Subject:
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The AFOL mind
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sat, 3 Apr 2004 20:24:34 GMT
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Viewed:
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578 times
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I’ve found a conversation seems to come up a lot in reference to AFOLs. Are we
a bunch of dorks? Is what we do just nerdy? I have had this conversation with
AFOLs and nonAFOLs alike.
I think I’m a cool guy. I can relate to other guys- I workout, play guitar,
scratch my head about female behavior, I work hard. Yet, the people I interact
with in these other areas have said they just “don’t get” what I do with lego.
They appreciate that I enjoy it, and usually get a laugh out of the stuff I
make. These are the same people who kept telling me “Hey, they did a room in
legos on While You Were Out!”- Yah, I KNOW... Jeeesh. But, I digress.
My wife was over at Toys-r-Us and told me she saw a bunch of kids trading
Yu-Gi-Oh cards. She said they fit every stereotype of a dork you could imagine.
Knowing I was once one of those kids, she started asking me questions; Does
the interest in those things make those kids that way? Or are those kids
already that way, so they’re attracted to those things? You know- the old
chicken or the egg question. I think the same arguments were had about violence
in cartoons.
I don’t know what to think of it. It makes me happy, and thats all that
matters. But I do ponder it. I think Eric Sophie put it best when we were
driving down to Texas for the SciBrick Houston gala. He was sitting there
thinking for a while and then he asked “Hey, do you think they’ll take us
seriously down there? Or do you think they’ll just pass us off?” It became a
legitimate concern for us because we were showing our stuff to a lot of VIP
AFOLs and we were representing SciBrick for the first time. In the end, they
seemed delighted with us and our display.
I think this argument is the basis of a lot of the motivation around here. I
recognize it every time someone at lugnet says something like “Why doesn’t TLC
take us more seriously?”. I recognize it when we get together for meetings and
listen to stories about nonAFOLs and their reactions. I recognized it when news
crews were out at Brickfest and we all cheered when we hit CNN.
I have no point to make or anything. I have a lot of opinions, certainly. I’m
very interested to hear what you all have to say about this.
Felix
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Message has 7 Replies:
 | | Re: The AFOL mind
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| (...) I think you're a cool guy Felix. After all, you ARE Jack Stone! ;) I don't know if this adds to the discussion, but I'll talk about it anyway, though I'm sure Lugnet is tired of me talking about it. This last weekend, TexLUG held it's (...) (20 years ago, 3-Apr-04, to lugnet.general, FTX)
| | | Re: The AFOL mind
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| (...) Hi Felix, Yes, we're all dorks! We're probably "nerdy" too! But the truth is, "who cares"? I've found the greatest, most interesting, friendliest, and gracious people who fit the "dork" or "nerd" description. I often find those that don't fit (...) (20 years ago, 4-Apr-04, to lugnet.general, FTX)
| | | Re: The AFOL mind
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| (...) Funny you should mention that...I had a conversaton sorta like that at our post LUG dinner a couple of weeks ago. (...) I have that same situation, except I don't work out, play guitar and work hard:). What's been funny to me is that this is (...) (20 years ago, 4-Apr-04, to lugnet.general, FTX)
| | | Re: The AFOL mind
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| (...) This is an interesting topic--I've also been talking about the hobby with a lot of non-AFOLs over the last few months. And the short answer is, yeah, it's nerdy, much as any hobby that is predominantly male is considered nerdy. But that's the (...) (20 years ago, 4-Apr-04, to lugnet.general, FTX)
| | | Re: The AFOL mind
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| (...) I have had some experiences with non-AFOL's who just "don't get" the LEGO hobby. Of course, no one can be interested in every hobby there is, but usually people can understand an interest in someone else's hobby. A person who doesn't like (...) (20 years ago, 5-Apr-04, to lugnet.general, FTX)
| | | Re: The AFOL mind
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| (...) Actually it mostly depends on the "description" of the words dork, geek, nerdy, etc, but I believe yes, in some variying degrees, yes we are. And I'm proud of being one. To say the truth, there is no distinct lines of "being geek, dork and (...) (20 years ago, 5-Apr-04, to lugnet.general, FTX)
| | | Re: The AFOL mind
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| (...) A lot of good points have already been brought up. I just wanted to add that it all depends on what you say to different people. To non-AFOLs, you wouldn't rattle off set names and numbers, or complain about the rarity of piece abc in colour (...) (20 years ago, 7-Apr-04, to lugnet.general, FTX)
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