A word meme about five words associated with my journal.
Programming
This is what I do every day. And am interested in. As do/are many of my friends. Hence, I talk about it. Although funnily enough, I don't talk about it as much as you might think. I think I'm often embarrassed to do so, because of the chance I'll seem ridiculously ignorant about something, when I'm supposedly earning my salary as a programmer, or ridiculously pretentious for caring about something other people don't bother with.
Magic: The Gathering
I think Magic is a great game for geeks. I got into it slowly because I knew it would be a time and money sink, but it fulfils many of the criteria that are really enjoyable: it's possible (if you don't make a deck too ridiculous) to play a quick game in half an hour or less; it passes the time in a social fashion; there's enough skill and randomness that the better player usually wins, but that it's rarely devoid of interest; it has microcosms of just about every aspect of game theory; many of the cards are just shiny; it's a rule system that geeks love exploring; there are many different formats, ranging from completely casual to fiendishly competitive.
Of course, there are problems with it: if you get into it seriously, you will spend money one way or another, because the cards are ultimately produced by a company; it often draws out people's obsessive geeky-competitive tendencies (I don't know if that's because it's antisocial, or because it's social enough it's the only place you met people who will tend to be obsessive); the rules are quite well written, but undeniably complicated to pick up at once.
The weird thing is, it's one of the very few things I like I'm embarrassed to admit to many of my friends (obviously excluding people who like it like I do). Most people I know are tolerant in the sense that they won't blame me for liking something, even if they do think it's puerile. But (I'm not sure if this is accurate) I still get a vibe that liking magic is somehow "sad". That although you can like many hobbies, pouring energy into magic is a disproportionate obsession the way liking TV or roleplaying isn't. And I think I subconsciously know what people mean, but I can't put words to why that should be so.
Fantasy
I'm going to assume this is about fiction and not about unfulfilled dreams :)
At some point when I was a teenager I started liking science fiction and fantasy. I can't remember a clear transition. Partly that's because scifi/fantasy is what a lot of children's books quite naturally are.
I remember finding Asimov's "Caves of Steel" sophisticated and intellectual when I was about 10.
I can't ever remember noticing a clear distinction between science fiction and fantasy until I made friends with the sort of people who argued about that sort of thing at university. I mean, I would have known there was a difference, but I would instinctively be drawn to either.
In principle, I would have thought what would draw me to the genres was the interest in hypothetical questions. I'm sure I did like much classic SF on that ground, and still enjoy (rare) engineering-heavy SF. But in fact, a lot of what drew me in was the sort of stories told, which are often more evident in fantasy than SF.
Programming
This is what I do every day. And am interested in. As do/are many of my friends. Hence, I talk about it. Although funnily enough, I don't talk about it as much as you might think. I think I'm often embarrassed to do so, because of the chance I'll seem ridiculously ignorant about something, when I'm supposedly earning my salary as a programmer, or ridiculously pretentious for caring about something other people don't bother with.
Magic: The Gathering
I think Magic is a great game for geeks. I got into it slowly because I knew it would be a time and money sink, but it fulfils many of the criteria that are really enjoyable: it's possible (if you don't make a deck too ridiculous) to play a quick game in half an hour or less; it passes the time in a social fashion; there's enough skill and randomness that the better player usually wins, but that it's rarely devoid of interest; it has microcosms of just about every aspect of game theory; many of the cards are just shiny; it's a rule system that geeks love exploring; there are many different formats, ranging from completely casual to fiendishly competitive.
Of course, there are problems with it: if you get into it seriously, you will spend money one way or another, because the cards are ultimately produced by a company; it often draws out people's obsessive geeky-competitive tendencies (I don't know if that's because it's antisocial, or because it's social enough it's the only place you met people who will tend to be obsessive); the rules are quite well written, but undeniably complicated to pick up at once.
The weird thing is, it's one of the very few things I like I'm embarrassed to admit to many of my friends (obviously excluding people who like it like I do). Most people I know are tolerant in the sense that they won't blame me for liking something, even if they do think it's puerile. But (I'm not sure if this is accurate) I still get a vibe that liking magic is somehow "sad". That although you can like many hobbies, pouring energy into magic is a disproportionate obsession the way liking TV or roleplaying isn't. And I think I subconsciously know what people mean, but I can't put words to why that should be so.
Fantasy
I'm going to assume this is about fiction and not about unfulfilled dreams :)
At some point when I was a teenager I started liking science fiction and fantasy. I can't remember a clear transition. Partly that's because scifi/fantasy is what a lot of children's books quite naturally are.
I remember finding Asimov's "Caves of Steel" sophisticated and intellectual when I was about 10.
I can't ever remember noticing a clear distinction between science fiction and fantasy until I made friends with the sort of people who argued about that sort of thing at university. I mean, I would have known there was a difference, but I would instinctively be drawn to either.
In principle, I would have thought what would draw me to the genres was the interest in hypothetical questions. I'm sure I did like much classic SF on that ground, and still enjoy (rare) engineering-heavy SF. But in fact, a lot of what drew me in was the sort of stories told, which are often more evident in fantasy than SF.