Racing Turtles

One thing I've learned from being online that is obvious to the point of being tautological is that people like it when you talk about yourself so long as they can control when and how much of it they see.

yeah a lot of the art of in person conversation is sharing control of conversation flow, and one nice thing about tumblr is it's effortless, everybody says everything they want all the time (with the disadvantage that you can't really have a conversation)

my mom called me yesterday and i said something about trade with china and she told me why it's bad, "and another thing is" and she gave me another reason that it's bad, but where i really started to think she was being straight up rude was when she launched right into another "and another thing". Enough, enough things. Wish I had a j button for that shit

But y’all not ready for THAT conversation

Yrahrabbrabyababrabow? Yabayayayow. *Click click click click click click click click click click click*

Literally why 🧠

you've been told all your childhood that it's rude to interrupt. and now you have grown up and speak only when there is a pause in the conversation. but suddenly you understand that neurotypicals are all interrupting each other and this is quite normal. but you are already used to not interrupting and waiting for a pause in the conversation and do not understand how to normally maintain a conversation in order to talk, but at the same time not to seem rude

a very relatable part of murderbot is how it’s listened to thousands of hours of both real and fictional human conversations and yet still ends up standing there in awkward silence because it can’t think of a response to what the other person just said

It just occurred to me that cats seem to know what a conversation is. They observe the rules. In my experience, they can meow endlessly as long as you ignore them, but when you start talking back, they don’t meow over you. They wait for you to finish your point and then reply. For example: Muriel: MEOW. Me: What do you want now? Muriel: MEOW. Me: I’ve fed you, and I’m quite busy at the moment. Muriel: MEOW. Me: Stop meowing outside the door. If you’re going to complain, at least come in and meow at my face. Muriel: MEOW. Me: FINE. *gets down from ladder, fetches tease toy, plays with the bloody cat.* And this wasn’t going to be a feminist post, but as I was typing it, a voice inside me breathed “and if cats can learn this skill, so can men.”