Tuning out of a conversation

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Sometimes the sheer momentum of (say) a pub conversation means that before you know it everyone (and I mean *everyone*) you know is talking animatedly about XXXX and you really couldn't be less interested. So you tune out in the hope that it will fizzle out soon (hopefully before the fine booze in your mit is drunk) or wander around in the hope of finding new more interesting friends.

What is XXXX?

― Alan Trewartha, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Belle & Sebastian.

― Pete, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Some people here are obv going to say football, so skip that one.

CARS is the one that gets to me. People just list off names/marques and go "oo, yeah they're lovely.... and my mate's got..." IT NEVER ENDS. that's just a list, not a conversation. it's like going through kids tv shows. actually worse, cos CARS ARE NOT ENTERTAINING. fuck.

― Alan Trewartha, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Anything that is not about me. Har har.

― Emma, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Cars. Absolutely. And travel bores.

― Matt, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

COMPUTERS.

RickyT: computercomputercomputercomputer. computer?

BTG: BUT computercomputercomputercomputercomputer. COMPUTERCOMPUTER!

RickyT: HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT computercomputer....

Katie: *sigh* *thinks about slitting wrists*

― katie, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Try thinking about kittens instead Katie!

― Emma, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Films and TV programmes. In college people start talking about films and I tend to sulk or if I've seen the film I make jokes about it and think of a weirdly humorous part of the film and quote it.

In the Shawshank Redemption cos it always comes up I like that guy in the cell who supposedly was the real killer. Elmo Blatch."this h-h-hootshot banker" and he's all raspy and laughing his ass off.

― Ronan, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

*thinks about kittens* actually that's a whole lot better Emma! thanks!

― katie, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Katie you missed out:
Sarah: *not understanding a word* HA HA yeah but FORTH it is like programming on ACID!!!! ect ect ect
RickyT and BtG: She is a fule and must be eliminated
Sarah: I am going home now
*weep*

― Sarah, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

http://alantrewartha.20m.com/godkills.jpg

So many reasons to think of the kittens

― Alan Trewartha, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The World Cup (sorry). *ducks and runs*

― j.lu, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

of course 'cos everyone knows its LISP thats like programming on acid.

― hamish, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

any fule kno that staring into the monitor watching the phosphor patterns ripple and occasionally stroking the mouse (look how it clicks, click click click click clickety click), flinching from imagined fag burns, noticing the keyboard's pretty moulding refracting light (or is that polarising the light with stress patterns), while simultaneously fashioning yourself a corn dolly from USB cables, then realising that it's 4 hours later... is like programming on acid.

― Alan T, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Duffy the Vampire Slayer.

― Andrew L, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Music.

...that I don't like.

― Dave M., Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

A humourous anecdote that happened to them at work. If it didn't end with at least two deaths, i don't care.

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I second Buffy.

― N., Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Tom talks about Buffy all the time now! HA HA HA HA you will ALL LEARN.

― Sarah, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

if we're gonna pick on tv shows, then JACKASS. another list "conversation" -- "did you see the one with the ......" "No, but i did see the one where they...".

DON'T YOU FOOLS REALISE!! "You've Been Framed" can not be beaten. it has amusing videos of kittens falling of radiators >>>>> it has stupid skaties vomiting beer up their gran's arse.

― Alan T, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Music in general. I just don't get it. I know what I like and I like what I know and just don't have the knowledge or great luv that many have of it.

Children's TV programmes of one's youf. Thankfully, this happens very, very rarely, but I do overhear it often and it makes me desire an Uzi 9mm.

Rugby. Both codes.

Motor Racing. Boring, boring, boring.

Tennis. Why?

― Nathan Barley, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Cars definitely. No interest at all there; I can't even drive. I'd say golf, but I have thankfully never knowingly been friends with a golfer. Also, and maybe suprisingly, I too have been bored crapless by people talking about computers. If it's not to do with interwebbery, programming, a small subset games or old 8 bit machines (which normally ends up as talking about programming or games anyway) my interest level is pretty low.

― RickyT, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

so (hehehehehehhhh) if it's not to do with practically ANYTHING about computers, Rick... ;)

― katie, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

aw ktee, it's those *incredibly* dull computer conversations which are analogues of the car conversation. windows this, gig that, urk.

― Alan T, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

OK so i hereby change my answer to computer PROGRAMMING. happy now?

