Working on the weekends...

[silveradept]

...sucks. To a significant degree. Oh, well, such is how things are. Six hour shift and I got through it, although I did have to buy some peanut M+Ms at the break to quell the hunger pangs.

Lots to do this week, too, although the intramural season finishes up this week. So it's semis tomorrow (and possibly a finals or two) for me. Good weather will hopefully follow us to our destination.

Also, I seem to have picked up another reader, likely through the benevolent journal of martizac, so would jokermage kindly stand up and introduce himself and the six degrees of separation that brought him here?

Net neutrality takes a blow, as the house passes the COPE bill after explicitly rejecting an amendment designed to protect net neutrality. The Senate will hopefully have a better ear to what their constituents want.

Repeat after me: I will not take laptops with classified information outside the workplace. I will not have that laptop stolen and expose sensitive data to thieves. And for $DEITY's sake, I will read and follow the manual on security procedures! This is the kind of damage that one person's stupidity can do. I hope it's recovered and that it hasn't been compromised yet.

Been a bit blah since I got back, mostly because I was reminded that I don't necessarily have a standby in town that I can just go hang out with, talk, game, whatever, get my social interaction with someone who I know can stay with me and enjoy the time together. Work takes a large amount of time, and that's good, but for the most part, I'm working with people 1.25 to 1.5 times my age. There's not enough people around in town to have regular outings of some sort (or rather, I don't hear about them), and so I'm just a little blue for not having a social group. Kind of funny. For as much as I'll wallflower in a group, I still want to have the group and have fun with the group. I'm an introverted extrovert or an extroverted introvert or something. No matter, no worry, no going insane. No, really. Could just be the full moon, too, and some part of my birth sign asserting itself with a vengeance. (Although, if that were true, that would be me more likely to shell up rather than want to go out.)

Had a bit of a discussion tonight with annaonthemoon as to which of the Hogwarts Houses I would get Sorted into. She thinks that I'd probably make it into Godric's house, where I'm fairly certain I'd be in Rowena's by virtue of not really being brave enough for Godric's house, but still being relatively bright. Ah, well, speculation. Although, the books have lionized Godric's house due to the presence of many main characters in it, so in the perspective, the Gryffindors are the heroes, Salazar's house villainous, and the other two houses competitors, but not really worth mentioning much except where they cross the paths of the other houses. Too bad that part of the world is being left behind (of course, some parts must to actually tell a story) and that it's likely to be speculation that makes up the contents of the other houses. Ah, well.

Comments

[silveradept]

Likely not, but that was because I had books and games and family around to play with rather than needing people. I still did social things a lot of the time, but I wasn't quite as pressured with the need for acceptance, no.

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

N) Hm. What exactly has changed, besides physical state?

[silveradept]

The rules of the game. Where before, one had reassurances and believed that being smart was a positive, not a handicap, at that point, one finally realized that it really didn't matter how smart (or stupid) you were, what mattered was your popularity. Never had much of that through the adolescent times - had to make do with the self-reassurance that popularity didn't matter and the small circle of friends I had.

At university, you have a social group formed through your courses, but the ones of my undergraduate are slipping away and the graduate school ones, while they may last a bit longer, most of the graduate students are elsewhere. With no real cohesive social group, once again it seems like losing the popularity war, but this time, it's just people not being around.

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

N) 'what mattered was your popularity'--mattered for what? If popularity, it begs the question. If something else--career success, for example--then circumstances can be called into question.

...why do you post so many links, and how can you be sure of their authenticity? I'm sorry, you've certainly been asked this before, but all but fragmentary knowledge concerning the matter has been lost.

[silveradept]

Social success, N. If you wanted to have socially successful interactions, you had to have enough popularity to be respected by the members of X clique. Those who didn't meet the grade usually formed their own outcast cliques and waged war using the "purity" of their clique and ideals as cannon fodder.

Myself, I never really settled in the "social" camp, but I had links to all sorts of cliques - I fancied myslef one of the bright outcasts, shunned socially but always handy when someone needed homework help, the curve-wrecker, "the one who tries too hard", et cetera.

As for the links, caveat emptor. While I may strive for accuracy and authenticity, I will include jhoke articles to make a point, or something unconfirmed for the possible discussions it could start. There is no warranty of authenticity, express or implied, in the links that I have. Peruse at your own risk.

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

N) 'social success', as you describe it--did your desire for it remain unchanged throughout your life?

Interesting.

[silveradept]

As I said before, it didn't really become more of a priority until the secondary school years, and now here at u8niversity, it's becoming more of a priority, but that's mostly because I don't have any of th epeople from back home still here and having a social group is a good idea for a lot of other reasons, like finding work recommendations and housing and such.

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

N) Hmm.