Towards a Philosophy of the Male Species (and Meeting People in General)

[Victoria "Stokastika"]

I completely admire Harvey Milk. He has the ability to pick up and
befriend any person off the street. Such open-ness. Why don't I grasp
this "open-ness" at this moment? I have to meet people much like
taking pictures. If you take 100 pictures, the likelihood of capturing
ONE superb picture dramatically increases. You have to consider
meeting and interacting with people to a point of intellectual and
emotional compatibility is more like a probability distribution. A
crap shoot. This is officially becoming a "social experiment."

Before I was more open, when I was hiding behind a digital camera, a
film camera, and when I was with a friend who had a dog--a young,
black lab, to be more specific. But now, I am hiding, lurking, more
"closed off." I am not sure why, but I have to snap myself out of it.

Where are places one can meet people? I don't eat lunch. I don't sit
down with people for lunch. There are encounters with coffeeshops all
the time. Department parties (seminars), etcetera. Grocery stores.
Kinkos. You encounter people all the time. But you treat them like
objects. I just don't feel good about myself when I go to "bars."
Never did. Still don't feel good about it.

But how do you crack people open? How do you go from distant observer
to dynamic interactor? Interacting with people through technology
SUCKS. Craigslist, internet in general. Well, there is this noble
invention called "the pick-up line."

Here are some starters:
(1). Asking for directions. (space)
(2). Asking what time it is. (time)
(3). Asking the "are you familiar" question. Vague association with
some family member or friend or school or organization, etcetera.
(4). Asking about some impulsive prompt of image. "You look like you
play basketball!" I get that in the grocery store a lot.
(5). And my other "classic classic" pick-up line of all times. "Are
you left-handed?"

I just saw this "male specimen" at Kinkos in Corona, California, and
at an impulsive level he bugged the hxll out of me. He was tall and
lean. Had dark, curly brown hair. Wore glasses. Looked like a geeky
artist European. Looked like someone I would like to know.

The sad thing is I don't even know him but he bugged the hxll out of
me. I went through this scanning mode. You see? No wedding ring. Okay,
check. Hmmm. He has a skull on the bottom left corner of his jacket.
Okay, mmm. Check. Not so cool. Also had some ghetto, gangster looking
shoes. Okay... mmmm, hmmmm. Check. Though he had a deep, appealing
voice, he was rather quiet-spoken. You see? My mind was trying to find
any possible thing wrong with such a male specimen to convince myself
that he is not worth cracking the ice into conversation. Though I
tried to place myself in close proximity twice. I ended up spending 87
cents for 9 sheets of neon-colored paper just to get in close
proximity.

There are two groups of people in my life who are missing: (1)
geologists (or geonaturalists) and (2) international students. Without
these sets of characters, many other personalities in America are
rather... "uninspiring." The White Toast Syndrome. I found out in
general I cannot hang out around "artists" because most artists are
removed from scientifically rigorous reality, and their connections of
dots are rather... chaotic. My art is "scientifically calibrated." I
first became scientifically in tune before I ventured into the art
side. Same with my art friend Scott Chatenever. He became an engineer
before he became an artist. It seems like the most systematic,
rigorous artists first were trained in high precision-educations
before venturing into the chaos of the artistic world. The concept of
order and precision has been harnessed and the art renders superbly
universal.

I have to be more experimental next quarter and expand my horizons in
meeting people. I maxed out this last quarter. I met a couple hundred
people without any good luck. Plus, I didn't let go of the past
either. It is not helping me out. So, I need to be more strategic. I
need to place myself in new environments, around new people, like
NCEAS. Like the geology department, interdisciplinary marine science,
graduate student association, geography, evolutionary-psychology-like-
people, international student clubs, wherever those are. I don't want
to be surrounded by the same practitioners, I need to envelope myself
in the people who have inspired me in the first place. The ecology and
evolution department is an overall RAD group--anyone from the Kuris
lab is flippin' cool.

So, essentially, my strategy is to surround myself by inspiring
people--internationals and geobio-esque folks, and belch to the
humanities and social science people. Strange life I am in. Lost in
translation? Extracting all the humanity of science and dumping it
into the humanities world of campus. Quite a few humanities profs look
at me as if I were some alien. That's okay. Maybe it's a good sign. At
least they are very polite listeners.

Next quarter I will set my strategy in action. And I have to have a
few tickets in hand. I have to get started on the right foot. Week 1
is one long scientific experiment. Sigh!

[Victoria "Stokastika"]

The internet creeps me out. So does Craigslist.

I keep encountering this Natural Healing character, time and time
again.
Annoys the shxt out of me. Reminds me of my mother. You are out of
school for so long
and then you get all these whacky ideas about how medicine works.
Another anti-doctor, like my mother. Which is just rationale to the
ridiculous extreme.
I refuse to be surrounded by more people of obsessive intelligence!

There was some dude I don't even know who joined as a member to this
group.
I don't even know this guy! How did he find this site? How did Google
allow him to join?
I can only endorse people who I know to join this site!
Geeze!