I have been trying to figure out Cory's reasoning for his beliefs when he is supposed to be a knowledgable mainframe programmer. When I read the blurb (below) about "older single women" I started realising the psychology behind his attitude. Having known professionally and personally several hundred mainframe programmers, I now picture Cory at a desk in a room amongst dozens (hundreds) of others just like him, feeling unnoticed and underappreciated. Just like the man who approches a "barbie" doll type of woman (superficially ideal on the outside but completly lacking substance underneath the surface) and is not acknowledged, Cory has the normal "gut-leval" reaction most people (Both men and women) do in a situation where someone (or thing) they admire dissapoints them. He rejects them and anyone like them.

Is it possible that management and/or peers whom Cory admired and respected dissapointed him and he is reacting in the simular fashion to the overall mainframe programming industry?

Just as it is not true that every beautiful woman in an airhead and without substance, it is not true that every mainframe programming group bears the same faults that Cory appears to have found in his own experience.

Note to Cory: That will be $500.00 US for the psychological evaluation. ;O)

http://www.kiyoinc.com/WRP121.HTM --Older Single Women--

Y2K for the older single woman. Hey why are you running your keyboard about this? I saw the issue raised in Ed Yourdon's BBS and had a couple reactions.

Some women have a 2nd class citizen attitude. They think they can never be good enough. Of course this is balanced by those who think the world revolves around them.

Neither is true. Here's my spin.

Y2K has the potential of being horrible but it might be just nasty. Either way, you should make the most of the next 217 days.

For the woman who thinks she can't be good enough, who thinks old and single means unattractive and useless, lose that concept right now, toss it out.

Similarly, if you think the world owes you, that ain't the case either. You pull your share. We all pull our share.

I know a woman with knock-em dead looks but she has a "world owes her" attitude. If things go real bad, her looks won't be as important or useful. No one will care if we're all scrambling for water.

What will matter is being able to help out.

Here's a visualization aid. If things go real bad, InfoMagic bad, and we are hiding out at DragonRanch. If the Baron had an aged uncle, wheelchair bound but alert and has the use of one arm and his eyes, he could do sentry duty. Give him a radio and a pistol and he'd be good to go.

You don't have to be able to bench 160 lbs and run a 10K. H*ll, the Baron owns two 4WD diesel tractors and several smaller 20 HP gas tractors and carts. As long as there is diesel and gasoline, the power of machinery will count more than physical strength.

Your choices are: 1) Go it alone, 2) join a loose team, a church group, neighborhood watch, community association, 3) hook up with a "tight" team (possibilities range from helping great Aunt Edith fix up the family farm to throwing in with trusted known survivalists.)

In any of these situations, the older single woman is not a 2nd class citizen. This isn't about a date for the prom, this is about smarts, work, investment, research, a good attitude, and being willing to pitch in and help share the burden. It's important to have a sense of humor, to laugh, savor life, reach out a caring hand, give, build friendships, and make the most of what we have.

In a bad situation, an InfoMagic world, two isn't enough. You need a larger team to keep watch, to do things by hand that used to be done by electricity. The team can be an extended family, a neighborhood, some long time friends, a church, or just strangers who are willing to help each other.

I'm encouraged by those who are preparing for more than themselves. No one of us can save the world. It is more important for each of us to prepare to not be a burden. Everyone who is able to stay at home and live on their own rice, beans, and eel is one less person screaming for help from county services, clawing for scraps at the government Y2K Success! Center, begging for big government to save me, SAVE ME.

Those who are prepared to share with their family, neighbors, or strangers (this is your ethical choice), reduce the burden on the government and minimize the possibility of a government panic. Look at the TeeVee interviews of officials such as Ko-Skin-em, tell me that this ya-hoo couldn't snap.

I've met with a lot of people who are preparing for this unknown adventure. People who realize that something very strange is happening and have made the decision to mitigate the harm that could befall them, their family, friends, neighbors and in some cases, strangers.

This is an unknown, there are no guarentees other than we're entering a new world and the old rules do not apply.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), July 09, 1999

Answers

Nice follow up to Cory's challenge Cherri. Oops I forgot you don't have time to do that.

