Topic: Amused to Death

[sidzero]

Err, um, yeah. Maybe I should pay more attention sometimes....

Anyway, I still say it's better to say hello first. Asking for the time is fine, but if you start with a friendly hello first, it sets a better mood for friendly conversation. Forward or not, it lets the person you're talking to know "I'd like to talk to you" instead of just "I want to know the time". If they want to talk, it makes it easier to talk, and if not, their reaction to hello will let you know if it will be a wasted effort. Believe it or not, first impressions are everything in human interaction, and the first words you say set the tone for everything that follows.

[UruseiNeo]

i never said that it was better XD

It's more "common"

[cata]

The pickup line for "do you have the time?" goes like this:

"Pickuper": Do you have the time? 'Cuz I got the place.

I don't really know what to say when I meet a person like... "hey, how's it going? Good, me too." and then I go "hum... yeah"

Like I really don't know what to say next, specially if it's a guy. When it's a girl I feel more comfortable and I don't really know why I just break the ice by throwing jokes and joke around but sometimes when I think that the person isn't going to take my jokes well, I just get stuck.

[sidzero]

Just a thought, it's most likely that the reason you're more comfortable around other girls than around guy is because you are a victim of society's mindset that programs us from an early age that men and women are somehow fundamentally different, when we are not. I've always thought that was one of the fundamental problems with society. Sometimes I wonder if that, along with a hundred other problems that are the basic ills of society, can ever be fixed without tearing it all down and rebuilding from the ground up. Oh well.

[cata]

I always got along with guys, mostly because I have always been a tomboy. It began from the very first days of my life until I was 13 years old. After that, it all changed. I couldn't get along as good as I used to with guys and instead, I was getting along with girls and this still hasn't changed back. I'm not saying that I prefer to get along with guys. It's just that well, maybe I haven't met the right guys. xD

[UruseiNeo]

There's lots of guys here, you can get along with us XD

Get Along, Try Again

[cata]

LOL! I know, I love you guys. I'm sure that if I met you in real life we would get along. It's not like I don't try to hang around with guys. I have 7 male friends and about 20 female friends. But I have much closer relationship with my girl friends than I have with my boy ones. Maybe it's normal but I don't know. Maybe I just scare them off, which wouldn't surprise me. xD

[FallinG_StaR]

Nah... It's not just you... At least when I was in school only in kindergarden and primary school was where boys and girls got along fine...

But after that maybe because of puberty, or just as Sidzero says... society.
Kids tend to form groups, boys on one side and girls on the other... Why they do that I don't know... I just know that in their final school years the same groups disapear not completly but they do... maybe its just genetics... XD

[sidzero]

Nope, it's the way our current education system is designed. The formation of social cliques and the bullying that usually results of it is all part of the design. It's meant to dissuade non-social tendencies. People who don't get along with others get picked on and made to feel week until they seek the protection of others. The acts of extreme school violence that have been happening over the past decade (April 20th marks the 10th anniversary of the Columbine massacre) are a result of that system spiraling out of control. Actually, for the past 10 years, a lot of aspects of modern society are spiraling out of control. Look at the state of the economy if you want another example. Or our overpaid, underemployed work force that sees corporations turning to third world countries to make up the difference in labor costs. The whole damned system has begun to collapse, and nobody who can do anything about it knows how to fix it.

[cata]

I've been bullyied ever since I was 10 until I was 15 but when I was 10, 11, 12 and 13 were the worst years of my life. But even at that time I only got along with 3 guys and 2 girls (from school and they were victims of bullying, too). Outside school, I had 5 girl friends and 2 or 3 guy friends. Then I changed school and I got 4 amazing girl friends and one awesome guy friend. Last year, I changed school again and I've met more 15 girl friends and 2 more guy friends. It's not like I reject males but I don't know. I think I scare them off. But so what? I'm not going to be sad about it because I already have awesome friends.

Society needs to change... now! Not only the world crisis is threatening us but we also have global warning on us.

[sidzero]

Global warming isn't the threat that the hippies and Al Gore make it out to be. Fact is, the planet is still in a warming period that's been going on since the last ice age ended 15,000 years ago. Even without humans on Earth, there would still be global warming. I actually think (and current research is starting to agree with me) that we're right about at the midpoint of the current warming period and the planet is about to start a period of global cooling. Which is the reason why the weather's been so out of whack the last few years. No, if we humans have done anything regarding the global climate, the only thing we've done is procrastinate the apexing of the global average temperature a few years. Even if we could have some serious impact on the environment, the Earth would eventually recover herself, and humanity will ultimately adapt and find a way to survive it (and if we don't, then wouldn't that mean we weren't fit for survival in the first place?).

Nope, the only thing you have to fear is not the Earth failing us. Even the collapse of society isn't something to fear. No, if you want something to fear, fear the thought of us nor developing and implementing a source of energy that doesn't rely on fossil fuels within the next 30 years (and that may be pushing it). Because once the world's oil supply peaks, well, if you think things in the middle east are bad now...

Anyway, enough rant. So basically your problem, cata, is circumstance. If you're happy with what you have, friend-wise, don't worry about it. Most of them will disappear when you graduate anyway. Then you'll find new friends and potential mates.

[cata]

Bingo! You hit the jackpot, Sid. That's what scares the "you know what" out of me. I get terrified that all my friends disappear like go away. When I think about it, I kind of get depressed and try to forget about it. The thing is that my friends are everything to me and if I lose one of them I'll lose my mind and I'm afraid that losing them like all at once, will be the ticket to leave this World once and for all.

[sidzero]

To me, losing friends isn't that scary of an idea. I'm more surprised when I keep friends. I'm not exactly a big fan of people. I get tired of everyone eventually. Besides, all the friends you lose, just goes to show the ones you don't lose are your real friends.

[Kroptik]

Wow, and here I was thinking I was the only one that didn't attach much to people. xD

Cata, you probably won't lose your friends all at once, remember that. You can thank the internet and other communications for that.
Sure, time-distance is a friendship breaker, but as they say, the world keeps getting smaller and smaller.

[FallinG_StaR]

For me its time-work that breaks friendships... that and my motto that is... "My friends girlfriends are my girlfriends..."