A New Adventure Of Sorts In Which I Forget

 This blog is supposed to have a point. Or a purpose? I forget. So that must be what it is about. My forgetfulness. It's not about the ironies of slow lane cyber-wonking. Or maybe it is, and I haven't realised it yet. I did decide that cyber-wonking isn't the best word for what I meant. Think about this: you are on a bus, on the tube, or even on a ferry. Do you strike up a conversation with the person next to you? (Yes, I know you start conversations with people in queues, and that if you go into a pub, you're meant to strike up a conversation with whoever is at the bar.) Think of all the places where you sit or stand next to someone, or a bunch of someones, for an extended period of time. No, I don't want to include airplanes or cross-country trains. People always start conversations on those trips. Do you ever talk to people in waiting rooms?

 All these places where you're set next to other people but don't say a word. What's that called? I think Devo called it 'assuming the position'. It's not cyber-wonking. It's not wonking. It's not twonking. I looked on the internet, just to make sure. Twonking is used in a bunch of places, usually without much meaning. Google seems to think it means thinking. You know how Google suggests alternative words if it thinks you've mis-spelled something? That's a new game. I call it Google-saurus. Google comes up with a word that it thinks is related, just like a thesaurus. It's not that easy. You might think that any made-up word would return a Google alternative, but it just took me six tries to come up with something it didn't recognise. The first five attempts returned surnames and proper nouns. 'Twonking' did return one site that was a bit more specialised, but unsurprisingly, it was as sexual slang. Not very original. But entertaining nonetheless.

 Okay, so you're on the commuter train, or you're in the waiting room, and you are next to someone, not ignoring them, but avoiding contact in whatever ways possible. That is what it's about. Watching TV, cyber-wonking, whatever. It's city living, where you already get more than enough of some kinds of social contact. So it's no surprise that when you hang out with your friends, the really enjoyable thing is to ignore them, to luxuriate in their presence without feeling obliged to make any effort whatsoever.

 What's that called?