So, yesterday I was at a day-long training

[Manifestor_of_Light]

13. Catch, that sounds familiar.

I don't want to make stupid small talk with people. I will be pleasant and like to make people laugh. I have social skills. I will make sympathetic noises to the checker at the store, and say something like "I bet your feet hurt" or "It's probably been a long day" and they appreciate that. I can be very entertaining.

The familiar part is where you say you are introverted unless you are around artists. I am an artist and a serious musician on two instruments and voice. I have performed in two plays in the Hispanic community and was a soprano in the chorus of an opera done by a community opera company. That was great fun and we did it in the original Italian, of course. I can have a great time talking about the latest exhibit at the art museum, or the fact that Houston Grand Opera is in the middle of a very avant-garde Ring Cycle now, having presented two of the operas, or many other kinds of music & musical artists. Or jazz chord progressions. I've seen enough of the standard operatic repertoire that the usual productions of the usual works bore me and I won't go see them.

Other good topics are philosophy or history or economics. I know a bit about those. I also have a few other topics I am "cracked" on and know a lot about, generally law and biology (have degrees in those) and Romance languages (took Latin, Spanish and Italian in school).

But your average TV show, or your average celebrity tabloid, I have no interest in. And of course no interest in conservative religion and conservative politics. If I admire a celebrity, it's because they've done something I consider worthwhile with their lives as an entertainer or an educator, or they've spoken out on a cause that shows that they are thoughtful. There are people who are famous for being famous, and people who are famous and talented at what they do. To quote Lewis Black, "WHY should I keep up with the Kardashians?"


If I am around people interested in what I am interested, I am right there and listening and contributing. The average dolt who is into stupid TV shows and shitkick music and hating Obama, nope. I will get up and leave. Just about all my relatives are dead or estranged and so I don't have to get into any political arguments with them. My parents were yellow dog Democrats, though.

I think a lot of so called extroverts just want to dominate and control other people. By talking over them, being loud, telling them what they should do and so forth. They don't listen. I don't want to dominate anyone so I have to assert myself to not be dominated. Sometimes I am too nice and want to get along with everybody, and some people you just can't be nice to. You have to get away from them.