5441

Creole Ned
Social Worker

Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Vancouver
Location: Vancouver
Location: Vancouver

I don’t have time for the fancy jpg zooming in.

5442

Pretty much this. It’s obvious that sometimes Canadians forget about the real Vancouver, in Washington state, right across the river from skanky Portland, Oregon.

5443

Maybe that’s the only angle he expects you to be looking at him from.

5444

It’s Eddie Vedder.

5445

As I mentioned, he’s in Portland, which is about 500 km to the south, so…no. I did rate his profile high enough to have OKC confirm that he was indeed the one from the nine that did the same for me.

Actually, I may send him a message, anyway. He might turn out to be someone interesting to chat with, if nothing else.

I wonder if he really was assuming I was in Vancouver, Washington, since as kerzain points out, the two cities are directly across from each other.

5446

Actually this is true, he’s probably mistaking it for the Washington State Vancouver, though I could have sworn the location profiles are done by zip code, not by place names.

Though that might not work for Canada since their codes are totally different.

— Alan

5447

Maybe he was doing his searches on google (kinda how people login to facebook, not by going to facebook.com but by searching for “facebook login” from google.com.). He could have been just typing in random love queries into google and Ned’s profile popped up.

5448

How much can you tell from a picture?

Here’s the (only) photo from the profile of the guy who added me as a favorite on PoF a few days back.

The profile itself is pretty brief. He says he likes camping and hiking and not much else. His occupation is listed as electrician.

I have some speculation written up but I’m curious to see what others have to say first. One thing I will put out there is it looks like he has the mouse on the left side of the keyboard, so he’s probably a lefty. What else might one glean from the photo?

Also, does adding someone as a favorite constitute making the first move?

5449

Leukemia.

Also, favorite is a semi-first move.

5450

I think I see a CB radio. He might be one of those people.

5451

I assume he can’t afford a better office chair, because he’s dumping too much money into expensive amateur radio equipment… which leads me to think you’re always going to be in second place with him, behind his hobby. Some guys stand in front of cars, some hold guns, this guy is into radios, be prepared for long conversations about them.

He uses cheap PC speakers, so he has no taste in music. Which goes along with the idea he doesn’t have time for music, because it would just interfere with his radio hobby, guy only has one set of ears and all.

Looks like he uses a PC instead of a Mac, probably because he uses some sort of custom software with all that electronics equipment monopolizing his desk space, and it isn’t availible on the Mac platform. It probably also means he isn’t a stoner hippie, since most of those have migrated away from PCs. Because of this his emaciated look is probably from spending too many long hours chasing dynamic number stations instead of enjoying the occasional weekly meth binge.

I don’t think he is ‘into pc’s’ though. That setup looks very stock (crappy stock speakers and all, from a $199 computer + monitor + speakers + corded mouse Wal-Mart special of some sort.

He doesn’t know how to properly reduce image size, and the pixels are killing me. This lack of attention to detail mkes me wonder what other important details he’s neglecting in his life. My guess is that he has problems relation to others on a personal level, a sort of… inability to empathize.

I can’t tell what’s going on outside, he could be on the roof of a building, that could be a deck out near some sort of waterfront, who knows. But at least he has light colored curtains, which shows that he welcomes, instead of shuns, the light (obviously not a gamer, reflective glare, rawr).

The curtain is also open, which means he is either in a place where nobody is likely to see him from outside, or he isn’t so paranoid as to think people are always watching him, and he doesn’t care if they are. This could mean he shits and pees with the door open, and is an exhibitionist… But the more likely explanation is simply that he pulled it open because his camera kept flashing until he did.

based on the scattered array of loose wires dangling behind his desk he probably isn’t prone to get all OCD over an occasional mess. Some people would feel an overwhelming urge to tie/wrap that stuff up together if it were all visible like that.

Maps on the wall, but a distinct lack of notes, pictures, fantasy posters… there’s no soul there, anywhere. Take him out of the picture and you’d have a picturesque image for a radio enthusiasts catalogue, it doesn’t even look like he has a very interesting windows desktop… Does he even have a soul? He’s wearing all greys and blacks… I’m starting to think he doesn’t. I mean… except for the map colors, and the blue of a boring looking windows desktop, and the cheap ugly cherry wood look of cheap particle board furniture… this could be a greyscale image…

I don’t think any of this makes him bad, but perhaps a bit unimaginative, sterile perhaps. Dependable, but boring. Hell, he could have at least taken the time to photo shop in a blue sky outside that sliding glass door.

5452

^---- awesome

5453

Slow, building applause.

5454

Actually not that far off with the radio equipment criticism. The two people I’ve hung out with that have a scanner like that leave that bullshit on all the time, as if hearing cops talk about where they’re going and what they’re responding to is interesting at all. Shit, the one guy didn’t even turn on music during a smoking party, he put his stupid ass scanner on the coffee table so that “everyone can listen to it.”

Fuck that jazz, seriously.

5455

My take is that he’s more of an amateur radio operator than a scanner jockey, though he may be both. The key is the map (several actually) of the world up on the wall–amateur radio operators often have maps on the wall. His computer is mostly used to control his scanning and keep track of frequencies and other ham radio operators (serves as his log as well). This is enforced by the fact he has a PC, not a Mac… Macs are not for the engineering crowd (aside from software engineering). The only thing that hurts the ham radio operator theory is that I don’t see a mic setup anywhere but it doesn’t help that the image is a bit small and I can’t tell the equipment apart very well. In any event, the chair indicates he spends a lot of his free money on that equipment.

He lives on a roof and has a lot of light, as you can see on both walls in the corner is just an array of curtains. Also a balcony outside, and by the lighting perhaps way up, at level or above everything in that direction. Could mean good money (that he’s not blowing on his equipment). But he’s kind of pasty, so he probably spends a lot of time indoors. Listening. Waiting.

— Alan

5456

But, Alan, isn’t that a mic below the white, domey thing (a marine satellite receiver, perhaps?), and above the mouse?

5457

I can’t tell.

— Alan

5458

It’s a terrible photo that bears little enhancement, but look for a shape similar to that on the right in the image on the left.

5459

Nice catch. So it’s official, his favorite things to do are most definitely NOT hiking and camping.

5460

He’s an amateur radio operator (certainly not CB), possibly with an extra-class license, meaning he groks electrical engineering, electronics, antenna design, and can build his own radio with a rubber band and some chewing gum. The map on the wall is an amateur radio world map, and it’s probably customized with his own station call letters, like so:

The two (!) hand-held transceivers have built-in microphones. Incidentally, one of these is attached to an external antenna. The other one, he probably takes around with him when and if he leaves the house. Looks like he has two, maybe three bigger radios. The mic is probably sitting on top in the dark area.

Under the radios, next to the keyboard, he has a log book. It’s used to log contact information: call sign, signal quality, date, time. Some hams send post cards to each other after a contact. The cards are called QSL cards, and when hung on the wall, they’re called wallpaper.

Anyway, the log book plus world map indicates he’s probably more into getting contacts from each place in a particular region, or possibly the world, rather than chewing the rag (aimless chatting). He’s into contests. The best times to make these contacts is at night, so he’s a night owl, and possibly does the all-nighter thing when there’s a 24-hour contest or a DXpedition.

If he has a satellite rig, which I’m assuming he does based on all the fancy ham stuff, the PC coordinates his uplink and downlink antennas with the satellite’s orbit. That’s as fancy as his CPU ever needs to be.

Anyway, hams are good, solid guys, and there’s a lot of fun to be found in amateur radio. Give him a shot.