user since
Tue Feb 18 2003 at 03:54:34 (21.1 years ago )
last seen
Sun Aug 17 2003 at 04:59:31 (20.6 years ago )
number of write-ups
5 - View SZ's writeups (feed)
level / experience
0 (Initiate) / 33
mission drive within everything
Give the descendants of humanity an idea of what stuff in my life was like
specialties
Gundam models, Stikfas, anime, programming, reading BOFH
school/company
Do you really care?
motto
Carpe Noctem (Seize the night)
most recent writeup
black helicopters
Send private message to SZ

Hi! My name isn't SZ (although if your first name is SZ, I'd like to hear from you!), but it's what I use online.
There's a kind of person who, if you walk past, seems normal, until they open their mouths. That's me. I look like just about any other American teenager in Phoenix, Arizona, but when I start talking, you know that I'm different. And not always in a good way, nor always in a radically different way. Sometimes I'm just loud. Sometimes what I say is smarter than anything my "colleagues" (as if adults let teenagers do anything productive) could come up with - sometimes you might wonder why I'm not in special ed. And sometimes, not very often, I'll make a Freudian slip, and maybe you'll think that I'm a little more sensitive than the rest of the kids with spiky hair.

After posting to the node Gundam, I received a series of messages from a noder named Microlith, and well, let's just say I'm not going to be writing a node about anime anytime soon. New personal rules: One, watching anime != being Japanese, and two, there's very little I can do that doesn't make me look like a jackass.

Less solemnly: I believe that anyone who uses the word "maven" deserves to have a baseball catapulted at their ass at high velocity. No offense if one of your nodes contains this ridiculous word, but if this word were a person I would beat it senseless. I would string it up like a pinata and beat it till candy came out. Then I would hook up headphones and speakers to a stereo, put the headphones on "maven", and blast really angry music as high as it goes, and continue my senseless pummeling of the stupidest word ever.

For no reason - philisophical ideas:
- You can't lose a game if you don't play it. This is as true for meeting women as it is for basketball. Some people might criticize you for being afraid, but they're the ones who wind up crying on Saturday night because their girlfriend dumped them. You, on the other hand, spend the evening doing something you like, for instance writing C++ code or leveling your Diablo II character. Sure, you will eventually end up single, but married men/women don't have as much time to do things they like.
- For high-schoolers: Popularity is overrated. The reason all the "popular kids" are assholes is because you literally have to be an asshole to become a "popular kid." It's a zero-sum game - you only gain points if someone else loses them. A better goal than gaining points is to not lose them. Don't take shit from anyone. Don't give anyone shit either, though - that makes you an asshole. Popularity might get you girls in high school, but in real life, you will quickly find out what happens to people coasting on their social status - it's called "unskilled labor."
- Let other people do the work for you. You could probably replace "do the work" with "take the fall" or "clear the way". The key here is that you're not making them do this. The idea is that if they're going to do it anyway, you might as well use it to your advantage.
- As corny as it sounds, be your own person. And don't let nonconformists trick you into thinking you're being another one of the hive either. That may be true, but if that's who you are, then so be it. There are people in this world who listen to much-maligned bands because they like the way they sound, you know.
- Don't ever confuse your perception of reality with reality. No, I'm not saying that we live in a Matrix that isn't the real world. I'm saying that you shouldn't think that something is true just because you think it. For instance, let's say that you think your "sinister laugh" is scary. No matter how scary you think it is, if it sounds completely gay to everyone that hears it, it's not scary. (Granted, "scary" is really based on the reaction of others, but the idea holds true. The problem is, with most false perceptions, there's not something that can make people see the truth.
- I believe in seizing the day (or night) and enjoying yourself now. Occasionally, I am asked if, with that philosophy, I'll leave any kind of legacy - will anyone remember me? In response, I ask them, Why should I care? I'll be dead.