The short version – I have found that as you develop new skills and knowledge, your perception of the world around you changes and improves. And that’s what I’m striving for – an increased perception of the world around me – I want to see more and better, I don’t want to be blind.

The long version…

As a software engineer, when I use an application I can infer how it was built and how it works, what limits the designers and engineers had to work around, and the influence from other applications. I can appreciate the work that went into good applications, or the lack of work that went into bad. If I didn’t know how applications were created then I wouldn’t have such insight – I’d just know whether I liked it or not. But it’s not limited to just appreciation, but also the skill to be able to do it yourself…to know how you would start, how you would finish, and how to get from the start to the finish.

This same increased perception applies to everything – sports, dance, music, art, literature, engineering, etc. For me, I’ve always been interested in technical subjects, and I’ve tried my hand at many sports. I’ve read many books (but I’ve yet to write one), and I’ve tried playing an instrument. But my last attempts at art were a very long time ago, and I wanted to have that experience again as an adult. Figure drawing is just the start…other classes offered include portrait drawing, still life, and abstract drawing (capturing the essence of the subject).

That’s why I’m taking art classes – I want to learn to see how an artist sees. To be able to look at something and know how to capture the tones and shapes and life of the subject on paper, as well as understand the works of others.

This also means eventually I’ll have to tackle my lack of musical and dance abilities…but that’s for another time!

Your nerd’s insatiable quest for information and The High has tweaked his brain in an interesting way. For any given piece of incoming information, your nerd is making a lightning fast assessment: relevant or not relevant? Relevance means that the incoming information fits into the system of things your nerd currently cares about.

I find myself doing this a lot. The distinction between nerds and normals can be striking, and to me this is the most painful difference in communication. Normals will include so much irrelevant information in their conversation it becomes mind-numbing. I know that they think they’re including relevant information, and to them these are important details, but when reduced to actionable items and related facts it is just static.

I’ve found this challenge goes in both directions too – when asked “How was your day?” or “Did you have a good at work?” they expect a detailed, blow-by-blow replay of everything that happened that day. Maybe I’m missing some gene, or my brain is wired differently, or I just don’t care that much, but do I really need to replay my daily life to you as a soap opera?

How do you compromise? Is there a polite way to say “get to the point” in a conversation? Is there a minimum response to “How was your day?” that’s more than saying “just another day at the office”? Perhaps there’s a way of explaining I just want the facts, please, and it’s not you but it’s me that’s different.

1. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school that I finally got the months of the year in the correct order – “March, April, May”, NOT “April, March, May”.
2. I still don’t know which months have 30 or 31 days.
3. I was legally deaf until age 4.
4. As a result of not being able to hear, my speech development was delayed and I rode the short bus to a special-ed pre-school with all the other retarded kids.
5. I still stutter when I get excited.
6. I had 9 surgeries over 9 years to correct my hearing, culminating in a muscle graft to rebuild my right ear drum which involved almost fully detaching my right ear during the operation.
7. The scented knock-out gas used for surgery smells exactly like the artificial scent from my sister’s “Strawberry Shortcake” dolls. It also resulted in some of my weirdest dreams.
8. I never dated until college.
9. I picked Spanish as a foreign language in school because it’s easy to learn. After 6 years of study I still sucked at it.
10. I was “the short, fat kid” when I walked onto the UW Rowing team. Of the 120ppl who tried out I made the final cut of 26ppl and ultimately was the 6th strongest rower on the team.
11. I once tried playing Underwater Hockey.
12. I aced my high school calculus class and AP exam without a graphing calculator.
13. I’ve lived in winter temps of -60F (Fairbanks, AK) and summer temps of 120F (Phoenix, AZ).
14. I’ve climbed Mt. Rainier but have never hiked Mt. Si.
15. During a high school field trip I was one of the student drivers and raced the other student driver while on I-5, hitting speeds of 105MPH in my minivan before the teachers caught us. (I won, btw)
16. I won a school district art award for a watercolor painting in 2nd grade.
17. Most everything I know about computers I’ve learned by breaking them first and then frantically trying to fix them before anyone noticed.
18. I didn’t “discover” music until college. During high school I only owned two cassettes – The Beatles and Two Live Jews.
19. I played the violin in school, grades 6-8, I was not very good. If I was musically talented then I would play the fiddle, banjo, guitar, piano, and bagpipes.
20. My greatest fear is being blind.
21. I can’t detect the smell of (the additive in) natural gas nor marijuana smoke.
22. I’ve never done drugs. (marijuana, acid, mushrooms, ecstasy, etc)
23. BMI charts don’t fit me – they all say my max weight should be 180lbs. I was 180lbs when I was 14.
24. I can’t remember the last time I had a bath. (Yes, I still shower every day!)
25. I have above-average night vision.