Comments | stefficus: the rules

stefficus

the rules

Sep 17, 2005 06:50

i have, for years and years, had a list of "rules" which i refer to casually in conversation as if everyone knows what i'm talking about. i keep losing them, however, and it's finally come to the point where i think i should have a record of at least the ones i mostly remember ( Read more... )

rules

Comments 12

anonymous September 20 2005, 19:06:17 UTC

Comments, eh? I must say that I like rules #7, #9 and #14. The first one because I really, really hate people asking me favours and then acting offended because I say no (even if I give rather legitimate reasons). Rule #9 reminds me of certain people that think you a wimp for being willing to admit there are things you don't know, which always results in other people claiming to be experts on things they don't know anything about, even to the point that they lecture you on things you yourself actually are an expert on.
As for rule #14, I am reminded of a discussion on lying in a novel I once read (Linn Ullman, "Before you sleep"), where the narrator defines two categories of lies: the lies which eventually have to be replaced by the truth and the lies which can always be replaced by another lie. Of course only the latter kind is ever worth telling...

--peegee@IP

stefficus October 26 2005, 13:35:57 UTC

belatedly, i do appreciate you replying to this even though nobody else did. hehe.

the second kind of lies are the only ones worth telling, but they have to be kept track of. it can get crowded.

anonymous February 19 2006, 13:23:48 UTC

Don't ask me to smell or taste the milk to verify that it's gone bad, because I saw the face you just made and that's good enough for me.

I already am well aware of the "it's easier to get forgiveness than permission" stategy, so if you go ahead and do whatever it was you were going to do based on that assumption, the "forgiveness" portion of the program is gonna be a lot more protracted and inconveniencing for you than you planned. I'm just sayin'.

Gifts are always appropriate.

slugboy

stefficus February 19 2006, 16:35:41 UTC

yep. whoever said it's easier to get forgiveness than permission never met me. *grin* that should probably be rule # twenty-something. asking permission is disarming, evidently.

anonymous February 19 2006, 13:45:47 UTC

Oh yeah, corollary to #13 is that if you're going to offer criticism, do so openly and explicity and expect to be engaged in a lengthy debate. Don't insult me obliquely and then faux-innocently act like you weren't saying nothing, when you obviously were. No, I am not making a big deal out of this.

SB

stefficus February 19 2006, 16:35:59 UTC

no, you're not. violating #13 is nearly always drama-whoring, plain and simple and in most other cases it indicates severe social and mental inadequacies. it's intensely annoying, at best.

An addition and a comment, all rolled into one! anonymous August 12 2006, 06:16:27 UTC

Addition:
The harder someone tries to sell you something, the more skeptical you should be.

Comment:
Anytime I see a list of rules, I think of this.

-Somnambulist

Er... anonymous August 13 2006, 05:16:21 UTC

...that is to say, this!

(It worked in preview...)

One last try... anonymous August 13 2006, 05:22:24 UTC

This!

--Som

Bah! anonymous August 13 2006, 05:24:19 UTC

Well, cut and paste, I guess. It really isn't worth all this effort.

*sigh*

-Som

Thread 5

anonymous August 13 2006, 22:54:45 UTC

Personally, I'm a big fan of #3. In fact, I felt myself physically relax just reading it. I may have to copy that out and refer to it often. Or at least until my 10-year-old Chinese little brother boards a plane back to the motherland. He's driving me insane, god love the little bugger.

--jcharles