For Us, The Living

About Me

My name is Robert.  I’m a 18 year old guy with a website.  I’m overly opinionated, argumentative, and stubborn.  I try and keep quiet unless I have something to say since you learn more that way.  I like to jump of things and pretend that I’m doing parkour because life is too short to NOT do parkour.  What else do you really need to know?

Music:

Music has always played a very large role in my life.  About a year ago I realized that my taste in music was ridiculously narrow.  Since then, I’ve started forcing myself to listen to different genre’s in an attempt to gain a better appreciation for all music, not just rock and the popular stuff.  Since then, I’ve started listening to Classical, Instrumental, Rap, Metal, Classic Rock, Dubstep, Trance, Techno, and pretty much anything with a beat.  I’m having a hard time with country music and rock will always have a very special place in my heart, but I consider this endeavor a success.

I tried to create a Dubstep track once.  It didn’t go very well.

Movies/ TV:

I don’t watch much television or many movies apart from when I’m eating or late at night, but I still have my favorites.  For TV, Psych and The Office are pretty much my ‘go-to’s.  Favorite movies: V For Vendetta, Forest Gump, Fight Club, The Rocker, The Social Network, and (of course) Star Wars.

Games:

There was a time when I spent a large portion of my time playing Halo 3 and MW2.  Not so much now since I have stuff going on and I’m generally too busy.  Nonetheless, I still enjoy the occasional game, especially if I have to opportunity to play with friends.  That said, Tetris will always be my favorite game.  I think I still have the high score out of all my Facebook friends, though someone did beat me once.  I played another game after I found out and took the title back.

Books:

One summer my parents made the mistake of bribing my to read by offering me $5 for every 100 pages I read.  I think I was in 6th grade.  I made over $300 from reading alone that summer (which was pretty huge as a kid).  My closet is filled with books and I have tons more in small white boxes in the basement.  I might have to take a picture of them at some point because it really is amazing.

Favorite books: For Us The Living: A Comedy of Customs, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, Have Spacesuit Will Travel, Catch-22, Ender’s Game, Flatland, Xenocide.

Sports:

I swim a lot.  Short distance freestyle is my thing, and though I’m not anywhere near the best, I enjoy it and it keeps me in shape.  I used to play soccer and it is by far my favorite sport with a ball, but after freshman year I got tired of the over-competitive-ness of it all, so I focused on swimming.  Snowboarding is my favorite thing to do.  Period.  I don’t go often, but the speed as my board races over the snow, the  feeling of weightlessness as I soar through the air, the complete freedom of it all, stays with me.  I try to make up for the lack of snow by long-boarding in the off season a bit, but I’m not all that great and it’s a poor replacement.

Religion:

I consider myself to be an Experimental Theistic Agnostic Christian (not sure that string of words works, but language is what we make it).  Simply put, my beliefs align most closely with the Christian faith both in upbringing and experience, but I don’t believe that I am at a point where my opinion on such matters is very accurate, so I revise my beliefs as I collect new data.  Kind of like a politician, except I don’t care that I’m right very much.

Political Views:

Philosophically, I am an anarchist.  I believe that the freedom of the individual is paramount and any infringement upon that freedom constructs a social hierarchy that only serves to damage the collective potential of the whole (READ: anarchy =/= communist/socialist).

Ideally, I am a minimalist, or rational anarchist.  While I believe that anarchy is the best possible form of government, I realize that we do not live in an ideal world and it will never work.  We need a government to provide security against outside forces (other governments) and provide a third party to serve as judge.  That said, the government should only be in charge of those things and be supported by the will of the people, not through the force of taxes.  I don’t believe in government as an all powerful force or an enforcer/judge of morals.  It is nothing more than a social institution upheld through social contracts.

Realistically, I am a libertarian.  Our current populace is not ready to take charge of their own lives without the help of a government.  That said, we need a government that is willing to gradually reduce it’s power and, by extension, the people’s reliance on said government.

