Re: Changing the List rules

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On Wednesday 25 June 2003 06:58, Rob Kaper wrote:
> On Thursday June 26 2003 1:16 am, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> > i remember how my 5th grade teacher once put a small sign on my desk
> > (where everyone could see it) that read: "Make sure brain is in gear
> > before engaging mouth". it stayed on my desk for most of the year and
> > made a lasting impression on me. every time i'd go to say something that
> > year i'd see that little sign glaring back at me which would cause me to
> > stop and think for a moment. usually i'd say what i was going to say
> > anyways (which wasn't always best ;), but it did save me on occasion ;-)
>
> Interesting. Did everyone have a sign like that or were you known for
> saying the wildest things?

i was the only one with a sign. i usually just said what was on my mind which 
was, for a small rural Canadian elementary school, often seemingly "wild". i 
was rather easily excited and was pretty innocent when it came to the concept 
that other people actually took things a) seriously, b) at face value, c) 
didn't like their boat(s) rocked.

of course, being singled out in that way didn't help my general "i don't 
belong here" feeling or help me to find a sense of identity that didn't 
involve definition by negatives.

coincidently, not long after my mother bought me a little sign that said "Left 
Handed Genius". it was meant as a joke (i was somewhat precocious and my 
family enjoyed reminding me about it in the oddest and most uncomfortable 
ways.) i decided i could "out" both family and school if i took this new sign 
to school and put it next to the teacher-imposed sign.

nobody got it, of course, since my school and family life were pretty separate 
and so nobody knew the whole joke. the best was when students would come up 
and ask me what the new sign meant and i would read it to them slowly in two 
parts: "Left handed, because I write with my left hand, and Genius." i didn't 
know they were really asking what "genius" meant since to me it was something 
of a basic word. the concept that someone wouldn't know the meaing of the 
word genius didn't even occur to me. ah, innocence.

the teacher didn't really like the new sign, stating that there were very few 
geniuses in the world and that child geniuses were even more rare. therefore, 
due to the rareness of the condition, it was safe to assume i wasn't one. 
brilliantly inane logic, i thought.

anyways.. that's more than anyone ever wanted to know about me on this list, 
i'm sure. i'll go back to politics and technology ;-)

- -- 
Aaron J. Seigo
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE: The 'K' is for 'kick ass'
http://www.kde.org       http://promo.kde.org/3.1/feature_guide.php
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