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Getting flak for caring about things you're "not supposed to care about"
This has always bothered me.
(Said things involve: graphic design, typography, sonic branding)
Comments
Can you or @CentralAvenue tell me anything about the Merritt Parkway's odd sign style and font?
It's this, isn't it?
I do find myself wishing I could openly express some of my interests without being looked upon as an autistic freak. It doesn't help that I have little in the way of "mainstream" interests.
@Merritt Parkway: It does appear to be Stone Sans, yeah...
A quick Google doesn't reveal anything about why this road has such unusual signs, though.
CentralAvenue,
I do find myself wishing I could openly express some of my interests without being looked upon as an autistic freak.
Yeah, from what I can tell, you pretty much either have to be subjected to that kind of treatment or just be closeted about those interests. That honestly does bug me, since it is essentially baseless prejudice. I think things get even worse when you throw gender norms into the mix.
I really wish people would stop caring about minor things like that, but fighting that kind of stuff seems pretty futile most of the time since you can end up going up against years and years of ingrained ideas and customs. Plus, it seems like it takes some courage to be willing to stand up to scrutiny because of your interests/beliefs. For those of us who are not particularly brave, remaining in the closet may seem a lot more appealing.
I guess I just spent way too much time saying what amounts to "I wish haters didn't hate so much" though.
I'm not sure how things like roads and retail are gendered, if you don't mind me saying this.
Also, strangely, people seem to care more about certain things than others; there's big sites and whole communities revolving around graphic design and typography, but syndicated news music fans tend to be the sorts who don't care about much of anything other than what you find on SouthernMedia (network stuff seems to have it a little better; it helps there exists stuff like NBC News's The Mission, which was the work of John Williams.).
...how did I forget about the traders/collectors? I don't know if they really like talking about the packages or finding/contributing information about them either.
This. Yes. Definitely. Apparently, at my school it's completely normal to accept that all the buildings named Shapiro were named for the same couple, who have in fact only paid for four such buildings, with a fifth named decades earlier for completely different people. And apparently knowing that that's not the case is "pretty random" in one person's eyes.
I'm not really involved with the siren community anymore, but my mom was especially harsh about that and basically refused to admit that there was any point to what I was doing. And admittedly, since we're in New England, there is less of a point to being a siren expert than in places with tornados. But still!
I think there's a lot of "You should be putting this passion and ability to remember things into school instead of something that will not directly advance your life in any way." Very particularly to my life, my mom will be hostile to anything that she thinks is getting in the way of my studies. She has no real control over this because I'm here away at college. But...it's like...apparently there's a difference between having a hobby and having a hobby that affects your grades.
I just woke up. I'm rambling. I've always been curious about the Merritt too, even if we never take it to NY...
Oh, ok, here's a good thought: Although I've never really said this to anyone, my response to any one person saying "Why do you care about that? You're not supposed to care about that." is "Why not?" Like, seriously, just asking them that at all is bound to throw them. Chances are they won't have a very good answer.
First there was me going to school in NYC.
Then there was the time that my dad worked in NYC, and since we live in Connecticut, he'd drive back and forth every week. Mom and I would be part of that roadtrip if we stayed at his apartment trying to look for houses (But then he left that job anyway and found something in-state.)
Then there was me and my parents roadtripping down to or past NYC four times in four weeks, three times in the last of those four weeks.
Funny thing is how Wilbur Cross Parkway (the road northeast of Merritt Parkway that it connects to) and Hutchinson River Parkway (the road southwest of Merritt Parkway that it connects to) both have standard-style highway signs. The sign styles are the same, and so are the fonts. Merritt, however, is an odd exception.
Here we go.
http://www.kurumi.com/roads/ct/merrittpkwy.html
That explains the jagged edges. Though not the font.
Central Avenue - One of my hobbies is reading books about (real) crimes. I've always worried about being regarded by my local librarians and bookshop owners as a potential serial killer or something.
To be honest, I think being obsessed with watching football or golf can be just as unhealthy as being obsessed with sirens or road-signs if you take it to extremes. It's just that more people do it, so it's more socially acceptable.
Anonus,
I'm not sure how things like roads and retail are gendered, if you don't mind me saying this.
True, I guess I was going off-topic there, sorry about that.
Evergreen,
I think there's a lot of "You should be putting this passion and ability to remember things into school instead of something that will not directly advance your life in any way."
That does seem to be a common response to unusual interests. I doubt being obsessed with school or work is considered socially acceptable either, so in that way you really cannot win.
Still, I would like to think that being passionate about something, even if most people would find it trivial, shows that you really can be dedicated. I would personally be more concerned about someone who goes through the motions and does not really have much of any hobbies or interests since that lackadaisical spirit probably comes up in other areas as well.
I thought this thread was going to be about things like cyberbullying and sex-positive views from others and you know.
