Were your parents weird?
Mine are. My mom was an artist and my dad's a big pot head history buff. Do you think we geneticly inherited our weirdness or did we learn it coming up? Weird Nature vs. Weird Nurture.
Mine are. My mom was an artist and my dad's a big pot head history buff. Do you think we geneticly inherited our weirdness or did we learn it coming up? Weird Nature vs. Weird Nurture.
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SF Bay Area
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Fri, March 5, 2004 - 12:36 PMMy parents were the quintessence of weird. My dad is a rocket scientist who got stuck in the sp.ed class because his family was poor and they figured he was stupid. Now he's a computer geek working for the local hospital keeping their computers up to maintenance.
My mom was a hippie rebel. As far as I know she did nothing but smoke pot in the bathroom and go to peace rallys.
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Fri, March 5, 2004 - 12:39 PMIt wasn't genetic with me. My folks are just as vanilla as they come. They listen to bland music, watch crappy movies, decorate very ordinarily, dressed conservatively, and don't care for art in any form. I don't know what how the fuck happened with me. -
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Fri, March 5, 2004 - 12:44 PMIf you want to piss off your parents, show interest in the arts.
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Unsu...
Re: Weird Genetics?
Fri, March 5, 2004 - 12:57 PMI don't know if I'd really consider them weird. Freaks yes, weird I dunno.
My dad is a Southern Baptist (hopefully 'nuff said). My mom is an ex-hippie turned sell-out, turned secretary for the EPA...silly tree huggers. And my step-dad, well, he was so far out on heroin when he was my age, that he wouldn't have known sobriety if he slapped him in the face....
:::shrug::: maybe odd is a good word for them.
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Fri, March 5, 2004 - 1:16 PMMy mom is totally weird. My dad is totally normal.
I do get a lot of stuff from my mom, but I think my weirdness developed from a sort of self-imposed isolation I had growing up. I didn't want anyone to know me or even anything about me. I retreated into my imagination through reading and writing which I feel made me appear "weird" to most other people.
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Fri, March 5, 2004 - 1:18 PMI do belive it's genetic My mom is a roman catholic that has a penchant for the occult, and my dad is what anyone would call a good man but he likes to read books about magical teleporting hermaphrodites. Is it any wonder why I am, the way that I be? -
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Fri, March 5, 2004 - 2:17 PMHey Todd, maybe it skips a generation in your family? How weird are your grandparents?
Actually, come to think of it I'm pretty darn sure I inherited much of my weirdness from my Grandma. We've got the same syle nuttyness. -
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Fri, March 5, 2004 - 2:27 PMGood question. Well, my grandma is a bible-beating ambulance chaser! She's pretty out there. -
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Sat, March 6, 2004 - 8:37 AMI think i get my wierdness from my grandma...she's the only person to escape from her alzhiemers unit. when she returned she said "I remember this place, it's easy to get in and hard to get out" -
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Sat, March 6, 2004 - 8:40 AMcontinued....on birthdays she used to give sacks of pennies, same with christmas,easter,halloween,valentines,etc,etc,...her house was strangely decorated and she always was drinking soda, completely paranoid,...one visit she made my mother raise her right hand and swear she wouldn't put her in a "home" before she let her in the house.good times.
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Tue, June 15, 2004 - 4:58 PMOh, Weirdo definitely runs in my family, but I seem to have surpassed them all somehow. Amazingly, I don't even have to do anything special (for me) or try.
I know my mother wonders how I ever got to be so weird, even though she's, in large part, responsible. My dad more or less accepts it--he's weird in a quiet, private way. They're both nutty tea totlers who almost everyone seems to love. People either love me or hate me--in small doses.
When I think of all my cousins, their offspring and even my nephews, who got an extra hit of Weirdo from their mom, I am awed and amazed by my weird family and their antics. I think I'll go write a sitcom about them.
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Tue, June 15, 2004 - 8:10 PMDo we get progressively weirder from generation to generation? My parents are most definitely weird, but I'm quite a lot weirder than they are. So is it nature And nurture or selective breeding? -
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Thu, June 17, 2004 - 5:53 PMI'm most certainly weirder than my parents, but not by too much. I also have that love me or hate me syndrome. It used to bug me but now I find it's an excellent way to keep the riff-raff out of my life. Goddamn those riff-raff! -
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Sun, June 20, 2004 - 3:29 AMI couldn't agree more about the riff-raff filter! I wouldn't trade it for all the tea in China. -
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Thu, June 24, 2004 - 10:35 AMMy mom is an artist who was a hippie during the 60's. When I was little there was a giant psychadelic mural on the wall of our house. She is also a far leftist with heavy conspiracy theory leanings..and (ahem) she's an abductee...(aliens)
My dad is Czech-American..he was born here but most of his relatives weren't. There is alot of heresay that there is something of a strain of Gypsy blood on my dad's side. Old photos of my more distant relatives (like great grandather) depict a very dark exotic and swarthy people (not very Anglo-European looking) My dad can play just about any instrument he puts his hands on. Furthermore, on that side of the family, there is a very strong tendancy towards serious eccentric behavior--like hoarding stuff--REALLY hoarding--crazy stuff--beyond 15 years worth of cardboard toilet paper rolls and yogurt cups...
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Fri, June 25, 2004 - 6:39 AMSo that's where that weird hoarding gene comes from!
I once said to my mother: "if I didn't know better, I'd swear I was part gypsy."
She replied, "that's because you are. My mother was a Romanian gypsy." I seem to be the main one of all her predecessors to get that as the dominant gene, although there are other family members who exhibit some of the traits to a lesser extent. -
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Fri, June 25, 2004 - 8:20 AMI had a great uncle who uh...preserved his body waste (just in case he might need it later on i guess) He was a very intelligent and interesting guy though..I don't really know whether hoarding is a gypsy thing. I suppose it would make sense.
At the risk of stigmatizing gypsies though, I have wondered if that was the reason I spent so many years as a cleptomaniac. I started stealing when i was about 3 or 4, I don't do it anymore, it was more of a youth thing, but I became very adept at it and never got caught. Mostly from stores, bookstores, flea markets, outdoor festivals, ect...It was this compulsive reflex that was really hard to control for a while. Ironicly, the only times I have ever been accused of stealing, were times when I hadn't stolen anything... -
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Wed, June 30, 2004 - 1:09 PMI would think gypsies would pack light being on the road so much and all.
And, I wouldn't blame your gypsy heritage for being a shoplifter. I think it's more a normal part of growing up a dissident in a consumer society. -
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Re: Weird Genetics?
Thu, July 1, 2004 - 3:58 PMI didn't really see myself as a dissident in a consumer society till i got to be a bit older.. I filled my coffers with cheap little toys and convenience store candy as a wee lass because A. i was dirt poor and B. I knew I could get away with it.
I am fascintated by my ancestry and I don't SERIOUSLY mean to blame my gypsy heritage for my stealing, but gypsies have long been stigmatised as dishonest folks who steal (a stereotype I do not mean to advocate)
..hence the origin of the word gyp..as in cheat out of something...and not all gypsies travel in caravans. In many parts of Eastern Europe and elsewhere, they live in ghettoes..and plenty don't do either.
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