― katie, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

YES, CARS, I don't give a fuck if you've driven the XLGPTurboNGT 8.9 litre and graphed the comparative torque ratios and cross-examined the time it takes for the light to go off after you've closed the door and how the dashboard is mustard-stain resistant and it adjusts the weather to suit you and it goes 3.8 milliseconds faster if you drain the dew from the bumper every morning and SHUT UP!!! (my friends talk about cars all the time)

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hahahaha. Seriously though, you would not believe how much people can narg about hardware, networking, operating systems, the benefits of using different options in word, editor wars (lord save us!), newsreader wars, how shit outlook is, monitors, modems, etc, etc.

― RickyT, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(rickyT you are always moaning about how shit outlook/lotus is. but i forgive you for you are korrekt)

― katie, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I zone out at the mention of politics.

― jel --, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm SO with jel. Politics make me want to run from the room screaming (unless it's a framework for bitter sarcastic bitchiness; that's fine).

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Other peoples roxx0r times at university. Yep, bitter, alienated, nothing to share, ph34r my w4yz!!!

Although even I am fed up with this stupid attitude so am going to try and get over it starting right about... NOW! Tra la la!

― oh take a wild guess, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ooh, reminds me:

Things wot we did when we woz very drunk. ZZZZZZZZZ

Things I did when on drugs. Double ZZZZZZZZZ

― Nathan Barley, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(erk, I suppose I do do that, Katie. But only when it has mangled yet another fuxoring email)

― RickyT, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

linux and indiepop. (tho i know a fair amount about both i have zero interest in discussing 'em)

also buffy (ducks)

― geeta, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What are "Buffy ducks" (and can we eat them)?

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

How about things YOU want to talk about that your friends don't? I like talking about politics, and football (both kinds), and rock music. However mention sports to my friends (mostly BOYS) and their eyes glaze ovah.

I had this theory once that talking about computers is the basic equivalent to comparing dick size. My theory was busted, however, when I realized that I talk about computers some too, and I don't even have one.

― geeta, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

People very obviously talking utter utter bollocks and just nodding at whatever the other person says - comes up a lot re: computers and cars and football and politics and pretty much every other topic mentioned here.

― Graham, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

In anwser to Geeta...Transformers mainly...I can't get any of my friends to go to Transcon 2002:(

― jel --, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

jel i am PSYCHED!! i will go with you!

― geeta, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

travel anecdotes! it's even more boring than watching the holiday slides (hey, in this case the film is always better! because you can at least SEE something, with a bit imagination you can make up your own story, but it is mind-numbling all together).

"I've been to Dkjfgksbg and people there...Oh yeah but the Gihgei in Gnengbejg were HUGE...so i was in this hotel in Hgibge and...ooo and her oiwieeqrp was so funny hahahaha...etc. etc."

― erik, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Music I've never heard, people I don't know, reminiscing about past events at which I wasn't present... like Emma said, generally, things that don't have to do with me bore me.

― Mandee, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Alan T has linked sumthin from that awful thread! EGA!

the original: Guitar thingies, nothing is worse than guitar thingies, even computer programming is better

― Chupa-Cabras, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Conversation is a real problem for me. It's bad enough that I am shy much of the time, but I also find that a lot of conversation bores me. Many of the common topics (e.g., movies, TV, sports) don't interest me. What's also frustrating is that since I don't read that much any more (mostly due to time spent related to dancing), I couldn't necessarily participate meaningfully in conversation about much of what interests me.

― DeRayMi, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If I have just met someone, I have trouble mustering any interest in where they are from or whether they have any brothers and sisters. I know I'm supposed to make that sort of conversation whether or not I am interested, but it's hard to get myself to do it. I also forget that it's a formula. In fact, for years I was so dense about these conventions that I thought there was something about my accent or lack of a strong enough local accent which led people to ask where I was from.

― DeRayMi, Tuesday, 18 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

there's this one local guy who is REKNOWNED for cornering us at the pub/gigs/on the street and talking at length about [a] Ultravox!-with- the-!-they-were-quite-good-before-midge-ure-joined-you-know, [b] the strokes they're-quite-good-you-know-must-be-true-the-NME-said-so, [c] have-you-heard-the-new-oasis-yet-it's-bloody-fantastic-cause-it's- oasis-and-they're-almost-as-good-as-Ultravox!-with-the-! or [d] why [insert good band] are crap because he hasn't heard them yet, and NME hasn't said they're good so they must be not good. it's REALLY ANNOYING but he never gets the hints so i quite often end up staring at the walls or trying to distract him with shiny things. anyway it's REALLY ANNOYING. this is why i don't like people or bars or people in bars.

