Author: Mirthful

Which OS are You?

Maybe

I don’t think I ought to be let out without supervision. I have realised that most of the time I have no idea what sort of impression I’m making on people, and it is somewhat disconcerting when I suddenly have to face the possibility that my intentions have been completely misjudged.

Flirting is an area of human interaction that really needs a clearer set of rules and, in fact, ought to be accompanied by an explanatory leaflet. I don’t even know whether what I consider to be a decent illustration to go with the tag-line “This is me flirting” is actually perceived as flirting by anyone else. However, I do seem to get myself into trouble over this sometimes, which is why I feel the need to put some sort of a “users guide” here, so that interested parties at least have a chance at finding the information.

Just as a public service, then:

1. If I do something that can be construed as flirting recklessly with you, it means I like you and feel at ease in your company. However, it also means that there is very little chance that I am in any way interested in you “romantically”.

2. If I don’t flirt with you there are several possibilities:
A. You’re a girl (sorry, not interested apparently).
B. I don’t actually like you all that much.
C. I think you’re OK, but don’t feel enough at ease in your company, for one or more of various reasons.
D. I really, really like you.

So, how do you know if it’s 2A, 2B, 2C or 2D? Well, ok, if it’s 2A you really should be able to figure it out without my help. Unless the reason I don’t like you is that you’re thick, 2B should normally be apparent from my behaviour in general. I do try to behave civilly to people I don’t like, but I won’t go out of my way to talk to them. 2C and 2D are the tricky ones, and also the interesting ones, I guess. If there’s an obvious reason why I wouldn’t feel entirely at ease around you, should you happen to be my boss, for example, it’s most probably 2C. In fact, it’s most probably 2C in any case, I don’t have anything resembling crushes all that often. However, lets expand on 2D, as there is, obviously, a reason why I’m onto this theme right now.

I recently found myself doing the flirting thing (1). With hindsight I can point to several counterproductive effects. One, naturally, was the suspicion that the person I was flirting with might not realise how completely uninterested I need to be to be able to flirt and might, reasonably, come to a conclusion that I am interested. The other, which concerns me somewhat more, was that another person, whom I might or might not be interested in, was present and might come to the same conclusion, viz. that I am interested in the other guy and not in him.

Very messy. There’s some sort of logic in it, though: I don’t feel comfortable flirting with X because I suspect I might mean it seriously, but if Y – uncomplicated and risk-free – is present, I flirt “by proxy”.

Several other people have been present at various times, too, but they are mostly of the borderline 1/2c category (and which one can actually vary from date to day depending on how I feel and the general setting of our interaction), and so do not matter quite so much.

The reasons why I don’t flirt with people in the 2D category are really very simple. I get self-conscious. I am afraid of committing myself one way or the other until I have a firm idea of whether I am really interested or not. I don’t want to risk something that could be a great friendship by pushing ahead before I know my own mind (especially as 2D turns to 1 in the majority of cases, and I’ll always need friends more than ex-boyfriends).

While we’re on the subject: Things that would automatically exclude you from category 2D:

– you’re in a relationship already (that I know of). It’s an instant turn-off.
– you smoke cigarettes or use snuff (yuck, yuck and double-yuck).
– you’re thick, wilfully ignorant or both ignorant and arrogant (or other expansions along those lines).
– you’re shorter than me (sorry).
– you have no sense of humour.

For further details please see “21 things I want in a lover”, which is pretty descriptive.

Just to further confuse things, I do occasionally come to a potential 3, after a prolonged period of 2D. Once I have decided that I am actually interested, I may start to flirt with you after all. However, I am more likely to say something along the line of “How about it, then?”, I can be as candid as the next girl.

I will just have to hope that you’re still there when I get to that point and haven’t been discouraged beyond recall by my erratic behaviour.

