Anecdotes.

[Fen]

Fun story:P. Over the years I've reached to the conclusion that it's a small world many a times. People around me just got to the conclusion that I know everyone:P. Annnyway.

Back in the summer, whilst in Budapest, I was playing on the streets when these two guys showed up. They would do nothing but laugh and laugh and laugh. I, for some reason, suspected them to be Romanian and me and the people around me kept making bets as to where they're from and why they do nothing but laugh(they did this for 3 consecutive nights). I would actually start cursing them in every language I know(mind you, I may not be fluent in many languages, but I sure as hell can curse). They were weird.
The last night of the festival they kept following me, laughing. In the end, one of them said hello and asked me where I'm from in Romanian, then left. THey both seemed familiar. Now, a normal person would shurg it off.
But I am not a normal person. I am a creepy stalkerish person and I wanted to show them that they decided to be creepy with teh wrong person. I realised that I had seen one of them before, and the other one seemed familiar but I couldn't realise from where. I traced them to this bar in Bucharest called Control. I would actually stay there for hours, waiting for them. Just to counter-stalk. Unfortunately, all my leads eventually lead to dead-ends. I realised that one of them looked like the vocalist from a former tiny band called Blister Blue. I found the band and asked if the vocalist went to the festival, but alas, he hadn't and I was mistaken. Anyway. I'd forgotten about them for a while.

Until one of them found me on facebook. No idea hw or why. he just kept sending me "ha ha ha"s every now and then on facebook chat. Never answering anything. I actually found his id and other info but he denied being the creepy guy. Anyway. Found a friend of his on facebook that SOMEWHAT looked like the guy in Budapest, but I wasn't sure. However, I knew the friend. I used to go to concerts with him back in '04 and hadn't seen him in like 5 years. wtf?

Again, I forgot about them.

Today i read a comment from that guy saying something about the sziget girl(go away. die). So it is him.

A random person came up to me and laughed for ~8 hours in Budapest, and I knew him from years before. Fairly sure he didn't recognise me, as well.
Small world. Small, small, world.





And since that may have come up as creepy, a shorter one:P. Whilst at the seaside, I had lost my friend from Brasov. Then I get a phonecall from him(from an unknown number) and run off to meet. There, next to him, was my ex's brother. They didn't know each other. Why were they both there? My friend went to the first person he saw and asked him to make a phonecall. He dialed my number and "Fen" came up on screen. No one was surprised.

[Dirty n Evil]

Fen is like the old game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon"... just in real life. The first story may have been a bit creepy odd, but it was still amusing. Thanks for sharing!

[Fen]

It's actually fairly easy to win six degrees of Fen:P. Not that I know that many people, but quite a few people are convinced that I do. So you have these guys wandering around the country, meeting new people and immediately asking them "so, do you know Fen?", and even if they don't, the name seems to stick. Which is why I tend to get a lot of "ZOMG YOU'RE FEN" from people, after a few hours of conversation. It's pretty funny, actually.

[Don Alexander]

Soooooooooooooooo.... A certain Australian lizard lady has been sitting on hot coals to read this, so I'd better write it out before I get killed.

I'm putting this in Anecdotes, because it transcends the mere day-to-day blather of HWYD, I feel.

The Awesome Asinine Adventures of Alex!!!!

On Tuesday afternoon, I got a mail from a friend in Jena, asking if I wanted to go to see Shutter Island. I told them I had actually been planning just that (and I admit I probably would have forgotten to tell them if I was going if they had not asked... Ahem...). They later called and asked if they should get tickets beforehand (another guy I vaguely know was joining, we would be the same "team" that went to see Gamer), and I was skeptical. It just might happen that I would run out of gas before getting to the cinema!! But they argued that it was cheap Tuesday, and a blockbuster in its first week. So I let myself be convinced.

I then finally finished up the theory chapter of my PhD thesis, and felt like I could go to the cinema without any guilty conscious.

I was in the middle of nowhere between two small villages, with 15 minutes to go before the movie started, when my car DID run out of gas.

.......................

There was a car right behind me, and in my panic, I could not even find the warning blinker... I just blinked to the right and pulled over as best as possible (luckily not too much, or I would have slid into a ditch...) Of course, my car had chosen a perfect place to die on me. Right after a curve, on the upslope of a hill. So cars in my lane would not see me until they zoomed around the curve, cars in the other lane would not see me until they came across the hill, where they just might slam into a car trying to pass my vehicle...

How I managed to run out of gas? Well, my gas gauge has been completely broken since the beginning of the year. back when it had still worked, I had gotten up to 950 km out of a full tank (with enough spare to get me to a filling station), but thanks to the cold winter, I only got to 890 km before even the fumes were consumed... Something I could not have predicted with enough security (of course, I would have gotten gas the next morning...).

