Deal Breakers

Fun times... Plinky really does get harder with time - I stop having things to say... I have chosen this topic - not because I am particularly knowledgeable but because I am refusing to answer any of the Halloween topics of the last couple of days... I have done Halloween twice and twice only... when I lived in the US... and I disagree with the american holiday being celebrated by Australians...



I managed to say all that without mentioning the topic that I had chosen. My old high school english teacher would fail me for such a terrible introductory paragraph. At any rate this topic is top 5 dating deal breakers .



I am not a hundred percent what dating deal breakers is refering to... The things that have you saying no to the first date... or the things that once you have found out about it its just a no go from there? I suppose it is a combination of the two isn't it.



Now I'm sure I have mentioned this before... but my dating experience is very, very limited. I don't know if its cuz I'm picky... or just plain unattractive :P. Its not either of them... Dating just isn't something that has featured high on my priorities list - though it creeps ever higher these days.



Well here is my list of deal breakers - I will of course start with the easy ones :) and go from there

In a relationship
Yeah well - this isn't what I'd call a particular unique kind of deal breaker. Nobody wants a guy willing to string his girls along.... Well I don't know maybe there is some out there - particularly of my own age group - not looking for something serious or exclusive

Not A Christian
Here may be the chief cause of my dating opportunities being slim on the ground. I don't mind but this is one of the biggest things for me - I don't date non-christian guys... We just don't have the same outlook on life. So although I have often met attractive (and I am refering to beyond looks attractive) non-christian guys I couldn't ever consider dating them.

Bad Mouth
I couldn't think of a good description of this one - its funny that in shortening it to 'bad mouth' it now covers both the personality and the physical dislikes. Yes mouths bother me - i either like a mouth or i don't... irritating teeth or lips... I dislike having to watch it when I'm talking to it let alone ever contemplating kissing it...

But that is petty - what I was actually referring to here is a guy who bad mouths girls... Yes I know that plenty of them do it... but describing other girls as sluts (with more derogatory language than that) around me... I don't think talking like that is helpful or acceptable - this isn't to say I mind swearing - i do afterall swear a little too fluently myself - but swearing AT a person is a little bit different

Height
Yeah well every girl has to have a petty one doesn't she? It works to my advantage that this isn't entirely uncommon. Most women prefer a guy who is taller than she is and a lot of guys before the girl shorter. Of course at 5'10" I knock out a few more people than my friends at 5'4" but I am not an overly tall woman by most standards.

Social Butterflies
This is more than just being turned off by the person who is willing to be social with anybody and everybody in a room of people... I have met a guy or two who do that that I would happily date... because it all comes down to how I feel when they do it. I am a naturally reclusive person however I am much more outgoing that I appear in the loud crowds. I need people but I struggle to engage with the people.



Social butterflies make me feel like I can't know them because they are all show. Everybody is their best friend but nobody can ever know anything. Perhaps a better heading for this would be genuine. If I can't feel like they are sharing themself with me I can't share myself with them - and then what would a dating relationship achieve?



At the other end of this I admit to generally being attracted to introverts. I always have been - although it leads to complications with never knowing precisely what they think... I can't even describe exactly what it is but probably because I am quite introverted I get to be the extrovert in the situation...

I'm Too Slack to be Superstitious

Black Cat

Yes I know its a picture of a black cat... But before you get all excited with the 'I totally know your superstition' look on your face I am going to state outright that I am not superstitious... I am a lover of the coincidence and entertained by the extreme but I am not a believer.



Before I actually get entirely off topic I think it is probably important that I define for myself exactly what superstitious is... I mean yes I know the word and can use it in a sentence but honestly because I clump it all together in my mind is superstitious the same as believing in conspiracy theory? Well according to the all knowing dictionary.com superstious belief is - a belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge, in or of the ominous significance of a particular thing, circumstance, occurrence, proceeding, or the like... I figure that means the both fit...



Which is good because conspiracy theory is at least as much fun as old wife tale superstition. However my answer is still no... I can't say I follow any particularly dominant conspiracy theories - I am perfectly willing to believe man has been on the moon and Elvis is in fact dead...



As for other superstitions... basically they all take entirely too much effort for me... I mean I don't have lucky underwear or a lucky number? hows that for having to remember it every time you want to use it... I have standardised my Keno numbers but it doesn't really count - it streamlines the process that way and if they were to win while I wasn't betting on them I'd want to kick myself...



