“Picking up girls can be as easy as opening a beer!” February 29, 2008
Posted by Niels in : Dating coach, Links , add a commentWell, it’s terribly manipulative and teaches you to lie to women, but I do want to know “how to get a pretty stranger at a beach to put suntan oil on you”. The Pick-Up System No Girl Can Resist
Use its techniques and you will later HAVE SEX WITH HUMAN BEINGS.
*Results not guaranteed
Your thoughts?Funfilled days February 28, 2008
Posted by Niels in : Personal , 4 commentsThis evening was a whirlwind. First came a mad dash to the bookstore to pick up a copy of Todd Duncan’s High Trust Selling
The lecture was great. Dan Ariely is hilarious, and the topic was right up my alley - very much along the intersection of social psychology and business, in the same vein as synthetic happiness and the paradox of choice. The lecture ended with just enough time for me to head to a friend’s house for a slideshow of photos from his recent Rickshaw Run from the southern tip of India to Kathmandu, Nepal. I really want to take a foolhardy adventure someplace soon. But I’m more driven to get my career handled and build a lifestyle where these trips can be regular, rather than once-in-a-lifetime adventures.
And so the rest of this week will be devoted to sales training and an investigation into existing job opportunities. Look out world, I’ve got direction!
Your thoughts?Specific anosmia, or why I can’t smell farts February 27, 2008
Posted by Niels in : Life, the universe, and everything, Personal , 4 commentsWhat if you couldn’t smell your own farts? Would you consider it a disability, or a blessing in disguise?
I was about ten years old when I noticed I couldn’t smell. I remember walking through the woods at summer camp when other people began making faces. “Eww,” they said, “it smells like skunk!” But I could barely smell anything.
It’s not that my sense of smell is completely absent. Rather, there are certain odors that I’m not sensitive to. Mostly bad scents, fortunately.
For example, I often can’t smell farts. Again, it’s debatable whether or not this is a blessing in disguise, but I will say it’s a little unnerving to flatulate (is that a word?) and have no idea whether or not the people around me can smell it.
I used to just write this off as an interesting quirk, but over Christmas break I had the following conversation with my sister and her fiancé:
Fiancé: Watch out, I’m a little gassy today.
Me: Don’t worry about it, I can’t smell it anyway.
Sister: Wait, you don’t smell things either?
Me: What, you too?
Fiancé: Yeah, it’s great, she can use the bathroom right after me and it’s no problem.
Apparently fart-insensitivity is genetic. And so, having recently discovered one wacky congenital disability in myself (see my post I’m learning to live with faceblindness) I embarked on further research.
According to Wikipedia, anosmia is “the lack of olfaction, or an absence of the ability to smell”. I don’t have that - I can smell most things - but there is also specific anosmia, an insensitivity to a certain odor. And specific anosmia (aka selective anosmia, I think) may be genetically based. Winner!
Interestingly, it is just about impossible to describe the concept of an odor to someone who has never had a sense of smell. But there are support and advice forums available, where sad but hilarious stories are traded of anosmic life in a world of smellers. One unfortunate guy recalls trying to cover up the smell of an “accident” with a heavy application of cologne, not realizing that deodorant doesn’t actually cancel out odors. More information on anosmia can be found at the Anosmia Foundation, including links to purchase smell tests.
My handicap is far less serious, though apparently still an active area of research. I found one Nature article particularly interesting. The abstract for Odour-Blindness to Musk: Simple Recessive Inheritance states:
The rare anosmia to the n-butyl mercaptan of skunk, and more commonly the scent of freesia flowers, may be inherited as autosomal recessive traits.
So that’s it! Mystery solved! I’ve got a rare, genetic, specific anosmia to n-butyl mercaptan, or possibly some other mercaptan. Mercaptans, also known as thiols, are the volatile sulfurous compounds that give skunk its stink. And guess where else mercaptans can be found?
Dr. Ed Poliness has this to say on the subject: “Mercaptans are found in your smelliest farts”. Thank you for your frankness, Dr. Poliness. For further information on farts, readers may also contact Dr. Michael Levitt, the world’s leading authority on flatulence, according to this article. The article doesn’t mention mercaptans, but it’s an entertaining read anyway.
There are less obvious effects, as well. Anyone who has traveled in Asia is familiar with the durian, a gourmet fruit widely regarded as delicious, but with a scent so foul it is banned from the premises of many airports and luxury hotels. The mercaptans in durian likely explain why I am the only person my mom has ever heard of who likes the smell of durian but not the taste.
Your thoughts?I’m looking for a really cheap mannequin February 25, 2008
Posted by Niels in : Personal , 2 commentsI’ve heard a few girls tell me they have a compulsive need to check behind the shower curtain before they use a toilet. Totally understandable, but it doesn’t keep me from wanting to put a mannequin in my shower before parties…
Your thoughts?Still fighting employment February 23, 2008
Posted by Niels in : Personal , add a commentI had a job interview fall in my lap via a friend’s referral this week. After a surprisingly positive phone interview for a technical recruiter position, I talked to a friend who is an executive recruiter. As a people and relationship-based position, I could see recruiting as a fulfilling career eventually, just not right now.
I am, however, interested in what it takes to get an existing product onto the shelves of a brick and mortar store, though I’m not even sure what that position is called. Sales rep? I’ve got a sales background, I’ll be looking into it.
Your thoughts?