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Quotable Heinlein Discussion Boards
"Uninteresting Autobiography"
magas   |
Apr-05-00, 10:33 AM (EST)
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"Uninteresting Autobiography" |
For the sake of new people on the boards, like Carlos or caseyjones1964 (I hope I didn't mix up the names), I'll post an autobiography of mine which I hope will be complete and objective enough.
I was born on the 12th of August, 1978 in Athens, Greece, at around 8:15 in a hospital by an abnormal manner. (That is, the doctors extracted me from my mother's womb by means of a surgery rather than the normal manner.) I lived in Ambalokipi, a region of downtown Athens, for two years, when we moved to Suda Bay Naval Base, in Crete. (That is the time from which I have my earlier recollections.) We lived there for two years, when we moved to Marrousi, a suburb of Athens, when my father was transferred to the Athens Naval Hospital.
We lived there for three years when we moved to nearby Chalandri, another suburb of Athens, when my parents felt that they could buy a house of their own. (Up to then we leaved on lease.)
We lived in Chalandri until 1989, when my father was transferred to SBNB again, this time to handle the base's entire hygionomical organization. We lived there three years and then I moved to Soufli, a small town (<4000) in North-Eastern Greece where my mother was born, with my mother and sister and brother while my father moved to Athens alone. The family was then reunited and I studied the senior high-school in Chalandri. (That lasts three years and when it ends you can be admitted to university.)
I didn't make it into the uni the first time, primarily because I was busy going to concerts and entertaining girls rather than studying, but the second time I tried, I made it very easily, studying no more than an hour a day, and am now studying civil engineering in the city of Xanthi. (I hope to become a transportation engineer and I can see post-graduate studies abroad after I'm finished here.) I own the apartment I live in here, which the government thinks is preposterous and forces me to pay exorbitant taxes, considering my income, which is not very high. I hope I'll be able to buy a small used car during the summer. (My sister is definitely going to buy a bigger new car and she's making a fuss about it, just to bust my...)
I first read RAH, on my father's advice, namely Starship Troopers, during our first stay in Chalandri and during my second stay there, I went about going downtown and buying sci-fi books, in English, every three or four weeks. (I would have done so more regularly had I been able to afford it.) RAH has shaped a great deal of my views of politics and life in general and I am grateful for the fact that his book have opened a whole different mentality from the one I experience here. (Did I mention that almost everyone here's a socialist, to a certain degree?)
My family life has not been particularly stable or peaceful and fights among members of the family (father vs mother, me vs father, sister v mother and all sorts of combinations you can think of) were a daily afair. They still are and that is why I think my brother wants to leave home and come to live with me, (he's graduating from senior high school this year and wants to study electrogical engineering and electronics at the same university with me) despite the fact that Xanthi is hell, compared to Chalandri.
I read and listen to music a lot, whereas I write for practice, you know to maintain a farily good standard in my English, paint miniatures and play basketball for a considerable portion of my time's. I'm a natural athlete and there is nothing I can make myself do with ease, except perhaps jump four meters in the air, execute a thee-flip roll and land on my index finger. IQ tests also state I rate above 99% of the population and my memory is excelent, with the minor exception of names and book titles. (I can remember what I've posted here for instance, and in the old boards, with amazing detail.)
This is rather long, but it was worth it.
If anyone should like to see a photo of mine, just to make sure you get how handsome I am as well, you can e-mail to impergus@hotmail.com and I'll be sure to get back to you.
I'm 181cms tall and weigh 69kgrs, which translates to, approximately, 6' and 150pounds.
My eyes are brown and so is my hair and my skin is a couple of shades lighter than that of the average Greek. I guess that wraps it up...
C.C.
