Intelligence as Intimidation Factor

How can it tank so fast? Another woman chickens out of meeting me, saying,

"I didn't expect to like you this much, this fast....While it's true I am very intelligent, I am not really well read or informed on as many subjects as u and I don't want to feel less-than, from the start."

So i guess I'm supposed to pretend i don't know what i know, dumb myself down so as not to intimidate??? WTF?

Do i have to go to a fucking Mensa meeting to find a woman who is NOT intimidated by the fact that i have a brain and know how to use it? It's not like I'm Einstein for Harpy's sake.  I know my IQ is well above average (149)--but hell's bells! I'm also funny, playful, sincere, intuitive, understanding, affectionate, open, honest, ethical--and pretty damn good in bed, too......When did intelligence become Pariahville in this society?

With all the information out there available to anyone with a computer, anyone can learn. I don't have a Master's degree or a PhD, but I learn about everything that interests me, and even some things that don't, because i feel I should know about it. (And generally I share that knowledge in books I write, blogs I write, conversations I have, on Facebook, on Twitter and anywhere I else i think it might be beneficial to others). Though I've had 8 years of college, I am primarily self-educated.  I've cultivated the skill of conversation (or at least communication) with clarity-- and hopefully sometimes eloquence. 

Yes. I am pissed. I'm sure I won't stay that way, but right now I am. I resent being socially ostracized just because I'm smart. Socially and interpersonally, I always try to seek out all the highly intelligent people, but they are hard to find. They are perhaps hiding from those who are intimidated by them.

Intelligence as Intimidation Factor

Ignorance Revealed: Miss USA contestants on Evolution

The mindless regurgitation of these contestants sickens me. Most of these are stunning examples of the ignorance that still prevails in this country. Evolution is NOT a theory, in the colloquial sense. Scientific "theory" is not the same as the common definition of "theory." That's why i wish the scientific community would permanently change their references to it in some way, to clear up the misunderstanding. Since colloquial understanding usually RULES among the average person, we must begin to use terminology that leaves no room for erroneous interpretation. It is my contention that you are not entitled to respect or admiration if your opinions are based on ideas you were fed, which have no basis in fact. We should permanently append the word "unfounded" to the word "opinion" in this case. And any contest that bestows the title "Miss USA" should not allow ignorance to represent our country. "I was never taught evolution in school" --that's the problem. Their opinions against it, are based on NOT KNOWING the facts. It's easy to just swallow. Perhaps more people should refuse to stand in front of the hose.

Ignorance Revealed: Miss USA contestants on Evolution

Lesbian films

One of my biggest peeves is that the films about lesbians are not held to the same standards as other films, probably because their target audience is so hungry to see stories about something they can relate to on a sexual orientation level. However, this should never be a reason to call a film good when it simply isn't.

And Then Came Lola is an example of that. No character development, a plot that is meaningless, situations that are contrived, and a story that was interspersed with some cartoon interludes that were unnecessary, incongruous and distracting. Some of the actresses were decent in their craft, which I think would be even better if they had good material to work with. And of course, most of them were easy on the eyes (three of them, my particular favorite types) but that's about as much as i can say for this film. Overall, it was a grand disappointment.

Same goes for another crop I saw recently, most of which I couldn't bear to watch all the way through. 

Mango Kiss was so stereotypical, as to be insulting--as if it had been made for straight people with certain rigid ideas about how gay women are, what their lifestyle is like, and that everyone who is gay is either deviant, addicted, dishonest or mentally ill. I Can't Think Straight had me thinking straight enough that I would rather have watched all straight characters in just about any other movie, than another second of this one. Boring from the first moment.

I have seen a few that were good--I enjoyed Desert Hearts, Better Than Chocolate, and Puccini for Beginners. But there are some films touted in the gay community as favorites, which I fail to understand;  like Claire of the Moon and High Art. I thought both of those movies were horrid. It's no wonder there are so many people in our society who shun the gay community. Even our creative self-representations can be overtly negative and even repulsive. Now, while I freely admit I haven't seen every lesbian film ever made, this is largely because I lost interest in them for the very reasons I mention here. This is one of the reasons I became a novelist--the same had been true of lesbian fiction, and I finally decided if I wanted to read the type of story that represented me as a gay woman, and made me feel good about it, I'd have to write it myself.

Lesbian films

Squirrelly Dilemma (video)

a squirrel gets trapped in the dumpster, and I try to help him while he just barks at me.

Squirrelly Dilemma (video)

Apostrophe Creature

In Hamlet, Shakespeare said,

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Peeking at me from behind a tree

We cannot pretend to understand all the mysteries of this world we live in. I came across one today while walking in the rain. I spotted something odd, and started taking pictures. 

I'd never seen anything like it and still am not sure what it was. A creature of some sort, shaped like an apostrophe, but moving around of its own volition. It had little snail-like horns at the top of its head.

At one point, it spotted me, and I wasn't sure if I was in any danger. It didn't seem aggressive, nor imposing in figure, being merely a curved form, floating about a few inches from the ground.

