Five Things on a Tuesday Morning

[mrissa]

1. As I work on "Five Ways to Ruin a First Date" (which is about radio astronomy), I keep thinking, "Perhaps I'm not being subtle. Perhaps I'm merely being obscure." I keep putting in e-mails to people, "I can only do this as I can do it." Which is true but not perhaps ultimately helpful.

I refuse to do the kind of prose that jumps up and down and points frantically at its own subtlety, though. That's just not going to happen.

2. I woke up at 5:15 this morning. Since I was already tired from the weekend, this did not thrill my soul. We're trying a new method of keeping my back from getting quite so banged up with the falls in PT; hope it works. It requires an extremely high-tech solution: a larger rubber ball from Walgreen's. At least Mom got me the swirly sky blue kind.

3. I find I am really, really not emotionally attached to most of the library books I try being any good at all. Of the five I got yesterday, I have already discarded two unread. And this does not bother me even slightly. Go library.

4. I am trying, with moderate though not universal success, not to be cranky with people with the continuing vertigo ick, since it's not their fault. But inanimate objects are not receiving the same consideration. I have been cutting the tags out of shirts with wild abandon. There is one T-shirt I've been sleeping in for over a decade (because physics T-shirts are tough, apparently), with the tag in. No problem. Until this weekend when the Tag! Must! DIE! This seems like a harmless enough pastime, so I'm just going with it.

5. I am instituting a new policy. I am no longer going to listen to my friends making disparaging remarks about themselves without protest. If my friends were making disparaging remarks about each other, I would protest, so I don't see why it should be different when it's about themselves; certainly it doesn't make me any less uncomfortable. I certainly don't expect my friends to pretend that they are perfect and without flaw, but gratuitous self-directed nastiness is not the same thing, and not okay. I don't care to put one of you on the spot and say who it was that inspired this new policy, because it bothers me more frequently than just the one person; if it was just the one person, I would e-mail just the one person.

For handy reference:
X: "I'm worried about this thing, because I have such difficulty getting myself organized."
me: "I'm sorry to hear that. Do you think it'd help to blah blah, or etc.?"

BUT

X: "I am such a disorganized loser!"
me: "Kindly don't speak that way of my friend X."

Comments

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

#1, #4, and #5 - yes, yes, and yes.

(I hear you on the others as well, but those three correspond to things I am dealing with right now myself.)

(because physics T-shirts are tough, apparently)

Good to hear. I actually have a character who might want to profess that at some point. ;-)

In Kentucky at the moment. I have brought up my late grandfather-in-law's pushmower to deal with Mom's half-acre. Hah.

[numinicious.livejournal.com]

Are you suggesting that radio astronomy would ruin a date?

I, personally, would consider a date with an astronomer to be a complete and utter success! Especially if the conversation veered toward space elevators.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You know what Samuel L. Jackson says happens when you make an assumption.

[windcedar.livejournal.com]

But, but...a date involving radio astronomy and space elevators, unromantic? The imagination, it fails me. :P

...I know, you didn't say there were space elevators in your story. But that's because it's about ways to ruin a date, right? :)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I didn't say it was unromantic, either.

Jeez, you people!

[windcedar.livejournal.com]

:D The assumptions, they are bad!

[redbird]

Definitely yes on point 5. I do that too, and sometimes get very surprised, though pleased, reactions when I respond to that sort of self-disparagement by saying "I don't like it when people insult my friends."

[kizmet-42.livejournal.com]

Moms rock, along with blue swirly balls.

Is the tag thing really a result of the vertigo, or is it "I've had enough in my life that I can't deal with, but I can cut out the tags!"?

Librarians do not mind if you do not read the books. Promise. You helped their circulation by checking it out. What you do beyond that (as long as you return it in reasonable condition) is up to you.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Right, what I meant to convey was that the tag thing was a result of crankiness which was a result of vertigo.

Would that the other patrons of my library would heed your caveat. Although it's kind of fun reading books with damage noted and repaired by some diligent librarian a month before my parents got married.

Future Quiz

[jymdyer.livejournal.com]

=v= Do not answer the following question until you have finished removing all tags from all your shirts.

*** ... spoiler space ... ***

*** I'll Wait Right Here ***

*** ... no peeking ... ***

Okay. So, tell me, what shirt size do you wear?

Re: Future Quiz

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It's always depended on use and brand. For sleep shirts, XL or XXL (the latter if it's readily available for the same price). For wearing out in public, S or XS. And yes, I do remember which brands are S and which are XS, of the ones I wear frequently; and anyway I don't entirely trust the ones I don't wear frequently not to change the cut of their shirts before I buy another shirt. They're constantly doing stuff like that, and it's almost never to my benefit.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I LOVE your approach for disparaging friends. I hope you don't mind if I adopt it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Of course I don't mind!

Disparaging Friends

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

what if they're right, and they really ARE a disorganised loser?

Re: Disparaging Friends

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Phrasing it in that way is still putting their friend (me!) in a very awkward position. That kind of offhand remark in a conversation that's about something totally different does not actually allow for serious discussion of actual issues.

Also, "loser" may seem objective when we're dealing with certain people, but it's a very subjective judgment. "Disorganized" is, too, but at least there we have some idea of what the scale might be. "Disorganized" might refer to specific traits. "Loser" is gratuitous nastiness.

[rosefox]

I've gotten very good results with a policy like #5.

[careswen.livejournal.com]

I have used #5 repeatedly on your brother in the last year-plus, and Lo! he is learning.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Now if only we could teach your husband....

[careswen.livejournal.com]

Indeedy. Unfortunately, he had more time to build up extra stubborn, so it's taking longer, but I feel up to the challenge!