“Okay, we’ve talked about quantum mechanics… what’s next?”
“FART JOKES!”
A lifetime membership!
I got an e-mail earlier today from American Mensa asking me to renew my membership online now so they could “be green” and not have to send me a notice in the mail later this month. It was apparently a generic message that they send to all members since I scrolled down a little further and discovered that my membership will expire on 3/31/2013 (I apparently paid for three years the last time).
Thus, if the Mayans were right and the world is going to end in 2012, my membership in Mensa is ensured for the rest of my life.
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Mensa: The High Test Scorers’ Society
Officially, Mensa is the “High IQ Society”, but someone on Twitter (I’m not going to identify that someone, since the person is extremely smart and pretty cool, too) had a legitimate gripe about the organization this afternoon: high test scores don’t always correlate with high intelligence. People can study for tests to improve their scores, but that doesn’t make them smarter.
The person also brought forth the issue of different tests that can qualify a person for Mensa membership. In general, they tend to focus on verbal, math and logic skills. I sent in my LSAT score with my application and was welcomed with open arms. However, it’s a test score, not an actual measure of IQ (or EQ or any other standard that measures actual smartness).
That said, the person made some rather harsh generalizations that… well, I’ve met some people who would fit the qualification of “douchebag”. Some people tout their membership in Mensa (or worse, the 99.9% Club) as an identifying aspect of their character. What’s worse, they think that makes them superior to others who can’t get the scores needed to join. Said others may have been blessed with way more smartness than some members, but without good test-taking skills, they’re stuck on the outside looking in.
I like to think I’m not one of those people. I’m a member of Mensa and I know I’m not that smart. I don’t wear my membership like a badge on my sleeve and I never bring it up in conversation. If someone else says something, I’ll talk about it. If not, I keep that info to myself, thank you very much. I think the problem is that I don’t see myself as being special (or “douchebag-y”) in that way, but because of Mensa’s reputation (justified or not), other people make judgments accordingly.
Oh, and another tweet pointed out that some people are so proud of their membership, they’ll reveal that as soon as they meet someone: “Hi, I’m Dave and I’m a member of Mensa.” Almost makes it sound like a support group, doesn’t it? “I’m addicted to my Mensa membership. I try not to go to events anymore, but I can’t stop playing poker with other smart people!!!”
As for myself, I haven’t sunk to such depths. It’s been documented on national TV. When Brian McFayden asked me to give my best pickup line, I said, “Hi, my name’s Shawn, what’s yours?” Nothing about Mensa in there. I think that sounds like a good way to introduce myself to someone who’s not very good at taking tests, don’t you?
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Idiots recruiting geeks
God, this is sad. I got a call from a friend a few hours ago—she wanted me to jump in a car and drive down to Chicago tonight. Continue reading “Idiots recruiting geeks”
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Egocentrism and “Confessions”
I wish I could remember why this feeling struck me (ouch!), but a couple days ago, it occurred to me how… self-centered having a blog like this can be. “Look at what I write! See how important it is? It’s worthy of public consumption! You should all read it! I’m so cool, my pee-pee has frostbite!” Okay, maybe that last one is a little extreme, but hopefully, you get the idea. Continue reading “Egocentrism and “Confessions””
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Some of my business
Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, some Generation-X members of Mensa created a Yahoo mailing list for other members to keep in touch, talk about politics and religion, share cooking recipes and favorite methods to kill people without getting blood on your clothes… it’s fun stuff. The moderators of the list have set boundaries for what people can write, one of which has recently been broken, but they haven’t stopped it. That’s even more fun stuff.
The crime: making personal attacks. The perpetrator: some dude from South Africa whose screen name is “None of your business.” (Clever, isn’t he?) While we’re not sure what his motivation is, he has made it abundantly clear that he wants to be banned from the list. Consequently, the moderators won’t do it, but that hasn’t stopped him from trying. He’ll go off on a tear about how America is an oppressive nation, we killed all the Indians, bombed the Japanese, we eat too many Big Macs at McDonald’s… basically, he’s being as much of a prick as he possibly can.
I usually “lurk” on the list and let other people discuss how to kill their enemies, but after a few days of reading this guy’s drivel, I decided to throw my hat into the mix. (His initial message was a response to something one of my friends wrote—you can read our nifty exchanges below.) He’s usually quite prompt with his smart-ass replies, but he hasn’t written anything about my final message in this post. I’m quite disappointed, really, but when it comes to being a smart-ass… who’s yo’ daddy?
Now all I have to do is think up an appropriate victory dance. Given that he’s also talked about how low he could go with his insults, I’m thinking I should get the limbo pole ready. Continue reading “Some of my business”
