something you never expected , or even something really small and insignificant… if there’s more than one, go ahead and mention them…
Chief’s Domain - http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~ravi
See my Earthquake & circumcision post. I forgot to mention that the conditions are rare. Of all the rare things that could happen to me, it had to be this.
I met someone through the internet two or more years ago. We communicated through e-mail, then ICQ, and became great friends. She was a lesbian, and we had many things in common.
Over that time we discussed many personal things about ourselves in amongst the mundane, and got to know each other well. She was from Melbourne, Australia, and I was in Dunedin, New Zealand, and she was instrumental in not only encouraging me to come over to Australia to live, but also helped me out when I got here.
I never got to meet her, though. She told me she’d had several bad experiences with people she’d met through the internet before, and now steadfastly denied herself any contact with people via the net ever again.
However, she did introduce me to her friend, a guy who worked at the same ISP she did. He was able to help me out a couple of times. And when he left his job, he (and she) recommended me for his replacement, which worked out well!
However, then the weird things started to happen. The guy who vacated the job left some interesting evidence behind: familiar handwriting; e-mails describing incidents that didn’t correlate; a few conversations that had plot holes…
And then, I investigated deeper, and the truth was out. This lesbian friend of mine was not a lesbian at all - she was a guy! In fact, the ‘friend’ of hers - was her!! Or rather, him!
He’d made up this lesbian persona just as an added safety net when he dealt with people over the web, and when he got this close to me as a friend, to the point of meeting me, he went too far, and he realised he couldn’t tell me the truth without risking losing me as a friend! So he perpetuated and denied it even after I confronted him with it.
That is one of the weirdest things that happened to me in the last year.
The end result is - I forgave him, because I valued his friendship, and I sort of understood why it ended up that way. But I don’t fully trust him any more.
-PIGEONMAN-
The Legend Of PigeonMan - Shadow of the Pigeon
Weirdo of the Night
Something similar happened to me. I started talking in a chatroom to a guy from India. Then we moved to icq. The hours between us were such that it was hard for us to talk very much…but he had this idea that we should talk every day. It got to the point where I would go on “invisible” just so I could chat with a friend or two and check my email and then get off. Someone from England caught me one afternoon…I had my random on for some reason. We chatted for a few minutes…I had a phone call and stopped talking. When I came back to the computer this guy (from England) had left some rather unpleasant messages of the sexual nature for me. Of course he was offline when I got back and I merely sent him a message telling him he had some nice language…with the intention of never chatting with him again.
The next afternoon I chatted with my friend from India for a short time. I went off the computer and came back on about an hour later. Up pops the guy from England and he apologizes profusely for his language and we chat again for a few minutes. We finish our conversation and up pops the guy from India again. To make a long story short…the guy from India had his friend in England send me an icq message to see if I was online and just avoiding him. I got this big spill about if I didn’t like him and didn’t want to talk to him I should just say so instead of hiding from him. We had a big arguement and of course I don’t talk with either of them now. But it’s the first time I ever had someone try to “track” me on the net.
“Do or do not, there is no try” - Yoda
Senior Intern to
El Presidente
Self-Righteous Clique *
I’ve gone through 3 jobs, yes, count 'em: 3! Sheesh. I pride myself on dedication to duty, loyalty, and a hard working attitude but I think I’ve found the three stinkiest jobs ever this past year. They all started out great and went down hill. Now I’m getting ready to leave #3 cause my boss is a nut and it’s kind of been discouraging to me today. I keep thinking “maybe all I’ll be able to do is food service…” (no dis, just the type of job that’s always around). ::sigh:: just want to work hard for someone nice!!
Disclaimer for previous post: I know that’s not very strange but if you knew me, you’d realize how very weird it is.
On December 30, I found out I had a blood clot in my left leg…and I’m 21. I had to spend new years in the hospital. Everyone I know who finds out that I had it (still on medications) asks me how did such a thing happen to a young guy. Hell, the doctors don’t even know.
That’s weird.
OK, this is in the “great minds think alike” weirdness sweepstakes.
Ukelele Ike and I met over this board and hit it off right away. Found out we’re both editors, we both work in midtown Manhattan.
We both like Tiffany Thayer and think Thorne Smith is over-rated (authors no one else has even heard of). Our favorite Irving Berlin tune is “Cohen Owes Me Ninety-Seven Dollars.” OK, only slightly weird so far.
Then, we both show up the same night for the same Ute Lemper concert in the Village! Knew right then and there fate was telling me I’d found a pal for life.
—Mrs. Parker
Damn! I was just gonna post that!
Uke
If it were anyone but an editor, I’d let it pass (really), but . . . .
How can x be over-rated if only the two of you have even heard of x (barring the possibility that you both deliberately over-rate x, which leaves the border of remote-contingency-land somewhere well behind us).
On second thought, surely I’m above such cavils. Or, maybe not.
rackensack, how much did Chef Troy pay you to post that? No matter, you BOTH get your kneecaps broken.
OK, lemmee explain for you once and for all the difference between “conversational writing” and “AP stylebook writing.”
Ah, never mind . . . I’m gonna go to the Algonquin and have a REALLY strong cup of tea.
I never expected I would spend so much time on an Internet message board. Sometimes, I still can’t believe it. I think that the experience is beneficial for the most part, but I could see this turning into an addiction.
Well, The Modern Library has seen fit, within the past year, to re-issue three of Smith’s novels – TOPPER, TOPPER TAKES A TRIP, and NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS – in extremely handsome trade paperback editions.*
How many writers of pop fiction (even worse, COMIC fiction) who’ve been dead and buried for over sixty years are having three of their 70-plus year-old books re-published today?
I don’t want to sound like a griper, and I’m delighted that such a fringe figure has his champions in the publishing business, but there are a few other people I woulda picked FIRST…
- Buy them and see if you agree with Eve and me.
[stands behind Arnold W, mouthing WE GOT HIM to all the other addicts, who burst into spontaneous applause]
Eve:
If my past form is any predictor, I’m bound to leave the house with my solecism showing before long, so you’ll have an opportunity to get your own back. Besides, I wouldn’t have bothered if I hadn’t seen ample evidence from your other posts that it was uncharacteristic of you. Compliments come in many forms.
Jerome K. Jerome? Well, OK, only two books.
P.G. Wodehouse? Well, OK, he’s only been dead 25 years.
James Branch Cabell?
Robert Benchly?
Let’s see, one, two, three, many…
Nothing weird has happened to me in the past year. Tiresome, yes. Weird, no.
I’m a reporter, and in the past half-year I’ve had my marriage break up at a party thrown in my honor; I’ve been sued by my former newspaper for going to a competitor, and I’m currently under a judge’s order barring me from acting as a newspaper reporter in two counties until mid-June.
Do I win?
“You should tell the truth, expose the lies and live in the moment.” - Bill Hicks
Finagle, in the context of this series of posts, are you saying that James Branch Cabell is having one or more novels republished this year? (Omitting Jurgen ,of course.)
Tom~
Well, according to Amazon.com, you can get the collected works of JBC (46 volumes). OK, maybe it wasn’t republished this year. But it’s still available 81 years later.
Another health-related anomaly: As I’ve whined about before, I ended up with two huge lung abscesses as a result of some dental work and spent six weeks on IV antibiotics. (I’m on the oral ones now and back at work at last, praise the Lord!) Not the dentist’s fault, just one of those freak things.
In defense of editors, I’m yet another one (we seem to be legion on this board) and I never copyedit people’s posts. It’s more fun just to sit here quietly, smirking and feeling superior 
Catrandom