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RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
Raydeen, Apr-05-00, (1)
  RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
Raydeen, Apr-07-00, (2)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
carlos, Apr-07-00, (3)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
Raydeen, Apr-08-00, (6)
IQ,
Amanda, Sep-06-00, (17)
RE: IQ,
SailFree, Sep-06-00, (18)
RE: IQ,
SailFree, Sep-06-00, (19)
RE: IQ,
occula, Sep-07-00, (20)
RE: IQ,
SailFree, Sep-07-00, (21)
RE: IQ,
occula, Sep-08-00, (22)
RE: IQ,
Tony, Sep-09-00, (23)
RE: IQ,
Raydeen, Sep-10-00, (24)
RE: IQ,
occula, Sep-11-00, (25)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
Occula, Apr-07-00, (4)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
Occula, Apr-07-00, (5)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
magas, Apr-12-00, (7)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
Occula, Apr-12-00, (8)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
magas, Apr-13-00, (9)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
Occula, Apr-13-00, (10)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
magas, Apr-17-00, (11)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
Occula, Apr-17-00, (12)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
magas, Apr-28-00, (13)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
Occula, May-01-00, (15)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
SailFree, Apr-29-00, (14)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
magas, May-01-00, (16)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
Willis, Sep-11-00, (26)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
magas, Sep-21-00, (27)
RE: Uninteresting Autobiography,
Tony, Sep-22-00, (28)
Greek Cooking,
magas, Sep-22-00, (29)
RE: Greek Cooking,
Tony, Sep-23-00, (30)
RE: Greek Cooking,
SailFree, Sep-23-00, (31)
RE: Greek Cooking,
magas, Sep-25-00, (32)
RE: Greek Cooking,
SailFree, Sep-25-00, (33)
Update!,
magas, Oct-05-00, (34)
 RE: Update!,
SailFree, Oct-06-00, (35)
RE: Update!,
magas, Oct-11-00, (36)
I wasn't supposed to be here,
magas, Jan-01-02, (37)
August2002Update - Too Much Work!,
C.N.Christidis, Aug-25-02, (38)
PhD,
Constantinos Christidis, May-23-06, (39)
RE: PhD,
SailFree, May-23-06, (40)
RE: PhD,
Willis, May-24-06, (41)
RE: PhD,
Mike, May-25-06, (42)
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Raydeen  |
Apr-07-00, 06:18 AM (EST)
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2. "RE: Uninteresting Autobiography" |
Hey guys,
I didn't want to sound like I was bragging in my last post. It was more that I wanted to explore another area that I suspect we all have in common. I would imagine that if we did total up our common characteristics, it would be a long list!
raydeen
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carlos |
Apr-07-00, 08:56 AM (EST)
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3. "RE: Uninteresting Autobiography" |
hi Raydeen,a jerk is a jerk wether her/his IQ stands at 210 or 65. inteligence has got little to do with social behaviour. a brilliant mind can be spoiled by wrong education and bad values and an average person in terms of IQ can be just delightful to be with. that is just us humans, capable of the very best and the very worst. i have no idea of my IQ except that it has been enough to take me through my life so far. what i usually find is that regardless of linear intelligence people tend to concentrate on what interests them. being so a dimwit can be brilliant at handling precision tools and a genius can kill himself trying to use a nail clipper. i hope that the characteristics we do not share at least equal to the ones we do. that is what keeps me coming to this boards. i know that will always have some friends to agree with and some others to "fight" with. thanks to you all for being there
all the best
carlos
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Amanda |
Sep-06-00, 07:26 AM (EST)
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17. "IQ" |
As far as I understand it, IQ is just a measure of how quickly and easily one can learn, not at all how much one knows. That's why it can change in the course of one's life. Though I wouldn't swap my IQ for love or money (my mom refused to tell me what it was when I got it tested years and years ago, but I found out anyway), what I find much more important is a person's drive to know. I will have much more in common with a person who is interested in things and sees life as a process of learning and growing than one who doesn't but has a preposterously high IQ.For any who are interested, here is an on-line IQ test that takes less than 15 minutes: http://www.iqtest.com It claims it is accurate, though the few people I know who have done it (including myself) say that it seems to run several points high. In my opinion, MENSA is a crock of #####, just a group to make lame people feel better by thinking they're lording it over everyone about how smart they are. I once played in an orchestra at a MENSA gathering and found them to be a boring, repulsive lot. I rather prefer folks who could get into MENSA but shiver at the thought and decline membership.
