19/05/2002-20/05/2002 @00:32:13 ^01:54:50

This update has quite a random subject. There's stuff I should have done, but haven't (pages to which I should link, a decent explanation on here about the format of the heading above, etc.) Oh well...

Being bad at communication

Not the most inspiring thing with which to start. But you're reading it now, so why stop..?

So I finally managed to put into words why leaving IRC channels full of people you know is impossible:

• If you leave when someone else has just turned up, it looks like you're avoiding them
• If you leave just after someone else has just left it looks like you're only there because of the person who's just left and those remaining aren't good enough for you.
• And in the meantime everyone's talking and it's rude to just go in the middle of a conversation.

Yes I know it's rot but I am a wuss who can't have people thinking bad thoughts about him...

...which is why it's doubly upsetting when you get mails from people who have reacted badly to some remark you've made, but it was just what you were thinking at the time so you wrote it and sent it. See I'm crap at communication. I'm sorry. The only solution I can think of is that if you don't like it stop being friends with me, because this is how I am. Sometimes I say stuff that people don't like. It's either that or say nothing at all. Is that what you want?

Here, for example, is a remark that could upset. This is a story on The Register about text message flirting. Mildly amusing but otherwise unremarkable, except for a paragraph which mentions Reading. My thought was "if you know someone in Reading, read this paragraph and you will undoubtably be amused" - but I dare say that this will offend you if you live in Reading. But there you go.

Being good at having a suspicious mind

Let's suppose you are sharing a box of Christmas crackers with a friend. You know how many crackers there were in the box to begin with. Your friend says that, for one reason or another, they have not been shared with anyone else.

Now you have a good memory so you know how many crackers you've pulled, and thus you know how many should be left in the box. But counting the crackers left in the box, the totals don't add up! Further searching reveals the missing crackers... but not before you've gotten yourself all worked up because "someone's telling porkies and I don't know why"!

Before you say it, I haven't gone crackers. A version of this highly cryptic and contrived anecdote happened to me recently, and it only serves to highlight just how much I don't trust people, even ones who have no reason for being dishonest about their cracker-sharing habits. However on a more positive note, I think this sort of logical analysis is a skill:-)