Meet Rick

Rick's Education:

* The United States Military Academy of Nationalistic Tendencies
    Majors: Imperialism, Exceptionalism.

* UK Royal Boarding School For Petulant Malcontents
    Majors: Behavioral Therapy, Douchebaggary.

* The School of (extremely) Hard Knocks
    Majors: Existentialism, Misanthropy, Nihilism.
    (Currently working on his thesis...)


Rick's Occupation:

Rick is a professional lecturer on *ANY* topic. Rick is also known to moonlight as an amateur psychologist, a self-help Guru, a general purpose know-it-all -- and -- an utterly incorrigible wise-arse!


Rick's (main) Talent:

As spoken by the man himself: """Cutting through the BS to discover the ~real~ truth, interpreting that truth ~objectively~, and, doing it ~all~ without any apology!"""


Rick's Subjects-of-Interest

Being that Rick is a life-long student-of-knowledge, and naturally his subjects-of-interest are extensive, it would be virtually impossible to enumerate all the categories here. However, so that you may get a better "feel" for the big feller's interests, here are a few categories of study that Rick finds to be of ~particular~ interest:

* Political Science (non-ideological)
* Sociology (deconstructing and destroying group-think!)
* Psychology
* Technology (AI, robotics, automation, etc..)
* Transhumanism (aka: moving beyond biology)
* Software Engineering
* Philosophy
* 3D Modeling (CAD/RPM)
* "General Purpose Problem Solving"

And,

* Minimalism (Rick's new pet religion!)


Rick's Location:

Rick is currently a resident of Earth . "That most ~odious~ den of zombies and vampires!" (as he's been known to rant). But Rick has not forgotten his childhood dreams of interstellar travel. Oh no. In many ways he's still a boy at heart, And Rick feels that while Earth has been a "nurturing womb" for many forms of diverse life thus far, Rick also warns:

"""If we do not find a way to diversify our existential risk -- and do it *SOON* -- the Earth will very shorty go from being a womb, to being a *TOMB*! And, human beings and every wonderful life-form that cohabits this toxic-little-space-rock of a planet, will be lost, possibly, forever!"""

And that is the nightmare which haunts Rick's mind...


Things that Rick dislikes:

* Ignoramuses (especially those blue-flame-specials who can't be bothered to RTFM!)
* Whiners
* Conformity
* Mediocrity
* Consumerism
* Traditionalism
* Ideologues
* Clingy People
* Historical Societies (aka: focus-groups for clingy people!)
* Pop music
* Money
* Gossip
* Gossipy S-O-B's
* Busybodies
* (dumb) Reality TV
* Mainstream Media
* Pumpkin-Spiced *ANYTHING*
* Political Correctness

And,

* Garden Gnomes (Rick is disturbed by their perpetual smiling)


Rick's mission statement:

"""
I DON'T EXIST TO ENTERTAIN YOU -- NO! -- I EXIST TO *ENLIGHTEN* YOU!

I DON'T SEEK TO BE LOVED -- NO! --  I SEEK TO BE *RESPECTED*.

And I am constantly ~enraged~ by the intellectual ineptitude, emotional weakness, and superficiality that infects our species.  My goal is to free people from the bondage of their *OWN* mind, and pull back the curtain to expose the malevolents -- who -- so mischievously inject their malware into our collective consciousness with the end-goal of instigating emotional warfare between the anus-sniffing sheeple mobs! And, make no mistake folks, because these weapons of "mass distraction" are ~clearly~ the most effective form of social control that has ~ever~ been devised!"""


Rick's Personality (warts and all!)

Rick's personality is a bit odd and, vacillates between a two main "archetypal forms".

During bouts of the first form -- which we shall call "The Analyst" -- Rick will become the laser-focused student of knowledge, dissecting and decoding mysteries of the universe with a stubborn and sometimes, maddening yearning, to obtain this fleeting puritanical concept which Rick dubs: "absolute victory".

In the latter form -- which we shall call "The Mischievous One" -- Rick morphs into the iconoclastic troll, running roughshod over every social norm and tipping every sacred cow in a passionate effort to maintain his *RAGING* LOLZ-boner... at any and ~all~ costs.

There is of course, a third, and darker form. One which usually manifests near the tail-end of a manic episode and, this form we shall call: "The Nihilist". This is Rick's low-energy phase. And it is not uncommon for his outlook to become, hmm, shall we say: brutally grim. In this phase, he is prone to disturbing comments such as "War is inevitable!", and underscoring other troubling realities that most folks would rather just ignore. Thankfully, Rick has not fallen so low that he was compelled to dress himself in nothing but a sandwich board and then go harass pedestrians on a local street-corner for a day (we'll let you know if it gets that bad!) But, in any event. You must always remember that these low phases are only temporary. And, i assure you. That once his energy returns, he will be (1) back on his feet, (2) knee-deep in another manic episode, and (3) happy as a clam or, mad as hornet, or... both!

On these subjects, Rick has stated:

"""The only gods i worship are knowledge and achievement and, i carry a high respect for those who are honest, especially the brutally honest type. Sometimes, and perhaps more often than i care to admit, i will fall into self-deprecating bouts of outright nihilism and ~rabid~ misanthropy. But hey! If you knew what i ~know~ about the vile nature of human beings (pardon me for a a sec: *PUKE!* ) you'd be a nihilistic misanthrope too! Hmm... and, ~occasionally~ I've been accused of ranting about stuff (yeah, go figure!). But mainly, I'm just a simple kinda guy who would rather spend his life ~learning~ not ~earning~. Geesus folks! There are plenty of sheeple in this world already. (*PUKE*!)"""


Rick's Welcome Mat:

"""So, welcome to my world folks. And do please remember, that this ~whole~ experience will be much better for the both of us, if you 'd kindly leave your delicate sensibilities at the door. And now, with all that in mind --> PISS OFF!"""

Sincerely,
Rick Johnson (aka: "rantingrick", "rr")