56m here and I look like a simple farmer, a person of the land. The common clay of the Midwest, you know… A moron.
The reality is I don’t own a gun although I can handle one. My vocabulary is quite broad and I can use sesquipedalian words rather adroitly. I drive a hybrid Camry and my wife is highly intelligent and educated. She actually holds two doctorates. I didn’t have a problem staying at home with our two boys while she got her career off the ground. Our oldest is starting at Northwestern in two weeks.
My political leanings got me disowned from my Maga loving family and I’m just fine with that.
But I still look the part of a Midwest redneck.
That I grew up homeless, got hooked on pills and then started breaking into houses and commited to a life of crime. I have multiple home invasion, assault, and firearm trafficking charges on my sheet, along with plenty of other stuff.
Nowadays I’m a software developer with a small farm that I spend most of my time working on. I’m quiet, don’t go out much and just spend my time in nature with my family. I also volunteer at food drives and donate a good chunk of what I grow. I try to give back and improve the community as much as I can. People seem to consider me a good person now and I’ve been called Mr Rogers a handful of times in the past few years.
It doesn’t come up often and I don’t advertise it but it does unfortunately come up here and there. I only got my shit together 6 years ago when I got sober and just this year got off probation.
Damn dude what an arc! Good on ya, keep it up
This gives you grit and determination. Sometimes you get a tough hand but climbing out and doing it quietly well is something to be proud of, amongst the guilt.
People always assume I’m pretty smart because I work with computers and such.
I usually prove them wrong pretty quickly.
Same, oh wow your printer is too complicated for me to figure out!
It is well known that printers require regular blood sacrifices to power the arcane magic they were originally created with. Being able to take information already output to the screen, and bring it back to put on paper required a terrible deal with powers beyond human comprehension. That deal is still at the core of modern printing.
I believe this deep in my soul.
Refusing to engage with a defiant printer sounds pretty smart TBH.
I am in a program to become a Gestaltherapist while working full-time as a computer scientist.
These are two completely different worlds, one is very focused on tech, doesn’t have a lot of emotions, and the other one is full of talking and emotions. It’s fun to have these two worlds in my life.
My actual age.
I worked with a girl many years ago who was about 22 years old at the time. We worked a job where employees come and go all the time. She did not look very youthful, but she was very self aware. One of her favorite things to do was ask new hires how old they thought she was. Most people guessed late 30s to mid 40s and were mortified when she told then she was in her early 20s, but she always got a kick out of it.
That I was a cheerleader in college (I’m a male).
That’s fun! How long did you cheer for? The whole college experience?
Yeah, and it was a very cool and fun experience.
Dude I found a couple Youtube channels about stunting that have been interesting and fun to watch when bored. It takes a TON of skill to do that.
I have no sense of smell.
He’s smell blind!
People are generally convinced I’m vegetarian or vegan. I’m not.
Sometimes it takes them eating with me 3-4 times to realize “Wait, you eat meat??” … It’s strange, I seem to have a veggy vibe.
I’m a devout Christian.
I think most people assume that if you’re not loudmouthed about it, it must not be important to you. Others have just had so many negative experiences with Christianity. I have complicated feelings about that.
Ditto atheism. I don’t believe in souls, afterlives, free will, any of it. But because I’m not constantly trying to debunk theists people have assumed I’m at least agnostic.
Are you in a religious country? I don’t think I know a single person who actively practices religion
Pretty religious. Muslims are probably the most visible adherents, with Eid.
its mainly because people who are very outwardly “christian” tend to lean MAGA, or annoying evangelical types, telling you what is wrong and wasnt.
+1 here especially after splitting from our local church building to launch a house church. The culture around us seems to only want acquaintance-level relationships but I want what I read in the Acts church with real brotherly love and living life with one another.
Also we have 10 kids so constantly get asked if we know what causes that… (answer: yes, adoption).
Everyones surprised I’m actually a dog
On the Internet no one knows you’re a dog
No dessert for me thanks. I just ate - now’s the worst possible moment to offer me even more food. I’ll have a plain coffee though.
I’ll have a plain coffee though.
Right there with ya. I’ve got a wicked sweet tooth, but the only thing I want after a nice dinner is a small cup of black coffee :)
I have an identical twin. Or that the much shorter person next to me is…that identical twin lol. Yes twin is six inches shorter! We’re still identical! Turns out when you’re born 4lbs and 2lbs, the 2lb baby does not catch up in height and stuff!
I don’t like cars. I consider them dangerous and addictive, and I’m willing to cycle a few hundred km just to avoid using one. Mostly because of environmental reasons, but also because I’m probably nerodivergent. Cars are constantly reminding me of the wasted energy, the pollution, and the possibility to kill someone else, or an animal. I’m often distracted and impatient, so I just consider it better for everyone if I avoid them.
And that’s usually a surprise to most people that meet me, as the vast majority of people will reply they could never live without their car. Most people love cars, but to me, seeing an endless stream of them on the horizon makes me sad.
I do noncommercial talk radio and podcasts, I’m not real-world famous or anything but there are people out there who know me from that. On multiple occasions when listeners have met me in person, they’ve mentioned being surprised by pretty much all of what I look like as it didn’t match their mental image of me. I’ve also had folks be surprised by my normal talking pace, because they set their podcast app of choice to high-speed playback and that’s how they’re used to hearing me.
That I am physically strong. I am skinny and don’t have a lot of obvious muscle but to the surprise of many I can lift heavy and stand my ground arm wrestling.
When I was in university I could beat anyone in an arm wrestle except for the army guys, and it was never that clear to me why.
actual active military? could be that they had to workout/exercise often, ped usage?
Yeah active. Sorry I wasn’t clear, it was obvious why the army guys could beat me, they odd thing was that I could beat most everyone else.