I wouldn't want to walk through life like I was walking on a bed of nails... I have enough issues with the dark, and groups of people, and telephones without needed to add a personification of the 'unknown' in the form of bad luck or good luck. (Yes I am one of the most on-edge people I have ever met).



But I do love superstition in the way many people do... It is HILARIOUS when it just WORKS! You know that that ladder had nothing to do with their failure, that knocking wood and jinx won't change anything and stepping on a crack will lead to no backs being broken... Its still to talk about if the coincidence does happen... That is my way of being superstitious - it makes a great story but it is far too hassling to try and be 'superstitious' about something - or anything...

The Neighbour I Am

Ah. For the first time in two weeks I actually can summon the enthusiasm to compose a plinky post. This (I swear) has nothing to do with the fact that I have a computer science assignment which I should be doing at this moment. - As a completely random side note I am currently using my Opensuse USB from my assignment (at least I got that far) and my Firefox on here is defaulted to use the Italian dictionary... Makes spell check rather ineffective I'll have to change that.



Anyway if I am going to procrastinate in this manner I should at least get back on topic. That being Am I a good neighbour? and of course WHY?



I am an alright neighbour. Actually by some standards I suppose I could almost be considered a great neighbour. When I think of many of the traditional complaints of university residents - well I don't fit into most of those categories.



I don't have a penchant for heavy metal - or any music at ridiculous volumes, I am not an excessive gamer, I am not nocturnal and am personally a stickler for the 'silent hours' (2200-0600) (0900 on weekends). I don't play musical instruments in my bedroom. As an engineering student I study, or at the very least pro-actively procrastinating much of the time. I don't host parties seeing how many people I could fit into this single room. Perhaps importantly I don't have, nor have any desire to have, a frat buddy (boyfriend) with whom I have noisy sex at all hours of the day and night.



At the same time, it really depends what kind of neighbour you are looking for. I am a relatively passive, keep to myself type but I am known to door knock my neighbours (generally only well into the 'silent hours') for being loud in their own rooms. I am sorry but I can only listen to zelda theme music through the wall while trying to sleep for so long before I go completely insane.

Hallway

Basically everybody is looking for neighbours in a slightly different way. It depends on where you are in your life. I am looking for something different in my uni res than I will in neighbours when I am married with a family. But I expect that so would my neighbours.



I suppose most people are looking to have neighbours that fall into one of two categories.



The non-existent. Whether you've been lucky enough to score a big lot or a hallway with a few empty rooms few people complain about the neighbours who aren't there. This also includes neighbours that do exist but are never home and even when they are so insignificant that can pretty well be ignored (this is perhaps the category I fit into best).



OR. The Convenience Friends. These are the people you have lots in common with. These are the true neighbours. The ones you get to know and get to love. The ones you really could go over to and ask for a cup of sugar while you are baking. To use a more relevant analogy for myself the ones you could ask about a question you don't understand or query about tomorrow's schedule.



Most people quietly hope for the convenience friend but are willing to settle for the non-existent. Not that that's a sure fast rule, I mean I know plenty of people who do it completely the other way and to some extent stage of life effects what kind of neighbour you are looking for. Families benefit from convenience while many workaholics would prefer no neighbours - not that they would know being 'non-existent' themselves.



Around here (the res) it is important to have convenience friends. Because friends of convenience become the closest friends you have. It gets less important year after year, now we all have established friend circles. But year one, day one, your neighbours are often the ones who will define your university experience, affect the rest of your life.



I, to this point, have been lucky in not having bad neighbours. Well not counting one of the ones from last year (thankfully she had a boyfriend so was sometimes non-existent) who was quite possibly bi-polar. I guess all I can hope is that that remains the same for next year (my last year at the res). And after that... who knows? I guess work will make me non-existent for several years after that so it really isn't important for me.



Neighbours. You can either live with them or live without them, but some, some you will wish didn't live at all...

Three Songs I Have Been Known to Stick on Repeat

It has been a while since I have had time for a good ole plinky post... I am consequently several days out of the loop. The good thing about that is you get be picky about which one you answer without having to go searching through the older ones... Though searching through the really old ones can actually be a lot of fun I admit.



Today I'm doing. Three Songs You Never Get Sick Of.



As a topic this one is pretty hard for me. I am a music kind of person, as many people are. I don't have hugely strong preferences. Well I do, I like country, contemporary christian, showtunes and a smattering of anything (and everything ) else.



