girlyswot

Since I did the meme last night, I've been thinking about this a bit more and now I have just done my first ever proper cull of my flist. I have a tiny flist anyway but still I found that there were people and communities on it that I just don't hang out with any more. So if you got dropped, that's why. You are still very welcome to keep reading and commenting on my public posts if you like.

Also, I feel that I should point out (because I don't think I've mentioned it before) that I not only friends lock some of my posts but that quite a lot of these are filtered in various ways. I tend not to filter by subject but mainly according to my mood at the time of posting. Sometimes I prefer to be talking about things with only a few people, rather than with everyone. Generally this is not because the content itself is sooper sekrit. Anyway, if you find that I'm assuming you all know about something that you've never heard before, this is probably why and it's okay to ask.

Posting from the airport!

I left Cambridge at a ridiculously early hour this morning and am now at Birmingham International Airport waiting for my flight up to Inverness. I have never previously used this airport and thus was slightly taken aback by the appearance of the Air-Rail Link which is essentially a slow rollercoaster. Not good for those of us scared of heights!

In other news my paper was accepted for the conference! I am amazed and excited and planning a layover in Philadelphia on the way. Hooray!

ETA: I have just seen the list of the other people who will be presenting in the same section as me and I am now absolutely terrified. One of them is the person whose methodology I have used and adapted and thus I refer to him all through the paper. I don't even know how to pronounce his name. They are all Hebrew experts. I am not. I think this may have been a bad idea...

The replacement indicator light arrived at 8.15 this morning. Since I only bid on it on Wednesday evening, I think this is pretty efficient on the part of both the seller and Royal Mail.

And... it was as easy to fit as everyone said! About as hard as changing a lightbulb. (I did not have to change the lightbulb in the indicator, though I now feel as though I probably could if I had to.) ( Here is the proof: )

In addition to this triumph, I also managed to take the car out for a drive today. Since this incident I have been wary of driving anywhere while there is still snow on our driveway. We had several inches on Wednesday night, which have not yet melted, but wonderfully, someone does seem to have gritted the drive, so that there is a clear path all the way down. Which meant that I could do a proper Tesco's shop and pick up a pile of books from college, rather than just get the pint of milk and post a birthday card that I had been anticipating. A good day all round.

In the last few days there have been a couple of posts at hp_britglish to which I have deliberately not responded. Not because I couldn't offer help and not because I have anything against (or even know anything about) the questioner. Mainly because the OP seemed to be responding to every single comment with a line of thanks that ended in *hugs*.

I am not a very tactile person in RL. There are a small handful of people whom I would always hug in greeting and some others who I would hug in case of need. Mainly, however, I prefer to greet people that I know with a kiss on the cheek or just a smile. People I don't know get a handshake. Sometimes, obviously, I don't get to set the agenda and usually this is okay, though occasionally it makes me uncomfortable.

But the idea of random hugs from strangers who might have stopped me for directions, say, makes me shudder. And the idea of *smooches* from anyone makes my skin crawl. Even virtual ones.

A while ago I came across an LJ user (maybe a friend of a friend; can't remember now) who had a statement on her profile explaining that hugs (real or virtual) made her feel uncomfortable and that she would rather not be offered them, especially not as a gesture of comfort. I was very struck by this and left her a comment to say so. I'm not sure I feel quite so strongly as she obviously did but it is an area where I feel uncomfortable.

So, I don't know what I'm saying, really. I'd rather that if you don't really know me, you don't offer me hugs. If you're someone that I know well and hugging is your normal way of showing affection and support, then feel free to continue in that vein. If you're somewhere in between then... I don't know. Do whatever seems right. I won't be offended.

I think maybe my point is that, just as in RL you think about how you relate to different people and what are appropriate gestures at different levels of intimacy, so we should think about those things in online relationships too.

1. Bill Dare is Peter Jones's son. I still miss Peter Jones on Just a Minute.

2. When you're putting an LJ username in via html, you don't need quotation marks around the name. (HT: wendelah1. Oh dear, force of habit is strong. I just typed them in for her name.)

3. Some stuff about author, reader, intentionality and Brevard Childs's canonical approach. Not as much as I should have done.

4. That it doesn't always snow in Scotland. We still haven't had anything worth mentioning up here.

5. Oh. That seems to be it.