I've begun to construct theories as to why I've never really found acceptance in any group ever, in my entire life, which is the case.  It seems to me that no matter who it is, no-one I know or have ever known as truly accepted me 100% for who I am.  (Ruling God out, of course.) Not that this particularly bothers me, but I;d like to know what to do in the future to be able to integrate myself into a group so that I would be accepted for who I am.  I think I've also identified a root cause for the problem.

I think that for one to be integrated into a group, 3 things have to happen:

1.  The other members of the group have to understand and acknowledge the interests of the one.
2.  The other members of the group have to share the same interests as the one actively and know basic facts about the one.
3.  The other members of the group have to acknowledge, accept, and enjoy the presence and the input of the one in particular.

I think the main reason as to why I've been as happy as I am is that I've found all 3 of these things, but spread out into different groups.  For example, in Carthage, people enjoyed my particular presence and input, and understood and acknowledged my interests, but they didn't share the same interests.  (At TJ they didn't even enjoy my presence.) Here, my friends understand and acknowldge my interests, and most of them they pursue actively as well, but I'm not sure that they enjoy my presence in particular.  (I'm not sure about that, though.  I think some of them do, but definitely not ll of them.) In my scout troop up here, too, they only acknowldge my interests; they don't pursue them themselves, and they don't care if I show up or not.

You may notice that in all of these cases, the interests are always acknowledged.  That, I think, is the easiest step in getting oneself integrated into a group.  In my opinion, it's also the first step needed.  That's because awkward silences only happen when people don't know what to talk about.

On that note, here's the process (as I view it) for one to get integrated into a group.

1.  The one meets someone else in the group.  You obviously can't know anybody if you don't meet anybody.
2.  The one and the other learn each other's interests and basic facts about each other.  This provides a basis for something to talk about.
3.  Either person researches an interest of the other.  This way, talkinga bout the subject loosens considerably.
4.  Discussions become more informal and relaxed as the one and the other become more familiar with each other.
5.  The other begine to acknowledge and enjoy the presence and the input of the one in particular.  This way the one feels a desire to come back and visit the other again.
6a.  The other, having already integrated themselves into the group, provides a segway for the one to meet the other members of the group.
6b.  If the group is too large, the one might be forced to remain in a relatively small clique that share interests actively and enjoy each other's presence and input.

I've never been through this entire process.  Not once.  Ever.  Unfortunately.

I think I know why, too.  My interests run wild.  It's like my interests in the drawing arts:  it's totally OCD.  As a result, I have a vast number of interests, all vastly different from each other.  Because I have so many, I've never invested myself enough in one particular interest enough to make it worthwhile to incorporate myself into a group that focuses on a particular field of interest as its primary purpose.  Not even my intense interest in puzzles is immune to these effects; it's been dilated enough my other interests that I haven't been as invested in the TwistyPuzzles forum as I want to be.

This seems to ring true everywhere, no matter what the goal for investing in them in the first place.  My interest in scouting was never as much as my mom, and now that I have my Eagle (as we moved), my interest has reduced drastically.  I never learned enought about aircraft to become a proper plane enthusiast.  I like anime to the point that I watch it and buy merchandise when I can afford it, but I've never been one to make a cosplay or create a fan character.  I've never been invested enough in Jazz Jackrabbit to do my own programming, create a worthwhile remix, or finish a fanfic about it.  My interest in Chip's Challenge only extended to creating levels, which almost completely stopped after completing the DanM1 levelset.  My interest in programming was only for hacking, which I only considered half-seriously in the first place.  Video games have dropped off now that the attnetion has turned to the Wii, PS3, and X-Box 360, none of which I own.  I've only been invested in physice for the math part, and I haven't been pursuing that as seriously as I should for someone who wants to go to NMT.

I think the closest I've ever gotten to being a total fan of something was Artemis Fowl, which dropped off fast after the Lost Colony came out.  That's because I'm not a fan of Artemis being a modern-day Robin Hood, which is totally unoriginal; the major appeal of Artemis, for me, was that he WAS a protagonist who was also a bad guy.  In any other situation, that would be a complete oxymoron and Eoin Colfer was the only person I knew who could actually pull it off.  And he pulled it off damn well, if you'll pardon my French.  Also, he HAS to be an only child, because then he has no-one his age to model off of, and he doesn't have to be a role moel himself.  Being an only child just makes him... freeer.  But then the time jump happened.  Stupid lost colony.

Long story short, Artemis Fowl has dropped off too.

So that leaves me as a person who only consumes things and doesn't really do ANYthing activey anymore.  What I really need to do is find stuf that I can knock off the list altogether, or at least limit the time I spend on them severely.  The only problem with that is that I like all these things too much to cut them off completely, or even limit myself on them more than I already am.  (Except for Artemis.  If you don't turrn him bad again, Eoin, I SWAER on my life I will...)

Yeah.

I mad a note on Facebook about things that people do when I'm solving the Rubik's Cube that get on my nerves.  It's VERY LONG.

I want to buy another Eastsheen 4x4x4 and get my first V-Cube 5.  Then I might be able to actively pursue 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 solving again.  I've been wanting to do tat for SO LONG...

By the way, I've noticed a trend about my puzzle knowledge:  I know a lot about mathematical aspects of puzzles (i.e. edges compared to corners, permutation, parities, commutators, cycles, orientation, etc.), but when it comes to pysical aspects (i.e. history, manufaturing process, exact mechanism, mech design, 3D printing, casting, etc.), I really suck.  That's one reason as to why I don't fir into the TwistyPuzzles group very well.

Bye.

(Update EXACTLY 2 months later:  I know now that the group I hang out with at school is definitely the closest I've gotten to have a group that totally accepts me.  But even though they've come EXTREMEY close, I still don't think I've found one yet.)

(7/20/09:  I don't know what I was on when I wrote this.  But my group of friends, both from the Europe trip and school have met all 3 of my criteria of acceptance, not with Rubik's Cubes, but with a combination of anime (surprisingly) and personal experiences.  That's mainly because my interest has started to shift from cosmology and theoretical physics to broader mathematics in general, and I'm thinking of changing my prospective major.  As a result, my specific interest in Rubik's Cubes has begun to spread out, and it's no longer as high.  And after attending 5 1/2 cons (in re-kon counts as a convention), my interest in anime is skyrocketing.  And now that I say that, I realize the reason I have now completed the process is that my interests are finally focusing on a few fast-developing categories.  And that's why I can relate to certain people so well:  instead of having basic knowledge of many, many topics, I have advanced knowledge on two or three.)