Beyond that - as with anybody I guess I have those songs I like more than others... But generally there is more than 1... and I get tired of most songs after a certain time period - no matter how good they are...



So looking for some long term favourites I struggled a little... too many which were too similiar for me to decide between... Nevertheless I did - a little by representing different categories of the songs I listen to again and again... and a little but picking the songs which I've known myself to repeat constantly...

Barry Manilow by Can't Smile Without You

I don't know what it is about this song. Perhaps a little bit the lovey-dovey romantic within the lyrics... A lot more the fact that I can sing along to it with easy... In fact all of the sings I've picked out are songs I can sing along to... But this one specifically... This is my shower song - nothing I like better than singing Can't Smile Without You while I wash my hair.

Casting Crowns by If We Are The Body

I love my contemporary Christian. In particular I love this song because it is about reaching out. Reaching out to fellow christians, reaching out to non-christians, showing your faith, showing Jeus, by loving the people around you. Which makes it a really good anti-loneliness song... Many many days of playing it on repeat last year when I was getting through a particularly lonely time.

Wrong Girl by Dianna Corcoran

Okay... This one was harder to pick. Rather it being specifically this song I have a short list of 10 or so girl-centric country songs which I use to raise my spirits. A couple of the others include Summer by the Sunny Cowgirls, Not Your Cinderella by Catherine Britt and Good Girl by Amber Lawrence. The thing they all have in common is they are guy free and very upbeat... and of course I can sing along to any of them when I choose. I'd recommend that as a fun time playlist for any country loving single girl.

Brains Beat Beauty

Ah finally a plinky post that I can get a bit of mental traction on. Uni work is reaching that crunch time it always gets to just before a break. As such I have a 3000 word essay that needs completing this weekend. Therefore of course I have some time to be wasting my brain on intellectual plinky debates.



Would you rather be super intelligent or extremely good looking?



Gee Plinky you're going to make it difficult to not be stereotypical or clique today. In an all of one and none of the other context I'm happy enough to side with super intelligent.



However this answer I am going to say is the dominant response as acceptable to our society. Humanity is not allowed to openly admit to being superficial. Nobody is going to admit that they wouldn't want to sacrifice their great body for the knowledge to help or hinder the world.



In fact of the 8 previous answers I have checked out only one person admitted to preferring to take looks. They figured while smart people would have the ability to know the answers to life, the universe and everything the good looking people simply wouldn't think to wonder about it.



So I think this a topic where a large percentage of people would answer very hypocritically. How can you say you would rather be intelligent than pretty when you decided against doing anything more demanding than arts at uni and spend $30 a week on your fingernails?

Equation

At this point I am going to reference the picture and say I am reckoning this a statistics calculation though I couldn't say for sure it not being my own picture... But if that isn't suggesting I already fall towards the intelligent rather than good looking side I don't know.



In another way to answer the question. If I'm going to do it on an 'out of ten' scale ie if my intelligence is a 9/10 my looks are a 1/10 etc. I'm probably going to go with intelligence of 8/10 and looks 2/10.



I have no great aspirations to be Einstein or the person who works out the specifics of putting an artificial atmosphere on the moon - not that I wouldn't want to reap the benefits and live on the moon =P. People who are that smart are weird - hell I'm not even that smart and I'm weird so I figure they are probably going to worse.



Also a small part of me would like to be able to face myself in the mirror every morning. Plus it gives me a head start over all the people with perfect intelligence who have perfect ugliness as well. Don't be denying it - all those 'extremely good looking' would be judging on looks and somebody needs to be able to tell them what's going on in the world.



Honestly looks are fairly low on my list of things to do. I don't like judging books by their covers - I generally at least wait until they've opened their mouths. But for extended periods of time there is little I can stand more than dumb people - I'd hate to sacrifice my natural ability to think about things to be just another pretty face.



This is when I think about the book I am reading at the moment 'Brave New World'. Not for the first time but certainly for the first time in a long time. There is a superficial society. The illusion of high intelligence which covers superficiality. Everybody knows lots of stuff but nobody has the ability to think, to question. Nobody is intelligent.



Interestingly the main character is intelligent. He knows something about this world isn't right - something isn't going deep enough. Coincidentally he is ugly - remarkably so for his Alpha-Plus caste status. Too short, too scrawny. I'd rather be him than any of the other beautiful people in that dystopia.

