"The innate hostility of inanimate objects"

[Anna]

Blimey, I cannot compete with Cold Comfort and something nasty in the woodshed and sukebind ... But I have these mid-calf leather boots, I lace them up, the laces come down and I practically high tail it down the High Street almost cartwheeling trying to keep one foot before the other avoiding treading on the laces before landing in a heap in an outhouse of chicken feathers, where I can recover my dignity. And then proceed, laces tied, all correct. Quite demure.

[Serial_Apologist]

Nothing out of the ordinary happened to me over Christmas, because everything I did was in the ordinary...

[Nick Armstrong]

Blimey, I cannot compete with Cold Comfort and something nasty in the woodshed and sukebind ... But I have these mid-calf leather boots, I lace them up, the laces come down and I practically high tail it down the High Street almost cartwheeling trying to keep one foot before the other avoiding treading on the laces before landing in a heap in an outhouse of chicken feathers, where I can recover my dignity. And then proceed, laces tied, all correct. Quite demure.

That is a scene which defies my powers of visual imagination!

The 'inanimate hostility' which I'm most aware of and was mentioned earlier, and which arose several times over the festive season, is the tendency of the water from the kitchen sink tap (my cold tap is very powerful) to find the bowl of a spoon in the sink, resulting in the well-meaning Caliban being drenched by ricochet spray

[salymap]

That is a scene which defies my powers of visual imagination!

The 'inanimate hostility' which I'm most aware of and was mentioned earlier, and which arose several times over the festive season, is the tendency of the water from the kitchen sink tap (my cold tap is very powerful) to find the bowl of a spoon in the sink, resulting in the well-meaning Caliban being drenched by ricochet spray

That happens here a lot but it's usually scalding hot water that hits the side of the washing up bowl and then me.

[Serial_Apologist]

That happens here a lot but it's usually scalding hot water that hits the side of the washing up bowl and then me.

Slow as is the flow of my water supply, I can now at last see its advantages!

[Richard Tarleton]

As a footnote to this thread, may I commend Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance, not seemingly referred to thus far? I read it in 1979, and it revolutionised my approach to inanimate objects. Much of the grief on this thread could have been avoided .

[Serial_Apologist]

As a footnote to this thread, may I commend Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance, not seemingly referred to thus far? I read it in 1979, and it revolutionised my approach to inanimate objects. Much of the grief on this thread could have been avoided .

An excellent read, iimss Richard - albeit that it does slightly misrepresent Zen in some ways, from what I recall.

[Lateralthinking1]

The shared sewerage drain in our road blocks a couple of times each year. Whenever it happens, I have odd problems with flow of thought. I have light bulbs on during the day. They always blow on days of gloomy weather. Whenever there is a gas leak outside my parents' house - recently this has been about every eighteen months - it always coincides with my father's stomach problems. I only tried painting my flat once. It felt like painting the inside of my head and I experienced a kind of mad whiteout. Never again.

I am also very clumsy. I have walked into many a lamp post in my time. When I close doors, I have a habit of having my head forward, so that the door is sometimes closed onto my forehead. I have, would you believe, run down the hall and somehow cut my ear so badly on a smooth wall mirror, my ear required stitches. I bit through a thermometer when I was child and was advised to eat masses of dry bread to soak up any possible intake of mercury. A friend asked me to watch how fast he could go on his bike and I just stood there. Blood everywhere. He was very concerned for me. As an adult, I have walked into the side of moving vehicles three times, one a double decker bus. On each occasion, I was thrown to the ground but never actually broke anything.

[LeMartinPecheur]

The shared sewerage drain in our road blocks a couple of times each year. Whenever it happens, I have odd problems with flow of thought. I have light bulbs on during the day. They always blow on days of gloomy weather. Whenever there is a gas leak outside my parents' house - recently this has been about every eighteen months - it always coincides with my father's stomach problems. I only tried painting my flat once. It felt like painting the inside of my head and I experienced a kind of mad whiteout. Never again.

I am also very clumsy. I have walked into many a lamp post in my time. When I close doors, I have a habit of having my head forward, so that the door is sometimes closed onto my forehead. I have, would you believe, run down the hall and somehow cut my ear so badly on a smooth wall mirror, my ear required stitches. I bit through a thermometer when I was child and was advised to eat masses of dry bread to soak up any possible intake of mercury. A friend asked me to watch how fast he could go on his bike and I just stood there. Blood everywhere. He was very concerned for me. As an adult, I have walked into the side of moving vehicles three times, one a double decker bus. On each occasion, I was thrown to the ground but never actually broke anything.

Brilliant Lat! My deepest sympathy. And respect!

Do you class youself as a Jungian introvert by any chance?

[Lateralthinking1]

Brilliant Lat! My deepest sympathy. And respect!

Do you class youself as a Jungian introvert by any chance?

