[Shiunbird]

Irinikus, weblacky -

Thanks for sharing your experiences.
As someone who has spent the last ten years getting by with the assistance of a psychiatrist, I do appreciate anyone sharing their own reality. It somehow contributes to something very deep inside and unconsciously helps me adjust course even if a tiny bit. Something like trying to navigate the world with a very low resolution map - any new piece of information helps improve the resolution.

In general, I find very difficult to conform. Society is poorly equipped to deal with anyone and anything out of the ordinary. There's some increasing awareness when it comes to whatever that is very visible, such as race, religion and anything related to identity and sexuality. However, not when you don't fit the average model.
Thus, relationships (be them affective or friendship and work) and the concept of parenthood remain very difficult topics for me.

I've been married - I still try.
It was very difficult to get together to begin with. We are from worlds apart. After 4 years of struggle, we managed to move in together and it was a complete nightmare. However, I held on. It's always a sacrifice - everyone says. We had agreed on moving together to Australia and, one week after I paid her initial expenses to start her PhD and arranged with my management to be transferred, she dumped me via e-mail. =)
And I still date, but my hopes of success remain pretty low. Co-habitation is always a challenge. I do need peace and order. Since a kid, I have this need of being able to focus for hours on a specific thing. And disorder is distraction. Almost no one I know understands that. The constant distractions, sharing internet rubbish and the inability to grant one a bit of peace always end up tearing any relationship apart.

Plus, parenthood - coming from a very problematic family made me completely unwilling to become a father, even though I know I would be a good one. Exactly because I have zero patience for disagreements over minor things.

The relationships at work suffer the same way. As I slowly climb the corporate career whilst trying to keep my roles as purely technical as possible, I suffer with the endless discussions. I managed to learn how to be brutally straightforward and make a few friends on the way, by clearly stating the difference between "this is shit" and "you are shit". There's no sense of vanity. If someone demonstrates a superior way of resolving something, I will embrace that. But usually I come with the best solutions, just because the time people spend discussing matters, I've already drafted and tested 3 or 4 different options. Plus a very special ability to detect security issues keeps me around. =)

Of course, the world is full of very reasonable people. I remain able to agree with people on different levels of the political spectrum, just because I avoid projecting my personal anecdotes as the only reality that there is. Society could work in different ways, as long as good intentions reigned and corrupting kept at bay. And I do enjoy being proven wrong, because it means I learned something. However, it's very hard to find such interlocutor. It's just so irritating when you detect that the other side is more interested in proving you wrong than gathering the truth. It's all about others perceive each other, regardless of any truth or fact, of having your proposal chosen instead of the best proposal, etc.. Things drag ad eternum, because no one wants to be made accountable for a bad outcome but everyone wants credit for when things work out. And the value of one's word means nothing nowadays.

You are right. It's impossible to compromise when you know you are right, and I find absolutely pathetic and unacceptable to settle for the "second best way" as means of making someone feel validated.

Our bodies are flesh and I take enough care of mine as means of enjoying a functional mind for as long as I can, and nothing else. I keep a nice and beautiful home because it enables my mind to work better. Studying is fun. Learning is fun. Interesting interactions with interesting people are fun. The rest is BS. I am antipathetic and I don't see the point in exchanging niceties for the sake of it.

My home is my temple and very few people are allowed in. Once I made the mistake of inviting a few colleagues over just to hear "wow, such a nice place, why don't you post some pictures on Facebook? Girls would be all over!"
I kicked the person out.

So yes, nice bike. I never bought one since I moved to Europe, but back home my dad rides a ZX-9(r?) that he got new in 1997 and it's still in the family. At our small farm, we have two 2-stroke oil burning beasts, to enjoy the fields and the mud. I used to fly gliders - this is all I can do being colourblind, and I can only recommend the absolute feeling of joy and peace - soaring powered by heat and wind.

