Journal Entries
God, I'm becoming a right bustard
Posted Sep 21, 2007
What on Earth is getting into me of late? Have I lost the ability to tell real life from online life to the extent that my online and RL personae are inextricably melding like milk and caustic ammonia spilled on the same tabletop? Will my easy-going, friendly, open RL nature start cropping in h2g2 conversations? 'Cos sure as hell, I'm behaving more like FM in RL than CD.
Let me give you an example. I've know a guy for 20-odd years. We were at Uni together and we soon became very close friends because we shared a lot of the same interests and outlook on life. When he 'came out', I was there with a couple of others to support him.
We've since drifted apart: he ended up down in London and discovered money and conspicuous consumption. I discovered family. I still felt we had something in common, though, dspite the fact he hasn't visited me for about 10 years 'because London supplies all the excitement that I need'. All along he's styled himself as a 'theoretical physicist', despite the fact that he didn't pursue physics beyond his first degree and does much the same job as I do: IT project management. With him it's been a hobby more than anything else.
So, out of interest, I sent him a link to my latest EG entry, the one on Alpha, that made Editor's pick. He said he though it was nicely written. We got discussing various issues, and I mentioned my misgivings with a very esoteric area of physics, string theory, that hasn't really seemed to have produced anything tangible in the way of predictions, other than that all universes seem to be possible. I also pointed out that there were other equally worthy pursuits in physics, inside and outside the search for a theory of everything.
He then started and continued to patronise the crap out of me. He'd always tended towards arrogance but he'd had other qualities that tempered that. I didn't see them emerging this time, I reminded him that he was the one with the mediocre degree and I was the one with the PhD. So, I told him to risk some public exposure for a while instead of being the scientific equivalent of a cafe-society intellectual. That if he really regarded himself as being a theoretical physicist, to prove it. Such as writing a h2g2 entry on why String theory is so bloody important it has to swallow up all the brains and funds. But of course, he was 'too busy'.
I doubt very much whether we will speak again because of this, but it's sad to see that a personal trajectory I saw forming twenty-odd years ago has been followed almost down to the millimeter. He has become more and more self-satisfied and is so up himself that he seems to think his own interests are the only truly worth interests worth pursuing.
The core fact, though, is that he left our friendship, which was very close, wither on the vine through neglect and indifference, and I felt myself bnehaving towards him as I do here on occasion, simply because I no longer had any investment in it. I might not lead an exciting metropolitan existence and be pretty antipathetic towards sensation-seeking, but I always thought that the sign of a true friendship was that it didn't need that kind of motor to sustain it. How wrong I was. And how typical of him to point it out.
Discuss this Journal entry [38]
Latest reply: Sep 21, 2007
A simple 'Diolch yn fawr' would have been sufficient!
Posted Sep 9, 2007
There has been an issue with rendering this post, please contact the editors.
Discuss this Journal entry [24]
Latest reply: Sep 9, 2007
One of the reasons why 20/20 vision is a good thing
Posted Aug 27, 2007
I was looking out from my front garden yesterday to the stand of trees opposite that borders the golf course, when I saw one of these running up the trunk of an oak:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greatspottedwoodpecker/index.asp
It didn't hang about for long, but it was the first time I have ever seen a woodpecker: I've heard them before on numerous occasions. And my daughter got to see it too.
Birds are brilliant things.
Discuss this Journal entry [16]
Latest reply: Aug 27, 2007
Look at what's back...
Posted Jul 31, 2007
F48874?thread=4417892
It's nice to see such a ground-breaking Entry in PR for a change. The EG really needs such fresh thinking, doesn't it?
I can't even be bothered to weigh in with my usual Writing-By-Numbers bleat, such is my indifference to PR nowadays. Do I give a sick dog's dump about that happens to h2g2 anymore? Do I f***.
Discuss this Journal entry [4]
Latest reply: Jul 31, 2007
Comments on this please before I submit it to the Post:
Posted Jul 30, 2007
I've just written an opinion piece here: A25324382.
I want to know what people think before I tart it up and submit it to the Post.
Discuss this Journal entry [8]
Latest reply: Jul 30, 2007
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Felonious Monk - h2g2s very own Bogeyman
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