• One of the reasons why I started this ‘secret’ blog was to have a place for a brain dump. That is, things that have been in my head for a long time and are distracting me from doing stuff. A lot of those ‘things’ are quotes that I might say, and they refer to a particular person.

  • Taking great comfort in convincing myself that my stalker is/has gone mental.

    Not happy at myself being curious about her state of mind. I need something to distract myself.

  • The last few days at home have been absolute shit. Not going to talk about it here. Private stuff.

  • Fucking stalker. At it again on Twitter. My entire @reply section is full of her tweets. The only consolation is that half of her tweets are in Chinese, which makes it easier to ignore.

  • I have a terrible track record when it comes to identifying gay people (or any of LGBTQIA for that matter). For the last few years, it had never occurred to me that this was not important enough for me to care about.

    The turning point came when, while volunteering at Sydney Fringe 2011, I was in the midst of ‘alternative’ centric shows. Some of these were very popular, like Confessions of Grindr Addict . I also sold tickets at a drag show at the Imperial Hotel, and posted a Foursquare check-in that clearly demonstrated my ignorance about the place.

    Don’t get me wrong, gay/lesbian people can and have been some of the nicest people I’ve met.

    On two occasions, I have embarrassed myself in conversations by not identifying two people I know as gay. I kept asking myself, “When did this become common knowledge?”

    With these two somewhat mortifying experiences behind me now, I’m now more aware of behaviours that may identify someone as gay. I still think it’s rude to ask them, unless I know they have come out.

    BUT, the most important thing to come out of this is: Whom do I know IS gay (or any of LGBTQIA for that matter)?!

  • Former stalker following me on Twitter now. Eek.

  • It’s exam time. While some are finished (or never started), I’m only writing exam no. 1 tomorrow. Got some posts lined up for after I finish. Thank you all!

  • Can the desire for anonymity coexist with the pursuit of popularity?

  • The good news? Keeping happy and stress free.

  • I thought I should codify the ‘stalker’ story I have told some people.

    Last year, in one on my units at uni, there was a group assignment. Uni students will know that these are a Pandora’s Box of things that can happen.

    In this group (we could not select the members) there were two local students and two international students (both Chinese, although that’s not important). One international was great, she was committed to put in a team effort, and contributed to team discussion. The other was the opposite. Always staring at the rest of us with a blank face, and not really contributing. It is this person that is the focus of this story, lets call her WX. The assignment was a success, but what happens after is more interesting.

    The group work was in semester one. All through semester two, WX keeps calling my phone. At first I answer her numerous mundane questions (e.g. When’s the library open?, When do exams start?, How do I connect to the internet at uni?) because, you never know, she may have had a difficult start to uni, and it’s always good to help out.

    Then it escalates. The conversations now focus on family, and whether I have a girlfriend or not. Still trying to be friendly, I answer as vaguely as possible. To me she’s still a quasi-stranger. At this point WX is calling about 2-3 times most days.

    Then there’s the following me around. Creepy, I know. She feigns ignorance. “Stop following me” I say.

    It’s not just the phone calls, but the Facebook messages and text messages. And the strange replies to my Twitter feed. At one stage her roommate is contributing to this madness.

    The calls keep coming, then in two weeks before final exams in November, it hits breaking point. WX calls me about 50 times in the space of those two weeks. After midnight on two occasions, before 8am on another. That’s it, I’m taking action.

    I send her an email, explaining in plain English that what she is doing is annoying and wrong. I also threaten her with an AVO (I never intended to serve one on her), saying that it’s very serious, and that Police become involved. Her reply wasn’t very serious, I put it down to being lost in translation.

    Since then I’ve blocked her on Facebook, and she hasn’t contacted me in 5 months. Occasionally a friend of mine sends me screenshots of her Facebook status updates, which are replies to what I write on Twitter. I conclude she is still mental.

    Sometimes I still dread interacting with people.