Which reminded me why I like this kind of community.
It can be difficult at times, due to the nature of our characters (as this is a very specific hobby).
But it is a small corner of the dying old Internet. It reminds me of the days of newgrounds, homestarrunner, incredible (and ugly) geocities pages where you could find information about Russian gymnastics, nuclear power plants, Svalbard and connect with people everywhere for the sake of the knowledge and experiences you could share and not for who we are.

[Irinikus]

@Shiunbird Thanks for sharing your perspective on things, it’s much appreciated!

@jan-jaap I do apologise for my abrupt response to your comment.

I know that you’re good, honest, family man, who’s happily married with two sons, and I really respect you for that!

[theinonen]

Only cure for a French car is another French car. 
   
I bought this Renault Sport 225 Megane a little while ago to serve as my daily transport.

[weblacky]

Shiunbird - I appreciate the share, I think many of us here not only come from a similar mindset, but also understand (and respect) privacy and boundaries. I try to keep things on-topic. I do not normally think about other people's lives or have envious thoughts about people I know. I spend my time thinking about me and what I need to do, I do not spend any time on others people's business. That's their business. I was trained a long time ago, to leave people's private business alone (don't even think about it), it's not your concern unless they've asked for help or it's hurting someone. Just as you'd not want others in your private business. Keep it separated.

I do make friends at work so I do have a tendency to mix professional and personal (as my profession IS personal to me), however I still don't pry into others business, only listen and follow-up in conversation. I don't ask them about their life unless they volunteer it first.

People seem to want this sharing...but sharing unnecessarily opens you up to more issues. It gives people evidence to further invade your life or ask for things. I'm an eager to please person, but I have to protect myself from others that would simply take advantage.

I also use a "work product" as proof, kind of thought process. If someone is a rock-star and has the best solutions, I give mad respect and don't mind of I even don't like them. I've learning from them so I don't have to like them! People possessing a little knowledge that try to push it of course don't get that free pass with me. Results speak, methods as well, but in technical problems, there normally aren't too many moral or ethical issues for a technical solution (that meets requirements). So I normally don't run into gray areas with technical work.

I want to do more, have greater ability, what I know now it great...but it's not enough to do what I want to do in life. So I need to learn more, I love seeing professionals come into the forums and give us real answers. I hope more professionals from all areas can share here to help us in the common goal of SGI collecting and vintage computing in general.

Sometimes we have to offer a little of ourselves for trust, that's fine. While I've seen some "characters" online, I think when solutions and parts are at stake, people behave because they have incentive to behave. If they tick people off, they won't get any help and won't be trusted in the forum's marketplace.

I think we're all trying to put our best foot forward for the all the above reasons. I know others likely feel the same. The intent of this space keeps us in better contact. Hopefully the SGI community can not only recover from the massive info loss of Nekochan and become BETTER as members grow and develop, hopefully we can offer services and repair we've never been able to do before. Perhaps even NEW parts like HDD sled adapters (SCA HDDs for 50-pin systems) and the like via people that are familiar with how to design and make those things.

I hope we each have something to contribute. I'd just ask everyone out there to try to look inwards for what you want for your collection and personal growth (can they align?) and if so please contribute meaningfully to the cause to keep alive our shared interests.

[Irinikus]

This has been purchased purely as a collectable:



Here's the mileage in KM: (Take note that they stopped production on these in 2009!)



I should be receiving on of these in the next two weeks:

[flatlander_48]

My Chronology:

1972 Honda 600 Coupe
1970 Lotus Elan +2S
1975 Fiat 131 Brava 2-door
1980 Chevrolet Citation 4-door
1984 Volkswagen Quantum 4-door station wagon
1990 Nissan Maxima SE 4-door
1994 Isuzu Trooper SE 4-door
2009 factory John Cooper Works MINI Clubman

All owned from new except for the Lotus and all with manual transmissions. 2 feet, 3 pedals, no problem!?!?