So there I was. Right after I got out, a young guy in a little van coming from Jena stopped and asked if he could help. But he had neither a canister nor a rope to pull me... Maybe it would have been a good idea, since he was actually offering to help, to ask him to take me back to Jena to the next all-night filling station... But this was all so terribly embarrassing already, and I find it really hard to ask strangers for help.

So he left (he was blocking the road, and several cars were already coming from my direction), and everyone else just passed. I first was a good citizen and set up my warning triangle (oh, and I had finally found the button for the warning blinker). I then whipped out my mobile (every once in a while, it IS of use!) and first called my friend to tell them: "Guess what..." At this moment, the fact that I would not be able to see the movie with them and that I had just wasted money on a ticket (if only I had not let myself be convinced) aggravated me more than anything else!! They were optimistic I would still make it (huh?) but I asked them to try and give the ticket back. They thought that would not work, but said they'd try.

I then learned that I have no friends... Well, I have TWO here. One I had just called... Now I called the other one. But he moved some months back (up one flight of stairs...) and of course (stupid me) I only got his old roommate. Who was actually the guy I wanted to talk to anyway, as he is something of a car whiz. But he just told me: "I have no canister, I have no car, and I'm in bed already." He did not even know if my friend was home - I was sure I was, since he had declined to join us for the movies, stating he also wanted to be in bed at that time already... His former roommate also did not have the new number, but told me the cell phone should still work.

So I called that. Got an "occupied". Hm, so he must still be up... A minute later, it rang... and no one picked up. I let it ring a really long time. Hung up, tried another minute later. Same thing. So much for that.

I was alone in the dark, and cried for help, and lo... NO ONE ANSWERED. (((

So I did what I had to do.

I walked to Jena to get gas.

After 30 minutes, I was in the next village, and saw the sky was overcast, and had what I considered a brilliant idea. The guy in my office had observation time, and if it clouded up, he'd be driving home... to Jena! So I called our office... No reply. I called our night assistant. No, the guy had left like... half an hour ago already?? Damnit!!! So much for my brilliant plan.

(The following day, I asked him. He told me he had actually not left work directly after leaving the telescope. And, yes, he clearly remembered passing a car with warning lights on... But he had not recognized it as mine! Furthermore, he must have passed me too (I had not looked at every passing car, I did that only after the phone call...) - and obviously did not see me either! Frustration pure!

I also got two messages (my cell phone, low on battery - of course - had been off in between). One was from my friend at the cinema - they had actually been able to give my ticket back!! YES!!! No money wasted. Also, I had gotten a call. I thought it was from my other friend (surmising he had maybe been in the shower when he had not answered the phone), but the following day, I also found out my cinema friend had tried to call me, too...

So onward I walked. When you have to walk it, you really learn to appreciate the distance. I later checked it, it was almost 5 km. I had just gotten into town when a police car out of town zoomed past me with flashing lights. Oh dear!! I immediately envisioned someone had rammed my car... Naaah. Probably not. And they would not drive out with flashers on for a stopped car on the side of the road, would they?

Shortly afterward, I got to the northernmost tram stop - and there was a tram waiting there! I asked the conductor when he would be leaving, and found out, just two minutes later! Woot!! I collapsed inside, after having walked an hour (I was glad I had had my leather coat with me), and the tram took me the last two km to the filling station. I had to guess which stop to get out, as it takes a parallel road to the one where the filling station is, but I guess right!! Woot again.

Got to the station, waited for a dude to get his coffee, and noticed a second police car there. The two police, a man and a woman, were inside (despite it being closed), having a coffee too. Guess that's the perks if you're the law. So I asked for a canister and some gas. The girl went to get them, mentioned this to the police, they talked inaudibly for a second, and then she asked me: "Are you the owner of the car parked out on the B88?" OH, SNAP! Yes, I admitted it, and the policewoman gave me a huge thumbs-up.

I had already been lucky to get the street car, and now my luck really did seem to turn for the better. The police offered to drive me back to my car!!! Snazzy taxi service for free!!

So we went... and I found out, after asking, that the other police car with flashing lights HAD been due to me! It seems someone had phoned in an empty vehicle, driver nowhere to be seen, and they had zoomed out as the "threat situation was unknown"... Argh. Since I had already been in town, I was deemed unremarkable, and by the time they came back, I must have been in the streetcar already. Nicely failed timing there.

At the car, I first managed to get gasoline all over my hands since the nozzle was not screwed on correctly... But then the tank drank it all up greedily. The motor started without problems. The policeman asked concerning the warning triangle, and even told me his colleagues had radioed in "Warning triangle is set up, everything is super-correct." *beams*

So I said goodbye, and he left, and I went to get it.

