Sinister: Nominate Sam!

Sat Feb 1 12:32:10 GMT 2003

Hi everyone,

First up, belated thanks to Maddie and Anakin Sky for their comments about the
bands I mentioned in my last post.  In the event I didnt go to The Spitz to see
Of Montreal last night on account of the work do, of which more later.

Many of you will be familiar with the term troll to refer to someone who goes
onto message boards and stirs things up among the regular contributors, usually
by posting hostile and abusive messages.  I dont think that its a particularly
appropriate monicker; conjuring up the burly unattractive characters that turn
up in the works of Tolkien and Rowling, or who lurk about under bridges
salivating at the thought of a caprine bill of fare.  But a message board I post
to regularly has recently been plagued by a troll, whom I misjudged totally to
begin with, not least because she invented a slang term for bottom which made me
LOL.  So I started engaging in what began as harmless banter, or verbal sparring
if you will.  In so doing, I encouraged the troll, who became more vitriolic and
abusive and upset quite a few people.  Now Im feeling really guilty that I did
not see the person for what she was and that I hadnt tried to be witty in my
responses (most of the time I ended up just being puerile, anyway).  I fear that
I may have annoyed quite a few people by not ignoring the troll and that there
may be a few people on the board who strongly dislike me now as a result. 
Although Ive posted a couple of times on really innocuous uncontroversial
topics since the incident, Im a lot less sure of my ground and I am very wary
of engaging people in conversation over boards now.

So anyway, I dont often reveal very much of what Im thinking to you guys,
playing my cards quite close to my chest and being quite shallow perhaps, but
its really nice to be able to share something like that with the good folk of
sinister, where I feel a lot more sure of myself and where everyone is far more
friendly.

My girlfriend has recently become very keen on ice skating.  Now you may think
that ice skating is one of those things that *everyone* has done, like riding a
bike or going on holiday, but I have to admit that I have never actually skated.
 I remember when I was on a sixth form Geography field trip my teacher referred
to one of my peers as being "as sure footed as a one-legged mountain goat" as he
watched the poor blokes attempts to cross a Welsh mountain stream.  Even though
I wasnt the target that time the remark could equally have been directed at me.
 Things have if anything got worse in the ensuing years.  From what Emma was
saying she appears to be on a one-woman crusade to keep the Oxford ice-rink
open, as its up the creek financially.  If it does close, I hope they dont
demolish the building, as the architecture is rather striking, looking rather
like a ship with its masts and cables resembling rigging.

Yesterday we had our grand opening party at work.  A little late, seeing as the
building opened at the beginning of the month, but never mind.  The office
closed for work purposes at 3.30 and I suppose the party went on for a couple of
hours.  The food was absolutely fantastic, though most people in my department
were shrinking violets and didnt actually venture forth from our place on the
top floor to sample any.  One of the managers was just offering me some of his
home-made rhubarb wine when our department made its collective decision to slope
off to the pub next door.  As there were no clean glasses and I was hardly going
to swig from the bottle I declined  perhaps I had a lucky escape.  Top marks on
the Unsubtlety Front goes to the colleague who walked Straight Out Of The Front
Door And On To The Pub whilst the top brass were still making their speeches. 
After the pub and another one we wound up at the Wheatsheaf (the music venue
upstairs was packed to fire-regulation bursting point) to see the ok-ish, but
appallingly named Pokey and the surprisingly good Transmission.  I think the
Trans word led to a discussion of the Zodiac indie night Transformation, which
apparently was already called that in 1994.  I wonder which club night in the
country has been going the longest under the same name?  Answers on the back of
a flyer, please.

Wow, Sam Walton: TV Star!  Its hard to believe that William G. Stalwart also
thought up The Price Is Right.  This is true versatility
he bestrides the
gameshow world like a Collossus, with the cerebral at his left foot and the
banal at his right.  Do you think people are either Countdown or Fifteen to One
people, like you get dog people and cat people?  Rosamund Iorns, ex- of this
parish and employee of the big uni based publishing house that supplies the
people for Dictionary Corner, once told me that shed "sooner have pins put in
her eyes than go on Countdown", but maybe shed prefer to answer questions.  Or
nominate.

Archel wrote: "Which means that it will NOT rain, snow or spew bizarre jizz from
the sea." etc, which made me wonder whether therell be anything left of the
West pier by the time of the picnic.  There used to be a band called Westpier 
quite good as I recall.  And no Im not getting confused with Westlife.

So Radiohead think they have *swagger*, do they?

Bye for now,
Mark.

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