Tannhauser ([info]spyinthehaus) wrote,
@ 2005-05-11 00:54:00
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You think this is easy? Realism?
Modified from [info]zenith.

Comment here and I'll tell you something I adore, or failing that quite like, or failing that am able on good days to tolerate about you, on condition that you repeat this on your journal. Actually, I don't particularly care whether you do or not; I'm back from Wales and unusually vulnerable to heights and the Internet.

Speaking of which:

For when the dictators of Corinth, Cypselus and Periander, offered particularly rich dedications to Delphic Apollo, they were showing their appreciation of the Oracle's helpful support of their western colonies.

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[info]pot80
2005-05-10 05:52 pm UTC (link)
Have at me.

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-11 02:42 am UTC (link)
You're going to get sick of this, dude, but it's the music. I can check fluxblog at work and know that there is going to be something there that will be diverting, or interesting, or gorgeous. You listen to thirty records a week so we don't have to, and you consistently have something to say that adds to the experience.

Mind you, Bruce Willis. And Billy Corgan.

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[info]dizfactor
2005-05-10 09:17 pm UTC (link)
whoo-hoo! over here!

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-11 02:57 am UTC (link)
You handle being surrounded by half a dozen total strangers arguing about who has had sex with whom remarkably well.

More generally, you engage, and you do so without losing patience, which is a skill I often feel I lack. Good humour is a horibly underrated ability.

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[info]bhammersley
2005-05-10 11:32 pm UTC (link)
Rich dedications to the Delphic Apollo? Fuck me, but Larry Ellison really does rule the world.

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-11 03:07 am UTC (link)
You know it, homes.

Since you're here - you have the greatest vision conversion ratio of anyone I knwo, I think. The enormous, cotton-swabbed gap between conception and creation that occupies most minds simply doesn't seem to exist in you. This means pretty much anything from getting served to world conquest happens about a dozen times faster when you are around.

Nice hat, too.

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[info]huskyteer
2005-05-11 01:27 am UTC (link)
How can I resist an offer like that?

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-11 04:03 am UTC (link)
You're one of very few people I've known for as long as I've known you for and about whom my feelings are uncomplicated. However, that's not really about you, so...

You're geeky, which is not exactly rare around here, but you're smart geeky - you bring to a lot of areas about which it is very easy to be dull a lot of wit and self-awareness. Part of that is being funny, and the specific way in which you are funny, which is very retro and rather Molesworthy. The way you mix your traditional impulses and the modernity that your interests force on you is charming to watch.

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[info]huskyteer
2005-05-11 04:40 pm UTC (link)
I like that. Thank you.

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[info]booklectic
2005-05-11 01:41 am UTC (link)
*jumps up and down enthusiastically*

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-11 04:32 am UTC (link)
On our limited acquaintance, you have good instincts. Sounds like faint praise, I realise, but it's far less frequent in my experience than one would think. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on a number of things we have either only touched on or not really discussed so far; I am confident that you will have things of interest to add, and also, since I have no real gift for gut feelings, I intend to coopt yours wholesale.

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[info]booklectic
2005-05-11 04:59 am UTC (link)
Thank you. I like that. I hope it's true.

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[info]slightlyfoxed
2005-05-11 05:57 am UTC (link)
It sounds sweet but he's going to coopt your gut feelings by ingesting portions of your gut.

(At least that can be nonfatal; pity the people he describes as 'good hearted'...)

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-11 11:16 am UTC (link)
That's just tripe. Possibly with onions.

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[info]booklectic
2005-05-11 12:38 pm UTC (link)
Does anyone eat tripe any more, or is it like consumption?

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-11 02:24 pm UTC (link)
Isn't consumption making a storming comeback?

Tripe, meanwhile, is still being eaten - there's a restaurant in Smithfield, St. John's, which specialises in offal of various kinds. My workmate (who sweats beef) is a big fan.

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[info]ill_prezidante
2005-05-11 03:05 am UTC (link)
Second time in the same week, I'm beginning to feel like a gigolo. Nonetheless I crave your subtle ministrations.

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-11 04:42 am UTC (link)
You don't get discouraged, or at least don't allow being discouraged to stop you. On Barbelith this has manifested as whacking your head against problems until you get something resembling an answer. It shows itself in your insistence on cycling, and being an activist for cycling, despite the dangers and inconveniences. Although I don't think I've had need of it myself, I can see how this translates into the sort of practical helpfulness [info]zenith mentions elsewhere.

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[info]nedrichards
2005-05-11 03:17 am UTC (link)
Love me long time; I crave validation.

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-11 05:03 am UTC (link)
You're a valuable reminder that things I often don't spend enough time or attention on are worth time and attention. It never ceases to astonish me that you are able to talk with such knowledge about so many things that I would like to know more about; in particular, I plan to keep you close to me on all discussions involving operating systems, music and/or Liverpool football club. Also, obviously, Red Dawn.

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[info]ellbie
2005-05-11 04:38 am UTC (link)
Me too!

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-11 05:40 am UTC (link)
You're open, you're not afraid to raise questions or issues, and you don't have any qualms about expressing your emotions at that moment at that moment. Also, you have a particular look that is very useful for gauging when I've stopped making any sense whatsoever.

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[info]ellbie
2005-05-11 07:16 am UTC (link)
Oh yes, I'd forgotten that your experiences of me have pretty much always been somewhat coloured by BEER... ;o)

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[info]von_doom
2005-05-11 06:31 am UTC (link)
I'm almost afraid to ask!