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SailFree |
Sep-06-00, 09:49 PM (EST)
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18. "RE: IQ" |
LAST EDITED ON Sep-06-00 AT 09:50 PM (EST)Hi, Amanda, If you don't like MENSA, you could go for Triple-9 Society or 4-Sigma. But I think you are right, in general, about the folks who join such. As Heinlein said about the small lizard who was a brontosaurus on his mother's side... --Al
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Tony |
Sep-09-00, 02:48 AM (EST)
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23. "RE: IQ" |
I took the test, too, and I thought that the results were significantly exaggerated in two ways.First, the numbers. Without giving a mean and standard deviation, they're meaningless. But the two commonest IQ scales have SDs of 15 and 16, and on them my IQ comes out as 12 or 15 points below what I scored on this test. Secondly, the descriptions. It says that an IQ of 130 is "entry level Genius". But the Termin scale gives 150 as Genius level. I'm no statistician, but I suspect this test would call something like 10% of the population "genius". The clincher, of course, is that they want to sell you something. Salesmen _always_ flatter the customer.... As for Mensa, I joined when I was at University. Half a dozen of us got around together, drinking Coke, listening to Tom Lehrer, and talking about _everything_. When the Mensa crew came recruiting on campus, we all took the test. All breezed through, too. One of us (not me) was a certifiable genius. Anyway, we didn't find any of the arrogasnce that others have mentioned. Maybe a difference in national character. We did find that IQ made very little difference in the way people got through life. It was a commonplace in the club that "IQ is a pretty rough measure of nothing in particular." We had at least our fair share of dropouts, dole bludgers, alcoholics and failed marriages. About the only thing we had which differentiated us from any random group was that we could all _talk_ to each other, about pretty much anything. But of course, the same thing is true of this group. And, frankly, we all seem to get on a whole lot better than my old Mensa chapter ever did.
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Raydeen |
Sep-10-00, 03:21 PM (EST)
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24. "RE: IQ" |
Hello, all,
This topic is interesting! I took the test, and it corresponded with the two times I have taken an IQ test in my life. I still concur, that while knowing your score is fun, it doesn't always mean success. Raf says that his IQ is lower than mine by around 10-20 points (if I remember right), but I know that he is a much quicker thinker than I am. He gets more out of information than I do, too. And he is very successful. So, IQ is a measurement of a certain kind of variable...but it sure doesn't guarantee that you will make it in life. I think that well-directed natural curiosity can count for much more, anyway.
Raydeen
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Occula |
Apr-07-00, 12:13 PM (EST)
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4. "RE: Uninteresting Autobiography" |
Just wondering, Costas, how you came to own your apartment ... saving your money through hard work, probably, or was there a "luck" factor? I have "homeowner's jealousy" since I can't imagine being able to own a dwelling for another five years at least.
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Occula |
Apr-07-00, 12:14 PM (EST)
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5. "RE: Uninteresting Autobiography" |
Just wondering, Costas, how you came to own your apartment ... saving your money through hard work, probably, or was there a "luck" factor? I have "homeowner's jealousy" since I can't imagine being able to own a dwelling for another five years at least.---Hope I managed to stop this before it posted. I wanted to add that when people say they own a home here, they usually mean "I'm $120,000 in debt," which to me means the home owns them - but still, I'd love to live in a house. *sigh* someday, maybe ...
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magas |
Apr-12-00, 01:35 AM (EST)
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7. "RE: Uninteresting Autobiography" |
Well, the answer is simple enough...
A. I am lucky, but not to the extent of buying a house. (That is, I have never won a lottery or something, however things just seem to come along my way when luck is concerned. (Like always catching the bus, no-matter how slow I move...))
B. Apartments here are cheap but...I have a debt to pay up to a bank you know. (20000 dollars approximately.) Thank goodness interest rates are low, I have fifteen years to pay it up AND I have an income higher than the monthly pay to the bank. (I do have to economize though, therefor the car can wait (almost indefinitely (argh! this is surely wrong spelled)), the new computer that I desperately need can wait and I have to buy much less CDs that I would have liked. (In short, in the past year that I have had to pay the mortgage, I have cut my other expenses by 35-50%.)