Extrovert 0-11
Introvert 12-14
Middling 15-17
Extrovert 18-31
Middling 32-47
Introvert 48-50

Not that I would seek to analyse it in detail.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Extrovert 0-11
Introvert 12-14
Middling 15-17
Extrovert 18-31
Middling 32-47
Introvert 48-50

Not that I would seek to analyse it in detail.

Unacceptable answer - DOES NOT COMPUTE!!!!

Isobel Briggs Myers of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), in whom I believe totally(), says you're born either extravert or introvert and you're stuck with it! This doesn't of course mean that you can't exhibit the less-preferred behaviour more at some times than others. So introverts can be more extravert when it suits, but they don't become extraverts. Ever! So there!

A key test of E and I preferences is what you do to re-energise after a period of stress (NB stress, not pure simple tiredness). Introverts will refuel by an activity mainly inside their heads (eg reading, listening to music alone, a solitary walk, quiet TV...) where extraverts want to do something in the 'real world', usually socially, eg meet up with friends, have a meal, go somewhere exciting.

Extraverts are more at ease in social situations, are happy to meet and converse with people they don't know at all, do social small talk well. In a large gathering introverts will seek stand at the edges, look desperately for someone they know, will struggle to talk to anyone they don't know, and will be happy to find someone interested in something they know a lot about and care about deeply. (They then risk boring the pants off someone who was just doing social small-talk)

I could analyse this in (much) more detail...

[Lateralthinking1]

Unacceptable answer - DOES NOT COMPUTE!!!!

Isobel Briggs Myers of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), in whom I believe totally(), says you're born either extravert or introvert and you're stuck with it! This doesn't of course mean that you can't exhibit the less-preferred behaviour more at some times than others. So introverts can be more extravert when it suits, but they don't become extraverts. Ever! So there!

A key test of E and I preferences is what you do to re-energise after a period of stress (NB stress, not pure simple tiredness). Introverts will refuel by an activity mainly inside their heads (eg reading, listening to music alone, a solitary walk, quiet TV...) where extraverts want to do something in the 'real world', usually socially, eg meet up with friends, have a meal, go somewhere exciting.

Extraverts are more at ease in social situations, are happy to meet and converse with people they don't know at all, do social small talk well. In a large gathering introverts will seek stand at the edges, look desperately for someone they know, will struggle to talk to anyone they don't know, and will be happy to find someone interested in something they know a lot about and care about deeply. (They then risk boring the pants off someone who was just doing social small-talk)

I could analyse this in (much) more detail...

Well, all of the summaries should have been with an "ish". That's a pretty standard thing. There's always been a solitary strand with big anxiety but different people get different vibes from people, don't they. I am a conversationalist and laugh a lot so some see things in that way. Others note the disappearances and lengthy sleep. It is INFJ. For those who believe in astrology, it's Sun - Sagittarius, Moon - Virgo and Ascendant - Aquarius which is just about a bit of everything. There you have it!! How about you?

[amateur51]

As a footnote to this thread, may I commend Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance, not seemingly referred to thus far? I read it in 1979, and it revolutionised my approach to inanimate objects. Much of the grief on this thread could have been avoided .

This is bizarre! I read it once, in the heatwave Summer of 1976, and was mightily impressed with it. Then earlier this very week a friend dropped it into conversation, first time ever any friend has ever mentioned it!

In 1977 I tried to explain to my mother what it was about. She was not impressed

[LeMartinPecheur]

Well, all of the summaries should have been with an "ish". That's a pretty standard thing. There's always been a solitary strand with anxiety but different people get different vibes from people, don't they. I am a conversationalist and laugh a lot so some see things in that way. Others note the disappearances and lengthy sleep. It is INFJ. For those who believe in astrology, its Sun - Sagittarius, Moon - Virgo and Asendent - Aquarius which is just about a bit of everything. So there you have it. How about you?

I'm quite happy being diagnosed as INTP. I don't do astrology cos I'm essentially (I nearly was really) a scientist.

INF_s do socialising a lot better than INT_s. My INTJ wife is even more 'I' than I am. Our INTP grown-up daughter likes living in London!!! How weird is that?? Our younger, still at school, is very evidently E_TP. She makes life for us in our dotage, ummmm..., interesting

[Lateralthinking1]

I'm quite happy being diagnosed as INTP. I don't do astrology cos I'm essentially (I nearly was really) a scientist.

INF_s do socialising a lot better than INT_s. My INTJ wife is even more 'I' than I am. Our INTP grown-up daughter likes living in London!!! How weird is that?? Our younger, still at school, is very evidently E_TP. She makes life for us in our dotage, ummmm..., interesting

Diagnosed.

It is interesting that you should both be an I and your youngest daughter an E. I don't have enough knowledge of any of these fields to comment sensibly but wouldn't age be some sort of factor in the case of both of your daughters and the way that they appear? Certainly I used to cope with London and now I can't. And I note that your youngest hasn't been through the MBT yet.

I have never been a subscriber to astrology but did go into it a bit more than 20 years ago. The combination of arrangements in mine makes sense to me but it may well be coincidental. I am fairly sceptical about it now - but I could work with it on my terms.