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-11 07:57 am UTC (link)
A lot of the time, I find you very funny, which has made me feel a bit like a schoolmaster on Barbelith at times. More generally, I'm impressed by how you have managed to retain any charity for or engagement with the world in the face of endless orthodontic nasty. This, combined with your readiness to seek a kinder, gentler way of thinking of the busted flush that is Vladimir suggests that you have a lot about you. You are one of the Barbepeeps in NY I would very much like to meet.

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[info]von_doom
2005-05-11 07:59 am UTC (link)
Honestly, haus, I can't think of a way of criticizing Vlad that doesn't damn me as well. Kindness and gentleness has nothing to do with it.

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-11 08:03 am UTC (link)
Beard. There's one, for starters. He has a terrible, terrible, beard. Hang on, this is meant to be peace and love, isn't it? Sorry.

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[info]von_doom
2005-05-11 08:14 am UTC (link)
I'm sorry I made you feel like the schoolmaster! I am reminded of a passage from Neal Stephenson's "The Confusion":

"Even the Cavalier who had been giving Barnes such a hard time could only look the other way, shake his head, and blink. He was indignat to have been made the small-minded villain in this story, and wished he could have spoken more to Barnes, and let him know that, if he had only been made aware of the nature of the errand, he might have served Venus instead of Mars."

Which reminds me of another passage, possibly one of the funniest ever written in English:

"This hospital had recently admitted a small colony of beared vultures who were all suffering from avian cholera, and these now gained the rooftop; wiggled their imposing chin-bristles in the gritty breeze; and deployed their wings, which rumbled and snapped like rugs being shaken. They had been well-fed on a sort of carrion slurry made from patients that had died of natural causes, and so as they took to the air they jetted long spates of meaty diarrhea that fell like shafts of light across the backs of fleeing beasts: a praying mantis the size of a crossbow bolt, a spotted dear with a boa constrictor entwined in its antlers, and a nilgai antelope being pursued by the hospital's world-famous two-leggged dog, which, miraculously, could not only run, but had been known to outpace many three-legged dogs."

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[info]von_doom
2005-05-11 08:24 am UTC (link)
(It remains to be determined who, in this similitude, is the vulture and who is the two-legged dog.)

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[info]zenith
2005-05-11 08:39 am UTC (link)
Does that mean I'm a parallel universe Vlad? Yikes!

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-11 11:54 am UTC (link)
You're not a parallel universe Vlad. There, that's the nicest thing I could possibly say about you or anyone else. Do you want the full English as well?

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[info]zenith
2005-05-11 12:35 pm UTC (link)
Nah, not necessary really, I've come to von_doom's conclusion - this meme is exhausting - and so will only be seeking validation from people with whom I don't have a secure offline friendship...

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[info]zenith
2005-05-11 12:35 pm UTC (link)
I hope that doesn't seem like I'm taking my secure offline friends for granted.

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[info]mothninja
2005-05-11 07:04 am UTC (link)
Lovely idea - what brought this on?

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-11 11:45 am UTC (link)
Well, it all started with [info]zenith, and being glad to be home after the canal trip, and having a lazy day... wasn't expecting quite so much response, mind.

Hmmm. I'm always cautious of applying qualitative terms to friendships, in case a sudden perception of disparity is laid bare: being told by a casual acquaintance that you are their best friend is utterly terrifying. However, I think I can at least claim some degree of friendship with you, throughout which I have found you consistently admirable.

Single thing? Tricky. As gun-toting partner of Britain's greatest blogging export, there are no doubt enough online encomia to your beauty, intelligence, wit et alia, so I'll plump for your goodness, which is harder to quantify but no less vital to who you are, I ween. You practically frog-marched me into thinking of myself as a contributor of social value when my self-worth was at a low ebb, and generally refused to take diffidence for an answer. You see the worth in people until they have to acknowledge that maybe, possibly, there might be something in it themselves.

Also, Hammersley hasn't touched me in wrong places since he met you. Result!

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[info]xxxlibris
2005-05-11 08:23 am UTC (link)
Dude! My eyes are streaming from bastard hayfever and I'm meant to be interviewing in an hour. Give me tolerance!

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-11 11:57 am UTC (link)
Dude! You're far more adaptable than you give yourself credit for, and in part as a result of this exist, to some degree, in potentiality. There's an unexplored reserve of xxxlibris goodness in there, which I think will come out in time. You're on an upward curve, even when it doesn't feel like it.

You're the interface point between a number of different parts of my experience of the world, which means a lot to me. I think there's work yet to be done to create an entirely functional language to describe that common experience. Again, it's an upward curve. You're xxxlibris rising, dude.

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[info]adjectivemarcus
2005-05-11 02:42 pm UTC (link)
Me please!

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-12 04:13 pm UTC (link)
I've never sat on a better Santa. Quality beard, good trim

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[info]prayinmantis
2005-05-11 05:15 pm UTC (link)
oh please, please flatter me. coming from you, it will make my year. or at least month.

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[info]spyinthehaus
2005-05-12 04:24 pm UTC (link)
Lordy, this _is_ exhausting, isn't it? I can see why being nice to people never caught on...

You always put me in mind of a hair-flinging hip chick, possibly from a Frankie Avalon movie. You're like all the Hanna-Barbera women rolled into one, as far as I can tell, with the addition of a high-ball glass. I can well believe that the fundamental quality of anything brought by you is indeed brungitude.

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