I didn't want to do a long writeup but I guess I'll have to.
I'm probably a more complicated person than I like to let on. Most of it has to do with my relatively specific background and upbringing. I was born into Soviet intelligentsia, and despite the external conditions for this odd little class disappearing long before I even started school, I have actually retained many of the personality traits associated with them. This includes my insatiable thirst for information, passion for learning and teaching, cultural leanings towards the original and the pretentious, distrust toward strangers, keen interest in politics combined with the conviction nothing will ever change in my favour anyway, and of course an utter lack of material or competitive motivation in general. I always say that I was born without a competitive bone in my body, which is probably true. I only like to challenge myself. Most of this I owe to my upbringing, which I'm somewhat proud of. First off, I was an early learner. I started speaking when I was 1 year old, by 1.5 years old I had already learned the alphabet, at age 2 I could read passages from the newspaper and actually understand maybe 30% of the words in it
By age 4 I was writing my own short stories (about talking vacuum cleaners, at that), and by age 6 I could multiply 6-digit numbers without a calculator (I was probably better at math when I was 6 than I am now). So in terms of mental age I was always ahead my peers. This seems to have lingered - I wasn't at all surprised that when I got on the .org, some people told me they thought I was at least 40. To no small extent I owe this to my parents, who have always treated me as an adult-in-the-making rather than giving me breaks as an irresponsible kid. As a result, I was always comfortable with adults. What's more, I developed a very horizontal view of society: I would never accept anyone acting or being treated as below or above others. I would however accept people as being ahead or behind on this or other road. As a result, I always had a great relationship with teachers who recognized this, and absolutely horrid relationships with teachers (and people in general) who thought themselves above me. Usually because I wouldn't take it and try to put them back in their place. There were numerous incidents with me literally telling (sometimes swearing) my teachers off back in Russia.That's another side to my personality; generally speaking, I'm rather quiet when in public-but-informal situations. This goes back to distrust of strangers. I'm not necessarily shy, but it takes me a horridly long time to really get comfortable in any company or with any individual. Residue of the Soviet mentality - personal relations with too many people should be approached cautiously. I'm actually a very silly, utterly informal, sometimes bordering on retarded-acting, at home or among close friends. Unfortunately it's impossibly hard for me to develop the latter. This is compounded, of course, by difficulties in relating to my peers due to my "mental age" as mentioned above. I've also gotten horridly bad at picking up social cues in North American culture. My Russian-ness shouldn't be under-estimated. Generally, with the Russian predisposition to sharing emotions and impressions - i.e. expressing rather than describing in conversation, I seem to get along better with girls (who I believe are more disposed to this in North American culture) - but only to a point. I tend to be very protective of friends and relatives and always feel like the point of my life is to help them. Actually I think Chrono's previously-mentioned co-dependency thing very much applies to me.
I am a massive space-case. I space out everywhere and anywhere. I am clumsy to the max, and I don't think comparisons to Osaka are at all inappropriate. I am an incredibly slow but efficient thinker. I think a lot, and I'm generally rather observant without letting anyone on to the fact that most of the time, I AM watching. Sort of like in classes - I generally lounge in the chair somewhere close to the front of the room, with nothing except perhaps a coffee on my desk, looking like I'm about to fall asleep. I keep no notes, ever. In fact I'm very often the top student in my class and rely exclusively on my memory and ability to maintain mental focus. I never study either - my focusing ability gets me through everything. My ordinary mellow-ness, however, shouldn't be interpreted as docility. When rubbed the wrong way or, heaven forbid, feeling threatened - I get very aggressive and am not above violence. Recalling my utter disregard for competitive pursuits - I don't take violence as a game, and I take it as a matter of necessity. When threatened or even seriously offended, I do attack, and I don't regard any "honour codes" as valid - I'll attack without warning, and use any moves or objects at hand. Fortunately, I haven't had to beat anyone up for years. Part of that is also that being very tall and Russian usually warns people off to begin with.
All of the above probably explains some of the weirdness associated with my personality. I'm a staunch individualist and for all of the reasons above, I've developed a pretty strong resistant to external pressures and a liking for exploring and observing things with relative neutrality. So I've picked up some seemingly contradictory hobbies and interests along the way, some of which it almost seems like I shouldn't have. That probably explains my inherent positive-ness and private silly-ness - despite actually being serious, I can step away and look at myself from many perspective - and as a result, I just can't take myself too seriously.
Funny this thread was intended for current personalities but it turned into people posting long detailed biographies. At least it explains the roots of what made you what you are today. Thanks for giving some insight on the life of Oto! I was actually hoping you'd post something here. Glad you did. Thanks for sharing. ^_^
