where would you place yourself on the spectrum from totally square to complete fucking weirdo?

5 spot

4

ken

hesitated between 6 and 7, settled on 7. on the one hand, I do not have a particularly crazy personality; on the other hand, I am a big dork who's into lots of shit that 'squares' would consider 'weird'.

yeah i would say this is more about identifying with subcultures and your interests and activities than about your personality or disposition

xp But squares consider themselves "normal", so you can't take their opinion as a baseline.

everybody likes weird shit now

really?

7

yeah, the biggest squares have tattoos and disney teen singers "rock out" on a guitar (that isn't plugged in)

The problem is, compared to people I *know*, I'm probably about a 3 or something. Compared to the people I work with every day, they all think I'm somewhere around an 8 or 9 or something. So whose judgement do I use?

feels like I still like "weirder-than-average" shit [via blogs]

xp you have to place yourself on the spectrum, dude

maybe I just like/know "more" shit and so can find ways to "connect with" people all across the square/weird spectrum and convince them that my taste is better and weirder

I have always felt like a weirdo! I voted 8 because of this, although I really don't lead a very weird life.

"bro you like dave matthews? yeah he's okay I guess, but he's igor wahkevitch"

*no igor wahkevitch

yeah, the biggest squares have tattoos and disney teen singers "rock out" on a guitar (that isn't plugged in)

What yr saying is that this present moment is like the inverse of 'Hip To Be Square'

my jokes and life are ruined

went with 5 -- i think i'm more anti-social than weird

an on-going 'argument' i have with a co-worker is about how i think i am a totally normal dude, and he thinks i'm a weirdo.

(voted 6, almost voted 4)

do you think he is a normal dude or a weirdo?

I put myself at 4 because I don't think I'm anything unusual at all, I mean everyone has unique qualities but that doesn't make me MORE different than my peers.

I am v v interested, though, in people who believe themselves to be really far from the norm, like they're total weirdos and how can everyone else not notice, but who I find to be nice, maybe "different" but not at all objectionable, and well within the spectrum of human variety. I always wonder, do they just see their outer life in a very different way than I see them, or is what's inside REALLY that much freakier and they just don't show it on the outside?

This was one of my favorite books as a kid

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SQPSWK0KL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

"finally someone understands"

I think I'm not over being forced into weirdoness by my childhood peers. It's ok, it's fun being a weirdo.

my co-worker is in some ways totally normal (girlfriend, property owner, dog-lover) but also tattooed long haired metal head who doesn't drink or do drugs? i guess that's all 'normal.'

I picked 6 as kinda a compromise number. The things I'm interested in and the kinds of conversations/questions that interest me aren't super par for the people I know in life. But I don't think I express them like a total weirdo - I'm pretty composed and natural socially (I think, tho I could be totally delusional about this), just with different interests than people in my peer group. Of course probably everyone feels slightly like that.

voted 1, probably an exaggeration but I feel pretty square these days, what with my marriage, child, master's degree, attempts at career, etc. my musical and literary tastes are probably outside the norm but that's changing too and I don't think I define myself by these tastes as much as I used to. I'm ok with being square, I had my times to be weird and out-there and now I'm ready to be responsible and just enjoy what I enjoy

i am a 6, i'd say. weird enough but still socially acceptable.

actually I was never really that weird but I tried

I have spent my entire life trying to be a 5

I've always felt like my outside doesn't accurately reflect my inside, but then it's not like they're not BOTH me...they are. At some point the appearance IS the reality, or at least the de facto reality -- what people see is real to them.

5

also my hotornot score yo

Probably a 5. I mean, I'm totally fucking boring and normal and yet I still never feel like I fit in anywhere at all.

7 insofar as my interests as a white, hetero American male don't match up very well with the majority of my demographic

I think it's useful to separate our interests from how we live our lives here. My musical interests are in drones, free improv, insect music and sheets of noise, which would be a 9 I guess, but I have a beer belly, a garden, I'm a Braves fan and I'm usually in bed by 11:30. I'm probably closer to a 1 than the 4 I voted for.

Appearance/"lifestyle"--square. Neuroses/personality--I think I'm midway, maybe even slightly leaning towards weird, until I meet someone truly nuts, at which point I always think "I actually am sane after all." So overall, a 3 or 4.

I voted 8, which I don't know if would surprise Laurel or not - I have always tried to be a 5 but of late I have realised that hardly anyone stays fooled for long*.

