People sometimes come up to me as say "Emo, do people really come up to you?" ... wait, wrong joke...
No, people sometimes say to me "I saw you in <place>" sometimes adding "but you were busy and didn't see me." I'm pretty sure that social convention at this point dictates that I reply.
...
But I have no idea what to say. What am I supposed to do with that information? "Congratulations, here's five dollars." "Damn, the counter surveillance didn't work, now you'll have to be killed." "And they say there's no such thing as bilocation."
Some events can be entirely one sided in their meaning (assuming you want to ascribe meaning). Seeing me might be a big deal for you, but you seeing me and me not seeing you... not so much scoring high on any significance meter for you. And yet, there's that expectation that I'm supposed to participate in the conversation...
So, what is the appropriate response?
[END]
Monday 8 October 2007
And...?
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4 comments:
I used to get this a lot. Both from SF fans who'd seen me talk on panels and presentations at conventions, and from my regular customers on the Whitcoulls customer orders desk. These people they felt they knew me but to me they were just one of many people I'd encountered. Added to this I've got a terrible memory for faces. So they'd be most indignant when I'd fail to recognise or acknowledge them in the street. There's nothing quite like the horror of having someone come up to you and demand to know why you ignored them, and meanwhile you're thinking "who is this person?"
Worst still is the case of mistaken identity. I've had that happen to me a few times too!
"That was my evil twin." :)
Well, it hasn't been strangers in my case... although there was that time a car honked and people waved at me (and I was the only one around so they had to be waving at me), but I had absolutely no idea who they were.
Well, I DID see you on Sunday (or was it Saturday) a week ago and you were coming out of the supermarket. No, nothing unusual there but you seemed to be singing to yourself while listening to your mp3 player. I assumed you were singing as you lips were moving and I thought "Hmmm, I didn't think Jamas was a singing type of guy" - turns out I was wrong. You also were carrying a rather large stock pile of Coke...
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