Loading ...On being a Brainiac
Posted by RaJ on June 14th, 2007
This week’s Blog Fodder topic asks:
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up and why?
The award for Best Answer I’ve Ever Seen for this question goes to blog feiend Demosthenes, who says his childhood ambition was, and I quote, “to be an allosaurus.”
My ambitions? Fly a helicopter, scuba dive … boring! Worse still, one of my persistent childhood goals was to become knowledgeable.*
Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: A nerd.
Many different things interested me, and I enjoyed reading and *gasp* learning. Although I do remember being called “Brainiac” by my siblings, I don’t think I acted like a know-it-all.†
Speaking of annoying know-it-alls, last week I shared this mysterious spamment:
This week our clever feiend iknowall10‡ switched computers - or at least IP addresses, because “blocked” - and kindly provided yet another spamment. Oh joy for fun! Sweet mysteries revealed!
Ah.
that that that…?
Peace and issues?
Parsit’?!
Not secret, my feiends. Simultaneously all.
* While I did enjoy reading comic books, I spent a lot of time reading encyclopedias. And dictionaries. Etc.
† This is, as you might suspect, a lie.
‡ Is it just me or does iknowall10 make you think of… cadiz12?!
June 14th, 2007 at 8:49 am
I had no childhood ambition. Is it too late?
I think that iknowall meant “No secret that that which we search for. . . ” But sadly, no one knows their grammar anymore. Except maybe grandpa, since they’re married.
Reminds me of the famous grammar question: Punctuate the following so that it makes sense:
John while James had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher.
June 14th, 2007 at 9:08 am
I’m another who gave the encyclopedia a workout during my youth.
In fact, I still have the complete set of 1985 World Books here, including a couple of years worth of Science Year and the Year Book, and the two-volume dictionary.
Funnily, the entry about Civil Defense always gave me the creeps; there was something about the old CD logo that just instilled this impending doom in me. However, I have recovered and can now look at the logo without freaking out.
June 14th, 2007 at 9:47 am
(Breaking into song): “Open the door, get on the floor/Everybody walk the dinosaur…”
I wanted to be either a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist, since everybody seemed to think that those were the hardest jobs. The difficulty of any given endeavor once inspired me; now just contemplating it makes me tired.
June 14th, 2007 at 10:09 am
I was going to say, those who act like know-it-alls never think they are doing so. But then you sort of beat me to it. Presumably, this is because you knew I was going to say that. You’re such a know-it-all.
Back when I was a wee lad, I was in Cub Scouts. There was this presentation thing where we had to give like a 30 second talk on what we wanted to be when whe grew up. I actually had so much trouble deciding, I didn’t go to the presentation. It was embarrassing! So I guess that means I had no childhood ambition either. High five, Lia.
June 14th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
I wanted to be an artist or a scientist. I ended up being both in one way or another. I got a BSc in Food Science and Technology and worked in that field. Still do, I guess. I have done a lot of craft things, as well as painting and some drawing, so have done art more as a hobby when I have time.
June 14th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
In middle school, I wanted to be a football player when I grew up. I clung to that dream even in high school, even though my size (under) and speed (slow) didn’t cause the scouts to salivate.
I did manage to play college football at a D-III university. We lost 31 games over four years.
June 14th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
When I was little, I always wanted to be an architect until I realized you had to figure out how to keep the buildings from falling down. I thought it was all about picking out the doorknobs and window casings…
ps Thanks for stopping by my blog yesterday!
June 14th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
I wanted to be a vet, until I realized that would involve putting your arm up a cow’s butt.
I also wanted to be an actor. In fact I wanted to be a child actor. But obviously that didn’t eventuate. If it had, I may today be exchanging rehab notes with Lindsay Lohan and Brittney Spears.
June 14th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Grow-up? What’s that??
June 14th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Lia - too late for childhood? Or ambition? And I’m… still pondering the punctuation puzzle.
Sephyroth - we did that! Held onto ancient World Books, Year Books, Science Years… *ahem* Glad the CD logo lost its dark power over you.
Luisa - you seem like a fine brain sturgeon to me.
Omar - you underachievers are all alike. Feel the power of my… envy. Erm.
