Thursday triptych

[nmg]

Today was Industry Day here at IAM, in which hapless postgrads and postdocs are inveigled into demonstrating their work. Got a mail this morning from the departmental minuscule canadian, asking whether I or my erstwhile officemate Steve was giving a particular demo (which we had believed that the minuscule canadian was presenting). He's demoing it tomorrow, so I demoed today, which involved missing lunch (lunch was provided for delegates, but not for peons).

Demos are so much better when you can prepare for them.

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Finally got a phonecall from Korea this morning, so I'm off to Seoul in early November to give an invited talk at PRIMA2003, all expenses paid. Need to get a photo taken and write a CV blurb for their brochure (will probably reuse the HT2003 blurb for the latter).

It seems that they'd mailed me a couple of times, but I suspect I missed the mail because it was in a Korean character set that my mailer couldn't display. Given the large amounts of non-European character set spam that I get (predominatly Chinese), it may even have been caught in my spam trap and deleted. Oops. Yet another reason to migrate my mail to something like Mozilla.

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Found out that the (exceeding scatty goth) girlfriend of one of my Southampton friends has a LiveJournal. Reading her LiveJournal is somewhere between watching a car crash, and lifting the top off someone's head only to discover a scene from a Hieronymous Bosch painting inside. Long-suffering officemate Steve has maintained for many years that she's evil, a claim which I've countered by insisting that she's just misunderstood. I'm now coming round to his point of view that she's actually malign.

It used to be the case that I just didn't understand the relationship she has with her partner. I now realise that I really don't understand the relationship she has with her partner.

Comments

Is it just me? (...probably...)

[noradrenaline.livejournal.com]

Not being a computer-techie type (though I have an interest) I don't even know what Mozilla IS. Though everytime I hear the word it makes me think of two things. Cheese. And Steven Patrick Morrissey's ego..

Somewhere between a car crash and a Bosch painting

[angryangeltoo.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful compliment Nick, thank you :) I think I can safely say that you have confirmed that my mission to confuse the living crap out of everyone has succeded :)
Even I don't understand my relationship with My Immortal Beloved and I don't think he does either, it just is :)

Just one thing I would like to say, If you have read back far enough I have gone off on the odd rant about his mates, I would like to make it very clear that you are not included in the Unholy trinity :) I do like you very much and I think you are very good influence on My Immortal and I am glad you are his freind. :) You a voice of reason amongst thelemites :) Or something. :)

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Maybe Bosch was a bit unfair - my mental image is also a bit like one of those Terry Gilliam-animated Monty Python heads, whose contents include whirring Heath Robinson-esque machinery, a line of kitten-headed chorus line girls and some random bits of Roman statuary. It doesn't take much to be a voice of reason amongst thelemites, I must admit (and I have no idea who you could be talking about).

That said, you do have an intermittent tendency to, uh, be a bit harsh on Al in your LJ (I am sad, I read it all), which was what prompted my post.

Bosch

[angryangeltoo.livejournal.com]

Honestly it was one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about me, to be a goth and be compared to Bosch is a wonderful compliment :) I don't expect you to understand but I do deliberatly strive to be well.... different. It's very complicated and I don't want to drag anyone else into my weirdness. My lj is a diary of my personal thoughts and feelings, myself and al have no secrets and he is not the easiest of persons to live with as you can imagine. (Just ask s and c about his home style :) ) I hope it helps if I explain that despite everything I love Al more than life itself. In my lj I will rant and say things I don't mean. The most beautiful thing about our relationship is that no matter what the argument we always sort it out and our love for one another always wins through. What I reflect in lj is not neccessarily what I would do :) I hope this helps you understand a bit better. And as I have said through both parties, myself and Al we do not have a conventional relationship, and this is deliberate on both parts. Neither of us are perfect, we are human beings and we do dumb things. It's what we do to sort it out that matters to the both of us :)

Also you are not the only one completly confused, Poor James from Edingbrough was totally baffled by the time he left our house. The guy will need years of therapy! :) We don't understand it, we just know it works :) And the previous problems are now sorted, and when the next set of problems come up no doubt I shall note them down in my lj and rant about them untill we find a way around it :)
But a big hug to you for being concerned about us, thank you :)