I have just realised something I didn't want to realise. I would now like to unrealise it quickly, please, so that I can remain in denial a bit longer.
Does anybody have any good ways of stopping oneself thinking?
Short of catching a cold, suffering sleep deprivation, or sustaining a blow to the head, no, not off-hand. I know exactly what you mean, having something I am trying to avoid thinking about (and largely succeeding).
Divert yourself though - you can't stop it but you can misdirect it. Can you come up with a plausible reason for [insert stupid paradox, goof or other niggle here] in [book or film of choice]? Can you come up with a good book for me that will benefit from being read in small chunks? What would be the best solution for the top-up fees issue? What should imc and I have for tea tonight? Any idea why my bank have decided to credit me not only with my missing 34 quid (see LJ entry when I get around to writing it up) but with a mysterious 39 quid as well, that doesn't show up on my statement when I ring up, just on my balance? How can I stop smallclanger playing with the laptop dongle? How many songs containing "snow" can you think of? How many more questions is it possible for me to type in this box?
Sometimes I think that would be the best option. :-/
Can you come up with a good book for me that will benefit from being read in small chunks?
Would a book of short stories do? Or do you mean smaller chunks than that? I can definitely recommend Richard Brautigan's Revenge of the Lawn, which is sort of short stories (well, short prose pieces) but some of them are very short, like, a page or so. I started reading Don DeLillo's Underworld and had to read that in very small chunks because every five lines or so I wanted to rush off and read bits out to other people; but then I stalled on that about a fifth of the way through and still haven't managed to restart it, so maybe the book didn't really benefit from being read like that. I keep trying to read Ulysses in very short chunks and I've enjoyed all the bits I've read, but I've never got very far with it. There are things that I've read and re-read so many times that I can just pick them up and start them anywhere -- all the Chalet School books are like that; likewise all the Tamora Pierce books I have (do you still have my first two books of the Song of the Lioness quartet, btw?) and a few odd others (To Kill a Mockingbird; Alan Garner's Red Shift; Stephen King's The Dark Half; Waiting for Godot; The Waste Land -- crikey, I wasn't trying to be screamingly eclectic, but it did rather come out that way).
What would be the best solution for the top-up fees issue?
I'll say what I said to the earnest students who wanted me to sign petitions proclaiming that we should return to 1975 levels of student grants -- "if you want that, you'll have to go back to 1975 levels of admissions as well". The best solution would be to abolish the culture that rates the undergraduate degree per se as being better than relevant qualifications/experience. As it stands, everybody needs a degree, because all good jobs are graduate jobs; but they needn't be. I spent 3 years working for a company that only employs graduates, doing a job that I could have easily done at age 14. Rant, rant. Too drunk to have this conversation. All I know is that once I have my shiny new job I am going to open some kind of savings account so that I can start paying money in now otherwise I'm not going to be able to afford to send my children to university. :-/
The other good solution is the Wise Woman's third option: "Kill EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD!" That'd fix it.
What should imc and I have for tea tonight?
Macaroni cheese.
Any idea why my bank have decided to credit me not only with my missing 34 quid (see LJ entry when I get around to writing it up) but with a mysterious 39 quid as well, that doesn't show up on my statement when I ring up, just on my balance?
Eh, your bank gives you money? Don't complain!! :-)
How can I stop smallclanger playing with the laptop dongle?
Wire it to the mains. ;->
How many songs containing "snow" can you think of?
"In the bleak midwinter" "let it snow" "jingle bells" "winter wonderland"
Errr... can't think of any others. I blame the b33r.
How many more questions is it possible for me to type in this box?
Any idea why my bank have decided to credit me not only with my missing 34 quid (see LJ entry when I get around to writing it up) but with a mysterious 39 quid as well
When Lord Scanlon started his first factory job as a young man, he was overpaid in his first week's pay packet and said nothing about it. The second week saw the amount he was overpaid deducted, and he went to the management to complain.
"You didn't complain the first time we were in error though, did you," was their reply.
"One mistake I can forgive," Scanlon answered. "But not two."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-01-29 09:04 am (UTC)Divert yourself though - you can't stop it but you can misdirect it. Can you come up with a plausible reason for [insert stupid paradox, goof or other niggle here] in [book or film of choice]? Can you come up with a good book for me that will benefit from being read in small chunks? What would be the best solution for the top-up fees issue? What should
Re:
Date: 2004-01-29 04:04 pm (UTC)Sometimes I think that would be the best option. :-/
Can you come up with a good book for me that will benefit from being read in small chunks?
Would a book of short stories do? Or do you mean smaller chunks than that? I can definitely recommend Richard Brautigan's Revenge of the Lawn, which is sort of short stories (well, short prose pieces) but some of them are very short, like, a page or so. I started reading Don DeLillo's Underworld and had to read that in very small chunks because every five lines or so I wanted to rush off and read bits out to other people; but then I stalled on that about a fifth of the way through and still haven't managed to restart it, so maybe the book didn't really benefit from being read like that. I keep trying to read Ulysses in very short chunks and I've enjoyed all the bits I've read, but I've never got very far with it. There are things that I've read and re-read so many times that I can just pick them up and start them anywhere -- all the Chalet School books are like that; likewise all the Tamora Pierce books I have (do you still have my first two books of the Song of the Lioness quartet, btw?) and a few odd others (To Kill a Mockingbird; Alan Garner's Red Shift; Stephen King's The Dark Half; Waiting for Godot; The Waste Land -- crikey, I wasn't trying to be screamingly eclectic, but it did rather come out that way).
What would be the best solution for the top-up fees issue?
I'll say what I said to the earnest students who wanted me to sign petitions proclaiming that we should return to 1975 levels of student grants -- "if you want that, you'll have to go back to 1975 levels of admissions as well". The best solution would be to abolish the culture that rates the undergraduate degree per se as being better than relevant qualifications/experience. As it stands, everybody needs a degree, because all good jobs are graduate jobs; but they needn't be. I spent 3 years working for a company that only employs graduates, doing a job that I could have easily done at age 14. Rant, rant. Too drunk to have this conversation. All I know is that once I have my shiny new job I am going to open some kind of savings account so that I can start paying money in now otherwise I'm not going to be able to afford to send my children to university. :-/
The other good solution is the Wise Woman's third option: "Kill EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD!" That'd fix it.
What should imc and I have for tea tonight?
Macaroni cheese.
Any idea why my bank have decided to credit me not only with my missing 34 quid (see LJ entry when I get around to writing it up) but with a mysterious 39 quid as well, that doesn't show up on my statement when I ring up, just on my balance?
Eh, your bank gives you money? Don't complain!! :-)
How can I stop smallclanger playing with the laptop dongle?
Wire it to the mains. ;->
How many songs containing "snow" can you think of?
"In the bleak midwinter"
"let it snow"
"jingle bells"
"winter wonderland"
Errr... can't think of any others. I blame the b33r.
How many more questions is it possible for me to type in this box?
None, now. :-)
Re:
Date: 2004-01-30 03:25 am (UTC)When Lord Scanlon started his first factory job as a young man, he was overpaid in his first week's pay packet and said nothing about it. The second week saw the amount he was overpaid deducted, and he went to the management to complain.
"You didn't complain the first time we were in error though, did you," was their reply.
"One mistake I can forgive," Scanlon answered. "But not two."