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Half empty, or half full? Be truthful. I've always wanted to know how many optimists there are in comparison to pessemists. I would have thought there would be more optimists, but I never got round to finding out.

Think of it in how your mind works; are you always looking for a way to prove someone wrong, are you a bit rugged and Squallish, or always looking on the bright side of life and singing a happy tune? Are you a Rincewind or a Twoflower?

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"Luck is my middle name. Mind you, my first name is Bad." - Rincewind

You can be as self-assertive as you like, just so long as you do what you’re told.” - Granny Weatherwax

"When Mr. Safety Catch Is Not On, Mister Crossbow Is Not Your Friend" - Sam Vimes to Detritus

Im optimistic that its all going to go wrong...

But the glass is always empty, and had better be filled up again by the time i next look, waiter...

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"Only the dead have seen the end of their quotes being misattributed to Plato."
-George Santayana

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
-Abraham Lincoln, prior to the discovery of Irony.

I can't vote. It really depends on my mood. Some days I'm totally optimistic and others I'm totally pessimistic.

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~Status Report~

* Completed... Dragon's Head
* Completed... Soldiers of the Empire: Disciples (release pending)
* In Progress/Undecided... Of Love and Betrayal
* Planning/Assembly... Where it all Began

My personality as far as optimism/pessimism goes is really similar to zephie's. It doesn't really depend on my mood, however, just more of the situation. Now are there more situations that I'm either optimistic or pessimistic in? I dunno, so I say neutral.

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SPEKKIO: "GRRR...That was most embarrassing!"

Depends on the situation really.. but most of the time im optimistic about most things.. its when I am in that frame of mind where, everything just sucks.. then i'll be VERY pessimistic. XD But eh, that's how i work i suppose. lol

I think I'm usually pretty optimistic. Maybe.

I hate you.

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Wow. 1,000 posts.

I miss you all now that I'm in boarding school! ;_;

It does depend on the situation, naturally. I'm pretty optimistic that the Sun will rise tomorrow. But in general, I probably have a more pessimistic outlook.

I'm not much like Squall though, I hope. Please, let me not be like Squall.

I'm a pessimist. I'm always negative. When I notice it, I hate it.

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The clouds ran away, opened up the sky
And one by one I watched every constellation die
And there I was frozen, standing in my backyard
Face to face, eye to eye, staring at the last star
I should've known, walked all the way home
To find that she wasn't here, I'm still all alone

-Atmosphere "Always Coming Back Home to You"

Quote (myself when I first posted)

I'm neutral, I have a realistic outlook. I'm also a bit of a sucker for a lost cause, as well, so my outlook is something like "The future may look grim, but I don't care, I'm going to do my thing anyways."

What a cop out. By the standards I set forth in my post (a ways down this thread), I would now say that I am an extreem optimist, as I value life as being objectily good; this is something I am not willing to compromise on. I believe that life is good no matter it's circumstances, that one can still live (read "enjoy") life, if nothing else, just because there is good in existing. Whether or not I keep my views reflective of reality, is related to, but not congruent with, my attitude toward life.

This post has been edited by Iain Peregrine on 21st March 2004 01:38

depends on the first hour i'm awake... if it's a bad hour, that sets the tone for the entire day.... same if that hour is good... usually, i like to stay optimistic.

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"When I turn the page
The corner bends into the perfect dog ear
As if the words knew I'd need them again
But at the time, I didn't see it."

~"This Ain't a Surfin' Movie" - Minus the Bear

I'm an addictive DDR gamer, if I'm not optimistic, I can't play. I sleep late, drink Mocha, and smile at a wonderful day.

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Come, my love, I won't hurt you, I won't bite. Allow me to steal your love, to take you in my arms, and enter the sweet abyss.
~Kincaid~

I would say that I'm a realist, but I suppose pessimists always see themselves as realists becaues they feel reality is pessimistic.

I vote half empty.

im gonna go with sabin and say the first hour or so of my day basically plots out how my attitude is going to be. but waking up to "township rebellion" skipping on my rage cd that i wake up to every morning usually puts me in a crappy mood, so im pretty much pissed off all the time.

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You watch the world exploding every single night
Dancing in the sun, a newborn in the light
Say goodbye to gravity and say goodbye to death
Hello to eternity and live for every breath

Your time will come...

I null voted because my answer is "It depends."

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"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

Most of the time I'm pretty optimistic in situations......but I'm pretty netural at the same time. There have been times in my life when I put to much faith in things and was let down.So I dunno which is better.

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Things have not changed
You have changed

Henery David Thoreau

Hmm...It depends 4 me as well. I strive 2 keep my outlook practical and realistic. Sometimes i can become overtly optimistic, but yet at other times overtly pessimistic. It ain't good 2 go 2 extremes, and most of the time I tell myself to not think about how it might turn out and give it my level best.
I'm usually optimistic though, which can get quite bad 4 me at times. I get seriously let down, especially grade-wise...*sigh*...The cruel thing is, though, is tt I can't workwif a pessimistic mindset, so 'm not sure, maybe my optimism is somewhat forced...? Hmm...Sometimes, I REALLY don't understand how me brain works!!!

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Student of CCS, Grandmaster of Alternative Literature and Musical Passionista at your service!!!

I'm almost always optimistic, save for rare occasions in my life (I can count these periods of time on one hand). Even better, I never get angry. Never.

I'm a die-hard pessimist. I can easily see the fault in almost everything, no matter how slight the possibility of that fault occuring in reality is. I generally wake up in a terrible mood, have a terribly boring day, and go to sleep very irrate.