Dawn - greetings, and welcome to the radioactive corner of the bloggery universe. An artistic scientist? Seems like a fine mix.
Chris - sorry but I gotta ask: 31 of how many total?
Kara - heh. Someone still has to choose doorknobs, right? If not you then who? Wait, I think that’s supposed to go with something else.
Wendy - THANK YOU for that fine mental image. The cow part I mean. Actually, considering what we’ve seen from Ms. Lohan and Spears… yeah.
G-dog - it’s an arcane concept popular with children; you needn’t concern yourself.
June 15th, 2007 at 1:23 am
After being picked out of the audience to come up and dance with the King at the end of a play for tots when I was 5, I wanted to be an actor. Because I looked up into that sweaty old face with the heavy stage make-up running down it, and I thought “oh, it’s a job, I didn’t realise” (or whatever the 5-year-old version of that is.) The notion that it was a job was more exciting to me than the “mystery” of it. And it overruled my momentary disappointment in not being picked to dance with the “handsome” Prince. And, dear reader, so it was to be.
Now use the following in a sentence “and and and and and”. I can do it. Can you?
June 15th, 2007 at 8:38 am
But not TAFKAP Prince, right? Because he’s - well. Some people like him I guess. As for your and x 5 challenge, I’ll have to think more and I will, just as soon as my brain recovers from thoughts of TAFKAP.
June 15th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
We were 9-31 over four years.
Worst part? 5 of those came my freshman year.
Worser part? Won the 1st game of my Sr year, then lost 9 straight.
June 15th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
I had always wanted to play hockey in the NHL of course. Well…I played a LOT (A LOT!!) of hockey but never near that level. It is funny how certain things in your life can change the direction of your future. If I did a few things different, I might have had a chance way back when.
The spammers are smart. Now to find blocking software that lets you see who sent it, not just the IP.
June 17th, 2007 at 9:51 am
As a child I never had any great ambitions. i was too busy worrying about the right shoes to wear with those pants or lopsided pigtails. Now as our children reach the teenage years, we often remind them of there early childhood ambitions.
#1 child She, not so much unlike yourself, has spent many hours with comic books and aspires to write them herself someday. I don’t know if you have read these lately, but they are much different from the Spiderman and the WHAM BLAM SPLAT of yesterday.
#2 child He, not so much unlike yourself, has been called brainiac and enjoys a good IQ test as much as anyone. Is the reigning Spelling Bee Champ, competes in Math Team and is joining Sciene Team next year (he said his schedule was too busy for it in 6th grade, but has regretted that decision ever since). When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, drum roll please, he would answer you without hesitation “a mailman”.
June 17th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Chris - it doesn’t get much worser than that.
Sirdar - I heart hockey, even though I played very little. My dad was a decent goalie…
And I’d love to send a cruise missile or three to each spammer’s IP address.
Fimfl4 - not everyone realizes the significance of properly mismatched shoes and/or lopsided pigtails. *sigh* And we’d like nothing better than to see youse guys; been way too long, you know?
June 18th, 2007 at 6:12 am
I love the fact that your mate wanted to be a dinosaur!
You see, I now know why I’m not a know-it-all. I used to sleep with the encyclopaedias and dictionaries on my head at night hoping to absorb the knowledge that way as opposed to actually reading them like yourself.†
(I borrowed your note marker for my own usage too
)
June 18th, 2007 at 9:13 am
Yes, the osmotic approach - the road not taken, as it were.
And feel free to borrow whatever suits you; happy to provide!
June 18th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
First, iknowall has revealed a great secret: there are three bases of peace (no, more than three, our feiend only uses the three largest ones)!!!
And technically, I’m in my childhood yet, so my current vision of my future will have to suffice, as I don’t recall any other right now: I would love to be somehow involved in the process of making video games* or some kind of designer job. Plus, I hope to learn enough to make a decent system administrator soon-ish.
* and I don’t mean supervising the packing machines in some factory. I want to create worlds filled with adventure and excitement with my bare handsâ
â my bare hands working on state-of-the art technological gadgets, that is, of course (;
edit: wow, I haven’t been here for a while… that edit-timer is FANCY ^.^ I want one, but I don’t think wordpress.com has it, or do they?