Let me be clear though.  No form of government is evil.  Socialism, communism, anarchy, whatever, should all ideally work.  But we don’t live in an ideal world.  We need to choose the form of government that best works for our current situation while upholding the collective’s philosophical beliefs.  That means finding a happy medium between all of the extremes.

Other:

I do lots of stuff on the computer.  It’s been suggested that I should sell my work or start a business, but I’m in a unique position right now and I’d be foolish to squander it.  Money isn’t really a priority for me at the moment.  Therefore, I choose to prepare myself for when it is by learning everything I can about anything.  I don’t focus on my studies because I can learn the topics faster than it would take me to do the homework, and my time is better spend learning new things than on busy work for a grade.  I don’t mean to sound pretentious, but the reality of the situation is that the current school system doesn’t really get the job done, so I choose to do it myself.  I don’t sell my work because it isn’t production quality.  It’s not that I’m not capable of producing that level of work, but by the time I get there I’m already on to the next project because I’ve learned what I need to from the last one.  Once I do things for the money I’ll need to put forward the maximum level of effort to make things perfect because of my obligation to the client.  But I’m not there yet, so for now, I learn.

Also, I don’t talk when I don’t have anything to say, but say tons when I do.  Don’t feel offended if I keep my silence.  I find that one can’t learn anything by speaking, but is always learning when they listen.  Therefore I try and maximize my time with the latter.  What can I say, I’m an INTJ.

If you’ve read this far, you’re either really dedicated, a fast reader, or a creeper.  Either way, I’m impressed.

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About Me

My name is Robert.  I’m a 18 year old guy with a website.  I’m overly opinionated, argumentative, and stubborn.  I try and keep quiet unless I have something to say since you learn more that way.  I like to jump of things and pretend that I’m doing parkour because life is too short to NOT do parkour.  What else do you really need to know?

Music:

Music has always played a very large role in my life.  About a year ago I realized that my taste in music was ridiculously narrow.  Since then, I’ve started forcing myself to listen to different genre’s in an attempt to gain a better appreciation for all music, not just rock and the popular stuff.  Since then, I’ve started listening to Classical, Instrumental, Rap, Metal, Classic Rock, Dubstep, Trance, Techno, and pretty much anything with a beat.  I’m having a hard time with country music and rock will always have a very special place in my heart, but I consider this endeavor a success.

I tried to create a Dubstep track once.  It didn’t go very well.

Movies/ TV:

I don’t watch much television or many movies apart from when I’m eating or late at night, but I still have my favorites.  For TV, Psych and The Office are pretty much my ‘go-to’s.  Favorite movies: V For Vendetta, Forest Gump, Fight Club, The Rocker, The Social Network, and (of course) Star Wars.

Games:

There was a time when I spent a large portion of my time playing Halo 3 and MW2.  Not so much now since I have stuff going on and I’m generally too busy.  Nonetheless, I still enjoy the occasional game, especially if I have to opportunity to play with friends.  That said, Tetris will always be my favorite game.  I think I still have the high score out of all my Facebook friends, though someone did beat me once.  I played another game after I found out and took the title back.

Books:

One summer my parents made the mistake of bribing my to read by offering me $5 for every 100 pages I read.  I think I was in 6th grade.  I made over $300 from reading alone that summer (which was pretty huge as a kid).  My closet is filled with books and I have tons more in small white boxes in the basement.  I might have to take a picture of them at some point because it really is amazing.

Favorite books: For Us The Living: A Comedy of Customs, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, Have Spacesuit Will Travel, Catch-22, Ender’s Game, Flatland, Xenocide.

Sports:

I swim a lot.  Short distance freestyle is my thing, and though I’m not anywhere near the best, I enjoy it and it keeps me in shape.  I used to play soccer and it is by far my favorite sport with a ball, but after freshman year I got tired of the over-competitive-ness of it all, so I focused on swimming.  Snowboarding is my favorite thing to do.  Period.  I don’t go often, but the speed as my board races over the snow, the  feeling of weightlessness as I soar through the air, the complete freedom of it all, stays with me.  I try to make up for the lack of snow by long-boarding in the off season a bit, but I’m not all that great and it’s a poor replacement.