Loving a Bit Of Romance

So... Apparently Plinky wants me to get romantic today. Write a passage in the style of a romance novel. Little do they know that that is my most fluent genre... Possibly it is my only genre - I can't say anything else appeals to me - unless of course I can read romance into it :P. This isn't to say this will be a work of art but hey... should be fun.



Sarah stared at the distorted reflection of an elegant and distinctly feminine woman in stained glass panelling of the church. I can't believe she's making me wear this, she thought as her hand sub-consciously worried the loose curls which brushed across her shoulders.



She was much more at home in a pair of overalls, her hair locked tight against her skull. It was more convenient, more comfortable. She was a mechanic by trade and to be perfectly honest she would much rather be checking beneath the hood of the mustang they'd arrived at the church in than preparing to walk down that aisle. Thank God there was nobody from her normal life around to see her today.



Now it seemed everything was ready for the bridesmaids. Except for the dress, this is was straight-forward enough, Jessie first, then Sarah and finally their father and Olivia. As Sarah moved to her position she was reminded that the dress wasn't the only thing she didn't normally wear.



'Dammit Olivia, but these shoes are going to kill me before the day is through.' She attempted in hushed tones to break the nervous tension that was building around the bride.



'Sarah. Think of it this way if you trip and fall on your arse its not your wedding you ruin.'



Still, Sarah crossed her fingers to herself as she took the first step. And the second. The slow procession time made this shoe thing pretty easy. After a metre of two she was into the rhythm enough to look around discretely at the family, the groom, the groomsman...



Woah. What was he doing here? What was he doing here as THE BEST MAN? How was he in any way connected to Olivia's about-to-be husband Matthew?

"Wow--even on my wedding day, this is pretty cool!"

Sarah tried to convince herself to breathe. How could Matt's big brother Jonno and Jonathan P. Walters the third or the three-hundred and second of whatever retarded number he had after his name be one and the same?



Sarah admitted she had been a little bit taken by him the first couple of times they had met. Until he had made the move, and she unwittingly had fallen for it. Who knew that could be a bad thing? Suddenly he'd gone from this nice, attractive man to a man-eating businessman with nothi...



Sarah felt herself starting to topple. Its funny how in these situations time always slows down to a crawl as though it doesn't want you to miss a single second. Staring at the small step at the front of the church she couldn't help but curse inwardly that she had gotten so close to making it.



Unfortunately there had been no magical gust of wind or man's arms to appear from nowhere and save her. She hit the deck, and hit the deck hard, most would claim it had been the most complete face-plant they had seen in a while.



She was still regaining her wits when she felt strong arms reaching out to right her. Unfortunately she knew those arms. Fast enough to inflict whiplash on top of all her other injuries her head snapped around to death stare her would-be helper. Only she got distracted by the compassion in his eyes and the hint of a smile on his lips...

Hitting Up The Reruns

Wow. So it is currently a long time since this plinky prompt was posted. Unfortunately the last couple haven't been particularly suited to me. I can't remember a good strong case of dejavu (though I have done it before) and I have no great interest in children's books. So instead I figured I'll talk about reruns.



I love a good rerun. I guess most people do. However I don't actually watch that much television these days. I couldn't tell you what is on at the 8.30 time slot on any channel on any night of the week. In fact they could have changed the time for the news and I wouldn't know it... its has been weeks (provided you count the half an hour watching 'its academic' in the common room (a childrens 4pm quiz show) if not its been far longer).



However to kick-off my list of programs I can watch again and again (typically on my computer or via dvd) I am going to say the one show who I can guarantee is still on at 5pm every weekday...

M*A*S*H*
I always loved M*A*S*H*. I don't even know what it is about it that makes it so easy to just watch and watch. Even when you know most of the jokes and the outcome of every story line its just a good time. I must not be alone in this, it has managed to run perpetually for as long as I can remember - round and round in circles. It will be a sad day when MASH is kicked off air.

House
It isn't quite old enough that reruns typically get played on tv (unless its a football night) but I am happy enough to watch through the episodes again and again via DVD. I just love watching the character of House and how he interacts with everybody around him... it doesn't get old.

Dad's Army
I'm starting to see a pattern here. I watch a lot of old war time sit coms... Perhaps that's why I joined the military... I hope not it certainly isn't a particularly good reflection of it. Though at times - maybe it is.



Basically I don't watch that much TV at all. This list was surprisingly hard to come up with. There are other shows which I watch on and off... But there is no 'if its on I'll watch it feel about them'... I'd much rather be reading a good cheap mills and boon a second time...