I am a stubborn guy when it comes to labels, and strict confinement of my personal being. Perhaps even a bit like a bull seeing the walls of the would be box as though they were a red waving sheet of cloth. The words Hulk Smash radiates and travels across my mind as I think of labels and boxes.

Source: climbingthecrazytree.wordpress.com

Programming

I started programming at a very early age. I was 12 and that was in 1982. I didn't program just a little bit, I spent massive amounts of time. At one time I had calculated how much time I'd estimated I had spent programming between age 12 and 18 when I was a senior in high school (back in 1989). I estimated it to be in the 5 to 6 thousand hours. I loved programming. I began to look at most problems in terms of programming, logic, if then else, and, or, not, xor, etc.

My own mind was not free from this inspection. I became convinced I could reshape my mind by sheer will and perseverance. I would view things in my mind that I saw as being bad, and I would focus on reprogramming my mind. I hadn't taken any psychology courses. I was way too young to have intentionally encountered that subject.

Source: giphy.com

I seem to have had a lot of success doing this. I even managed to do some fairly challenging things with my mind with a lot of effort. I smoked marijuana for about a month when I was 16 or so. It seriously distorted time for me and I did laugh a lot. It was the time distortion and not being able to get the effect to stop on demand that got to me. My parents were hippies and smoked pot, and most of my friends smoked pot. So I really had nothing against it other than I was very much a control freak of my own mind. So I stopped. In fact I stopped any interest in anything like that, and even alcohol. I can honestly say I have never been hung over, and I've tasted 6 types of alcohol in my life all before the age of 16, and I am now 45.

Source: giphy.com

This does bring up the mind programming though. With effort on my part I could make myself feel just like I was stoned on marijuana. I'd actually get accused of being stoned when in fact I was not. The key is it was under my control such that when I wanted it to stop, it stopped. It took a lot of practice and effort. For me the catalyst I have to use to enter this state is music. Music does something to me that unlocks other parts of my mind.

Source: giphy.com

I actually am quite terrified of psychedelics and hallucinogens. My mind is already pretty 'far out' there in it's natural state. I'm not so sure my sanity would survive too much additional odd input. I also seem to hold my own with people I know that use such things as one of the things that unlocks their mind to new possibilities. I can respect this and I've actually seen this happen with people. I see the benefit. Yet, I don't know that I'd benefit from it. I've also had friends lost in them such that they start to view them as a requirement they must have in order to achieve deep thoughts. I have no problem with deep thoughts. I think such bizarre stuff on a regular basis that I fully expect ridicule, fear, and to be ostracized if people knew my thoughts. Steemit has a community has surprised me on numerous occasions where I took a risk and exposed some of my weirder thoughts. Great community!

Boxes and Labels

Source: www.mibba.com

This 16 personality types matrix that some people talk about. I remember where I first encountered it. One of my daughters was considering becoming a neurologist and was taking a lot of classes. I remember her coming home with the personality matrix and trying to determine which one of them I am. I remember I could flit between several of them.

Since I program my mind with some effort I don't really like such confining labels and boxes. I do see them as useful for probabilities. It is probable that you are going to act like this. Probabilities leave a door open in the box. They leave the possibility that there ARE more than 16 types of people and personalities in the world. There is a difference between saying to someone "You are an INTP" and saying "You seem to share some traits with an INTP personality type." For me I might answer "That is the set of clothes I am wearing today." I don't like being labeled, boxed, categorized. I see myself as an individual. No other individual is me. I don't want to go join team number twelve out of sixteen because that is how someone chooses to label me.

Source: sharesomehistory.tumblr.com

The funny thing is that not wanting to be labeled, and not agreeing to be confined to their categorization, I am absolutely certain there is a label and category for that. "So you don't want to be put into a box? That's quite all right we have a box for people like you."

I defy your boxes

Box me up if you want... this is some of the things I do...

• I do not recognize authority
• I've studied physics as a major area
• I've studied music as a major area
• I play guitar, some keyboard, and some cello
• I've composed music in the form of MODs and other formats
• I've programmed tens of thousands of hours
• I repair and build computers
• I study religions but practice and endorse none of them
• I've seen, experienced, and believe in ghosts
• I believe it is possible some cryptozoological life forms like bigfoot might exist
• I believe there may be something to UFOs, though I do not try to categorize them
• I've seen some things in the spirtual supernatural realm that defy what my science yells at me
• I love philosophy and exploring ideas of the mind
• I have a strong sense of justice when I perceive others as wronged. Less intense when I myself am wronged.
• I don't consider myself skilled at visual arts simply because I have not applied myself there, yet I still do visual arts.
• I write poems and other styles of work and in fact intentionally alter how I perceive myself in some cases as I write things. This is where @chaospoet comes from.
• I understand and believe in the scientific method as an amazing TOOL
• I know I am wrong about so many things, and I view that with excitement and opportunity.
• I've studied many forms of martial arts and am not particularly skilled at any of them.
• I have never been to an ocean.
• I've climbed 14 thousand foot peaks, simply because I lived near 5 of them.

Source: giphy.com

So what category am I? Truly I am curious.

For years I've described it as feeling like I am switching gears in my head. If I start speaking about ghosts and supernatural stories my mind feels different than when I am speaking about mathematics, physics, or computer science.