Religion:

I consider myself to be an Experimental Theistic Agnostic Christian (not sure that string of words works, but language is what we make it).  Simply put, my beliefs align most closely with the Christian faith both in upbringing and experience, but I don’t believe that I am at a point where my opinion on such matters is very accurate, so I revise my beliefs as I collect new data.  Kind of like a politician, except I don’t care that I’m right very much.

Political Views:

Philosophically, I am an anarchist.  I believe that the freedom of the individual is paramount and any infringement upon that freedom constructs a social hierarchy that only serves to damage the collective potential of the whole (READ: anarchy =/= communist/socialist).

Ideally, I am a minimalist, or rational anarchist.  While I believe that anarchy is the best possible form of government, I realize that we do not live in an ideal world and it will never work.  We need a government to provide security against outside forces (other governments) and provide a third party to serve as judge.  That said, the government should only be in charge of those things and be supported by the will of the people, not through the force of taxes.  I don’t believe in government as an all powerful force or an enforcer/judge of morals.  It is nothing more than a social institution upheld through social contracts.

Realistically, I am a libertarian.  Our current populace is not ready to take charge of their own lives without the help of a government.  That said, we need a government that is willing to gradually reduce it’s power and, by extension, the people’s reliance on said government.

Let me be clear though.  No form of government is evil.  Socialism, communism, anarchy, whatever, should all ideally work.  But we don’t live in an ideal world.  We need to choose the form of government that best works for our current situation while upholding the collective’s philosophical beliefs.  That means finding a happy medium between all of the extremes.

Other:

I do lots of stuff on the computer.  It’s been suggested that I should sell my work or start a business, but I’m in a unique position right now and I’d be foolish to squander it.  Money isn’t really a priority for me at the moment.  Therefore, I choose to prepare myself for when it is by learning everything I can about anything.  I don’t focus on my studies because I can learn the topics faster than it would take me to do the homework, and my time is better spend learning new things than on busy work for a grade.  I don’t mean to sound pretentious, but the reality of the situation is that the current school system doesn’t really get the job done, so I choose to do it myself.  I don’t sell my work because it isn’t production quality.  It’s not that I’m not capable of producing that level of work, but by the time I get there I’m already on to the next project because I’ve learned what I need to from the last one.  Once I do things for the money I’ll need to put forward the maximum level of effort to make things perfect because of my obligation to the client.  But I’m not there yet, so for now, I learn.

Also, I don’t talk when I don’t have anything to say, but say tons when I do.  Don’t feel offended if I keep my silence.  I find that one can’t learn anything by speaking, but is always learning when they listen.  Therefore I try and maximize my time with the latter.  What can I say, I’m an INTJ.

If you’ve read this far, you’re either really dedicated, a fast reader, or a creeper.  Either way, I’m impressed.

Site Info

This site was inspired by Robert A. Heinlein’s ”For Us The Living: A Comedy of Customs.”  Not only is the man my favorite author, but the book is by far my favorite work ever published.  I refuse to consider it a novel, because it really isn’t one.  It is Heinlein’s first attempt at being a professional author, but, more than that, it is his first attempt to change the world.

I feel no desire to become a professional author, nor do I think that I alone can change the world.  But this is my first real publication, my first step towards producing something for others as much as myself.  I don’t really know what will become of it at this point, but it’s a fun project for the time being.

Contact

Have a problem with a site?  Want to yell at me?  Share an opinion?  Tell me what to do?  Span me with ads for wheelchairs?

Guess what?!  You can!

Email:

Robert ‘at’ ForUsTheLiving ‘dot’ Com

 

Guess what else?!  I’m unemployed!  So if you need your lawn mowed, a website produced, a WordPress theme developed, or anything else send me an email!  I don’t require much, just money for gas, a recommendation, and kind word if you enjoy my work!