TechnoLust's Journal: Scenes from the office... (a la SolemnDragon)

A little background, first... Recently a girl I haven't seen in a while and I were going out to a club and she wanted to approve what I was wearing. I started to show her and she said, "Nevermind, you always look good when you go out, I'm sure you'll look nice." That made me feel good because although I like to dress nice, I've never been one for "Department Store Designer Clothes" (Hilfiger, et al.) and I can't justify buying Versace, Cavalli, Dolce & Gabbana, or Dior. Some of their shit is nice and I'd wear some of it, but mostly I get stuff that's not overpriced and is made well. I do this mostly because I hate clothes shopping. Well not the shopping part so much as the trying on. That's one of the reasons I shop Old Navy... I know my size there, so I don't have to try on everything. That's also the reason if a button comes off a pair of pants or a shirt, I'd rather sew that shit back on than go buy a replacement garment.

There's a lady I work with, we'll call her Smiley, that's happy and flirtatious all the time, so when I get stressed, I go talk to her and she cheers me up. It helps that she's VERY attractive for an "older" lady (she's in her early 40s). She's VERY quick witted and I love bantering with her because it keeps my wit sharp.

Ok, so yesterday I'm at the water cooler, filling up my 1L water bottle. Our cooler is low, so I'm bending over. Smiley is in the break room talking to someone. When I raise up from filling up my bottle, she says, "TL, did you know you have a hole in your pants where the pocket is sewn on and I can see your underwear?" I told her no, I wasn't aware of it and I dropped it because it's not polite to have a battle of wits in front of unarmed people. (StalinsNotDead, I think this is your biggest issue with human interaction, you have to learn to customize your communication to your target audience. I talk WAY different to a CEO than I do my friends)

Later I'm at my desk and she comes buy and puts her arm across my neck, leans in close and whispers in my ear, "What's up Mr. Holey-pants?" I turned and said, "I wasn't going to call you out on this, but you forced my hand... why exactly were you staring at my ass in the first place that you noticed the hole."
"Uhh... no! I was... you were bent over and..."
"Uh huh. Keep telling yourself that."
So we had a good little laugh and went on with our day.

So today I came in and went to her desk. I said, "Do you want to check these for holes too?" and smiled! She said, "Not now honey, I have more important things to do." I said (slightly louder than I meant to, which garnered some questioning stares), "What could be more important than my ass!?!?!?"

Recognized issue

[StalinsNotDead]

StalinsNotDead, I think this is your biggest issue with human interaction, you have to learn to customize your communication to your target audience.

This is something of which I am aware. I have two very distinct forms of human interaction: speaking and shutting the hell up. The only variation is the amount of profanity used in the speaking. And that variation is based upon my level of comfort with the listeners. And if there's more than about three people involved, I generally do not speak. I believe that

Re:

[TechnoLust]

The trick with females is don't try. If you haven't seen it go out and rent The Tao of Steve. Watch it, memorize it, live it. You'll be beating them off with a stick.

I invited this girl over to the house the other day and she showed up with some dude. (Not a dude she was trying to get with, just a male friend, but she didn't ask if it was ok.) I got pissed at her so I spent more time talking to him than I did her. When I spoke to her I was short and blunt. When she left I said bye to him, shook hi

Re:

[StalinsNotDead]

I've read and understand the theory, it's the practice I have trouble implementing. Also being completely oblivious to any interest on their part (Asperger's) combined with an innate sense of pessimism, an intense dislike of crowds, and paranoia doesn't make for great success in certain arenas.

I said bye to him, shook his hand and said it was nice to meet him. We usually kiss on the cheek when we part ways.

Read that excerpt from you comment out of context. That's a potential sig to be attributed to you.

Re:

[TechnoLust]

Yikes! I need to mind my pronouns! We obviously should have been She and I.

Re:

[Chemisor]

> The trick with females is don't try. If you haven't seen it go out and rent The Tao of Steve.

Oh, please! You social butterflies just don't understand us nerds, and we're used to it. "Getting" women is only half the problem, and the reason we obsess about it is that most of us don't get past it, being ugly, nerdy, and timid. The other part of the problem is that we have no use for them once we get them. Unless you are just looking for sex, you'll need something in common to talk about. Then consider tha

Re:

[janeowit]

Unless you are just looking for sex, you'll need something in common to talk about. Then consider that no woman in her right mind has any interest in science or technology, while we have no interest in social gossip, her hair, or shopping. Furthermore, we speak to communicate, while women talk about nothing because it makes them feel good.

This has to be the funniest, and simultaneously saddest, thing I have read for a long time. But then again, I probably don't read much unless it's a gossip magazine.
And I

Re:

[FroMan]

You obviously earn your nick.

The poor soul above. I met my wife in the computer science department and work at the same company. I wrote the language she uses in her day to day job. I guess this fellow doesn't know where to find women at all.

Re:

[Chemisor]

> And I'd love to say more about your insane views on women,
> since it makes me feel so good, but I have to go do my hair!

Nice one! :) But perhaps you ought to read the source of my hopeless delusions [dailymail.co.uk]; after you dry that hair, naturally. And you might consider that if you are educated enough to know how to type, literate enough to know the word "simultaneously", and are still living in college-land, then you have no idea what most regular people are like, to many of whom even the dumbest of college pa

Re:

[TechnoLust]

I don't know you. I don't know where you live. But I know this: you make your life. You aren't alone because there's no one else like you, you are alone because you chose to be.

