Amusing

Looking Like

Chill Amusing

One time I was staying in a cabin in the Frozen North with a platonic woman friend of mine. It got unexpectedly hot — into the high 80s. The cabin was exposed to the sun so even for me it got quite sweltering during the day in there.

As we baked, she said, “I hope it won’t make you uncomfortable, but I am going to wear as few clothes as possible. I just can’t stand this heat.”

I told her she could go naked for all I cared. It’s nothing to me either way.

She replied, “I know you don’t care, but I’d be too self-conscious all the time about whether my tits looked good or not.” Which made me laugh. And I can also understand.

As it was, she was in the smallest bra and panties I think I’ve ever seen in my life. So it’s not like much was covered anyway.

(And yes, she knew I was going to put this story on my blog.)

The next day, the heat broke and we went back to not dying in that cabin. Beautiful night sky there, though. It was a fun little getaway.

Gap

Chill Amusing

Ha, that’s great.

Jewels and Niles

Chill Amusing, Music Video, Video

This is the most 1985 thing ever. I remember when this video came on MTV 10 times a day. If you’re wondering why Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito and Michael Douglas are, anomalously, backup singers, the song was in the movie the Jewel of the Nile; it’s a promo for that film.

You know, at the time, I never really saw the appeal of Kathleen Turner. The big-haired blonde look is just not my thing. But she has a very fun personality in that video and looks quite nice in that white tux, I have to admit.

This feels like 1985 felt. Understandably. But it’s more “of the era” than most. It has the casual zaniness. The sense of fun that’s missing now. And no Instagram face. I wouldn’t go back; around 1985 is when my life started to get extremely shitty. But it feels like such a foreign land now.

Circa

Chill Amusing, Annoying

If the evidence weren’t so apparent in other people, I don’t think I’d believe in circadian rhythm. Because I just don’t have that.

It means no jet lag, so yay on that. But it means I am always — from the perspective of other people — maladapted for everywhere. The first time I stayed with a friend, she was aghast that I’d do things like go to sleep at midnight and get up at 2AM and then not go back to sleep till like 4PM for a bit.

She got used to it and realized nothing was wrong. Eventually. And no, it’s not insomnia. I always drift off in 5-10 minutes; I sleep and feel fine.

Just thinking today of all the ways I have trouble being like and relating to normies.

Lung Capacity

Chill Amusing, Killin' It

One of the great parts of having basically no capability for being embarrassed is when someone does attempt to embarrass you, it backfires horribly. At least for them.

It means I also have no stage fright, performance anxiety, or anything like that. To me a talk in front of two people is the same as one in front of two million. I just don’t care.

HR Lady

Chill Amusing, Annoying, Clowns

A large part of what CHH writes in the excerpt just isn’t true. Particularly in larger corporations, HR does indeed both create and substantially alter job descriptions for listing after the hiring manager provides some basic requirements. This is why these jobs often require 10 years of experience with a product or technology that has only existed for three years. The hiring manager would never make that mistake. HR, though? They have no idea.

It’s obvious CHH has never worked in a decently large corporation because it’s very common in those that HR is the primary part of the org handling all the job description creation, maintenance, approval and listing on job boards.

Wannabe V

Chill Amusing

About those vampire-wannabe identical twins I mention here, a friend of mine at the time — who had quite the way with words — said this about them:

“Those girls are as pretty as a picture. You look at them and think, ‘How could the universe have created a thing such as this, much less two?’ Then they open their mouths and they get real ugly real quick.”

Which was completely accurate.

Holiday

Chill Amusing

I used to have that discussion all the time when I worked for a German company with an American subsidiary. When we’d have to send things or get input from the German side, I’d have to explain to my American colleagues that it was August, everyone was on holiday and no, we wouldn’t be hearing back from Helga probably for the entire month, and no, she doesn’t have a stand-in, and no, this was not unusual. They were all on a beach in the Med somewhere.

My American colleagues never quite understood as it seemed so outlandish to them.

Offers

Chill Amusing, Annoying

My friend got a weird offer… someone said they’d fix his life in exchange for his “soul” ?

Hey, that’s better than the offer I got. And that was two identical blonde twins who in exchange for letting them drink my blood would have threesome incestual1 sex with me.

They were very beautiful, but also dumb and dangerous. No sex was had and I lost no blood. This was around 1996 in North Florida. The last I heard one of them had died of a heroin overdose and the other one moved to Chicago.

  1. According to them, “It’s just like masturbation!”

Gen No Z

Chill Amusing, Annoying

I’ve noticed this phenomenon more widely! And I think it has to do with generational differences. Cloistered Gen Z — because they never do or experience anything — believes nothing ever happens because that is their life: sit in front a screen, inhale AI and TikTok slop, never go out, never face the world and its trials and tribulations. Every day is the same. So anything that is more than that seems wildly implausible to them.

Older generations who have not been screen-locked and helicopter-parented their entire lives have been enmeshed in the wide panoply of human experiences and know how wildly varied the world can be. So things that happen quite frequently seem totally normal to them.

I truly do think that’s what is occurring.