1. What is one thing you don’t like about your body?
I’m out of shape – I need to find time to go to the gym…
2. What are two things you love about your body?
The most obvious item one is “That it’s all there and it works”, the alternative is not attractive. Item 2, well, it has it’s disadvantages, but I love being tall.
3. What are three things you want to change about your home?
I need to do the kitchen. I could do with more space (I don’t want to move, though, so it’s a rather unrealistic wish). And did I mention that I need to do the kitchen?
4. What are four books you want to read this year?
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix!!!!!!
Uhm, what else? I was planning on reading Jo Nesbø’s other books (so far I’ve only read Kakkerlakkene), and there are at least three, so that makes four…
5. What are five promises you have kept to yourself?
Tricky. I don’t normally make promises to myself. Ought I?
(I will have to think about that last one for a while – I may add something later).

Voice in my head: “I was meant for loving you, baby, you were meant for loving me!” (It’s in a nokia commericial much aired at the moment, which is why.)

I like programming. Really.

I especially like the power it gives me to decide what happens at any given time. So if I want to be random and capricious, I can.

He-he-he…

Voice on the stereo: Robbie Williams – Mack the Knife

I’m feeling just a little sheepish. I found the book. It was in the bag I had brought to Trysil and that I hadn’t bothered unpacking yet.

Definitely sheepish.

So: Not only would I have avoided the whole problem had I unpacked and tidied away like a good sensible girl. I also have definite proof of a very leaky memory. Sieve. That’s what it leaks like. How come I didn’t remember packing it?

Sheepish. Sheepish. Sheepish.

Voice on the stereo: Alanis Morisette – So unsexy

I’ve aquired a flatmate today. I was looking at this glass bowl-slash-vase I bought at IKEA recently and thought: “Hey, that would look good with a fish in it.”

So now it has. I think his name is Toby, he looks like a Toby to me. Anyway, I walked into the petshop thinking I’d get one of the traditional goldfish type, and came out with a betta. Donna will know all about that. He seems to be settling in ok, we’ve been watching television together for a while (Irish version of “Popstars”, the only reality show I actually watch).

And here he is:

I’m already thinking of the other vase-thingy I have which is pretty much the same size (though cylindrical)…

1. Where do you currently work?
In Oslo, in a company producing software for patient journal handling in GP offices.
2. How many other jobs have you had and where?
Full-time: 3, including this one. The first was in Telford and Worthing, UK, the second was also in Oslo.
3. What do you like best about your job?
The technical challenges and my colleagues.
4. What do you like least about your job?
Having to get up early in the morning.
5. What is your dream job?
Something to do with books, I suppose, but that also pays well…

Hold on to your hats! Sit down! Have you heard the news?! There is a publication date, at last, for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix!

21 June seems like a long way away, but I was beginning to get worried that it would never be published at all. I have, obviously, pre-ordered from Amazon. However, what I am tempted to do is buy a cheap ticket from Ryanair and go camp out in front of a bookshop in the British isles on the evening of the 20th. There’s bound to be shops keeping open at midnight to let people have the book at the first possible moment.

Oh joy, oh joy, oh exquisite joy! A flower on Rowling’s head! Please excuse me while I go and shout for joy for a few minutes.

I hurt everywhere. I somehow got myself really geared up Saturday morning and decided that since I had an opportunity to try snowboarding I would…

Great fun, though, and I want to have a go again, but next time I’m bringing my knee-pads (ouch, ouch, ouch).

The weekend was a blast. There was great food, there was partying, there was certainly more than enough alchohol, there were people being discovered asleep in the bubble bath when other people got up for breakfast in the morning, there was even playing of TP in the sauna (girls against boys, girls obviously winning by the time we had to quit, despite being in a definite minority). And there was snowboarding. The weather, too, was just perfect. Cloudy, but mild enough to make being outside bearable (-4 to -9, most of the time).

With hindsight I obviously didn’t need my skis and ski boots. On the other hand, there was only thing I forgot to pack – it turned out that it was that time of the month… A quick trip to the shop sorted that problem out.

Voice in my head: Avril Lavigne hollering “Can’t you see that you’re lying to yourself?” (Is that my subconscious trying to give me a hint, I wonder?) – can’t remember the name of the song