i am sparticus: I was getting to this

I was getting to this

Right I was getting to this in the post two below, till I was distracted by the appalling news that is the brutal stabbing of alternative music in this country.
Anyway two things really, one is how annoying a certain thing is, and the other is how annoying not being able to write about it is.
Basically y'know when someone tells you something, and you're all, "wow, I have so much to say about this, but can't" and it's annoying but you have to deal with it, well I'm in very much a similar situation with this. I want to write about something, it might make a funny and amusing entry, but more likely it'll just fill space and keep me happy, doesn't really matter. The problem is if I write about it, it'll probably personally offend someone, even though it isnt' malicious or evil or anything, it's just me pointing something out that is more a problem with me, than with them, but I can't point it out because wrong-end-of-stick grabbing may ensue.
Stuff it though I'm going to try and very tactfully write about it anyway.

Okay so I a week ago today, (ooh quite spookily it was almost a week ago right now exactly to the hour), I was having an animated conversation with some people about a wooden horse's rights when it comes to be jailed/guarded behind metal barriers. Anyway so during this conversation Random Guy walks up to me and says "can I get your e-mail address as this girl wants it" and I'm all "ummm who wants it?" "this girl, called Cough splutter names removed to protect the innocent, lets say its Mandy, you spoke to her like once and she wants your address" "ooh umm errmmm I don't think I met a Mandy" "well she
s gives description which isn't very helpful and I forgot instantly anyway, then tells me that she was working in a certain place, which makes it easier if doesn't actually make me remember them" "oh right" "oh and she had more info hair" "oh right i think I know who you mean vaguely remembers girl who he spoke to once while standing by a door somewhere" "yeah so can she have it?" "huh what now?" "your e-mail address" "ooh feels very rude if doesn't give it, so thinks then gives website address there you go" "thanks, leaves", so I go back to horse debating, and forget all about it... till the other day... *duh-duh-DUUHHH*
So I was happily checking my e-mail, deleting lots of spam "no thank you, my breasts are fine this size" and have an e-mail in my inbox, from this girl... I'm all "who, oohhh her" and it reads something like
"hey, you may not remember me but..."
And so forth, now I don't really object to getting e-mails of people I meet whilst away on holidays, actually I really enjoy it, so yes people I met on holiday carry on with the whole e-mailing thing. I do however object to people I don't met on holiday e-mailing me and making me feel really guilty about not replying, but then feeling ever so fake if I do reply. I mean that sounds really selfish, and okay so in a sense it is really selfish, but it puts me in a really awkward situation which I object to being put into by someone I don't know. The e-mail might as well have read "Hi, you don't know me, but here's a dilemma that'll make you feel guilty whatever you do". See if I knew the person and I knew we had something in common then I could start off with that, but I don't and feel rather at a loss when speaking to people I have no connection with. A good example of random friendly people I meet who I get along well with would be Rich and Ceri, who I met at a {tctc} gig, and started speaking to because they offered me spittle filled water and we had lovely conversations about bands and even then I was reluctant and apprehensive when the whole "what's your e-mail address?" thing was discussed, now we're all quite good friends and get on really well which is great. However, with them I can talk about gigs and music which leads to other stuff (jam usually but still), but with random people I don't know and share no bonding I can't do it in this lovely fake world called the internet. Oh like the only person I ever blocked was this person who added me from some messageboard or forum or something and immediately started asking thousands of questions about me, most of them all about physical stuff like where I live and how old I am... That just weirded me out, so I made my excuses and ran away. I suppose simply, I'm rubbish at small talk in real life, and even more rubbish at it online. I can handle medium talk, and I'm quite accomplished at that, I can discuss and converse at all sorts of medium levels. I'm also good at deep talk when it's not about me, when I have to deep talk about myself I burble and break down and start spouting random theological philsophical things, (back me up here lucy). So yes I can't do small talk and it weirds me out and so in the same sort of way I'm weirded out by this e-mail and basically I'm left with these choices...

• Ignore the e-mail: Probably the most manly approach, if you ignore it it'll go away, but this is also the most rude and selfish one, it's also the most guilt inducing one. So I guess I won't be doing this one


• Reply being really nice and fake: I could reply saying "hi, it's great to hear from you, how are you? who are you? tell me all about yourself", which while being very nice and probably the most pleasing to the person, would be very dishonest of me as I have my whole "I get really weirded out by speaking to random people on the internet, and I can't speak to them and feel honest about it" thing. So that, while productive in the short term is ulitmately going to fail, horribly


• Reply being honest: "Hi, my name's Mark, or Sparticus depending who introduced you to me, I get really weirded out when people e-mail me and I know nothing about them. I find it impossible to speak to them about anything and I can't handle small talk, so regretfully I'd rather not be e-mailing you. Thank you. Sparticus/Mark. y" I like this approach, it's honest, and truthful, and while a bit mean, it's fair and it's not selfish really. So yes I'd go for this one if I hadn't thought of a better one


• Create a hoax e-mail reply from the postmaster saying the e-mail has failed to reach "sparticus@iamsparticus.co.uk": While fiddling with various usr/sendmail stuff the other day I found that it is really easy to e-mail people under false alias's through the sendmail program. Ie I could send you a mail that seems to be coming from your account. In the same way I could send them an e-mail pretending to be mr. postmaster@ntlworld.com and say "sorry this e-mail was undeliverable for the following reasons 'mailbox not known'" or something. This thus solves all my problems and everyones a winner.

NB I won't actually be doing the last one as it's super wrong, I'll probably do the third one. Still advice would be nice.

Oh this'll be my last proper blog about irrelevant stuff for a while till I get sorted up in sheffield. Except just irregular "ooh this is happening now" type of blogs from now till whenever

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