Cynical?
I've been told by some who know me, that I'm not as cynical as I make out, that beneath my statements I have a soft white underbelly.
I naturally use cynical statements as a way of making people question that which is presented to them. I know I have managed to train a few people to question any emails they receive stating "Microsoft says..." or "send this to everyone". Snopes is a good source for debunking, or verifying urban myths.
As a child I was always asking "Why?" My mother said one of the best things she did with me was to get me a library membership. I do know why the sky is blue. As an info-junkie I have picked up all sorts of trivia and can remember it. (I can't remember what I was supposed to pick up at the supermarket though.) With this collection I've often been able to find a connection between unrelated events. I haven't yet managed to relate the colour of the sky to anything.
I get asked, "How do you know all this?" The answer is I don't, all I know is the surface details. Knowing how to find the indepth details is the important thing and, especially on the web, knowing how to correlate reliable sources. Sometimes the web is good when you don't know anything, but then you need to comfortably find enough references supporting a viewpoint, and that these sites have considered to results. I looked up colloidal silver after a colleague raved about this miracle cure. Most of the sites favoured its use but they had just cut'n'pasted from the same source. My verdict? Don't touch the stuff.
That's me, making the world a better place one step at a time. It may be a less innocent place, but the innocence there was only illusory anyway. Having said that I am very pleased that, on occasion, people can still make me blush.
