The Fun Begins...

Let's dive right in... First, a major disclaimer: I have never been one to keep steady written entries of anything.  I've always been too easily distracted, bored/boring, busy/lazy... let the excuses roll on, to keep up with blogs or diaries.

That said, WELCOME!

So, what spurred me to start this blog, given my aforementioned defects? I felt strangely compelled to respond to this posting, regarding the associations between the display of body language and level of acquaintance-ship while passing by collegemates on campus.  While I thoroughly enjoyed the post and the analysis, I couldn't but help to go "liz" on it... sorry Pablo.

Disclaimer number 2... should be implicit of most if not all following blog entries and liz.  Sarcasm rules me.

1) In this highly scientific and objective analysis... Should body language be independent of oratorical recognition?

While Hi, Heys, What's ups and How's it goings could be grouped under "Facial Acknowledgment", doing so would take out subtle but implicit factor of time in all such interactions. This does not mean that someone saying "How's it going?" (HIG) expects a full account of your day, mood and feelings, but it does mean that there was sufficient time in passing that allowed them to pull off the phrase, whereas a "Hi" would've left empty space and potential awkwardness.

Therefore, a troublesome problem arises, is the HIG a reflection of a friend-type taking the time to throw out a HIG, or someone trying to portray friend-type but really trying to swallow up passing time by filling it with a content-less greeting? Hmmm. Something to think about.

2) Zombie Walkers

This topic is particularly dear to me because I am neither an iPod wearer, cell-phone fiend, or shoe starer.  I tend to walk, staring forward at my destination, to point where everything else blurs.  In attempt to include others like me (if there are any out there), here are some words.  

Zombie Walkers don't mean to be mean or purposely ignore others.  They need someone to snap them out of the "zone", be it a close face to face eye contact smile, wave or straight up shove.  Because such a "zone" exists, the reaction of a zombie walker to the potential acquaintance is particularly valuable for the friendship evaluation.  Getting snapped out of the zone doesn't give the zombie walker enough time to fake a reaction or genuine emotion. 

Smile: I like you, thank you for saying HI, friend.  Frown/twisted eyebrow face eventually fading into a smile: I don't like you/I don't know you, why did you wake me from my zone, but I don't want to offend you so I'll throw you a smile. Expressionless: I am still in the zone, wake me!

Despite the ease of reading Zombie Walker (ZW) - regular person passing interactions, one could never evaluate Zombie Walker - Zombie Walker interactions... for obvious reasons. 

Despite the weirdness factor, and potential walking-into-things hazards, there are advantages to being a ZW. Unlike regular people, you are only stopped/awakened by people who genuinely like you, who else would expend so much energy to distract you? Time flies when you're zoning out. Potentially awkward encounters are avoided because no encounter is made.

The end.