that the more you get to know people, the weirder they are. Usually weird in a good way.

It takes a lot of effort to get to know people to such a degree that you actually begin to learn things about them. But 9 times out of 10 it is completely worth it. Very few people surprise me by being totally normal or dull.

Cary goes back to last Friday's mess and makes amends for his HORRIBLE answer on child protection in this society, no one should post any thing here. The trust has been broken. It must be repaired.

If there's one thing existential artists loathe more than "normies," it's other existential artists.

I would not have been quite so kind. People have trouble dating; yes, fine, stay strong, believe in yourself and you'll find someone for you someday.

But the attitude of the writer is that of a 21 year old art school student. The writer is 26; presumably working to support herself while seeking success with art.

Fine. Noble. Best of luck. Now get over yourself. The world is not there for you to judge; it was there long before you and will continue after you're gone. If you're lonely, make friends. If you don't like your friends, get new ones.

If walking down the street sickens you because of the people all around you, consider that the problem is yours, not them.

And if you can't get over yourself, if you can't find a way to accept others, have the decency to pretend. Pretty much everyone else does; we pretend to be nice to people we don't give a damn about and save our honesty for the small amount of people we trust and respect.

Exactly like you. Except most people have the maturity to know we're not unique because of that.

Radiohead sucks. And so do "existential artists."

The LW doesn't say anything about her ethnic background, where she grew up, and the kind of person she sees herself as becoming in the next year or five years.

This may be way off the mark, but here's my story:

I am critical and dismissive too, and for all practical purposes an existentialist as well. For me, it was because I was "different" from the majority of my peers. I went to one of those UC schools - you know, the system that abolished affirmative action in 1997, herding in two large racial groups and very little else. I'm in one of those racial groups, a second-gen Asian American who excelled in the fine arts. I spent high school and college around first-gen Asian Americans who just didn't understand me and had no intention of trying. I hit a wall with them, one after another, and when I tried to get them to examine issues on a deeper level, they refused. I detached from them, dismissing them as incomplete human beings.

So... by the time I was 26, I didn't have many friends. My brain had to flip (really, it felt like it did) and I had to accept who I was and that although I couldn't be the perfect worldly bicultural person into CantoPop and sushi and keep a few token nonAsian friends to proofread grad apps and forget about afterward, a lot more people found them more interesting than they found me. Sucks to be alone and right, doesn't it?

During this flip, I had to accept that I was not that original. I was just different from that set of peers. At age 26, you can't say you've had broad exposure to all sections of society. I went out of my familiar environment and found that tons of people are more charismatic, creative, and talented than me - it didn't help my self-image but there was nothing I could do about it except go along for the ride. So what if you love Radiohead, LW? My virtuoso violinist friend in Vienna does too! Point is, there is someone with crazier hair who loves a cool band but is wise enough to dress according to occasion and let a musical style she dislikes grow on her.

Maybe you find "normals" dull and fake, and you don't have to go near them (which does both parties a favor) but trust me, in a few years, your idea of what's authentic and worthwhile will change, and you might even be attracted to some qualities that right now you consider too "normal" to be worth your time.

This doesn't mean you'll suddenly embrace the "normals" - I still don't talk to those peers I left behind. It means you have to decide how to be at peace with yourself. Something's bothering you about your nature. Okay. What do you want to be? How do you want people to see you? You've begun the process of self-reflection. Find out what both "normals" and "specials" like about you and work with it. You don't have to change into someone else, but you need to be wise.

You're creative, you've developed your own brand of humor, and maybe you should take over the formatting for a local radio station. The rest of the world still isn't going to love you. Really--who wants to be around a critical, dismissive artist? Up to you what you're going to do about it. You're an existentialist, right? The main strategy of existentialism is free will.

Then accept that you are Frankie (Julie Harris) and she was supposed to be 13, I believe, in that movie.

Then burn your hipness card and really start being who you are.

This stuff is near unendurable at 13. At twice that age it really is going to screw up your life.

Of course there's always the possibility of secondary gain. Wonder how much mileage you can get out of that...

Most people, however, are polite enough to pretend to be normal in the company of people they don't know very well. That boring, normal person you dismiss out of hand may very well produce better art (existential or otherwise) than you do. You will never find out, because you are unwilling to look past the surface of the social pleasantries.

I have had many very interesting surprises over the years because I was unwilling to make out-of-hand assumptions about people. As a result, I have made many friends who share my somewhat skewed sensibilities. I would never have even talked to these people if

I had let stereotypes determine my interactions.

I'll disagree with Cary slightly - I think that "normal" people can have interesting and unusual aesthetic concerns, and interesting and unusual private lives. Aesthetic and philosophical questions are not limited to the young and oddly-dressed.