I was five meters away when my left foot slipped off the edge of the asphalt. My legs, already rubbery from the walk, failed to react, and I twisted my left ankle, crashed on to my right knee, then slammed on my right hand (better than facepalming the rod, though), my left, and then my right arm buckled, I crashed on to my elbow and rolled over, spread-eagled on the road...

And had three thoughts:

a) Thank you, universe. After my luck had really looked up in the end, you could not let me go without meting out some pain!
b) How ironic that the policeman just left. Good actually, as this was totally mortifying!! But if I had broken something...
c) Good no car came around the corner, or I would have been a dead man.

I slowly rolled over, totally winded, and dragged myself up like an old man - and got off the road just before that car did zoom around the corner...

Packed my warning triangle, and drove home. Man, was I glad it was over!!!

Except it was not.

The next morning, everything hurt, especially the ball of my right thumb which had taken the brunt of my collapse (my knee was skinned, but no blood). When I went to my car, I gazed incredulously... at the open gas tank lid!!! And... the screw-on cap was GONE!!!

Now, since the lid is locked when you lock the car, I had obviously been so braindead the night before that I had never closed it... But was I really SO stupid that I had forgotten to screw on the cap, had just left it on the roof, where it had fallen off when I drove off??

Anyway, not trusting how much gas I had left, I opted to go to the next filling station on the way instead of to the cheap one in the north of town. I'd rather pay 1,40 Euros more all in all and feel safe that I would not gutter to a stop again in the middle of traffic... The positive effect?? I found this filling station sells Mountain Dew, even the cherry-flavored version Code Red!! So I filled 'er up, bought three bottles of delicious dew, and carefully drove through town, worried I'd go up in a fireball. Shortly before getting out of town, I suddenly realized I would be passing a VW dealership! I stopped and went in, asking if the had a gas tank cap for me. I hardly expected it, my car is 16 years old. BUT THEY HAD ONE!!!! Cost 23 Euros, but hell, that was one good investment!

Finally, I stopped where my car had come to a standstill, and looked for the other gas tank cap. I did not find anything. Which can mean two things. Either, it stayed in place for a while on the roof before falling off, and I really had been utterly stupid... Or I had been only half stupid, and someone had stolen it in the night.... I choose to believe the latter.

So, basically, that was my big adventure. At work, I got the info from my officemate, got a mail from my cinema friend and later a call from my other friend... He had not been in the shower. He had already been asleep and had not been woken up by his ringing mobile...

Anyway, except for spending about 30 Euros I had not planned on spending (but I DO have a gas canister now...), I came out of the whole thing well. I still ache a bit here and there, but my car is undamaged. I can still see Shutter Island next week. Alone, I guess...

Addenda:

a) I sure as hell hope I do not get a bill from the police!!!

b) I realized the following day that the two policepeople were exacctly the same ones who had pulled me out and given me an alcohol test a few weeks ago after the cinema!!!!! I probably now have a file in the police headquarters... "Has so far done nothing criminal, but seems to have perpetual bad luck" or something like that.

[JVDifferent]

In regards to DnE's reference to The Itis episode of The Boondocks. I got a text message from my brother once after having a metric fuckton of yum cha for lunch with him. We both agree to the existence of the phenomena known as "yum cha belly" (or "sushi belly"), where you just feel so ridiculously full and sleepy after consuming one's weight in yum cha (or sushi). The text message from my brother read, "THE YUM CHA BELLY IS THE ITIS!". It was so true.

Not a long story, but an amusing one at the time.

A slightly more embarrassing/amusing story happened a few weeks ago, when I went to a seminar with the renowned industrial/concept designer Syd Mead. He's the main guy behind the design of TRON, Aliens and Blade Runner, or the vehicles involved at the very least, just for your information. To prepare for the seminar, I decided to go out and buy a copy of TRON. I wanted to watch it so I could experience the design for myself, build my own opinions, and therefore hopefully come up with an intelligent question during the seminar. This guy is a legend in his field, and I wanted to come up with something a little more worthwhile and original than "What inspires your work?". Turns out that the copy of TRON I bought was a misprint. It was meant to be a single disc feature-only edition, however there was nothing but special features on the disc I got. As if someone had accidentally slipped the special features disc of a two disc edition into the feature-only one. Part of me wishes I didn't return the thing because there was some really interesting stuff that went into the making of TRON that I'd like to watch again, but I did anyway. I sadly didn't get to watch TRON before the seminar, because all the other copies in the store had the same problem.

Outside the entrance to the seminar, I was relating my bad TRON-related luck to my animation acquaintances, and ended with, "So actually, I still haven't seen TRON yet". And guess who walks right next to me just as I say this? That's right. Syd Mead. Awesome. So not only did I not get the opportunity to come up with my uber-intellectual question, I ended up making the complete opposite impression than the one I intended.

