Inventive women ?

[planenut]

How many times have you heard "grow up" or "act like a man". I have a theory that the actual word "man" was invented by........Women.
When I go to a theme park I have a fantastic time on all those crazy rides, whooping my head off, taking silly photos with a cheap camera strapped on my wrist, just occasionally one of them comes out a good picture. I even have my snacks whislt in the queue so as not to waste time.
When I played with my kids, or took my son and his mates out, or organized games for them in the cubs and scouts, we all had a great time; now, when I play with my grand-children, I still have the same type of fun/enjoyment. Yet in the background I still here the women say "look at him behaving like a kid". I'm very happy behaving like that, I have a wonderful time, and I am sure it's because I am still a BOY.

 

[securespark]

My missus says I'm still 11 in the brain dept, and I tend to agree with her. Me and my 4 yo have great fun, amongst other things, inventing rude rhymes:

Humpty Dumpty went to a party

Humpty Dumpty had a great farty.....

type of thing.


I love it and wouldn't change it for the world, and if anyone else has a problem with that, then they can go whistle..

 

[AdamW]

Interesting theory. Gadgets and fast cars are often termed "boys toys", so perhaps women do understand us really.

I was a very precocious child. You know, top of the year, always got straight A's etc. With that came pressure to "act mature". When I got to the age of 12 or so I thought "S*d this, I'm still a kid, I'm having some fun!" and I have never looked back. Still got the straight A's etc., but started blowing stuff up like normal 12 year olds.

Now people occasionally say "Act your age, not your shoe size". I say "What, 12? I prefer acting like an 8 year old!"

Obviously I'm not like that 100% of the time or I wouldn't reeeeeeally be able to hold down a job. But yes, I too go to theme parks. In fact I spent a week in Florida with a couple of mates doing Disney, Universal Studios and the rest. But it is a great combination, being a professional who thinks like a kid. I can walk into Toys'R'Us and can afford to buy ANY supersoaker I want now!

Now for the scientific bit:

It isn't so much a matter of acting mature or immature. Jones' theory of Random Idea Generation works on the principle that your "unconscious mind" (not the same as subconscious) is constantly chucking out random ideas. Just makes combinations of things. These ideas are then "censored". That is, you subconscious decides "nah, that's stupid", or "won't ever work" or "oooh, nice idea", and passes the good ones on to your "conscious mind". Now, this censor is affected by all kinds of things. Mainly, your environment. If you grow up having people mock you for having "silly" ideas then your censor will develop to filter more of these ideas out, especially if you are sensitive.

However, those of us (I am interested know if this applies to you adult-going-on-12 chaps) who maybe come across as a bit immature at times, have weaker censors. It means that we may have whacky ideas that other people think are daft, but we are also more likely to have original, innovative or inventive ideas. We can also see problems or solutions where others can't. I reckon this is why engineers for one, are stereotyped (usually correctly!) to be a little different to "normal" people.

 

[AdamW]

I once wrote "C*CK" on the palm of my hand in big writing with a big black pen, then went on Oblivion at Alton Towers. The one that drops you vertically, face forwards, 100 feet into a hole in the ground.

The photo on the way out was of us all looking like we were at the proctologists, apart from me with my hand up showing the word "C*CK", quite plainly, to all who looked at the screen. Surprisingly, even parents with kids were sniggering!

 

[kendor]

A C*CK in the hand is worth two in the bush

 

[planenut]

I haven't done the writing stuff; I did manage to persuade others in the car on the Black Hole to all put the widest grin on when we passed the camera - my mate didn't do that though, you could see his knuckles grasping the front of the car and that look of terror on his face was brilliant, what an act.
One night in the distant past, when I became older than a boy; I was on a night patrol, in an automatic mini-bus. In the early hours, with one mate on the floor working the brake, me in the back corner steering with rope and the motor on idle. the look on our governor's face when we passed him was fantastic.
In suppose "idiocy is dangerously close to being sensible"

 

[AdamW]

Yes, but more importantly, idiocy is fun!

Once I was working late, and on the way out I decided it would be a good idea to fill the mouthpiece of a colleague's phone with blu-tak. He spent the whole day shouting down the phone and couldn't understand why they couldn't hear him. Never thought to look at the mouthpiece!

Oh, if you want to make someone feel reaaaaaally special, try making a big banner saying "<insert name here>'s special area", then print out lots of pictures of people doing a thumbs up (use the google image search for "thumbs up"), and stick the whole lot all around their office/cubicle.

 

[kendor]

then print out lots of pictures of people doing a thumbs up (use the google image search for "thumbs up"), and stick the whole lot all around their office/cubicle.

Just done the google search for "Thumbs Up" i wouldn't want to describe the sort of results i got
mind you swimming pools and coronation street characters kept coming up for some reason?