2003-12-20 - 12:03 p.m.
A Parenthetical Observation
Thoughts, after following Vanamundi (which you will recall is the automated blog containing computer-generated content that Palinode and I created one night) and watching what has been "posted" there:
1. Arbusto is a man of precious few words.
2. Arbusto possesses an unwholesome obsession with techie dork "gear."
3. When we created the blog, we were prompted for the names of Arbusto's "four friends." These we obligingly included, providing our own names and those of a couple of others, and in a few early entries he mentioned a couple of us (though never mentioned two of the four names). Now Arbusto never speaks of us at all. In his zest for "l33t gear" he has lost interest altogether in those closest to him. Fucker.
4. Arbusto has a couple of other passing interests that manage to disrupt the otherwise constant flow of techiedom: feeble-minded political criticisms, complaining about work, offering brief comments about films he's seen, and occasional special interest posts (one standout: the bit about computers generating the largest prime number, which I found somewhat amusing but grating as hell to read, since it's news marketed to dimwits who think there's a largest prime number of all and not simply a largest prime number we've come across so far, which the article conveniently leaves out). Good God, now I sound like Vanamundi. In any case, Arbusto has absolutely no other interests at all. I could have sworn that when we set up the blog we gave Arbusto eight interests. So far he's flaunted one and given cursory nods in the direction of four more. Mind you, he also seems to have lost interest in his four devoted friends, so perhaps Arbusto's interests in this world are evolving and becoming ever more refined. Soon enough it will all be Rio MP3 gear and USB external hard drives. Poor Arbusto.
5. (As Palinode pointed out) The front page of the sponsoring site, Drunkmenworkhere.org, contains nothing whatsoever but the link to an online game of Qix. At least, right now. Glancing at the "Archive" page, it looks like a huge lot of extremely diverse but equally peculiar obsessions have made their way to the front page at Drunkmenworkhere. (Do, incidentally, make sure you have a look at the "Gallery," which is just as charming.)
UPDATE: Oops! Those who may have visited the above in the 30 or 40 seconds between when I originally posted it and when I'd read it through will have noticed that I neglected to close the final parenthesis the first time round. I have since gone back and remedied this. My humble apologies: I very nearly suspended all the world in a parenthetical afterthough, my comments here the very last thing the world said outright. My bad.
FURTHER UPDATE: Kelly will no doubt find it amusing that I am now so thoroughly tangled up in the habit of parenthesis. I'm not sure why, but it really has crept in, hasn't it?
BEMUSED UPDATE: Speaking of parenthesis, what in the blue hell is up with the Parenthesis Parent Child Center? Or the Parenthesis Choir? Or Parenthesis Design & Marketing? The world has gone parenthesis-mad.