*: weirdly the exception to this is church! but it was not a very square church, and there are class aspects here I think - I feel like I can pass well enough for 'standard posh person' except to people who are familiar with more than one.

No, I think an 8 sounds about right. ;)

yeah I dunno exactly what scale to judge this on... I mean my interests are pretty wide-ranging, and I'm a home-owner with an office job, but I don't dress in the most conventional manner (most men like me seem to exclusively wear Dockers and polo shirts and the like), I have no interest in professional sports, my politics are way to the left, I am not interested in high tech gadgetry, I spend the majority of my free time obsessing over music, comics, books, and films, I like the weed. I don't feel crazy but I'm sure my lifestyle appears odd to a fair number of people.

my musical and literary tastes are probably outside the norm but that's changing too and I don't think I define myself by these tastes as much as I used to. I'm ok with being square, I had my times to be weird and out-there and now I'm ready to be responsible and just enjoy what I enjoy

― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 22 October 2010 17:41 (32 minutes ago) Bookmark

didn't u enjoy that other stuff at the time tho?

yah? so what?

oh i see what you mean ... I think I genuinely enjoyed some of it, some of it I convinced myself I liked it because I wanted to like it, and there's some stuff I like now that I convinced myself I didn't like for a while (like watching sports)

maybe i'm doing the same thing now, who knows

some of my friends think im a weirdo simply because of my musical tastes and tattoo choices. To them i say..blow me.

great friendships

5 or 6 maybe? but yeah, this seems like a relative judgment (work/school colleagues might put that number higher, but i feel hopelessly square in other contexts)

I don't know, this is not something I think I have a good handle on.

I have spent my entire life trying to be a 5

― O'Donnell and the Brain (HI DERE), Friday, 22 October 2010 17:46 (52 minutes ago)

i remember you wrote something similar about trying to outdo everyone at everything? [ ] and weird stuff both....which def resonated with me as a 'strategy for living'

Yeah, I basically got judged so much for being "The Black Kid" growing up that I decided to follow the double-barrel strategy of excelling and outshining everyone else at everything I attempted and fucking around with my image in weird and strange ways, plus being way more adventurous in the books/music I was consuming, while still firmly hanging onto all of the mainstream stuff. Pretty much everything I did can be traced back to a combination of being bored with my surroundings and a concerted effort to be the #1 datapoint that proved the saying "don't judge a book by its cover".

With regards to tastes and interests, I'm definitely a 9 or 10 in the context of who I work with. Grade 6 teachers who spend their lives outside of the classroom going to Kenneth Anger films, or arguing arcane points about this year's NL MVP vote on baseball message boards, or buying old doo-wop albums at record shows, aren't that common. They have families and cottages and go see [/i]Jersey Boys[i]. They're wonderful people, and I get along with almost all of them. But at work, I'm weirdo--I doubt if one person on staff has ever heard of the Velvet Underground. Around here, I'm indistinguishable from everybody else.

Probably a 5. I mean, I'm totally fucking boring and normal and yet I still never feel like I fit in anywhere at all.

― Harrison Buttwhistle (NickB), Friday, October 22, 2010 5:01 PM (43 minutes ago)

maybe this, but I really find this impossible to answer. My lifestyle's totally mundane but the second I start talking about it to someone I feel like I must sound crazy - like I'll be talking about pizza express, or football, or Fleetwood Mac, and suddenly feel really conscious that where I'm coming from is so totally not what they're getting out of it at all. You know David Byrne singing about architecture or the government? A bit like that, but he seems weird to me and I don't.

3 - because I'm pretty risk averse these days and in a steady job with own apartment etc. I'm firmly in the rat race.

I used to wonder if people think it's weird I'm a 40 something single person, but there's a whole demographic of us these days: middle aged people who can't face dating.

π

I decided ages ago to always pursue my interests no matter how far apart they may seem. That makes the spectrum of my interests hard to grasp for outsiders, I guess, which easily leads to the moniker of weirdo. My question is: is a broad taste indeed something rare, as in: does the majority of people by default have orderly, neatly tied-in interests. Or are they actively avoiding anything their peers might frown upon? If the latter, then I might consider them the weirdos because they belie themselves.

8

In comparison to my family? An 8 or 9. In comparison to my coworkers? Probably a straight-up 5.

i'm a 7 w/r/t tastes -- i'm into a lot of out there/obscure/difficult stuff, but at the same time i'm held back from being a 10 because i watch all the middlebrow tv shows, enjoy top 40 music, shop at target, etc. sometimes i think i try to like more "square" stuff as a concerted effort to have something in common with the watercooler crowd.

w/r/t personality? i'm introverted and have problems with depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem, but i don't believe that's very unusual. i would say 4.

used to be a 7, now I'm something like a 4. Getting a house and kids will do that to you. Most of my friends have probably gone all the way to 2 though, so I guess I'm not too bad.