-- O.J. (OJSimpson@jailhouse.com), July 09, 1999.

This is ancient history, Cherri. From what I remember about this, an "older, single woman" came to this forum and asked what she could do to protect herself. That was how SHE described herself. This was Cory's response. You obviously haven't been paying attention. Why do you bring this up now, are you an "older, single woman" trying to justify your lack of preparedness? This is really out of the blue, Cherri, and shows more about your psycho-logy than it does Cory's. Believe me...

-- (dot@dot.dot), July 09, 1999.

LOL! Cherri you're a hoot!

In reading his posts, I imagine Cory to be one of those "magnetic" personalities, full of energy, life, humor, insight and *experience*, and I sincerely doubt that he's suffering from being "unnoticed and underappreciated" or not "acknowledged." Since the rest of your argument is based upon this obviously faulty premise it can be dismissed without further serious consideration.

Meanwhile I have to wonder what kind of "Wanna-Be" you're playing today (Just finished Psych 101 at the local j.c.?) and why you feel the need to try and "kill the messenger"?

In consideration of Richard Bach's concept that "We teach best what we need to learn most" perhaps you were simply trying to dispel your *own* insecurities and inadequacies with the psycho-babble displayed in your commentary.

In any event, you have waaaaaay too much time on your hands and sincerely need to get a life of your own!

LunaC

-- LunaC (LunaC@moon.com), July 09, 1999.

Cherri:

I've met Cory and he is a gentleman. I think he was reacting to some older single women who where whining about what they were going to do. I've been an older single woman myself and it is not the end of the world, but you do need to reach out to people. They don't go around looking for us the way they do younger ones. You make your own social life and for Y2K you have to make your own support system or at least reach out to an existing one.

I am no longer single (still old). Any older, single woman (or man) for that matter who tries to go it alone is nuts. If Y2K is a problem, there might be one in a million who could go it alone, but most of us don't have all of the talents and experience that will be needed. We need to do it together.

-- Sally Strackbein (sally@y2kkitchen.com), July 09, 1999.

And the weekend madness begins!

-- (ho@hum.go out and play), July 09, 1999.

Cherri, you wouldn't be baiting Cory unless you had finally sent him that Polly article you promised back in April.

When can we expect to read this article?

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), July 09, 1999.

Here it is Ray, Cherri just finished it:

.

LOL

-- a (a@a.a), July 09, 1999.

Ya know, Cherri, I just can't stand sexist remarks. Here's one from "gentleman" Decker---a little more recent and a lot more offensive. Does this one bother you? I'd really like to know.

Wednesday, 07-Jul-1999 12:08:11

38.200.201.200 (Mr. Decker) writes:

"...If I might indulge in another anecdote, a man approaches a lovely young woman. "Would you sleep with me for a million dollars," he asks.

She look him over carefully and then replies, "Yes."

"Then would you sleep with me for one dollar?"

"Of course not," she replies, "What kind of woman do you think I am?"

"We have already determined that," he responds, "now we are just fixing the price."

Forgive me, Mr. Poole, but once you have proven willing to lie to obtain a story... why should I believe you will not lie in the telling?"

http://www.InsideTheWeb.com/messageboard/mbs.cgi?acct=mb237006&MyNum=9 31363691&P=Yes&TL=931352924

-- I can't spell CET (Icantspell@CET.com), July 09, 1999.

Actually, Decker has borrowed and silghtly altered a famous anecdote involving Winston Churchill and a self-indulgent debutante at a dinner about 40-50 years ago.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), July 09, 1999.

CHERRI, MON CHERI:

I've got the answer to why Cory has this deeply insecure 'attitude.' You see, he has this oriental look (slanty eyes and such.) Suffering under gross naiveti one might think that has something to do with his last name, Hamasaki, which isn't exactly a European moniker. However, that conclusion is completely in error. The truth lies as follows:

He's been waiting SO LONG for your Polly rebuttal to arrive in the mails, that he succumbed to a deep depression (You know all about those kinds of things --- Hey, didn't I meet you once when I was studying at Theodore Reik's Institute of Psychoanalysis back in the Big Apple in the '50s? Oops, sorry -- wrong generation.)

