> jokes, purism, etc.? Someone who can relate to and understand the computer<br>
> humour in xkcd comics (I do not understand a lot of the math used in xkcd,<br>
> but I still know relatively more about math than non-technical people<br>
> because of my interest in computing and computer programming), someone who<br>
> analyses everything as much as I do, someone who is interested by books such<br>
> as Consciousness Explained by Daniel C. Dennet, (personal) computing<br>
> history, computer art scenes such as the demoscene, The Scene (warez groups,<br>
> etc. even though I no longer use much unlicensed software because I prefer<br>
> to support Free Software projects instead of using unlicensed proprietary<br>
> software), computer music (module music, chiptunes).<br>
><br>
> I have a tendency to isolate myself from face-to-face contact with my peers,<br>
> even though I know meeting people requires being in the same place as them.<br>
> I have few friends (well, at least peers) I know in person. I choose to<br>
> spend most of my free time at home, either alone or with my parents, instead<br>
> of trying to meet new people in person. I am too shy and self-conscious in<br>
> public.<br>
><br>
> Can anyone relate to me? What should I do? I know I have volunteered a lot<br>
> of personal information in this post, but much of it is already publicly<br>
> accessible for those who know my real/legal name and know how to use tools<br>
> such as Google Search. I have been considering writing a post like this for<br>
> months (maybe already >1 year), but I ended up stopping writing early<br>
> because I felt uncomfortable about volunteering so much personal<br>
> information. What do I have to lose, though? I need to stop being so<br>
> self-conscious.<br>
><br>
> Why are most of the peers with whom I can relate well male? Do females have<br>
> the same problem? Are there even any females reading this? :)<br>
><br>
> Thank you for reading this far!<br>
><br>
> Brolin :)<br>
><br>
> PS: As you can probably tell, I prefer to write properly (with correct<br>
> grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalisation, typographical quotation<br>
> marks and em dashes instead of ASCII typewriter quotation marks and ASCII<br>
> approximations of em dashes, etc.), even in informal contexts and for SMS.<br>
> I also prefer to say SMS instead of “text message”, but you could probably<br>
> have guessed that from my previous examples of my purism. I also prefer<br>
> logical, simple, and unambiguous ISO 8601 (e.g., today is 2009-09-10 13:37<br>
> ;)) international standard date and time notation, especially instead of the<br>
> illogical 12h time notation, which many people insist on using in fuzzy<br>
> and/or ambiguous ways, such as “quarter to one” instead of “12:45” (24h). I<br>
> know HH:MM (00:00 – 23:59) can be interpreted as ambiguous 12h when the hour<br>
> is <= 12, but I do not like to use HHMM (without the separator (the colon))<br>
> because I prefer to separate the components of the time of day. I<br>
> originally used an ASCII minus character (‘-’) as a range separator, but I<br>
> decided I should use gucharmap to copy and paste a proper en dash because<br>
> otherwise I would be hypocritical for using proper em dashes but using an<br>
> ASCII approximation instead of a proper en dash because I am too lazy to use<br>
> gucharmap. (fail)<br>
><br>
> PPS: As you may have noticed, I use the same convention as the C programming<br>
> language for usage of single and double quotation marks. C uses only ASCII<br>
> characters, though; I use both ASCII and Unicode (yes, I know Unicode<br>
> includes ASCII) for e.g., typographical quotation marks and dashes.<br>
><br>
> PPPS: I also highly prefer communities such as this mailing list, where<br>
> posters use their real/legal names and are consequently accountable for<br>
> their actions (messages) and write properly instead of e.g., Web bulletin<br>
> boards frequented by the ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), “tl; dr” (“too<br>
> long; didn’t read”) crowd, most of whom use nicknames instead of their<br>
> real/legal names.<br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Sometimes I forget how to do small talk: <<a href="http://xkcd.com/222/" target="_blank">http://xkcd.com/222/</a>><br>
><br>
> “If you have to ask why, you’re not a member of the intended audience.” —<br>
> Bob Zimbinski, <<a href="http://webpages.mr.net/bobz/ttyquake/" target="_blank">http://webpages.mr.net/bobz/ttyquake/</a>><br>
><br>
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><br>
><br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Michael Fisher<br><a href="mailto:desNotes@gmail.com">desNotes@gmail.com</a><br>Sent from Odessa, Florida, United States
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