Eventually it shot away, disappearing into the trees.

moving my direction

staring at me from the sidewalk

watching me

floating along the grass by the road

floating along the street

 

Apostrophe Creature

Review of As You Were by ChaoticVulnerabilities

ChaoticVulnerabilities reviewed As You Were

Excellent Read...left me wanting more December 30, 2010

WOW. I purchased this book simply caught up in the availability of lesbian romance novels at the touch of a button. My wifey gave me a Kindle for Christmas, spurring a desperate search for novels to use with my newfound "friend". I don't live near any specialty bookstores and lesbian novels are often very expensive for print copies. I went a little wild looking for romance stories I can relate to.

This novel surpassed that!

Others I've read were okay in content, horrible in spelling and grammar, and difficult to read. Not so, this novel. I downloaded another book by Baeli simply because this one caught and held my attention. I stayed up way past bedtime reading this, absorbing it in one night because I could NOT put it down. It had romance, crazy twists, and many other positive characteristics. However, the best part of this book was Baeli's sensitivity to the thoughts, feelings, and realities of life as a woman who loves a woman. She captured the essence of female romance without so much as a glitch. I read this book snuggled in next to my wife and fell asleep with a sappy, mushy, and very glowing appreciation for the beauty who lay next to me. Like all great romance novels, this book wrapped me up in the moment.

Thank you, Ms. Baeli. I'll be purchasing your other novels as soon as I can!

Review of As You Were by ChaoticVulnerabilities

Spider in my Car

This was the only picture of a spider i
could stand to put here, because it's cute
in a creepy, spidery kinda way. I couldn't
spend much time looking for one,
anyway, because i would have seen
too many spiders at one time, and that
would have screwed up my whole day.

My best friend called me not long ago, and in the middle of our conversation, she said, "Hang on, there's a spider in my car and i have to pull over before I freak out." 

She takes off her shoe to kill it and I warn her that shoes do not kill spiders. They have some kind of shield like on the Starship Enterprise, that engages. You smash them and they get up and walk away. 

She claims to have injured it, but crippling a spider is not really crippling a spider--I mean there's all those legs. You can break one and they can still ambulate.

"I hit him pretty hard," she says. "he has to be concussed. I hope he's not in my hair--"

I'm laughing hard enough to keep from answering, because my best friend's hair is an ongoing joke in regard to creatures who like to nest in it.

"You know spiders like my hair," she continues. "Now I don't where he is."

My best friend, Justi- A good
example of hair spiders like.

"He'll wait until you're back on the road in traffic," I say. "and then limp onto your nose, dragging that one injured leg, and bite you right between the eyes."

There is a short silence, and I hear the distant sound of a car horn in traffic. Then she says, "I'm gonna worry about this until I find the body." 






----------------------------
*Apparently, Mazda had to recall 52,000 of their cars because Yellow Sac Spiders liked to build nests in the evaporative canister vent line. No human hair there, but still.

Spider in my Car

Tell Me About Yourself

When I'm single, and meeting new women, dating and searching for that special someone who will fit harmoniously into my life, I often come across women who say "Tell me about yourself."

I hate that question.

Not because i can't talk about myself, or am not self-actualized enough to be able to communicate my identity, but because it's like standing in a library and someone asking, "What's in all those books?"

I usually have the urge to refer them to my books, or blogs, or music or art.

Then they say, "I don't want to look at your art, or listen to your music, or read your books or blogs, I want to get to know you on a real level..." 

What they fail to understand is that anyone can get to know me almost utterly, through my creative outlets, and probably in a more detailed fashion, than they could ever imagine. My real level is manifested in what I create.

I put so much of myself into my music and art and writing. Even when it's difficult, or embarrassing, or unpleasant, or painful. This is what I mean when I say I am HONEST. Honesty is not always a ride on a pony. But honesty has its own rewards; some of which are, I don't ever have to worry about contradicting myself, or apologizing for who I am, nor about feeling guilty, or being accused of deceit.
So often, when faced with probing questions about myself, I say, "Just listen to that song, or read that blog, or just read this or that book." --Because after going through the process of shoveling and pick-axing my way down deep and unearthing myself so completely, it's a source of dread and even tedium to have to relate it all again, when I've already plumbed the depths of my psyche and shared it in the artistic, written or musical form.

This doesn't mean I don't enjoy long, meaningful conversations. It just means there is such a legion of data in my head and heart, that I never know which things to select for sharing with an inquisitive new friend. It's always helpful if they can ask me something specific. Not "What are your politics?" but "What are your thoughts about immigration?" Not, "What do you think about spirituality and religion?" but "What do you believe in, and what's important to you?" 

Because if they ask me something general, my first thought is well, that depends...and then my brain explodes with a thousand different possible responses, and I don't know which one to pick. And then I come off like someone who has far too much to say about far too many things, and their eyes glaze over, and they are then just as overwhelmed as I was when they asked that question.

Tell Me About Yourself