Subject:
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Re: The AFOL mind
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sun, 4 Apr 2004 18:28:31 GMT
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Viewed:
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708 times
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In lugnet.general, Felix Greco wrote:
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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.
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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 short answer, I have a lot more to say on the subject (imagine that).
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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.
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Hopefully, everyone thinks of themselves as cool; otherwise, there’s probably a
bit of a self-esteem issue going on. Now, whether other people consider you
cool is another story altogether.
As for my experiences with being a non-closet AFOL...
During my college days, I had a large amount of LEGO strewn about my dorm room.
My roommate didn’t mind, and neither did my friends; of course, LEGO in a dorm
room probably isn’t too strange, unless you’re at a military academy or
something. ;)
After college, I lived in a four-bedroom house with a roommate; one of the rooms
was a dedicated LEGO room. During parties, when giving a tour of the house, it
was a very straightforward “...and this is the LEGO room.” Usually that would
lead to some good conversation; sometimes there would be a couple of guys (or
even girls) that would stay in the room for a long time--even beyond the
perfunctory examining of the MOCs I would show off during the tour. I simply
presented it as a part of who I am...
At work, I always keep at least one MOC on my desk; I think that keeping it “out
in the open” makes it less nerdy--some of my friends have a passing interest
in things I’ve built, and pretty much everyone asks me “what have you built
lately?” when they see me.
Now, does the fact that I happily participate in (and downright enjoy)
traditional guy things--lifting weights, riding motorcycles, playing basketball,
rock climbing, playing poker, etc--make my LEGO hobby more acceptable to my
friends and co-workers? I think so. I’d wager that if I acted more like the
stereotypical loner, dork, nerd, or whatever, then that’s how my co-workers
would treat me. And I’m not saying that you can’t be yourself--if I wasn’t
gregarious (okay, loud-mouthed is probably better), that would be fine, too, but
I happen to be pretty social. I know a lot of AFOLs aren’t, which isn’t a bad
thing; it just fits the stereotype...
Okay, now on to why I’ve been talking about LEGO with even more people recently.
During the model builder search, I had a lot of local media exposure...the local
news had me live in the studio and also did a piece at my house; both the daily
and weekly local papers did stories; and, finally, the Vandenberg Air Force Base
newspaper did a story on me. (For those who don’t know, I’m a captain in the
Air Force.) This has caused random people to call my house to talk about LEGO,
I have people stop me in the street or at the gym and say “hey, you’re that LEGO
guy!”, and instead of just my co-workers talking to me about it, now everyone in
my chain of command asks me about LEGO. My point? Not a single one of these
people had a negative comment for me. And even if they didn’t understand why
I was into it, they understood that I enjoyed it as a hobby, or even as art
(though that sounds pretentious).
So basically, I think if you take it seriously as a hobby, other people will
take your interest in it seriously as well. If you treat it as something to be
ashamed of, others will treat it that way too.
Derek
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: The AFOL mind
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| (...) I have the same experience. Now, when I have a party, I'll have people who want to show it to their friends. "Hey Felix, my girlfriend hasn't seen the lego room." Then its always interesting to hear them relay my words. "Check this out, he (...) (21 years ago, 7-Apr-04, to lugnet.general, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | The AFOL mind
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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, (...) (21 years ago, 3-Apr-04, to lugnet.general, FTX)
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