C. I don't have anyone else's needs (or financial worries) to trouble myself over, so if I screw up, it's just me and I can take the chance.And answering Raydeen's message,
a copy of MENSA's tests reached my hands and I found it very easy. (There was this preliminary test that had something like 30 questions which you had to answer in thirty minutes. I answered 27 of the questions in ten minutes and didn't care to bother with the other three. (As it happened, you earned more points for answering quickly rather than correctly so the twenty minutes to spare that I had would weigh more that the remaining three questions answered in five minutes and I let it be as it was.) The result read "You'd make the perfect MENSA member" and I decided "it would be the perfect waste of time" because I had little interest in taking easy tests.) I don't like non-challenging situations, so I never pushed the matter further (that is bother to actually take the tests and join MENSA). I feel like bubbling, don't I?
C.C.
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Occula |
Apr-12-00, 08:28 AM (EST)
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8. "RE: Uninteresting Autobiography" |
Thanks! I was just being nosy, but I was curious.I think that's how you spell "indefinitely." I always thought I was lucky and things just came my way - until I was about 22 or 23. I'm not sure what happened - I think my karma's off!
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magas |
Apr-13-00, 01:23 AM (EST)
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9. "RE: Uninteresting Autobiography" |
Yes...
Or no?
What am I typing?!?!?!
Anyway, I forgot what I was going to type, probably because it was unimportant. (Something more interesting than my thoughts invaded my mind.)
Hehehehehe
C.C.
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magas |
Apr-17-00, 03:32 AM (EST)
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11. "RE: Uninteresting Autobiography" |
Tha bank happened to appreciate the fact that my grandmother left me a house back at the village when she passed away three years ago.
(Since you got something you can draw upon, they said, we can lend you the money, but be warned! Should you fall back, you can kiss both your houses goodbye.)
Luckily, I've not fallen back on payments and if things keep good, I'll not do so. (Since I'll be leaving this hell-hole in 2.5yrs' time, I'll be renting the apartment, which mind you is not something fancy, so it will be transformed from something I pay for into something that pays for.)
C.C.
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magas |
Apr-28-00, 08:46 PM (EST)
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13. "RE: Uninteresting Autobiography" |
Nor really, it's pretty factual!
hahahahahahahahahahahahahah
I'd rather have my granny around than the house. People can't be replaced by material possessions, no matter how intensely you disagreed with them.
C.C.
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Willis |
Sep-11-00, 11:16 PM (EST)
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26. "RE: Uninteresting Autobiography" |
C.C. (or, is it "Magas" now),Sorry I couldn't wade completely through your bio, but I did notice you mentioned Marrousi. I visited Athens about 3 years ago and remember being there. Also, I was in Kafisia. Loved the souvlaki and tsadziki (spelling?), but the baklava was a little too sweet for me! Willis
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magas |
Sep-21-00, 04:57 AM (EST)
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27. "RE: Uninteresting Autobiography" |
Willis,
Actually, spelling and pronounciation differ from one region to the other. In Athens, the thing, which I find too abusive for my sensitive stomach, is called "tzantziki" and pronounced very much like what you wrote it. In Crete, it's called "santziki", with the ntz part pronounced n-dz, instead of dz and...well, in other regions it's called differently as well.
A question...how come and you came over by my home-town? (If a five million city can ever be called a town...) Is there any chance of you visiting us again? If so, drop an e-mail at impergus@hotmail.com and I'll be sure to give you the exclusive QH-boards-member-only tour guide!
C.C.
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Tony |
Sep-22-00, 03:06 AM (EST)
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28. "RE: Uninteresting Autobiography" |
Hi Constantinos.I've heard of tsatziki, of course, but if I ever knew what it was I've forgotten. So when I read this thread I went and looked up my little book of Greek cookery. All of the recipes are named in both Greek and English, but the index only references the English names. Aaugh! So I had to scan the whole book. Actually, I only got a quarter of the way through before I found something called "Tzajiki", which sounds pretty close - it seems to be mostly yoghurt and cucumber, flavoured with garlic and dill. Is that what you and Willis are talking about? Apart from the garlic, it doesn't sound too "abusive", so maybe I better continue scanning the book... *sigh* Tony.
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magas |
Sep-22-00, 05:20 AM (EST)
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29. "Greek Cooking" |
Yeap, that's it. It may not be abusive to you, but it is to me. (It is also a breath destroyer!) Officially, it's a salad...There are many others of its kind, much more spicy, which are actually good. (Bujurdi for instance.) If you want Greek recipes, I can e-mail anything to you, cause my mother knows them all!
C.C.
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