What makes you 'you?'

[Big_Fuzzy]

By the fact we shave using 'out dated' method I think I can comfortably make the assertion that as a hole, we are a unique bunch of people. However, Im sure our originality is not limited to our choice of shaving habit, but reflected in the rest of our lives.

For me I never liked being part of the crowd. A big part of my identity was the bass trombone, cause there is only one bass trombone in a big band or an orchestra and I like being the only one with a kick *** big instrument to honk away at. Another part is my competetive olympic weightlifting, a sport which I train for heavily and centre much of my life.

Between my shaving, odd love of leather products and smoking pipes, bass trombon-ing and weightlifting as well as a love of philosophy I like knowing I dont fit molds. I certainly never come across 17 year olds with similar habits to mine. People know me for these things and its something I relish.

So B&B, what makes you the known and slightly eccentric person you are?

 

[fidjit]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQqq3e03EBQ[/YOUTUBE]

 

[rm71]

I prefer the non commerial/public broadcast TV channels and documentaries to "reality shows" and commercial TV.

Enjoy listening to good talk back radio and current affairs programs.

I don't get caught up in the "latest" electronics just because everyone else does.

There are others, but can't think of them right now.

 

[taprater]

I have many odd little hobbies that most don't fit into the general mold of the people that also do them. I'm a gamer geek and watch anime but don't have a "geek" look, I fish on occassion, I play disc golf which many see as a "stoner sport" but have never done drugs in my life, listen to prodominantly heavy metal but don't wear all black or have piercings, I've just kind of pulled what I like from things and leave the rest for the others.

 

[thirdeye]

Memory begins to qualify the imagination, to give it another formation, one that is peculiar to the self. I remember isolated , yet fragmented and confused , images - and images , shifting , enlarging , is the word , rather than moments or events - which are mine alone and which are especially vivid to me . They involve me wholly and immediately, even though they are the disintegrated impressions of a young child. They call for a certain attitude of belief on my part now ; that is , they must mean something , but their best reality does not consist in meaning .They are not stories in that sense , but they are story-like , mythic , never evolved but evolving ever . There are such things in the world; it is their nature to be believed; it is not necessarily in them to be understood. Of all that must have happened to and about me in those my earliest days, why should these odd particulars alone be fixed in my mind? If I were to remember other things, I should be someone else.

 

[bluefoxicy]

So B&B, what makes you the known and slightly eccentric person you are?

Laundry list...

• I make a decent salary, but throw a lot at reducing my debt or into my retirement fund. I strategically plan my luxuries (good clothes, good shaving gear, good car, good food); but they're overall cheap, and I'm essentially rich. I have no money on hand ever, though, so I'm poor.
• I'm "poor" and I still tip over 30%; I envy one girl that throws around $500 tips in cash (sister of a high school classmate).
• I continue to go to college, no matter what, to study random crap for 2 year AA degrees. I might take a math degree AND a music degree, and use that to pursue a BA in math and an AAS in engineering and/or electronics.
• One of my jobs involved hacking into computers. You can imagine my current work situation is, although more boring, another computer position.
• I have mild synesthesia. I hear shapes, colors, images... some music is epic because I can see things that can't physically exist, colors that don't make sense.
• I prefer to stay single, have no desire for relationships, and have never taken a girl on a date.
• ... so of course, I fall in love hard and fast, and get blindsided by emotions I don't know how to deal with.
• I can sing so good that off the cuff I've managed to get the music department to bend over backwards for me. I don't consider my voice on par, but perhaps with more training?
• I die without meat. My ability to heal fails, my skin starts developing wounds on its own, and my immune system halfway fails after a week.

The list goes on and on.

 

[shavervinnie]

Memory begins to qualify the imagination, to give it another formation, one that is peculiar to the self. I remember isolated , yet fragmented and confused , images - and images , shifting , enlarging , is the word , rather than moments or events - which are mine alone and which are especially vivid to me . They involve me wholly and immediately, even though they are the disintegrated impressions of a young child. They call for a certain attitude of belief on my part now ; that is , they must mean something , but their best reality does not consist in meaning .They are not stories in that sense , but they are story-like , mythic , never evolved but evolving ever . There are such things in the world; it is their nature to be believed; it is not necessarily in them to be understood. Of all that must have happened to and about me in those my earliest days, why should these odd particulars alone be fixed in my mind? If I were to remember other things, I should be someone else.

I think I understand the above in this context. We are more the sum of our experiences and our memory of them than probably anything else. The way we think makes us more unique than anything we do. I read, and that makes me unique to most of the people I know. But, with Barnes & Nobles all over the place and Amazon.com so popular, am I that unique? Probably not. But probably no one has had my same experiences exactly as I've had them. They are what makes me "me". In the material world, as Solomon said, "There's nothing new under the sun".

I really don't try to be unique as some try to be. I just think I am naturally. This is probably not what the OP was looking for but as my favorite saying goes, "It is what it is".

 

[WhosYerBob]

I really don't try to be unique as some try to be. I just think I am naturally. This is probably not what the OP was looking for but as my favorite saying goes, "It is what it is".

+1 That's essentially the same thing I was going to offer up.