The missus reckons we're both 2s, so I dunno. I'd've scored her lower, personally.

can we get weirdness quotients for

- oneohtrix point never
- 30 rock
- maurice blanchot
- erykah badu
- a serious man

or other suitable triangulation points....

I dunno. I like serious "difficult" art but I also like to listen to Freestyle jams on the bus. I'm too self-aware to be too much of a weirdo.

who gives a shit

i said 4

don't really know how to judge, but, fuck it, 4

I think if you are overly concerned about accurately describing how weird you are, you should bump your score up at least 1 point.

well i started at 3 so

haha that was more to nakhchivan

6. i think.

i don't know if my weird impulses have ever successfully triumphed over my square ones. all the weird stuff i'm into manifests itself in really tame ways, like occasionally buying a noise record or doing drugs a couple times a year. some of the art i've made has been pretty out there but when i made it i was just sitting down at a desk making drawings

it'll be interesting to see the results because I feel like there's a large population of people who are weird that convince themselves that they're normal because it's too painful to be outside of the norm, and probably an equally large population of relatively normal people who convince themselves that they're weird because you feel like an extra in a Kafka story.

no,7

it will be more interesting to see the result OUTSIDE of the weird/qsquare limited world of ilx.

I don't think it's potentially painful to be outside the norm (for me, personally), I'm just not sure that the "norm" is anywhere as normal as the straights think it is, and I don't think they should get to be the arbiters. Sometimes I meet people who think the "middle" of the spectrum is WAAAAAAAY down towards one end, in my estimation -- often the same people who easily describe others as weird, freaks, etc.

i mean, most people in the world don't know who mark e. smith and werner herzog is
xpost

there's also, as n/a brought up sort of, a question of disingenuous weirdness. how many genuinely weird people do i know? maybe like ten? some of them are among my best friends, though, so maybe i am weird by osmosis. whereas i know a lot of people who load up on weird affectations but are like the most boring and square people ever

I think if you are overly concerned about accurately describing how weird you are, you should bump your score up at least 1 point.

― O'Donnell and the Brain (HI DERE), Friday, 22 October 2010 19:57 (1 minute ago)

haha that wasn't sposed to be about me, just some random cultural products that might help itt

obv in terms of irl weirdness, they would be fairly limited as signifiers.....i doubt yr local crazy homeless ppl have a wide variety of leftfield culture affiliations

Also obv there's a certain amt of narcissism for SOME people in placing themselves way out on one side. For others, of course, it IS a painful judgment and one they would give a lot to be able to reverse.

And yeah, ILX is a weird world. Hard to tell where people fall outside of certain worlds that don't overlap much, isn't it?

I don't think it's potentially painful to be outside the norm (for me, personally), I'm just not sure that the "norm" is anywhere as normal as the straights think it is, and I don't think they should get to be the arbiters. Sometimes I meet people who think the "middle" of the spectrum is WAAAAAAAY down towards one end, in my estimation -- often the same people who easily describe others as weird, freaks, etc.

I think it's really more that a lot of people don't recognize what's weird about themselves, and they probably never will unless they meet a whole of bunch of contrasting people.

xp to self There just aren't any/enough agreed goalposts in common.

this thread needs to define weird

also, in many cases, weird and square goes up hand in hand at the same level (not the opposite as this poll)

i'm treating it as identification with/participation in the mainstream vs. identifying with/participating in one or more subcultures.

if you're not sure what the mainstream is you might be a weirdo.

i think participation is key here--you can be interested in weird stuff or like weird stuff without actively participating and that makes you more square

There was a shitty but kinda 'makes u think' tv program about 'the most average person in england' or something like that, where they eventually found said transcendentally ordinary person

However itt I think you have to assume '1' is 'ordinary mor suburban type' (like, at least 50% of any given population?) rather than some sort of rare ideal of averageness

you got it

i mean i don't really want this to be about minority groups or classism or anything so i've been staying away from mor suburban type because that carries baggage but yeah

if weird= being outside of the mainstream in yr interests and activities - i'm partly weird

but if weird can be the manager of a bank branch with wife and 3 kids that secretly likes and does bdsm - i'm in the mainstream or maybe sqaure

i don't think this should be about secret things that no one must know about fwiw

What does "mor" mean??

middle of the road

u2

relatively normal people who convince themselves that they're weird because you feel like an extra in a Kafka story

Yeah! What does this score?

no idea, but I imagine a lot of people fall into that area.

i think im prob pretty weird tbh? i dont feel weird and i dont think its like some badge of cool but yknow i lead a fairly odd life because of occupation and all and whatever.