Anyway, he got so depressed that he started eating more than his usual quota of donuts. So much so that his whole body, but especially his face, blimped out to gargantuan proportions. So he knew he had to do something drastic -- even his co-workers could no longer recognize his facial features. So what did he do?

-------- Flipping the pages of the D.C. classified directory, on what one might think was a purely random basis (Hah, but you and I know better, don't we Cherri?) a FEMALE cosmetic surgeon to get surgical remediation for his facial plight.

Well all went well during the surgery, done under local for technical reasons -- Dr. Krankheit had to interrogate Cory at various times during the procedure.) until she mentioned the word, "remediate."

Well, that word was a TRIGGER, for poor Cory went completely postal -- babbling something insane about "Remediation, remediation, that's all I ever hear about these days --- I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!"

With that he jumped off the table, screwing up the whole procedure (and of course resulting in his present-day slanty-eyed appearance) and ran out of the office, momentarily forgetting to even button his fly. (Tell me , Dr. Cheri, considering Cory's obvious Inferiority Complex, don't you think that might have been a Classical Freudian Slip?)

The moral to this story? Obviously, you can never trust a Doomer to be rational in ANY kind of situation, no?

Psychoanalytically yours,

Willi

P.S. Aaah, vasn't it you I met at zat meeting in alte Vien, arrround 1919, in dot little cafe bei zee Danube, ven vee vas tawking about dose crraaaazzy Orientals? Oh sorry, wiedermals, meine Kleinche --- wrong generation. W.

-- William J. Schenker, MD (wjs@linkfast.net), July 09, 1999.

I find the blatant sexism displayed on this thread to be highly offensive. I respectfully ask the forum moderators to consider deleting it.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), July 09, 1999.

Not enough mud for ya King?

-- (slime@ball.pit), July 10, 1999.

William J. What does Cory's ethnectisity have to do with any of this?

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), July 10, 1999.

About the same as your psychobabble. Both are insulting, innaccurate and unnecessary.

-- not (freud@don't.wanna.be), July 10, 1999.

if Barbie's so popular,why do we have to buy her friends?

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), July 10, 1999.

This has got to be one of the *dumbest* questions I've read on this forum yet. (although....the 'decorating advice for a peaceful environment'is pulling a close second). It would be FAR more reasonable to conclude that cpr suffers from an unhealthy compulsion with his GI JOE collection! Was he psycho BEFORE the movie, "Toy Soldiers" came out, or did it push him over the edge? Why didn't cherri take all the time she invested in this lunacy....and apply it to her big-brained Polly response for Cory????

I'd still like to know if it's cherri with a "ch" or is it an "sh"?

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), July 10, 1999.

Sorry, my mistake.....should be "Small Soldiers" (just like cpr, eh?)

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), July 10, 1999.

Cherri,

I wish I hadn't found your thread in the middle of the night and had more time, because I knew what it was about when I saw the title and it has degenerated fast, as so many threads do.

The original "Single Older Woman" post was mine.

When Cory's promised response came out in DCWR, I had the same reaction you did and more, I was offended. Sorry if it makes me sound thin-skinned, but I emailed him and told him so. (Water off a duck, I'm sure) I said, My God, Cory, what kind of women do you know? Among other things. The email bounced back undeliverable. Well, let's hear it for testosterone.

Your take was exactly right. Young or old (like me), our preparations for y2k, including an occasional need to ask advice, is not about "getting a date for the prom". It's not about a woman's "attitude" any more than a man's and it's damn sure not about our looks. Yes, he must have been Barbied-out at the time. And I shut up after reading that drivel, figuring it must be representative.

But there was no excuse for personal attacks on Cory later in this thread. I respect the man; I just have no idea where he was going with his associations in that one.

Maybe he'd like to try it again sometime with a more correct mental image to work with - his mother's peers.

Anyway, thanks for your input. From me at least.

-- Scat (sgcatique@webtv.net), July 11, 1999.