How to survive a social inept when you...

share office with one?
share friends with one?

Normally, you and some of your friends would befriend this person, who will always try to talk her/his own interests and very rarely would let you talk the normal nonsense. But, well, somehow, this person is in most of the social events that you and/or your friends attend. And you begin to think that maybe this person is actually more normal than you think. Maybe you are the weird one.

But then,
this social inept appears to go to every single party, barbacue, and events taking place. Even to those that you are not invited or wouldn't be carelss about. That should have been a sympton of socil ineptness, but you do not care anymore. Then this goes out of control.

One of your friends decides to let a room, in a desperate act, in her house to this social inept. And things begin to go wrong between them and the others living in that house. One by one, all begin to fall....and I am not taking here about birds affected by any avian virus. Just human social ineptness in its best.

Inevitably,
your friends and the social inept have a quarrel. The events taking place at the moment between my friends and the other person should be part of a 'psycho' story for which this is not proper space.

And what matters to me is that,
the social inept is defensive of any 'normal' comment I make in the office.

Obvious solution should be to change office. But, with the fact that this is not am available option, what is one to do?

Yes, there is me in this tiny office, with cramped desks and stuff. And this social inept. Great.

I know that eventually, even if i try my best to avoid meeting with this person, we will be alone in the office. The awkwardness of the idea is quite ugly to me. In this case, the best imagined scenario would be that we ignore each other and live happily ever after. However, when I think that this person is capable of being so emotionally and socially incapable, I truly don't know how this will work out. Because as a normal human being, I am so sure that I will begin to speak, even about the traditional weather, and what if I say something that can be interpreted as 'mean'? I cannot beleive how this has been bothering me, and this is my main point.

In a world where you are expected to become part of the machinery which mostlikely will be exploited for the benefit of a white fat capitalist, the least I expected was to have some kind of basic enjoyment. You know, even pavlovian dogs must have had some. I was hoping to like my working environment, and to meet nice people, who may like to spend time together with and without compromises. Now, I wonder if these social inepts are mass produced by the white fat capitalist just to annoy us and remind us that he has control even over our enjoyments....

Finally, I tried to look for some sort of proper image to attach here, but i truly couldn't think of anything that could even resemble this person and the situation.

Ashamed for being utterly lazy again. One of my excuses could be that I've been ridiculously busy at work (not common, I know) and that once I've made my way back home, been too tired to write anything.

Work has once again, unfortunately, been the dominant activity lately. We've managed to see the latest Wallace and Gromit film, which was hilarious, but that's about it. This weekend I'm planning to do much of the same that has been done over the previous weekends - pretty much nothing.



Some kind of an autumn depression seems to be predominant these days. The days are getting shorter and hence much darker in the afternoons. I should be used to this as I spent most of my life in Finland where the change is even more radical than here but as it appears, it just still seems to have a little effect on me.

We'll be making a quick visit to France and the region of Champagne the following weekend and I'm really looking forward to it. At least something to wait for...

Ok. I'll try to make the next post slightly more interesting and maybe even get some gadgets involved but until then, it's so long....

Re: Andrex

I've just received a response to my query from Andrex marketing department... I'm so glad people still have a sense of self-irony. Well, I still did not get my question answered but this does, definitely, suggest that some people are willing to go to great lenghts to satisfy a consumer in need...

Improbable Research

Last week's Nobel prizes timed with the Ig Nobel prizes for Improbable Research which has been long standing for those scientists who do not follow the trends, the normal and do not let themselves be taken over by what is the traditional. Last week's prizes ranged from, for example, the Artificial replacement testicles for dogs (Medicine prize); and my favorite, of a man Photographing and retrospectively analizing his food intake for the last 34 years (Nutrition).

Yet, I mention this for two reasons. One to congratulate the University of Oulu for supporting one of the winners for the Fluid Dynamics prize in their research of 'Pressures produced when penguins pooh -calculations on avian defaecation'. You can see the list of all winners (and past winners, along with all the information you need about the Ig Nobel: http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-top.html

The other reason is just to inform you that I will send my application form to the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientist (LFHCfS), and for that I need the help of my bald husband because in most of the photos he takes of me in the presence of my fluffy hair, he either delete the photo or dissappears it; therefore I have no evidence to send to the club. I don't like to speculate about his reasons to eliminate those images of me and my hair (which he explicitly conclude as 'too big'). That is why, now, that I have been able to know about this club, that I expect to have a place of free expression and support where my hairless husband cannot interfere with, and hopefully gain his understanding with the time. So please please, I need your moral support to motivate him take a photo of me with my opened hair which can get me into the LFHCfS.

I will keep you informed about the progress of the application and of its acceptance or, in the worse case scenario, of its rejection.

All quiet on the workfront

It's been a while again. Seems that even if I'm not that busy or pissed off I just cant get myself to put down some thoughts on a daily basis. Nor does anyone else here I see ;)

Work, the main pain, is still unclear to me of its future. There are no definite answers to almost infinite questions we've been trying to ask our superiors. It does appear, however, that my concern of being put back under my former boss was premature. This, hopefully means that I can enjoy some relative liberties at work again, which suits me just fine. I did go to recruitment offices just to find out that I still dont have a clue what I want to do with my life workwise. The day that becomes clear, I'll have a massive party and probably will end up getting fired for not showing up to my newly acquired dreamjob because of my formidable hangover. Worth a shot still, I'd say.

I wasn't able to find any cool photos or new gadgets this time. Only one thing came even close to approval but as it's just a concept, I keep my mouth shut at this point.

At least now I have time again to write something. Today I could recommend two things:

1. Pasta bake with Penne, Salsa Pasilla and minced beef.
2. Having freedom at work.

later...