― petra jane, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

computer programming is probably the WORST it's not even conversation it's just people talking in code, it's weird, after 5 seconds I get a total blackout and start hearing morrissey songs in my head: now i know how joan of arc felt lalalalalalala

― erik, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Somewhere a law is written where if at least two people can speak a modicum of French & are drunkz0r = they must have a giggly, flourishing-hand-gesture conversation in a language I cannot understand. I suspect they are saying, "Yes, I have no dog" over & over.

― Ess Kay, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes to cars certainly and computers generally (though it's my profession). I'd add Big Brother and other reality shows I have never seen, and mostly indie music.

― Martin Skidmore, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

martin must go!!

― mark s, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Comic books. Is leaving a link blue the online equivalent of tuning out?

― N., Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Gawd yes, conversations about comics tend to send me nodding off after about thirty seconds, thought that's only cos I've read so few.

― RickyT, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

NB. this is not supposed to be a moan at DV or anyone. You keep starting threads about them as long as I can keep starting ones about BB3 and stupid moral dilemmas.

― N., Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

as has been mentioned elsewhere (prob many times) i tune out if it comes round to marvel/dc/superhero shit.

― Alan Trewartha, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm not listening la la la.

― N., Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Is leaving a link blue the online equivalent of tuning out?

The great thing about these simultaneous conversations on the board is that rarely will one conversation just dominate and go on to the exclusion of all else, so you just never have to tune in. now if only pubs could have a similar arrangement.

― Alan Trewartha, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The equivalent of shouting incoherently in the corner of the pub

― N., Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Pretty much all of the above (although I DID have a surprisingly interesting pub conversation about Buffy, Star Trek and The West Wing recently.) The words: 'I had a really strange dream last night...' also make me go into what my mum used to call 'a brown study'. (Does anyone know the origin of that phrase, if indeed it has any currency outside my family?)

― Archel, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

archel are you a doyle of the doyles?

― mark s, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

happy b/d btw, it means "idle reverie" and is widespread but v.old-fashioned: origin = i haf no idea

― mark s, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I generally find re-tellings of dreams to be more interesting than much of what people typically talk about.

― DeRayMi, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mark, do you think it's likely to be more art or Cluedo?

― N., Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

According to some guy on the modern interweb:

Brown: In a brown study, means to be in a mood of apparent concentration, often with melancholic overtones. This saying comes directly from the French phrase "Sombre rêverie". Sombre and brun (=English brown) both mean Sad, gloomy, dull. The expression is recorded in the 1811 dictionary.

Browned off, meaning "fed up", is a now somewhat dated expression, common in the second World War. Its origin is uncertain, but it seems probable that it is related to "brown study", since both imply a sense of sadness. However an alternative offering goes back to London slang where a "brown" was a penny. To be browned off in this sense meant to be given a penny to go away and not be a nuisance.

(Note how the first explanation (viz translation from French) actually doesn't quite work.)

― mark s, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes I got something about 'brown' meaning 'gloomy' and 'study' meaning 'mental state'. Very unsatisfactory. First person to invent a more interesting origin wins a recipe from my birthday gift from work: The Naked Chef.

― Archel, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You got Jamie Oliver for your birthday? Just for the day or for EVER?

― N., Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Brown study: An intense boredom fugue where you would rather root listlessly through a pile of your own feces than participate any further in a particularly unintersting conversation/activity.

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That's not interesting Dang, your just copying Mr Pissman.

― Graham, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

They should have finished paying off the hire purchase company by the time he has taught me how to rip basil.

― Archel, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'd tend to tune out homosexual collector types going on about fiestaware and other flea market finds.

And cars, sports and union regulations, which made it tough to have a conversation with any of my Teamster brothers back when I drove a motorhome.

― Arthur, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Stop bullying me, I'll start a thread and demand attention.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Just to be sure to sign if MrPissman so we know who it's from.

(Sorry - that is my first and last MrPissman reference.)

― Andrew L, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I should be signing my posts 'MrIlliterate' after that last one.

― Andrew L, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mr Pissman is like the the neighbour Bill Cosby should have had.

Theeeee-o. Go ov-ah. to the pissmans and borrrrrrrr-o the rake. Your back will be bennnnnnnding for a change when you gathaaaaa'. those leaves.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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