Idle Minds

Today I got to go look through piles of old drawings to look for old records of stuff. It wouldn't be so bad, except the records are in different places depending on who you ask, and some people maintain that they don't exist at all. While waiting for one of the librarians (sooo many drawings, sooo many records) to do a search for what I was looking for, well, there was nothing for me to do. Me, 10000 binders full of drawings that don't really interest me and are probably things I shouldn't be snooping around in. Oh, and boxes upon boxes of binder clips, erasers, rubber bands, paperclips, and the like.

It would have been a crime NOT to build a statue of a man riding a donkey out of office supplies. I've seen books that tell you how to build cool things out of your office supplies, that's cheating. Plus, you never know what's out there for you to commandeer on a given day. And, I'd feel bad using ALL of something (all the Post- Its, all the ink, all the whatever) to make a project. Hopefully the next poor soul that gets trapped in there finds my artistic contributions amusing.

It's not like I can help myself, either. My brain is always thinking. Always. About anything. If it can't find anything good to think about, and doesn't feel very imaginatory that day, then it starts worrying. Usually it's thinking about several things at once and humming a song in the background.

Lots of people think that nerds are bad at social interaction because they're shy, or because they 'just don't get it'. Sometimes, it's quite the opposite. Imagine driving your car and having to think every few seconds to check if you were driving at the right speed, in the right lane, going to the right place, looking at the mirrors to check for other traffic, etc. Incidentally, this is how I drive. I can't automate anything, I have to constantly think about every little thing I do in the car. The same goes for some people and social situations.

Some nerds, instead of being completely oblivious to the nuances of social interaction, are actualy hyper-aware of it. They might be wondering, "Should I be making eye contact? Did I make eye contact for too long? Where do I look if I'm not looking at them? Am I mouth breathing again? Shit, I need to stop leaving my mouth hanging open. What's my posture like? Am I slouching? My arms are crossed, do they think I'm angry? I'm not angry. Should I smile to show them I'm not angry?" ad infinitum. Then on top of that you have to actually carry on the conversation, and try to censor out (depending on who you're talking to) dorky things that you'd rather talk about, like recent upgrades to the GPL. The plus side of this is that hyperanalytical nerds can be really good at manipulating people, if they can just concentrate hard enough to project the right images of themselves during an interaction and predict the flow of the conversation.

I think I had a bad week for being social this week :(