[Radbaron]

Hey, if you're going to make an ass of yourself, go all the way!

Hmm, a video store with the same bad print of a movie on ALL it's discs??? Sounds like they downloaded the wrong version for the backroom press.

[JVDifferent]

To be fair, there were only two copies in the store, so it wasn't too hard for that to happen. I did get a proper copy about two weeks later though.

[Azrael]

And did you enjoy it then?

[GothPoet]

She probably still hasn't seen it.

[mac2]

This is too cute not to share.

This past Saturday was my youngest nephew's first birthday. My sister had a big party with a bunch of people from our side of the family and from my brother-in-laws side. they had all the usual stuff, like lots of food and kids playing games outside (I managed to hurt my neck playing Badminton, but that's not important to the story). After we sang and my sister helped him blow out the candle my nephew got a mini cupcake all to himself. I think he ate about half of it, and ground the rest into his clothes.

For the main dish my sister had made a big chicken pot pie in a casserole dish. I had gotten a bowl of it and sat down on the floor near where my nephew was playing. After awhile he crawled over and sat down next to me. He started following my fork with his eyes and opening his mouth, what my mom calls his "baby bird" imperssion. So I shredded a chunk of chicken into little pieces and gave him bites off of my fork. He sat there and shared the rest of the bowl with me, and ate almost as much as I did.

[Don Alexander]

He will go far with the ladies. He already knows how to wra them around his finger.

[Dirty n Evil]

If Teach had been one of my teachers in school, I might've tried that tactic as well. I don't know how well it might've worked, but it would've been fun to try.

[Dirty n Evil]

Thread-necromancy!

Tuesday night I was working with my co-worker Chauncey, who's always a hoot. Chauncey is a really funny gay fellow, and we always have a good time working with one another because we're always being playfully catty towards each other through the night. Well, we got on the subject matter of concerts we've gone and seen, and we each brought up our first concert experience. I mentioned my own being David Bowie, and how great it was for me.

It took Chauncey a bit longer to remember what his first concert was because he's quite a few years older than me, but started to laugh as he recalled it. His first concert was "The Box Tops" up in Bangor Maine, and he said they were awful. I quickly retorted, "Hey, I've always liked The Letter!" Chauncey laughed, and explained that song was why he went to the concert, too. But they were so wasted up on stage that they forgot half the words to their own songs. Just a funny little story I thought I'd share.

[Dizzy]

DnE suggested I post here, so here i am!

My history professor last year was brilliant. He made the class very entertaining with the way he told stories. I give you one example, where he spoke about President Andrew Jackson.
“Now, Andrew Jackson wasn’t a guy you wanted to mess with. He was a bit of an odd guy. Hell, he would challenge you to a duel because he was bored. You could shoot him twice, and two years later, you two will be best friends. But, insult his wife, and he will hate you forever. This one man accused his wife of bigamy and adultery. So, Jackson challenged him to a duel. On the morning of their duel, they took their ten paces, and turned around.
Now, Jackson’s opponent was a good shot. He almost always hit his mark. He took aim, and hit Jackson square in the chest. Jackson, of course fell to the ground.
Now, most men would call it quits here. Then again, most men aren’t Andrew Jackson. Jackson rose from the ground, and took aim with his gun.
His opponent realizes that he’s in trouble, and runs away like a little girl.
What you have to understand is that half of the duel is the honor of showing up and staying. So by running away, his opponent showed he had no honor. So the spectators chased after him, caught up with him, and forced him to stay put while Jackson took his shot.
Before Jackson took his shot, his opponent crossed his arms, thinking, “Well, if I give more protection around my heart, the most I’ll get away with is an arm wound, and I’ll live!”
Jackson saw him crossing his arms, shrugged, aimed about two feet lower, and fired.
Now, as I said, his opponent was a good shot. Andrew Jackson, however, was an EXCELLENT shot.
His opponent died two days later, in an extreme amount of pain, and in a very high voice.”

[GothPoet]

I remember something that happened to me in college.

There was a really cute girl in my script-writing class. I had spent most of the semester trying to get up the nerve to ask her out. I had plenty of chances seeing as how, not only did we have class together 3 times a week, but I was also her tutor for the Introduction to Computers class. I never got up the nerve, but that's just a fail.

Near the end of the semester I was helping her out with the last of the work she had for her computer class. Out of the blue, she asked me if I wanted to get married. I was so surprised I was completely speechless. I mean sitting there with my mouth hanging open and brain disengaged. She decided, and outright said she had scared me off. So now (even though I'm 99.9% sure she was just kidding around) I have ratcheted things up to EPIC FAIL.