jueves, 16 de octubre de 2008

¿son un dork ou non?

Estou procurando motivos polos que se me podería considerar dork para un concurso curioso dun blog moi interesante (recoméndovolo encarecidamente, lectores ficticios) e realmente non me lembro, pero sei que os hai.
Vou divagar un pouco, e por primeira (e posiblemente última) vez nesta bitácora vou escribir nalgo semellante ó inglés. Outro día (non) escribo sobre a miña primeira visita a Lisboa en 20 anos, na que non tiven tempo de visitar a tumba de Henry Fielding. Grrr.
Imos aló:

After much thinking i have concluded that i haven't got a chance to be considered the greatest dork in this Dorkfest. Quite the contrary... i'm not a dork! I admit there are some dork-like tendencies in me, but i am not a dork.

At an early age i noticed that i had many compulsive tendencies, and started fighting against them. So i stopped following strange patterns when walking (you know: never step on two consecutive tiles, never ever on a line dividing those tiles, etc.). Slowly i managed to stop collecting stamps but have still to stop keeping every single bus/train/metro/plan ticket.
I have also successfully stopped updating my book database (that was easy--i coudn't really understand Access and why it was supposed to be so useful) but will never delete that file. Also, i still write my name and the place and date of purchase on every book, except second-hand books, on which i never ever write. But that is really just compulsive behaviour, not real dork(i)ness.

I read with a pencil at hand to underline words and write comments (except on second-hand books, as already explained). In non-fiction books i address the author, in translations (which i avoid reading, for my own health) i adress the translator, pointing out better solutions, especially when one can see what the original text said because the translator simply copied every single word. (Enough about that.) So maybe i'm a nerd. Or more precisely i used to be a nerd that has slowly learnt to become more "normal". Evidence: i was first in my class in primary school (i even was in a "children city council" or whatever you call it). Then i started caring less and less, i still felt i must always get the best possible marks at school--i used to think that was the least i could do since my parents were supporting me. I must have been a strange child. Therefore i probably am/was a nerd. But not a dork.

More strange behaviours of mine... Despite my friends' pressure i have only read 2 1/2 Harry Potter books. First i read number 3, then number 2 and then i started listening to book number 5, but stopped it when i decided to devote sometime to finally watch Lost in it's original order. I have watched all 4 seasons but never in order. So, before i started taking those annoying tests from dharmawantsyou it seemed the right time to watch the series properly. I still think it was more amusing when i was never sure whether something was a new revelation or just that i hadn't seen the particular episode where that was already explained. Recently i discovered The Prisoner, which seems to be the perfect show for me, because there are so many "official" episode orders that you must (at least, i must) find your personal one for myself. More about TV: as a child i loved Doctor Who and Sapphire and Steel (must see that one again, i don't remember a thing about it). So maybe i'm weird, but not really a dork.

Enough about TV, let's go back to books. I am not a great reader (i never seem to find time), but i buy every single book that i know i want to read someday. I also buy dictionaries; some not exactly for work. My treasures are a Gaelga-English dictionary and the Vocabulário de Termos Técnicos in Portuguese, French and English, without date of printing but surely before 1960, therefore extremely unuseful, especially since french and portuguese are not among my working languages.
The first book-like object i remember convincing my parents to buy for me was Hägar the Horrible: The Brutish Are Coming. I was probably 8 years old, and i promised i was going to learn more English in order to read it. And i read it.
The first book proper that i read on my own, without a teacher asking me to do so, was Crónicas Marcianas.
In high school i read stuff like Crime and Punishment, and only listened to classical music.
So let's move to music. I finally started discovering good pop music at 18. Before that i just didn't like what i heard on the radio, and didn't know there was so much more. I have a strange relationship with music because it means a lot to me, but i'm completely unable to create music. My to-read list includes a treaty on counterpoint that i bought some 6 years ago. So maybe i'm a dilettante. But not a dork.

Conclusion: as my nature dictates i don't really commit to anything, that's why i'm not a dork. I simply never tryied to be cool, otherwise i would be a very cool person.
[Note: I'm pretty sure i forgot something... whatever, i'm posting this, version #7]

[Ah: i always wear different socks, i mean, of course i wouldn't try to wear the same sock on both feet, that would make me look clumsy(ier), i wear non-matching socks. That started when i realized that i lost too much of my precious time sorting socks. Now i just cannot stand wearing the same colour on both feet. But that isn't dork, is it? I know it's just a way of pretending to be cool, but still i wouldn't consider it dorky.
Oh, yesss: when i rent a DVD i always watch the film at least twice (sometimes even if i don't particularly loved the film). First i watch it in the original and then in the original with the commentary. And if it is in a language i speak, i watch it once without subtitles and then once with subtitles, just in case i missed something. Sometimes i even watch it once more (most times just bits, not the entire thing) dubbed in Spanish, just to listen to the voices and check the quality.

Sorry i'm quitting now, i won't even try to rewrite these two new paragraphs into what would be version #8]

2 comentarios:

Michael5000 dijo...

The different-sock thing seems like a pretty powerful argument for dorkiness.

Or rather, it would be. If you were a dork. Which of course you aren't.

: )

Munchausen dijo...

This is so 2008. I mean, reading those lines again when I stopped writing long before. I'm so dork ;)

Will there be a comeback?

libros en proceso

  • Sons and Lovers

libros en lista de espera

  • Lost in a Good Book
  • Middlemarch
  • The Catcher In The Rye
  • Tristram Shandy
  • Der Steppenwolf
  • Reminiscencias de Bob Dylan
  • Faust
  • El miedo a la democracia
  • Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Apoia o Manifesto a prol da convivencia lingüística e a da igualdade de dereitos para o galego