Ad Hoc, part 2
Mar. 12th, 2005 06:42 pmThere will be a part 3! But let's stay in sequence for now.
Now, how do I organize this into a coherent story...
So, as you may recall from part 3/2, I found out from Anna that, as I originally suspected, I was not the only secret admirer of Sydney's.
While Anna knew about this other secret admirer (henceforth called "piq"[0]), she hadn't told Sydney, at piq's request[3]. As in, Syd did not yet even know that there *was* another. Now, I don't like to take credit for other people's work, so I sent an email - from adhoc17, just for style, even though the secrecy is gone from it - and yes, I did it in limericks, or as close as I could (I was trying to be quick). I also asked if I might see what he had sent her.
I quickly got a response, 3 words long: "you joke, surely."
Soon followed with:
(21:09:23) Demosthenes36: (away)
(21:09:23) Sniffnoy <AUTO-REPLY>: Huh? What?
(21:09:25) Demosthenes36 is no longer away.
(21:09:38) Demosthenes36: yeah!! thats exactly what i said!
(21:15:01) Sniffnoy: so you when you say I joke, are you claiming I am in fact both people, or merely refusing to help me determine who the other is?
(21:15:22) Demosthenes36: im just shocked.
Now, this was not all I had found out from Anna about piq. Anna had also told me that piq knew about adhoc, and knew who adhoc was, as in, before Sydney did. Anna had decided adhoc was piq, and he admitted to sending the eCard, but not the rest... he wasn't adhoc. But he knew I was, and told Anna. At least, that's what she thinks happened. She admitted that there was the slight possibility that her memory was wrong, and, in fact, convinced piq knew who I was, she slipped and told him.
For quite a while, I misinterpreted this to mean that piq had sent his *after* mine, in an attempt to impersonate me (especially since Anna said the email address he used was similar to mine). In fact, it was as I originally thought: he sent her a Valentine's Day eCard, causing her to add "secret admirers" to the "Things that make me happy" list, inspiring me to send mine. (He actually sent nothing after the original eCard.)
Syd did agree to show me the eCard, in exchange for my telling her that piq knew who I was, and that therefore I figured it was probably someone I had told. Unfortunately, just about everyone I had told (or made these entries viewable to) could be disqualified for other reasons. There was also, I told Syd, the possibility that Syd had told piq, and piq had figured out it was me...
On seeing the eCard:
(21:38:51) Demosthenes36: youre going to be quite embarassed when you see that i thought for a while that it was you who sent this...its quite...the composition
(21:39:03) Demosthenes36: [URL omitted]
(21:39:05) Sniffnoy: oh boy
(21:40:40) Sniffnoy: hehe, wow
(21:40:47) Demosthenes36: yeah. wow.
(21:41:24) Demosthenes36: needless to say, it didnt sound like you...but then you made that reference about changing your prose style
(21:41:30) Sniffnoy: I wasn't certain, when I was doing this, whether to go incredibly over-the-top or to keep it subdued, and I ended up somewhere inbetween... but I'm half thinking, "I should have done this!"
(21:41:41) Demosthenes36: hahaha
(21:41:43) Demosthenes36: no, please
In the meantime, Syd kept asking me where I was getting my information whenever I said something about piq. After a while of being confusing I finally made it clear that I had one source, who knew the identity of piq, but would not tell me. I did not say who it was, as I wasn't sure I was allowed to. I invented for her - rather, for em - the abbreviation "mos" (My Other Source). (It turned out piq says I can't say who mos is. Syd wondered how I knew that when I said that, but, of course, it's also because Anna told me.)
After a long time of me being confused as to whether the eCard was sent before or after what I did, Sydney traded me the time of the eCard for the times mos had told me anything. (It was before, as I said before.)
Anyway, I'm no longer working on the problem. All I have left is the "stare at the text" attack, and that's getting me nowhere. Anna has told me one thing that, if I were to tell Sydney, would trivialize the problem for her... but I don't want to do that. So, I'm just going to wait and see if she can figure it out... and, if after a long time she hasn't, then I suppose I might help her along... I'm very interested in seeing how this ends. (That will be part 3.)
(I'm surprised Syd hasn't yet tried writing back to piq to see if she can get him to respond (and show more of his writing). At least, she hasn't that I know of.)
-Sniffnoy
[0]No, I do not know who piq is. The name "piq" (yes, lowercase) comes from Sydney, as an abbreviation for "person in question".
