Tuesday 12 October 1999
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Pic of the day: Grey shirt by Sand, grey speckled whats-its-name by
Cottonfield. Nerd available separately. ... I felt fairly well last night when I went to bed, but twenty minutes later I woke up because I could not breathe. So I got up and had some cough syrup and generally cleared out the system, and slept for six hours before it happened again ... and by then it was time to get up and go to work anyway. I am sort of getting used to this now, after around a month with varying degrees of bronchitis. Or whatever it is. I don't have a fever, and there seems to be no more green vegetation in my lungs. I doubt it's just a bad habit, though. If it lasts another month, I suspect I shall have to see a doctor. ... Today was pay day! Even after tax I got ca $1500. It isn't much compared to a real job, but then again there isn't much work, and mostly female coworkers - always a bonus! :) Of course, if I was expected to work hard for that pay, I'd laugh hard instead. By Norwegian standards it is rather modest. Then again, I have a modest lifestyle. I am a philosopher, not a collector. Well, a philosopher and a dress-up doll, actually. I am not quite fashion conscious, partly because of a lack of literature. While women have lots of magazines with all kinds of clothes in them, we men have magazines with women without clothes. Frankly, I find that unfair and consequently boycott those publications. Luckily, my friends have given me some basic training in clothes hunting, so I have adopted a style of quality clothes in colors and cuts that fit me. I do not buy brands that are "made" by advertising, but brands that have a reputation for quality and solid workmanship. They may cost a little extra, but they last so much longer. And then some. As the saying goes, "it is expensive to be poor".What is really expensive though, is to be poor and try to act like rich. While I see the attraction of credit cards (I do have one myself), I also see that they are not a good permanent solution to financial problems. They can help you get over one aspect of "expensive to be poor" by letting you buy in quantity when you have not had time to save up money. And by letting you buy a slightly more expensive and much better object. But unless you get to pay them back really fast, the interests will suck the marrow out of what benefit you gained. Since it was payday, I paid a bunch of bills. I am not sure why, but there seemed to be less bills lying around than it usually is on payday. Strange. But I guess it is just a coincidence ... next month will probably see a glut of them. Phone and electricity being the most obvious. I paid a phone bill today, but it was kr 71 (less than $10). It is to laugh. -Obviously, this was the voice phone. The Internet bill will likely be 30-40 times that. It went down when I stopped playing MUDs, but this last quarter I've been chatting a bit (mainly with the Gurgle girl, who is very nice and also has bronchitis). ... Speaking of clothes, payday and such, there has been a change of window displays in town. I missed them changing one of the big ones, and I barely even noticed, because the trend of black and dark grey just went on. Only with a little thicker clothes. If I'm passing by while they are changing the window display, though, I am sure to notice. Some placed they denude the big dolls (mannequins?) a while before the new clothes are put on, that sure raises expectations. Though luckily nothing else. I am not greatly excited by nude dolls.There was this boy at McDonalds today, as I dropped by for lunch. He could have been like 5 years old or so, and he pointed and shouted with excitement: "Look! They have Barbie!" Observing the event from my corner near the window, I thought: 'Uh-oh. A future member of the gay community...' I mean, if you haven't got the doll/car choice right by the age of five, it is probably too late. Now, I remember playing with dolls myself as a boy; but mainly to spank them. I guess the readers will draw their own conclusion about what community I would rightly belong in, if I were ... uh, active. Another sure way to notice the changing of window display is by the backsides. There seems to be a limited number of women who do the whole undressing, dressing and decorating in the shop windows. (Obviously I mean undressing and dressing the plastic mannequins!) And the nature of their work seems to be such that they spend a lot of time with their rear in the air. I'm not sure if this is just me, but somehow this sets off an alarm in my Backside Recognition Module, somewhere in the brain's visual cortex I guess. Even if it is way out in the peripheral vision. I guess it is some kind of hardwired thing, like apes recognizing a snake even after generations in zoo. Though the survival value of instantly recognizing a butt in jeans eludes me. It is not like they are likely to crash through the window and sit on me, or anything.Yet there is some kind of fight or flight reaction there. If I cautiously approach and look straight at the behind from a short distance, I notice my heart rhythm change, and the muscles in my body and especially in my legs tense. The heart starts to pound and the blood pressure in my temples rise quickly, as the body prepares itself to flee for its life. As I slowly back off, the condition reverses itself, and the loss of blood pressure makes me nearly faint. Yes, I have tried this, and even repeated the experiment. The things we go through in the name of science! But when push comes to shove, and a new season of clothes coincide with a reasonably fat bank account, the end result is likely to be me with another washable wearable, like the ones above.
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