A while back I wrote about how I am often a source of entertainment, given my somewhat ditsy disposition. Well, another gem of partial-idiocy made itself known - and provided laughter and joy for a fellow friend of mine - so I, unselfish as I am, thought I'd share this incident with the rest of you. It was the end of a typical week and as usual, I was making weekend plans… via gchat. Apologetically, Liz was notifying me that she was going to change our dinner date from Friday until Sunday. I was reassuring her that this was not a big deal by stating that I would likely do the same to her one day, given that ‘I have the memory of a small knat.’
Before I proceed with story, lets hit pause and take note of the content of that italicized sentence.
- First, we should probably note the fact that I refer to the bug as 'small,' you know, to distinguish it from the gigantic, flesh-eating ones you see flying about. Riiight.
- Secondly, as Liz was quick to point out, there is a misspelled word. Not only do I make fun of this poor bug's size, I also spell its name wrong.
Okay, unpause.
Right after I type this, Liz and I both sense each other’s déjà vu beaming through one another’s gchat windows. We express our vague feelings of familiarity to each other, stating the possibility that this very gchat convo happened before. Within seconds, a diagnostic gchat search is conducted. With a quick search of the word 'gnat' (by Liz) or 'knat' (by me), we fall upon the same discovery. Sure enough, on April 19 2008, just a few months prior, the following conversation took place:
Pre-scene development: This conversation had begun with an stimulating discussion about multivariate regression, from which I will spare you (email for full dialogue). I had just changed the subject to something equally important. Action…
Shawn: hey I don't wanna do this, instead, I wanna go camping
Liz: lol
Liz: that sounds nice
Shawn: i have the attention span of a knat
Shawn: (sp?)
Liz: hahaa
Liz: gnat
Shawn: ahh yes
Shawn: wait what?
Liz: HAAAA
Liz: SO Funny
Shawn: i love funny
Shawn: it makes my world go round
So there you have it. Whether or not you find this as funny as Liz and I did, it certainly illustrates a few important points.
First, documentation is key. Without the wonder that is the World Wide Web and the indescribably awesome invention that is gchat, this event would have never occurred nor been recalled. So, in effort to remember this forgetful series of events, I record them here for your entertainment, and my own piece of mind. I mean, what's the use of having such a ridiculously bad memory and tendency to repeat the same mistakes if you can’t laugh at yourself and post it on the internet?
Secondly, laughter rules. My day was mediocre at best right before the gchat archival discovery and afterwards, I couldn’t stop smiling.
In conclusion, the morals for today are: be ridiculous, laugh at yourself, and document it in any way you can. Whether you decide to write it down, email it to your mom, take a video of yourself rein acting it, or carve it into your tree house, the likelihood is, someone will someday appreciate that you did.