It's interesting, at my school one thing you certainly won't catch flak for is being an activist of basically any sort of left-leaning-ness. I mean, extreme people of any sort will kind of be ignored, but otherwise there's this nonstop atmosphere of trying to get everyone into social justice and stuff. Against that background, if your hobbies involve knowing a lot of really obscure stuff rather than trying to save the world, of course some people will look askance at you.
(Read all the above in a sarcastic tone. Because that's the intent. Lay it particularly heavy on "social justice" and "trying to save the world". Just saying. Since there are no potholes here.)
I'm not an activist. I mean, my activism is raising awareness about campus history, since starting with the very tour guides that show prospective students this place for the first time, the campus is rife with lies. Our motto, or something, involves truth. And I'm a history major. Responses, predictably, vary from "Oh wow, that's really interesting, thanks!" to very nearly "Fuck off, weirdo, I don't give a shit and neither does anybody else."
Evergreen - A wise man once said "Blessed are those who expect no gratitude, for they will not be disappointed."
Let me guess - the "tour guides" are in fact existing students who compete with each other to make up the tallest tales to spin to the naive newbies? Good on you for trying to spread the truth, but you're up against the human propensity to both talk rubbish and believe it here.
Internet drama counts, doesn't it?
Well, the tour guides are students, yes. It's not clear whether the factually/historically incorrect things they say like "[music building] was built to resemble a piano and has 88 windows!" and "[theater building] was built to resemble a top hat!" and "[imitation castle that is our most iconic building and predates the actual university] was built by [guy who built it to house medical school of previous university] from the outside in as an imitation of a specific castle in [Scotland/Ireland/they never seem to agree or even be sure on the spot] that he was forbidden from buying and moving, or getting the plans for, and that's why it makes no sense architecturally!"...
...ok, that sentence was getting too long. But anyway, they say those things and I'm not sure whether when they were all taught the standard tour guide routine, the people who trained them present these things as fact or say "It's not true/we don't know if it's true, but say it anyway". And I think they are trained by previous/outgoing guides rather than some very senior staff members or something, so the lies have just been piling on for years.
I insist it's still charming and funny enough to say "This building is rumored to have been designed to resemble this, but that's just a common legend." It still grabs people's attention. Because I've discovered that on a campus that's been battered by basically every trend in modern architecture in its ~60 year existence, making your buildings seem even quirkier just breeds student dislike of them. Like "Haha we're so weird, we have buildings shaped like top hats and pianos and an built-wrong castle." To me that's not a helpful attitude.
If not for my massive fear of developing some kind of criminal record, and more importantly because I don't want to give prospective students a bad (or if they're disliking it, worse) tour experience, I have never followed through on my dream of sneaking into a tour group and shouting "You lie! Talk to me afterwards at [location] for the truth!"
Wow, nice derail I've got here. Thanks for putting up with me, guys. My RL friends may be getting a bit tired of my Single Issue Wonkery on this.
Evergreen - Yeah, that is a risk.
And if it's any consolation, I've been on tours by professional guides who say things I know aren't historically correct, and had to stop myself wanting to correct them. Unfortunately, even if you're right 90% of people will think you're a dick for doing that.
I think I get flak for caring about history in general. I've gradually come to realize that a lot of people are terrible at typical history courses. And that a great many people find history really boring, to which I am often like "Wtf is wrong with you?!" and then I calm down and conclude they must have never had good/interesting history teachers.
My oft-mentioned friend Frances did her first gig as a substitute teacher a few weeks back and taught a music class of middle-school girls about Renaissance poetry/music and they loved it. And when I was reading about it, I was like "We need more teachers like you!", but she doesn't want to go into academia.
(This is still sort of a derail, I think this thread is beyond saving...)
> I insist it's still charming and funny enough to say "This building is rumored to have been designed to resemble this, but that's just a common legend." It still grabs people's attention. Because I've discovered that on a campus that's been battered by basically every trend in modern architecture in its ~60 year existence, making your buildings seem even quirkier just breeds student dislike of them.
Your campus lacks a Simmons Hall or a Stata Center. Your point is invalid.
> I think I get flak for caring about history in general. I've gradually come to realize that a lot of people are terrible at typical history courses. And that a great many people find history really boring, to which I am often like "Wtf is wrong with you?!" and then I calm down and conclude they must have never had good/interesting history teachers.
I think the way that history has meaning to us is not so much "oh, this stuff happened", but rather, "why did that stuff happen, and what does that tell us about ourselves and our culture today?". For example, it's one thing to talk about the U.S. Civil War, but it's another thing to talk about lingering effects of the U.S. Civil War in modern-day culture and politics of the Deep South.
Pfft, Stata. That was legitimately sloppy work on the part of Gehry & company. Our castle, at least, was a quality structure once...
Our entire campus was almost designed by Saarinen but he left as he started to get more famous and we couldn't keep up. He left behind three perfectly decent buildings that unfortunately haven't aged gracefully.
On your second point, exactly! But a distressing amount of people don't care what's going on in the world today, or are seriously misinformed. On the flip side, though they may often have very slanted views, all those left-activists that my school is rife with usually are passionate about history, so that's cool.