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"You dozed, and watched the night revealing
The thousand sordid images
Of which your soul was constituted"
-T.S. Eliot, "Preludes"

Quote (Iggy @ 15th March 2004 17:26)

always looking on the bright side of life and singing a happy tune?

Just great, now I've that dang song stuck in my head again. *starts whistling* "Life's a piece of s**t when you look at it, so look on the bright side of life". Anyway I'm neutral in my attitude, I tend to be very practical when looking at possibilities, seeing both the good and the bad. Which is why few things in life surprise me, when expect anything to be able to happen, it won't impact you as much.

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"I was using a metaphor. Someone shut him up before I do it with a knife."- Black Mage, 8-bit Theatre

"I found out what zombies are weak against......Point Blank Annihilation"- Black Mage, 8-bit Theatre

"You'd be paranoid too, if everyone was out to get you!"

i couldnt decide so i asked my mom she said im both so i said the last choice....

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"Isn't ramza a girls name?" -me

i havent changed my avatar or anything in a long time! time for a change yall!

Quote (io_rage @ 16th March 2004 15:46)

I would say that I'm a realist, but I suppose pessimists always see themselves as realists becaues they feel reality is pessimistic.

I vote half empty.

in fact that is a common misconception of naivite towards realism. if *anyone* thinks that this life brings more good than bad then they are either *extremely* privileged or naive. thinking that things are going to go wrong when they are probably going to go wrong is not pessimism, it is realism and it usually causes you to stay on your toes at all times and to be prepared for the worst. people have the nerve to call me "pessimistic" because i adopt this outlook, but i am simply being realistic: i don't try to make things seem bad (or think they are that way) where there is a higher probablilty of things going right. i assess the situation and make my decisions from there. that is neither optimism nor pessimism but realism.

Realism isn't seeing only the bad consequence's of smthng. It's seeing the entire situation Pluses and minuses.

I'm pretty optimistic myself (I'll pass to the next grade, I will!) but with me the glass is always totally empty 'cause I drink it all up constantly.

Don't worry...
Be happy...


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"I fell off the mountain of words at around the 10,000ft mark. Tell my family...they owe me money." -Narratorway

"If you retort against this, so help me God I'll shove any part of your anatomy I can find into some other part. Figuratively, of course." - Josh

"We have more, can deliver tuesday." - Del S

Good old CoN

I'm a pretty optimistic person. But it's not in a way that will let me get let down when things don't go right. I'm good at dealing with things when they don't go right, and at the end of the day, I can always think of more good things that happened than bad things.

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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

Quote

i assess the situation and make my decisions from there.  that is neither optimism nor pessimism but realism.

I think that the issue has become a bit confused with the introduced "realism" thing, sorry 'bout that. The opposite of realism is escapism, both of these are ways of dealing with life, these are not ways that we feel about life. A realist may recognize an overwhelming amount of evil, he may recognize that there is little chance for a good outcome, and still be happy and contented in himself. Conversely, an escapist may retreat to a false point of view where there is no worry, he may ingore the world around him in preference to fantasy, yet still have a miserable view of life. These examples serve to illustrate is not a sort of 'third option' in the optimism | pessimism question. Optimism and pessimism are our attitude toward life (More exactly, they are judgments that we make of lifes 'worth', or amount of 'goodness', if you will). Realism and escapism, on the other hand, are ways of coping with life.

This is, of course, 'just' my philosophy, though I should hope that it is reflective of reality.

This post has been edited by Iain Peregrine on 21st March 2004 01:41

I try very hard to be optimistic. It doesn't always work, but I think overall I have a pretty rosy view--things will eventually get fixed, no matter how badly they run, and no matter how bad I feel about myself or others, it could be worse. I can't always convince myself of this, but I think I manage most of the time.

I voted Neutral...I always try to look at a situation logically no matter how good or bad it may be.

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Climhazzard is the timeless evil robot who runs some of the cool stuff at CoN (mostly logging chat, since there are no quizzes at the moment), all the while watching and waiting for his moment to take over the world. -Tiddles

Hmm...I don't know why I hadn't posted in this thread yet, although I've voted in it. In any case, I'm generally an optimist.

I've also gone to the trouble to prove that half-empty=half-full through "Fullness" and "Emptiness" are state functions.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

I swear, I must be the only true optimist left on the planet.

(I hope someone laughs at this.)

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Little miss Muffet, sat on her tuffet,
Eating her curds and...
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

There is too much good in the world for me to be pessimistic.

There are also many bad things going on, of course. I do not ignore the evils of the world--speaking of both the wide world and my own inner kingdom, as well as everything in between--and while those evils are often discouraging, I see so many good things that I cannot fall into the downward spiral of pessimism. In spite of the many horrible things that occur every day, I remain extremely optimistic that better things lie ahead. Every injustice, political or personal; every act of oppression, violence, hate; and every failure acts to set more people thinking about how things can be better.

I live with a sense that things are about to change for the better. In my personal life, I can see it happening quite soon. In the grand scheme of things (political happenings and such), 'soon' could mean a few decades, but I have the same sense. The wheels are in motion.


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Always hopeful, yet discontent; he knows changes aren't permanent --
But change is!

Neutral - I'm a Realist through and through.

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"I always have a quotation for everything - it saves original thinking."
~Dorothy L. Sayers

"The truly remarkable thing about television is that it allows several million people to laugh at the same joke and still feel lonely."
~T.S. Eliot

"Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as reality - in your own mind!"
~ Bruce Lee