I dunno… I think the opposite is what inspired much of this article. Dudes love to tweak and boost… Women are more likely to say, “NO! Leave it alone! It works now; you’ll just break it.”

It seems that both sexes have their way of doing things that if it is tampered with they seem to completely break down and ask why modify something that they have been doing for a period of time, when all your trying to do is get their heads outta the box (and butts in some cases) to show them a simpler way of doing the same thing. Its not just re-inventing the wheel, its making it roll better.

I’m right there on once something is working, just don’t mess with it and pray to the gods that it stays that way, even if you have to sacrifice a living being to keep it working.

That reminded me of something.

That’s probably just been my luck, then. Just about every woman I’ve known (friends and family) has been relatively Zen; their sights fixed on getting the task done with little to no hassle.

Now, if you want to ascribe things along traditional gender stereotypes…then I have to present the fact that crafting, costuming, and anything else vaguely creative heavily involves the integration of things that could probably just be bought.

Craftsmanship is different from what I’m talking about. I’m talking about idiots that almost know what they’re doing tinkering and tweaking something as they go along in a project that’s probably far more hassle than it’s worth.

For example: My step-grandfather is a master carpenter. He can build a house and construct a cuckoo clock… That’s something I respect and admire. However, his TV set up–while only slightly less ridiculous than mine–wasn’t nearly as bad as how he insisted on commanding it.

For years, he would record programs on TV by first making sure he was in 10min before a show started, setting the VCR clock, programming it to begin recording that channel 5min before the show starts till 5min after. He got so pissed when he asked me to record a show, then I went in as the show started and hit the VCR’s Record button. He didn’t know how I did it, but he was convinced I’d almost broke the whole thing.

I’ve had many experiences like this with men; next to none with women. Again, I think that men get more caught up over the challenge of solving the puzzle themselves. It becomes about ego than being effective.

If anything, women I’ve known will explain their complicated process and when I try to demonstrate the correct way, I’ll admit, “You know, this is too complicated. This shouldn’t take more than two steps.”

Ashley has rescued me from many overly-complex solutions of mine. My TV setup is not yet one of them. Maybe once we move in together and she insists on paying for our cable service, I’ll surrender.

Now, if you want to ascribe things along traditional gender stereotypes (which is also bad in general terms, but we’ll humor the idea for argument’s sake), then I have to present the fact that crafting, costuming, and anything else vaguely creative heavily involves the integration of things that could probably just be bought. Even cooking involves a fair bit of improvisation for people who don’t buy a million unitasking tools.

The only thing that I’d vaguely argue as gender-specific (which, again, is a vast generalization) would be the aesthetics comment. Most women seem to put more effort into hiding their creativity than men do. Cable nests are strategically hidden behind bookcases and stitching is done on the non-visible side. Many people (typically males) are probably more likely to just stop as soon as they have something functional, but that’s really a testament to silliness. I’d leave cables everywhere, but I’m not going to deny that tucking them behind things makes the room look better and draws attention to the ultimate fruit of my work rather than the horrifying Serial Experiments Lain mess going on to the left of my TV.

…if you read my line of reasoning and example for too long, the universe may collapse.

I guess there’s history and then there’s connotation to words. I tend to pick up connotation more than semantics. Which can be a pretty big shortcoming. :/

Oh, and did just buy Tokyo Godfathers. Woo!

That might be a good idea to get other people involved in like one big super panel, like in Gunbuster proportions.