Skip to main content

Compliments

I was out celebrating my college roommate's birthday last night, and a friend of a friend told me, "I wish you were gay." In its own way, it's flattering that the guy said that. Still, that's one of the oddest compliments I've ever received, and I wasn't quite sure what to say to the guy (if you must know, we all just laughed about it).

Actually, I've noticed over the years that last night was no fluke. People don't tell me that I'm attractive or funny. No, instead, I hear things like:
  • "Wow, you have nice eyelashes. They're really long."
    This one came from a female nurse that helped me out when I was first getting my contacts. Actually, she said the same thing to both my brother and I, so it must have been a genetic thing. I understand why the nurse would notice something like that, but I'm a guy, so it was almost like the compliment fell on deaf ears.
  • "Your heart takes pretty pictures"
    Another one from the someone with a medical degree. I had to get an echocardiogram done of my heart a while back, and the technician mentioned this as she was working the machine. Awesome, I have a photogenic heart.
  • "Really? That's the best you could come up with? I expected some Shakespearean type mockery"
    "You could tease the warts off a toad"
    These two get combined because they're both back-handed compliments about being creative. At least that was the justification I was given, so I'm going with it. Of course, they could have just been calling me a jerk to my face and counting on the fact that I'm gullible.
  • I speak well
Now, don't get me wrong, I'll take the oddball compliments. It beats someone insulting me, and heck, it's (usually) flattering. I am curious what the next one is going to be, though.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Units of Measure

I mentioned it recently, but I have a bit of an opinion about valid units of measure. Specifically, I am a fan of the metric system when it comes to temperature . As I mentioned in that post, a system that tells me that the temperature is "negative four degrees" is much better at explaining that it is flippin' cold than one that tells me the temperature is "twenty four degrees." The negative sign matters. Now, as soon as I mentally conceded that the metric system made a ton of sense for temperature, I immediately started thinking that it probably makes sense for other units, as well. I mean, if I'm going to apply the whole "this just makes sense" standard to the ambient temperature, it makes sense to think about mass, volume, and length in the same general way. Why force people to remember that there are sixteen ounces in a pound? Or that, more confusingly, there are eight  fluid  ounces in a cup? The conversion rates just seem arbitrary at that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Backlog

I am an information junkie. Always have been. I'm one of those people that cares far more about the storyline in a video game than the actual game play. At work, I will spend time researching things related to solved problems, because I want to know exactly why it failed in the first place. And if someone learns something new, I want to go see what it's about, because I want to know what they know. I know it's not exactly the average outlook on life, but it is what it is. Anyhow, this mentality leads to my habit of tracking various websites, blogs, and other internet web sources to keep my information flow constant. Doing all of this manually is tedious at best, though, so I use Google Reader  to organize all of these feeds. It just makes things simpler to have a single source of RSS feeds, so that I can quickly browse through items related to my interests. Given all of that, it should come as no surprise that I also try to keep up with my feeds on a regular basis. I ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Waiting for the Suck

I've mentioned it before, but I like to watch some Netflix while I do the dishes . I don't remember when I started the practice, but it's become a routine at this point. It gives me something to focus on while I do chores, and it makes the whole experience more enjoyable. All in all, it seems like a good idea to me. Now, I know that my screen time is limited. I'm certainly not going to wash dishes for two hours, so I can't watch an entire movie in one go. Heck, half the time, I can't even watch half of a movie in a single session. Ultimately, that drives my viewing preferences, so that I tend to favor episodic shows. Basically, that's how I watch some show or another: one dishwashing session at a time. Recently, that's been the Star Trek: Enterprise show. I never watched it when it first came out on television, so this is my chance to see the whole series. As with many series, there are some good episodes and some not-so-good episodes. Still, it's a...
Post a Comment
Read more