The first thing I notice in you posts above is that you think there are two types of people: the Elite Intellectuals and Everyone Else. You come across as someone who thinks of themselves as a genius surrounded by idiots. I own tons of books. I read a lot. But I can hang out with people who talk about bartending, getting their

Re:

[Chemisor]

> The first thing I notice in you posts above is that you think there are two types of
> people: the Elite Intellectuals and Everyone Else. You come across as someone who
> thinks of themselves as a genius surrounded by idiots.

No, as an educated man surrounded by those who are not. There is a difference, and there is a correlation. Intelligent people tend to educate themselves, becoming educated if they weren't before. You also have the common misconception that people of low intelligence are idiots,

Re:

[TechnoLust]

You missed a couple of my points there. When I said I can enjoy learning about things I previously had no interest in, it's not the learning about the thing that I enjoy. I like learning about people, as I said. So when a girl is telling me about why she likes this hairstyle or some dude is talking about sports (which I don't get as much enjoyment out of as most guys) I'm learning more on the meta level. I'm not thinking about whether or not he's correct that trading Vick will help the Falcons, I'm think

Re:

[Chemisor]

> I'm learning more on the meta level. I'm not thinking about whether or not
> he's correct that trading Vick will help the Falcons, I'm thinking about why
> this person feels the need to know these things.

Why is that important? What difference does it make if he is a hardcore fan or a fan "so he'll have something to connect with others"? That's his business and his business only, although if you decide to pursue a friendship relationship with him, you might want to know, if only to be able to decide

Re:

[TechnoLust]

My intention is to correct your misconceptions about the people who aren't like that, and I am not really expecting success. As for you convincing me to become a social butterfly, get real! :) Never in my life have I been in an argument where someone forced me to change my beliefs. Not once. So I just assume I am always right ;) No, not because I am some supergenius, but simply because my beliefs and opinions are my own, not borrowed from other people.

And what of your misconceptions of me? I don't have many preconceptions of you, because I don't know you. You say you are a nerd, but I know a lot of people that say they are nerds that have very little in common, so until I figure out what you consider a nerd, then I don't know how you view yourself. You aren't correcting misconceptions, you are building my understanding of your self view. So you shouldn't expect to succeed in correcting anything in me, because there (until this conversation) was very

Re:

[Chemisor]

Before I begin, I am seeing some building tension in this argument, so, since we aren't really friends (at least evidently not yet), I feel compelled to explicitly state that nothing in what I write should be construed as a personal insult to you, or as a statement uttered in anger or hatred or disdain. I am not a social butterfly and I do not mince words, so should I decide to comminicate such feelings, I would make them acidly clear, leaving absolutely no room for misunderstanding. (Or, most likely, I wou

Re:

[janeowit]

At my precocious age, I'm not going to try to defend my lack of experience in the real world. I would like to point out that I was not critiquing your life, but rather your well researched point of viewpoint on it.

And on a different day, I might even agree with you, except for the still unreasonable statement that "no woman in her right mind has any interest in science or technology", but I have had a recent burst in optimism.

Now that my hair is styled, I really should find myself a college party and go, ha

Re:

[Chemisor]

> I might even agree with you, except for the still unreasonable statement that
> "no woman in her right mind has any interest in science or technology"

Believe it or not, I can count on one hand all the intelligent women I've met since leaving college. Then, naturally I've known plenty of college girls who were scientifically minded and quite intelligent, but that's because I've spent a lot of time at the department of chemistry, where you didn't go if you weren't. The library also contained a few, alt

Re:

[TechnoLust]

As a Chemist, I expect you like formulas and systems and such. That why *I* got a BS in Chemistry, before I decided to do computers for a living. I look at people like chemical equations. I like to see what adding certain personalities into the mix and see what happens. I don't know, I'm just trying to illustrate that you can find a way to make most situations enjoyable and you can "nerdify" just about anything if you want.

Re:

[Chemisor]

> I like to see what adding certain personalities into the mix and see what happens.
> I don't know, I'm just trying to illustrate that you can find a way to make most situations enjoyable

Or, in other words, you are engaging in unauthorized human experimentation, which many scientists would consider unethical. Whenever you interact with people, they will have expectations of you. Ask a girl out and she will expect a relationship (well, not after one date, of course, but eventually). Hang out with someo

Re:

[TechnoLust]

you are engaging in unauthorized human experimentation

I don't FORCE them to hang out with me, so be agreeing to spend time with me, they are agreeing to the experiment. Any girl that thinks because I talk to her (or for that matter, because I had sex with her) that I'm agreeing to a relationship is naive. But I HAVE refused to sleep with girls that thought it would make me want a relationship with them. And I told them as much. I can't control anyone's expectations and I have no obligation to live up to that unless I agree to it.

I expected a lot more f

Re:

[Chemisor]

> I expected a lot more from your response than a straw man attack.

All right, I did veer a bit off topic here, but it is indeed a valid concern for me. One of the reasons I don't seek people out is that I do not wish to impose upon their time, which is what I know from experience will end up happening.

> Any girl that thinks because I talk to her (or for that matter, because I had
> sex with her) that I'm agreeing to a relationship is naive.

I didn't judge your activities before, but I must say that I

Re:

[TechnoLust]

I figured Some Woman would have been all over this one, but I guess that's why you two are friends. You probably talk about slashdot while sitting around giving each other makeovers and stuff don't you? ;-)

Re:

[janeowit]

You must forget we're sorority sisters, so we talk about slashdot during pillow-fights.
 

Re:

[TechnoLust]

OH yeah! Naked pillow fights... Mmmm...