Thu 21st October 2010

A long overdue day of cleaning and tidying yesterday, before the arrival of Stefan, Csilla's boyfriend. Stefan, to my relief, had a firm handshake and was easy to talk to. I warmed to him when he said "It is normal, no, the go to the pub all the time? Because in Croatia, we do this." The whole night went well, then, drunk (as ever) I went and cocked up my online life slightly by making a stupid remark on an academic email list. Replying to what I thought was an utterly pretentious call for papers, I said that "people who post such things should be obliged to spend a year on the minimum wage working in a chip shop". The list owner told me that I'd be moderated in future and that there "is no place for gratuitous insults". I regret the manner in which I said it but not the substance of the point.

I also sent an email to prod a woman in Dublin I've been chatting to on the internet who hasn't replied for a few weeks. "Come on Sue," I wrote. "You're the most interesting interlocutor I've had for ages." This morning she wrote back saying she was just that moment thinking that she owed me a letter, and also saying that she's been sexting someone else.

I looked at that sentence over and over again. How have me and Sue drifted into anodyne conversation and yet someone else has managed to steer it in a more interesting direction? We had a promising start - she told me more than once that my profile made her laugh and was the best one on the site. Now I've made her see writing to me as an obligation. Why do I constantly do this? How do I do it, and how can I stop it? I suppose a first step might be to avoid using words like "interlocutor", which are probably not going to get most women flicking their hair with anticipation.

Looking a tit in public on an email list; being demoted to friends by an interesting, clever woman: crap start to the day and I feel all wrong.

2 comments

Comment from: Homer [Visitor]

Read I Hate The Earth and feel better. Poor fucking Fweng! (Literally)

Thu 21st October 2010 @ 14:49

Comment from: [Member]

Oh dear oh dear. Btw everyone, the blog we’re referring to, which is a must read, is http://www.ihatetheearth.blogspot.com/

Thu 21st October 2010 @ 15:17

Form is loading...

Comment feed for this post

looby, n.; pl. loobies. A lout; an awkward, stupid, clownish person

M / 59 / Bristol, "the most beautiful, interesting and distinguished city in England" -- John Betjeman [1961, source eludes me].

"Looby is a left-wing intellectual who is obsessed with a) women's clothes and b) tits." -- Joy of Bex.

WLTM literate woman, 40-65. Must have nice tits, a PhD, and an mdma factory in the shed, although the first on its own will do in the short term.

There are plenty of bastards who drink moderately. Of course, I don't consider them to be people. They are not our comrades.
Sergei Korovin, quoted in Pavel Krusanov, The Blue Book of the Alcoholic

I am here to change my life. I am here to force myself to change my life.
Chinese man I met during Freshers Week at Lancaster University, 2008

The more democratised art becomes, the more we recognise in it our own mediocrity.
James Meek

Tell me, why is it that even when we are enjoying music, for instance, or a beautiful evening, or a conversation in agreeable company, it all seems no more than a hint of some infinite felicity existing apart somewhere, rather than actual happiness – such, I mean, as we ourselves can really possess?
Turgenev, Fathers and Sons

I hate the iPod; I hate the idea that music is such a personal thing that you can just stick some earplugs in your ears and have an experience with music. Music is a social phenomenon.
Jeremy Wagner

La vie poetique has its pleasures, and readings--ideally a long way from home--are one of them. I can pretend to be George Szirtes.
George Szirtes

Using words well is a social virtue. Use 'fortuitous' once more to mean 'fortunate' and you move an English word another step towards the dustbin. If your mistake took hold, no-one who valued clarity would be able to use the word again.
John Whale

One good thing about being a Marxist is that you don't have to pretend to like work.
Terry Eagleton, What Is A Novel?, Lancaster University, 1 Feb 2010

The working man is a fucking loser.
Mick, The Golden Lion, Lancaster, 21 Mar 2011

Contact | Help | b2evolution skins by Asevo | Complete website engine

And then we were four

2 comments

looby, n.; pl. loobies. A lout; an awkward, stupid, clownish person

Rummage in my drawers

The Comfort of Strangers

"Just sit still and listen" - woman to teenage girl at Elliott Carter weekend, London 2006

XML Feeds