Conversations with Myself

Me: Hey Nightdreamer.

Nightdreamer: Hey Shun, what’s up?

Me: Shun? Interesting of you to call me by that name.

Nightdreamer: I figured that of all your nicknames (there are 4 of them, right?) Shun is the one you most often use when you’re online.

Me: I guess so. (Yep, 4.)

Nightdreamer: So, what’s up? You haven’t been saying many things to me lately.

Me: Yeah, sorry about that. My attention’s been diverted to somewhere else.

Nightdreamer: Why thanks durrr, that made me feel great.

Me: Oops! Didn’t mean to be so blunt. I mean, I only half meant it, and –

Nightdreamer: Whatever. Don’t need to be so defensive…

Me: I’m truly sorry.

Nightdreamer: …but I understand that it’s Plurk you’re too obsessed with lately, huh?

Me: Yeah, it is. I have to fight my addiction with it.

Nightdreamer: You have to. So, are you telling me something else? Or is this another one of those times where you whine about how much you’re down with another drought of inspiration?

Me: Hah, no. I admit not being able to think very clearly lately, but uninspired? Nah.

I am actually gonna tell you that, last Friday, I brought home 24 cans of Coke Zeroes.

Nightdreamer: The hell! You a cokehead?

Me: Haha.

Nightdreamer: How much did they cost you?

Me: I got them free.

Nightdreamer: …

Me: Yeah.

Nightdreamer: There’s a story behind this, isn’t there?

Me: I got them because of one blogger event sponsored by Coke Zero. Anyone who signed up gets 24 free cans of coke zeroes. And lemme tell you, bringing them home was so much trouble.

Nightdreamer: I can imagine.

Me: That was my first time appearing on a blogging event. I don’t think I’m used to it yet.

Nightdreamer: Cool. But why aren’t you used to it?

Me: Dunno. Maybe it has something to do with just how much different we, as in you and I, are. Though we share the same body, I’m not present when that body is writing, and you’re not that much present when that body is doing something else.

Nightdreamer: Something else being?

Me: Like talking to someone, face to face. What were you thinking?

Nightdreamer: Nothing.

Me: Yeah, I mean, I’ve yet to meet another who’s as longwinded as you are (but I don’t mean that in a bad way).

Nightdreamer: You exaggerate. Certainly I’m no more longwinded than Gilbert Arenas.

Me: And we’re almost opposites. I can engage in long conversations when in coffee shops or restaurants (though even then, I have limits), but put me in a party, especially one that happens inside a bar, and I become very reticent. Because of all the loud music, I can’t make myself heard by anyone, and I’m not much of a person who shouts something that can make a group LMAO.

Nightdreamer: That’s peculiar, but I think I can understand.

Me: Yeah. Gee, I hope I didn’t look too much like a fool there.

Nightdreamer: Eh, don’t worry too much about it. So, did you see any authors of the blogs you’ve before read?

Me: Oh, plenty of them, and then some. Most I met are either editors of The Man Blog, or its forum regulars: Mike, Peter, Marco, Liz, Ade, Bim, Helga, Lauren, Fritz, and Madz were there. Also, Cai, Wits, Ozy, Jayvee F, Phoebe and Tahn.

Nightdreamer: Cool. How were they?

Me: Eh, let’s do it this way: you give me the name, I’ll tell you what he/she was like.

Nightdreamer: Ok. Mike?

Me: Of all manbloggers, he came the earliest. He seemed really popular (but I imagine that’s a granted), and I don’t think there’s anyone around who doesn’t know him. I didn’t get to talk to him that much, though, but he did ask me what postmodernism is. But drat, I couldn’t answer. I’m not that well-versed about postmodernism and I only know how postmodernism works within fictions, not in philosophy, which I imagine was how Mike wanted to know it. Even in fictions, I’ve only read only 1 postmodernist work: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. I’ll read Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon soon though.

Nightdreamer: Whoa, Shun, let’s talk about the people you met that day, okay? The book dissertation can wait. So… Peter?

Me: Peter was the one who invited me. Honestly, I want to apologize to him for being such a shy and quiet lunk that whole night. He kept reassuring me that it’s always like this the first time anyone appears on any blog events (I’ve a hard time believing he WAS like that), and that for my simply coming along, he’s glad. Well, without him I don’t know how much less I’d speak to anyone. I should thank him for having me open myself up to people, however little I did that.

Nightdreamer: Well, you gotta thank him next you speak to him. How about, Marco?

Me: Marco was with Liz.

Nightdreamer: And Liz?

Me: …was with Marco. They looked great for each other, and they look cute holding hands with each other and so much at peace with the world.

Nightdreamer: Oh, nice. Ade?

Me: Ade… uh, dunno. I didn’t get to talk to him that much today. This wasn’t the first time I met him though. He won a bunch of plates, and he’s complaining about it.

Nightdreamer: How about Bim?

Me: Bim was full of energy. And people say we look alike (I don’t believe it). There’s actually one guy - Rico (no idea what his blog is) - who thought we were cousins. What’s funny is that none of my cousin looks anywhere like me. Bim was as noisy as I was quiet. In a way we were complete opposites.

Nightdreamer: Helga?

Me: Helga was upbeat/cheerful/full-of-spirit, like she had drunk too much Kool Aid before coming here. Like Bim, she’s the life of the party, and it’s nigh impossible to feel bored when anyone’s around her.

Nightdreamer: How’s Lauren?

Me: She’s of the few who dressed up: she wore angel wings. See, this party was supposed to award the one who looked the most like an angel/devil. I dunno how that went though. Also, I had chatted with her before we saw each other today. I lent her my “We Are the Stories We Tell”, which is a short-story collection by American women writers.

Nightdreamer: Books again? Anyway, how’s Fritz?

Me: Fritz circled around and took many pictures. In one of those pics, I looked like I was gonna punch someone. Haha.

Nightdreamer: You weren’t, were you?

Me: Nah.

Nightdreamer: Madz?

Me: Unfortunately I didn’t get to speak with her much, and she went home early. She’s bespectacled. I didn’t know that.

Nightdreamer: How’s Cai?

Me: I only learned on that day that she works in i.ph.

Nightdreamer: Wits?

Me: Brought home too many Coke Zeroes.

Nightdreamer: Ozy?

Me: Had been timid, until he drank too much. And then he started waltzing with someone as if there were a Frank Sinatra album being played. Also, he spoke to me in Fukien/Taigi. Said he took up high school in St. Jude. I’ve many friends from St. Jude, incidentally.

Nightdreamer: Jayvee F.?

Me: He looks mestizo. He also raved a lot about that movie Wanted.

Nightdreamer: Phoebe?

Me: She’s a travel writer, and I spent a great deal of time asking her what Cambodia, Vietnam, and Japan were like. She never went to Taiwan, though, and I imagine she won’t like going to Taiwan because she doesn’t like hiking and going to wintry places.

Nightdreamer: Tahn?

Me: Dunno if there’s anything going on between Bim and her. I later learned that she’s been best friend with Ozy since high school.

Hoo boy, this is gonna make a very long blog post, huh?

Nightdreamer: I think so. Still, I had fun hearing what you had to say about these people. At least, right here, from me, you can have something to remember them by.

Me: Yeah. I just hope that next time I won’t become such a shy wreck.

Nightdreamer: Eh, just be who you are.

Me: I guess.

Nightdreamer: Anyway, we ought to stop now. I know you’re reading Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Why don’t you spend the rest of the day finishing that, and then tell me if that was great?

Me: All right. So, yeah, see ya, Nightdreamer. I’ll be back soon.