The Flying of the Freak Flags

Raoul Duke

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Damn, @ChuckV beat me to it. Although I was going to say Eleanor Roosevelt, because you didnā€™t say it had to be a correct attribution. Iā€™ll settle for an old fashioned plain donut.

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My left hand is a clumsy dope 99% of the time, but for some reason, I can use it for chopsticks really well. No idea why Iā€™m chopstick-ambidextrous, but it helps when I eat ramen.

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I was notorious for not staying put. Iā€™d be found reading in the library, hanging out with the janitors, and generally not making a bother of myself somewhere other than where I was supposed to be. By the time I was in 12th grade I had a litany of teachers whose opinion was ā€˜get this guy to college alreadyā€™, and despite far FAR FAR too many absences I graduated on time because none of the teachers wrote it down.

My pretty successful career involves returning to a desk about 2 days a week. I can manage that. Otherwise I am out looking at the world, and documenting it.

in this zero tolerance world Iā€™d have been screwed down and broken, or labeled a failure.

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Iā€™m semi-ambidextrous. If I need to do something that involves wrist motion, Iā€™m better with my right hand. If itā€™s something that uses the fingers more, I use my left.

Thereā€™s a joke in that somewhereā€¦

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Still happening, so you know.

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Iā€™m not ambidextrous whatsoever. Iā€™m a full-blown rightie for all things.
Except high jumping (via the Fosbury Flop), where I jump lefty.

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I apparently give really bad hugs. My friendā€™s kid, whose going through a huggy phase, gives me a "whatā€™s the matter with you? " look after hugging me. The Free Hug people shy away from me when I pass them after I hugged one of them on a dare. My friends donā€™t hug me, ever. They say they get terrible vibes after hugging me.

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While I appreciate @chgolizā€™s point that these are still happening I donā€™t know of any near me, not anymore. The BBSes I started out on were strictly localā€“unless someone wanted to pay long distance fees. This made getting together in person something we did regularlyā€“either just a couple of us or large groups.

The internet has been a mixed blessing. On the plus side itā€™s brought greater diversityā€“and thatā€™s a huge plus. The local BBS users I used to hang out with were 99% white guys and roughly 65% seriously into technology which sometimes left out those of us with more artistic leanings. (Early on there was a split among local BBS users when those who wanted to talk exclusively about computers told the rest of us to get out.)

I appreciate the way my horizons have been expanded but also miss the personal interaction and the little things, like being thrown out of Fuddruckerā€™s for dancing on the tables.

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We have a much, much cooler bouncer.

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Iā€™m completely ambidextrous, even though Iā€™ve been told this is either impossible or a learned behavior. I probably learned it somewhere, but I have no idea where.

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Thereā€™s a handedness in high jumping? Now thatā€™s really weird.

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If people have a dominant hand, they have a dominant foot as well. It might not be on the same side as their dominant hand though.

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Iā€™m generally right handed, but definitely left footed.

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Two left feet?

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In my life one of the most cutting things I remember being said to me was by some guy I wanted to think I was cool. ā€œYouā€™re just trying to be weird.ā€ It hurt so much because I didnā€™t have the faintest idea why he would think that or want to display such disdain for me because of it. Weird is an adjective that has been used to describe me as long as I can remember. I hate to define myself. Probably pathologically so? Iā€™ve never written a resume. Iā€™ve had over 40 jobs, not like freelance work or anything. Stuff like foodservice, housekeeping, landscaping, call center operator, convenience store clerk, food processing plant laborer, laundromat, this list is in order of personal preference for the work. Number 1 is dish washing dead last is washing other peoples clothes. I had a work study at a university library circulation desk once that was environmentally ideal but socially untenable. I cry very frequently. Not because I am desperately sad or something, its like a necessary pressure release. Just really sensitive. Lots of tears of identification shed while reading the posts here. I canā€™t bear the movie theater experience and will almost certainly annoy others if I attempt it. I have a rather femme exterior, clear secondary signs of estrogen exposure and am delighted by the development of whiskers in a sort of fu manchu arrangement on my face. My favorite book Is Ferdydurke, especially the honeycombed in childishness parts. Left handed and goofy footed, with some forced/learned ambidextrous traits. I feel like my kung fu is pretty good. I write songs and sing regularly and believe it is one of the most important things that I do. I have both a reverence and fervor for funk. Met my spouse on IRC. After couple years getting to know each other, I drove over 700 miles for our first meeting, having never laid eyes on them before. We are hermited and happy.

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Iā€™m curious about this ā€“ what was it about dish washing that made it your favorite job?

When I think back, one of the best jobs I ever had was desk clerk at a university research library. 2 hours every morning in a quiet, dim room lit mostly by green glass reading lamps. My job consisted of sending book requests down to the stacks via pneumatic tube and handing the books over once they arrived. The rest of the time was just study time or quiet reading. The pay was minimal at best but you couldnā€™t ask for a lower-stress job experience.

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?

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The thing about dish washing that is the easiest answer is that it was the most independent and had the least person to person interaction. So long as it gets done itā€™s kinda like wearing an invisibility cloak. That and the work never bothered me. I loved the circulation desk too but it became a source of confusing social drama that was very case and time specific; hence it not being included in the list proper, due to an ambivalence I am unable to untangle.

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