We just watched a documentary about the space shuttle that exploded in 1986,
and I mentioned how you only ever see astronauts saying they want to explore space
for romantic reasons, not scientific. My dad said it was probably because research
scientists are the scientific ones, and you have to have romantic notions to put your
life on the line like that.
Then he went on to say that he hated it when people were lazy, and didn't do anything
that they wanted to do with their life, when all they needed was a small nudge.
So I figure this is secret dad code for telling me to get off my arse and do something.
I asked him what the defining difference was between a lazy person, and someone who
worked hard - he just spouted some crap about "just doing it", and then accused me of
sounding like a sociologist.
I took this as an insult, not because I didn't want to be called a sociologist, but
because he said it with such contempt that if I said "well actually I want to be a
sociologist", he would probably have spontaneously combusted.
No wait, that's bullshit, he was getting annoyed because he thought I was sidestepping
the issue, and he probably *was* telling me to get a job, and it seemed like I was
telling him I wasn't interested, and wanted to lie around all day hypothesising about
stuff like sociology.
I guess that's every hard-working father's nightmare situation for their son.