7---I have a doctorate in mathematics, enough said.

Freak.

don't u mean 70 (xp)

There is no spectrum. Freak/square is a binary thing. There have only ever been a few true freaks that posted on ilx IMO. I'm not going to name any names though.

can mods see what ppl vote for on polls?

7---I have a doctorate in mathematics, enough said.

can mods see what ppl vote for on polls?

no (sadly, because I'm nosy like that)

Freak/square is a binary thing.

So, like, everybody's a square until they go off their meds? (kidding, kidding) Would like a little more explanation of this theory -- my first impression is that it's a load of malarkey.

So, like, everybody's a square until they go off their meds? (kidding, kidding)

Yeah, basically. The severely mentally ill, people who have never worked a day in their lives, people who genuinely have no concern for how others perceive them, etc. Most ilxors, and in general people of a certain generation, fancy ourselves as being somehow weird in one way or another, but they're generally pretty meaningless, superficial types of weirdness.

i have definitely made a conscious choice trying to make it harder for other people to put me anywhere on this spectrum, similar to what HI DERE is describing. i think of myself as a 5 probably, even if i occasionally wish i was a 10. have never wished to be a 1.

Has everybody had an "eccentric neighbor" all their lives, or is it just me? Not nec in a bad way, either -- not like jj's crazy one -- but people who are genuinely outside any kind of normal and happy there. Maybe living in the middle of the country where it's easier to be isolated without appearing unusually isolationist, this is more common.

I mean you can be alone and feel alone and not have non-household members around or visible or audible or bothering you in any way, and it won't distinguish you from most other people becos that's how most people live.

i feel completely unable to answer this like what group of ppl am i comparing myself to?

Of course if you have a polebarn twice the size of your house in the backyard and it's full of painstakingly organized cigar boxes, glass jars, paper bags, and antique tools that no one will ever use again, you are probably going to stand out regardless.

i feel completely unable to answer this like what group of ppl am i comparing myself to?

Exactly. To be truly weird you would have to stand out as a weirdo to members of every cultural and subcultural group in the world.

i feel completely unable to answer this like what group of ppl am i comparing myself to?
― there must be 51 ways to sb ilxor (Lamp)

rolling stupid fruity crazy swag thread

Exactly. To be truly weird you would have to stand out as a weirdo to members of every cultural and subcultural group in the world.

― wk, Friday, October 22, 2010 4:34 PM (51 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yes this is definitely what was meant.

for chrissakes just compare yourself to ppl you interact with or ppl in your current environment or ppl in the country you live in or whatever.

if you have no grasp at all you probably should just not answer

its kinda hilarious the ppl being like 'oh i have a doctorate - im an 8'! like being really smart/educated is the equivalent of spending your days in an attic apartment cutting out pictures of little kids from old collier's magazines and pasting them to bristol board. like if '0' is the norm then u have to p fuckken odd to rank yrself that high? or is there just some weird distribution here idk

i think the point is not taking it that seriously?

was just going for a cheap lol at my own expense, but anyway I spend my days in my office thinking about numbers---I mean it's not the same as someone who collects poo or has a donkey-dressed-as-clown fetish, but it's also not exactly normal behavior.

i forgot that this always happens with subjective polls

ilx poll results are legally binding and will be attached to your permanent record so

If subjects on Hoarders are a 5, I give my self a solid 2. Not quite a 1, but nowhere near a 4.

i forgot that this always happens with subjective polls every thread on ilx ever

for the record, "weird" here is intended to refer to interests and subcultural groupings, not neuroses or psychoses.

this is why gg allin was an example of a 10--someone who lived out a certain subculture/lifestyle to the fullest, as far as the average observer would be concerned.

Yeah I mean you wouldn't want ppl to get the impression GG Allin was in any way psychotic

was just going for a cheap lol at my own expense, but anyway I spend my days in my office thinking about numbers

lol i feel like this describes a good chunk of the ppl i know? i mean this is obv a p stupid qn but i just think its interesting/funny/curious how much weight ppl give to really marginal things like what music they like or what shoes they wear - i mean being significantly outside the social mainstream is a p huge thing & i think a legit 8+ wld be isolated by more than just lyfestile signifiers

oh xp - well then i mean not really sure what makes an 'interest' or 'subculture' weird/square so w/e

was just going for a cheap lol at my own expense, but anyway I spend my days in my office thinking about numbers---I mean it's not the same as someone who collects poo or has a donkey-dressed-as-clown fetish, but it's also not exactly normal behavior.