[3]Anna knows who piq is, in case that isn't clear.
Now, how do I organize this into a coherent story...
So, as you may recall from part 3/2, I found out from Anna that, as I originally suspected, I was not the only secret admirer of Sydney's.
While Anna knew about this other secret admirer (henceforth called "piq"[0]), she hadn't told Sydney, at piq's request[3]. As in, Syd did not yet even know that there *was* another. Now, I don't like to take credit for other people's work, so I sent an email - from adhoc17, just for style, even though the secrecy is gone from it - and yes, I did it in limericks, or as close as I could (I was trying to be quick). I also asked if I might see what he had sent her.
I quickly got a response, 3 words long: "you joke, surely."
Soon followed with:
(21:09:23) Demosthenes36: (away)
(21:09:23) Sniffnoy <AUTO-REPLY>: Huh? What?
(21:09:25) Demosthenes36 is no longer away.
(21:09:38) Demosthenes36: yeah!! thats exactly what i said!
(21:15:01) Sniffnoy: so you when you say I joke, are you claiming I am in fact both people, or merely refusing to help me determine who the other is?
(21:15:22) Demosthenes36: im just shocked.
Now, this was not all I had found out from Anna about piq. Anna had also told me that piq knew about adhoc, and knew who adhoc was, as in, before Sydney did. Anna had decided adhoc was piq, and he admitted to sending the eCard, but not the rest... he wasn't adhoc. But he knew I was, and told Anna. At least, that's what she thinks happened. She admitted that there was the slight possibility that her memory was wrong, and, in fact, convinced piq knew who I was, she slipped and told him.
For quite a while, I misinterpreted this to mean that piq had sent his *after* mine, in an attempt to impersonate me (especially since Anna said the email address he used was similar to mine). In fact, it was as I originally thought: he sent her a Valentine's Day eCard, causing her to add "secret admirers" to the "Things that make me happy" list, inspiring me to send mine. (He actually sent nothing after the original eCard.)
Syd did agree to show me the eCard, in exchange for my telling her that piq knew who I was, and that therefore I figured it was probably someone I had told. Unfortunately, just about everyone I had told (or made these entries viewable to) could be disqualified for other reasons. There was also, I told Syd, the possibility that Syd had told piq, and piq had figured out it was me...
On seeing the eCard:
(21:38:51) Demosthenes36: youre going to be quite embarassed when you see that i thought for a while that it was you who sent this...its quite...the composition
(21:39:03) Demosthenes36: [URL omitted]
(21:39:05) Sniffnoy: oh boy
(21:40:40) Sniffnoy: hehe, wow
(21:40:47) Demosthenes36: yeah. wow.
(21:41:24) Demosthenes36: needless to say, it didnt sound like you...but then you made that reference about changing your prose style
(21:41:30) Sniffnoy: I wasn't certain, when I was doing this, whether to go incredibly over-the-top or to keep it subdued, and I ended up somewhere inbetween... but I'm half thinking, "I should have done this!"
(21:41:41) Demosthenes36: hahaha
(21:41:43) Demosthenes36: no, please
In the meantime, Syd kept asking me where I was getting my information whenever I said something about piq. After a while of being confusing I finally made it clear that I had one source, who knew the identity of piq, but would not tell me. I did not say who it was, as I wasn't sure I was allowed to. I invented for her - rather, for em - the abbreviation "mos" (My Other Source). (It turned out piq says I can't say who mos is. Syd wondered how I knew that when I said that, but, of course, it's also because Anna told me.)
After a long time of me being confused as to whether the eCard was sent before or after what I did, Sydney traded me the time of the eCard for the times mos had told me anything. (It was before, as I said before.)
Anyway, I'm no longer working on the problem. All I have left is the "stare at the text" attack, and that's getting me nowhere. Anna has told me one thing that, if I were to tell Sydney, would trivialize the problem for her... but I don't want to do that. So, I'm just going to wait and see if she can figure it out... and, if after a long time she hasn't, then I suppose I might help her along... I'm very interested in seeing how this ends. (That will be part 3.)
(I'm surprised Syd hasn't yet tried writing back to piq to see if she can get him to respond (and show more of his writing). At least, she hasn't that I know of.)
-Sniffnoy
[0]No, I do not know who piq is. The name "piq" (yes, lowercase) comes from Sydney, as an abbreviation for "person in question".
[3]Anna knows who piq is, in case that isn't clear.