Awkwardness

Tagged as: Life, Relationships Jun 25

In a world that advances in technology, conveniences, and all sorts of other benefits, it is comforting to know that some things do not change. No matter where we go, no matter how high we fly, awkwardness will never leave us! Oh hooray!

More than that, it seems like things are getting worse. What with the age of the computer upon us, our social interactions are changing rather dramatically pretty quickly. Children, instead of playing with the other neighborhood kids, will play games online with strangers they’ve never actually met. And while I am not opposed to playing games (I’ve played a game or two myself), you must admit that it is changing things up. Instead of being active, we’re watching more television. The list goes on and on.

Even beyond childhood, we are maintaining our relationships through this newfangled phenomenon called the Internet. On websites for all sorts of topics and aims, we are interacting with people in a whole new way. We consider people that we’ve never met in real life our friends. We spend countless hours writing on blogs (kind of like this one!). You get the point. I don’t think that these things are bad in and of themselves, they are bringing our society to a place where social skills are declining.

On a related but slightly different note, is it just me or has the word awkward encroached everyday conversation over the past few years? And somehow, I don’t think that helps fight against the awkwardness. While it does seem amusing at times, I’ve grown to dislike it quite wholeheartedly. Perhaps it’s because any amusement is always coming at someone’s expense. Someone who usually cannot afford to be laughed at. Or maybe it’s because I’d much prefer if everyone were comfortable instead. Whatever the reason, awkwardness is no good.

Or am I the only one?

Difference Between Childish And Child-Like

Tagged as: Life, Relationships Jun 18

I, for one, am very amused by children. Of course, I’m also amused by a lot of other things. So I guess simply because I’m amused by something doesn’t make it noteworthy. And yet here I go writing about what I’m amused by.

Child-Like

With children, I think that I can break down my amusement to the fact that they are new to the world. They haven’t lived in society for the years and years that adults have. (Of course, that relates to this comment on a previous post.) So for lack of all of those years of social influence, they are new to the world. They aren’t jaded because everything is fresh. The ocean is huge, the mountains so tall, and everything is worthy of a question. And in addition to that, they are much more free about doing and saying things. That is, they aren’t inhibited because they don’t even know that they should be inhibited. So they’ll run and have fun, pick their nose when they feel a booger, and say what they think about people. Even when it’s inappropriate.

While I’m amused by all of this, it’s also likely because I don’t have to deal with my own children. Because…I don’t have any. Yet. Haha but really I’m positive that it can get old to parents when their kid(s) are acting up endlessly. Oh boy I can’t even imagine!

Childish

And while I enjoy this child-like charm, (as the title suggests) I don’t actually like it when people are acting childish. What’s the difference? Well in my terms, childish usually applies to those traits of children that are very undesirable. I think of things like throwing temper tantrums, being self-centered, not knowing when to be serious, and other such pleasant attributes. And while children obviously do this, I think that I’m even more turned off when I see it in people that should know better: adults.

In them, I find it to be such a turn-off. And I’m not just talking about in girls. When I meet a guy that acts childish, I’m almost immediately turned off to ever wanting to be friends with him. Childishness just shows (to me) a lack of maturity that is more and more exaggerated the more I’d expect them to be mature. They say that with age comes wisdom, but that, unfortunately, isn’t true for everyone.

So it all comes down to this: I want to continually be child-like and grow to never be childish!

On Asking A Girl Out

Tagged as: Relationships, The-Wrong-Way Jun 04

Dating is a frightening proposition. I thought I’d put together some pointers for those guys who might be thinking about venturing out into the big blue sea.

1. Scared - That’s right, girls are scary. They’re mean. They’re intimidating. So shy away from them. Ask them out using as little direct interaction as possible (e.g. while chatting online, on their Facebook, over e-mail). They’ll just want to coddle and love you because they can see that you’re a sensitive soul.
2. Ask Everyone For Advice - Communal knowledge, right? Ask her friends, her enemies, your friends, your enemies, strangers, and anyone else what you should do before you actually do it. But no matter what, don’t ask her yet.
3. Nervous - It’s not easy. So go ahead and stutter, stumble over your words, and forget what you wanted to say. She’ll understand. It’s a tough, cold world.
4. Over Dramatize - Asking out a girl is a big deal. So go all out. Flowers? Of course. Dress up? Sure. Jewelry? Perhaps. Because really, once she says yes to a date, she’s probably going to say yes to anything else that you ask.
5. Trick Her - Don’t even call it a date. Call it “hanging out” or “catching up” or something similarly ambiguous. That way you can get in under the radar without having to put yourself out there. Because if you put yourself out there, you might get hurt. And that doesn’t feel good!
6. Figure Out Everying Before - She’s gonna say yes anyways. So you have to know what kind of centerpieces you’re going to have at your banquet. Man she’s going to look beautiful walking down that aisle towards you, huh?
7. Don’t Take No For An Answer - She really wants you. She’s just playing hard to get. Go get ‘em, Tiger. Even if she gets a restraining order. Even if she never responds to you. Even if she says to get out of her life and never call her again. It’s all a ploy. Only suckers fall for ploys.

Now you’re ready, young man. Or old man. Whatever stage of life you are man. You have all of the tools necessary to win the woman of your dreams. Don’t worry, she’s gonna love you. Trust me, I can tell about these kinds of things.

Group Friendship

Tagged as: Life, Relationships May 15

When I think of friendship, I initially think of a relationship between one person and another. They can be all sorts of combination of guys and girls (okay so really there are only 4 combinations if there are 2 people involved). But have you noticed how different everything is when a group is involved?

Imagine, if you will, going into a situation where you’re trying to get in with a whole group of people. Individually you are able to interact pretty well with them. Conversation is pretty easy, common ground is found, life is good.

But as a whole when you’re with them things are not well. You are left standing there thinking, “What am I doing here?” You don’t follow their inside jokes. And you definitely haven’t known them for as long as they have known each other.

Why the difference? It seems strange to me to be able to be friends with them individually but have trouble with them when they are all a group. But it happens. Related to mob mentality? Who knows, you got me.

The Real Better Half

Tagged as: Relationships May 07

Have you heard people talk about their spouse as “their better half”? It’s an interesting (and kind) thing to say. Often it’s the guy talking about his wife, but not always so. It’s slightly demeaning towards the “lesser half” (often self-deprecating since that person will say it about themselves) but that’s supposed to be hidden by the elevation of the spouse.

So my question is, how can both of them be the better half? I really don’t think that can be the case. I had a talk quite sometime back about this. We talked about different couples that we know, and sad as it was we realized that we could usually think of one person in the relationship who was a better catch. We weren’t trying to be mean (at least I don’t remember that being the intention, I think it was just a commentary on things that we saw). Still, it’s an interesting thought huh?

Think of a couple, and I’d hazard a guess that you could think that one of them is a bit of a better catch than the other. Now why this might be will obviously change from case to case.

Why did I write this? I don’t know, I just thought about it all of a sudden. And I thought it was an interesting thought. Don’t read into it too much or your head will hurt. And nobody likes headaches. Nobody. But do appreciate your other half for what who they are!