Hello, internet friends!

As basically every person, who I didn’t manage to avoid this morning, told me: we are the world champions. Sitting here, overly sleepy and with an aching back, I surely do not feel like a champion, but hey – whatever gets you through the day.

Lately I noticed that I have more and more a problem interacting with people with whom I don’t share at least some “ambient intimacy”[1] – which for me mostly means people I can follow on Twitter or Tumblr. Or read their blog. Honestly, even Instagram would suffice.
The careful dance around small talk topics to find a way to tune each others’ frequency for managing a less forced conversation and some actual bonding – that is a skill that I used to have, a bit, and that seems to be completely gone. Once I am through with the weather, I am a bit lost at what else might be a common ground for conversation. I am not interested in sports or what’s on TV and therefore can’t talk about it. I refuse to discuss politics and religion and then which topic is left if you don’t know a person, yet? Apparently existential dread and the fear of the future – while something we all seem to have in common – are not topics for light conversation.
My current approach – to just be open about my limitation in that field and make it a meta-conversation topic – has the inverse effect: suddenly people who had no problem holding a conversation start to think about it, don’t really know what to say, it’s getting awkward and then that is usually it. They find someone else to talk to, I go home and watch Snowpiercer or something.
Well, uh, but hey: World champion, am I right? Yeah.

Well, I’m sorry. I guess I’m just slightly grumpy because my new bike is already losing air and now I have to take care of that and ugh, so much bother, why can’t things just be low maintenance.

This episode of “First World Problems” has been presented by: lack of coffee. At least that is something I can fix right away. Have a good monday!

Dominik