365 T-shirts - the reasoning

This blog should be sub-titled: a journal of my life in geek.

I get my geek on with things about which I am geeky: comic books, Baseball, Ultimate, science fiction, my favorite bands, books I have read and loved, and Jungian psychology to name some of the most frequently traversed subjects.

I began this project simply as a way to count my T-shirts. I own a lot of T-shirts. But how many do I have? Do I have 365? We shall find out.

When I started this blog, I thought about how each T-shirt means something to me. I bought it for a reason, after all. I set myself the task to post an entry about a new T-shirt every day as a way to simply write something every day, a warm up for writing fiction, which is my passion. Writing is like exercise. Warm ups are good for exercise. But after completing a month of blogging about T-shirts, I have learned that this blog serves as a journal; it documents my life in geek, sort of a tour of my interests in pop culture. The blog serves as a tool for self-inventory, for assessment and analysis of self and the origins of self, for stepping through the process of individuation in catalogues, lists, and ranks.

The blog also made me aware that I have some serious gaps in my T-shirt ownership, and I am in the process of collecting some new T-shirts for several of the great popular culture icons that I truly love. Stay tuned.

I was also a bit surprised that people checked out my blog and continue to check it, read it, and even comment on it. I am very appreciative of this readership. Please feel free to share your thoughts in my comments section. I will respond.

Also, please note that I have moved the original introductory text to the side bar. And now, I present to you the most recent entry of 365 T-shirts: a journal of my life in geek. Thank you for reading.
(Second Update - 1310.24. First Update - 1306.05 Originally Posted - 1304.25.)

Sunday, September 15, 2013

T-shirt #178 - KUDL2009PLAY - Introversion

T-shirt #178 - KUDL2009PLAY - Introversion

I am still in Detroit. Troy, actually. Liesel and I did a lot of driving around Detroit suburbs yesterday. Friday night in Ferndale for dinner. Yesterday, we had lunch in Royal Oak and drove to the Sign of the Beefcarver to get our pictures (see far below). Then after I finished a set of grades, we were off to the Meadowbrook festival site, taking Rochester Road up to stop at an Old Navy enroute. Rochester is cute. Easy in and out at the Laneway Festival.


We ended up getting there just in time to see Sigur Rós.

I was hoping that Pavilion seating would be first come/first served, and it was. We showed up at the end of Solange's set and snagged two seats, which would have been perfect if the stupid, bumpkin, uncouth, insensitive, privileged, "I am the center of the universe and I don't give a fuck about you" Detroit "fans" of Sigur Rós did not stand in front of their lovely and comfy seats for the entire show. I tried to release the anger and rage out my pores and not dwell on it. But, really, if I had wanted to stand through the whole concert, I would have moved up front to the standing area!!

Next time, I am not going to be passive, and I will ask these dickheads to sit down. Do I sound bitter? I am mostly over it, but I am still a little bitter. I want to love everyone and suspend judgment, but some people make this so difficult. I want to be a loving, accepting, and easy-going person, free of judgment, and treating others as I want to be treated (BE NICE), and yet I want to sit through my Sigur Rós concert and SEE THE FUCKING STAGE; AND so I have a long way to go to forgive people for being so insensitive because they think they are the center of the universe. Or perhaps they just don't think at all.

Oh yeah. Remember T-shirt #168, and the PLAY & NO PLAY tags on two identical shirts both hanging in my closet? This is the second "PLAY" one and seemed a good way to get into other subjects.

INTROVERTS - INTROVERSION

This is a good place to share a few thoughts on Introversion and introverts.

I shared the video that Liesel had introduced me to in T-shirt #161. You can either dial back and watch the video or search You Tube for Susan Cain: The Power of Introverts, if you want to watch it and have not yet done so. It will take about 20 minutes of your time.

Susan Cain's video is very thought-provoking. As I explained in T-shirt #161, I am more introvert than extravert. ("Extravert is Jung's spelling, and he created the words.) And yet, I am often mistaken for an extravert. I often play the role of the extravert because our society and culture glorifies and enables extraversion while it denigrates, admonishes, and fails to understand introversion. In our culture, there is something wrong with people who want to be alone, who like to read and have quiet time, who need solitude to work on one project at a time, who do not always feel like collaborating or being a team player, who do not spend all their time out and about being social.

Why are introverts so misunderstood? Why are introverts pressured to change their ways? Why are introverts seen as damaged, sad, or in some other way deficient?

Susan Cain makes several astute observations in her video about the importance of introverts and the contributions they have made to the arts, to science, to world cultures.

According to Jung, we all fall on a spectrum. Each of us is some part introvert and some part extravert. We are yin and yang, light and dark. And yet many people want to homogenize. They want pasteurization. Difference is what is interesting. Conformity is not.

Enjoy the wonderful comic reprinted below (and linked) that makes this point more effectively than my rhetoric.

GOOD LINKS

Susan Cain - The Power of Introverts - Cain's main site.

Introversion Cartoon - Link to the comic strip re-published below, without permission but with due credit.

French Fries and Waffles - Link to main site of Luchie's cartoons, artist of the strip below.

INTROVERSION COMIC STRIP





PICTURES FROM THE DETROIT - LANEWAY ADVENTURE - 1309.14
Liesel and I at Laneway Pavilion
shortly before the Sigur Rós performance
Liesel 's "Breaking Bad"
Detroit City shot
Is she scary?
Is she cool?
Scary cool?


Liesel enjoying the melon margarita
at a Cantina in Royal Oak.
We both enjoyed our drinks.

Classic cafeteria style restaurant
on Woodward Ave near Birmingham

Why settle for one Beef Carver sign picture
when one can have two?

Sigur Rós creates the paradigm shift
By the time, I finished this blog, we were back home after a brunch at East Lansing's El Azteco. No pictures.

- chris tower - 1309.15 - 14:43
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