There was a time when I tried hard to be unique and special, but finally realized after a decade of marriage to my wife that I don't need to try - I just am.

 

[thirdeye]

I think I understand the above in this context. We are more the sum of our experiences and our memory of them than probably anything else.

Not bad, not bad at all.....

 

[Sue]

I am not unique. I am not much different than most everyone else. I want the same things most do; for my loved ones, friends and myself. I am a combined product of my parents and life experiences. My dad was most influential both in how I live my life and how I treat others & what I expect from others.

I've learned life lessons from raising my kids. Even when you don't think they are; they are watching your every move. What you do, is what you are teaching them; more than any words spoken could convey.

The majority of my life growth has been from deaths. One of my biggest life lessons was a tough one. Once I learned that one, I think I crossed a line. That lesson was forgiveness of others.

When I was 27, my mom was hit and killed by a car. Hit at such a high rate of speed she was flipped onto the windsheld and then thrown 70 feet from the point of impact.

Toward the driver of that car, I was filled with rage. Rage at killing my mom, rage at killing my kids grandma, rage at killing my dad's wife, my brothers mom...it was endless and it was blinding. I held onto that rage and anger tightly. Rage and anger was probably easier than pain.

About two years later my dad was standing between the double glass entry doors of a shopping center entrance. A car came out of nowhere, driven by a drunken man and slammed thru the doors; glass cutting my dad and shattering his ankle.

Later because of the shopping center involvement, he ended up in a attorneys office. During the interrogatory, the accident that killed mom came up...when was that law suit? My dad replied there wasn't one. The attorney was incredulous.

Dad thought the attorney was a total jerk for even thinking he would sue someone when they already had to live with what happened. Nor would he put a price tag on his wife, besides that he had forgiven the driver.

That opened a dialog between dad and I that hadn't been touched since the accident and was a turning point for me. Dad, again had it 'right'.


The day my husband died, he had gone to the store, came home, parked in the garage and set off the car alarm. In the house and hearing the steady honking of the car's horn, I didn't know what to think.

A few moments later, I found him slumped back over the console with his feet on the garage floor. I knew he was in very serious trouble. After calling 911, I held him up as best I could, telling him to hold on, I love you, the ambulance is on it's way.

As the sirens grew nearer and after I had told him the same thing repeatedly; he opened his eyes, looking directly in mine, he mouthed the words, I love you, to me. After that, the ambulance arrived and he was never concious again.

About two hours later, the docs advised the kids and I to decide the time we would turn off the vent. Little did I know that morning over coffee with Dave, that it would be the last time-forever.


We have to be kind to others and ourselves. Everyone has their own problems, their own baggage. What is really important at the end of the day? What really is a priority? Do those we love know they are loved by us, have we told them? Have we showed them? We cross paths with many others in this life journey, we shouldn't take anyone for granted.

We're all in 'this' together. Are we doing the 'right thing', sometimes it's very difficult to do. We're all different, but we're all the same.

Who is unique? I don't know, we all bleed red and all our tears are salty. Maybe no one is that unique after all. Of course, YMMV
Sue

 

[TimmyBoston]

I'm awesome.

 

[Boba Fett]

I am a world renowned food champion. By world I mean the world that is my home town, and by renowned I mean that I have my picture on the Wall of Flame of a Beef O'Brady's because I killed 20 nuclear wings in about 11 minutes.

I am the kind of person who wants to get in to med school and be a doctor, but I am extremely lazy and often don't study, like I should be now for my MCAT in May.

I know the lyrics to every U2 song. Seriously. If the MCAT was a test of your knowledge of U2, I would get a perfect score.

I have amassed a record collection nearly 5000 strong in my short time on Earth. Though to be fair, I required copies of others collections to do so. I have and probably never will listen to every single album I have.

I did a 360 in my old 1989 Olds Delta 88 once. It was kind of terrifying.

I believe there is no way to actually be prepared for the Zombie apocalypse, no matter how many plans or bunkers you may have. The same goes for the Shavepocalypse.

I won a fight in the 4th grade by sitting on a kid.

I also killed a man.

 

[shavervinnie]

I'm awesome.

So am I ! At least that's what SWMBO tells me

 

[Mr. Clean]

Sue, that was a touching and thought provoking post.

 

[Mohillian]

Great to read about each of you. The internet is such a weird but cool place...

Newbie but here it is:
1. I am a Christian (happen to feel comfortable in the Lutheran church)
2. I played water polo
3. I love people and life...everything about it
4. I am into "different" music (indie, alternative, etc), love art, enjoy food (and my wife is a great cook!), and love to travel when I have money...my big passions are music and movies though
5. I am a water polo coach
6. I am a teacher
7. I am a father of two boys (4 yrs old and 21 months)
8. I am athletic (excelled in swimming and water polo and was good at pretty much every other sport I tried, ie basketball; baseball is my favorite but my worst).
9. I married an athletic artist (college soccer and pro after, illustrates children's books and teaches art) and she is amazing!
10. I am a bit weird but also very normal

*I love to make lists. And yes, High Fidelity is in my top 20 of all time!

Sue, you had me choked up while reading...you can add that to my list too (I am emotional I guess)