― Euler, Friday, 22 October 2010 21:42 (6 minutes ago)

lol

Yeah I mean you wouldn't want ppl to get the impression GG Allin was in any way psychotic

― caol ila destroyer (nakhchivan), Friday, October 22, 2010 4:48 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hah fair enough

but yeah thread is about lifestyle signifiers--poll is not called "how crazy are you," 1-10 scale not meant to convey the total and complete range of human experience, etc. etc.

possible Lamp that a good chunk of the people you know are pretty weird! like tomorrow I'm gonna spend the day talking shop w/ people from around the world, & it's all going to seem pretty normal to me, but if you put, er, my mom in that crowd, she'd wonder what the fuck is going on, like have all these shaggy, badly dressed people lost their minds?

i am not about ~labels~

for chrissakes just compare yourself to ppl you interact with or ppl in your current environment or ppl in the country you live in or whatever.
if you have no grasp at all you probably should just not answer

or

i think the point is not taking it that seriously?

pick a side man

you are a 3

Yeah, I can't do this, there are too many variables.

I voted 6 because I love Star Wars, Back to the Future, Short Circuit and the Seth MacFarlane cartoons. Extra weirdo points for American Dad being my favorite of the 3. Should my "weird geek" bar be raised higher because I like old school Sonic the Hedgehog games? Sonic usually equals insta-freak for anyone.

I'd have to know what cad means by "yourself" before I can vote

If you think he meant "your penis" you are either a 10 or D4n P3rry

what meaning of meaning are we using here

ha

I would say 7. Ppl who have met me, am I a 7?

I look square BUT TRUST ME I'M WEIRD

I have the opposite problem.

2? I am a frumpy office worker but I come with a slight aura of not quite normal. Not the hip, edgy weird that the top of the spectrum seems to be for, more "confused old woman in an illfitting cardigan" weird. Like, you might see me shambling round the streets and think "man that is one ungainly lady, I guess her house smells of cat piss", but you would not think I had any interests of hipster overlap or whatever.

This used to bum me out when I went out and would be at e.g. weird gigs fairly regularly and felt (possibly mistakenly) like the more outlandishly subculturally dressed people automatically got a more positive response when trying to strike up conversation within that subculture, but now I am a homebody and do not much care.

(PS many of the nicest, most dedicated, and possibly weirdest people I struck up some of that faltering, awkward conversation with at such events would probably also have passed for squares to a casual observer, if that means anything)

i like that a lot

I fear I am a 1 or possibly a 0, but voted 2 because my squareness and square hobbies/activities are a bizarre mix of the anachronistic and high tech that (possibly) qualify as sort of weird.

shouldn't gg allin be like a 3 or a 7 for being social liberal/fiscal conservative?

what meaning of meaning are we using here

― markers, Friday, October 22, 2010 5:29 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

thank you

Ha, my gf tells me I'm a 7.8. I really wanted to be more normal than that!

(Rounded up to 8, then.)

what does she think she is?

me: Ha, I said that you thought I was a 7.8. Someone asked what you think you are.
her: well I didn't get either of the references for what a 10 was
me: <describes GG Allin and Abruptum>
her: so what's a five?
cause I mean those are just people who want attention and are trying too hard
her: like you're weird when you act completely normal and people still find you weird
me: 5="you have somehow achieved complete balance between your weird and square impulses"
her: I think they are weird posers, TBH
me: haha
Yeah, I don't think he's being really serious about this.
her: like I don't think that being weird = being an attention hungry douchebag with no impulse control:P
Post that.
I am having weird pride right now

you should dump your weird gf

j/k you need to up your weird game to keep her

i dunno -- aren't you canadian?

Ha, does that make me intrinsically square?

not necessarily, but maybe weird in a different way

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

9 0
10 - you are, like, gg allin or the dwarf from abruptum or something 0

disappointing

"If you can't get your head around this simple fucking question, please click '7'"

i voted 4 or 6 but should have voted like 7 or 8 or something. i was listening to lots of gordon lightfoot and studying last week and tricked myself into thinking i was a big square

placing yourself on a square to weirdo scale makes you at least a 6.