# when complacency kills it's often real tough having no friends we don't think we're strong enough to deal with the elf inflicted downtime with uk based terminal boredom calculating the exact amount of distraction / electronic entertrainment needed to sustain a researcher thorough yet another dull cold night of nothing much in particular wandering around listless and useless in this hollow ebrain we feel so blank right now we could cry if only we could be bothered crying that is it's difficult to explain a searing tin tasting emptiness burning inside ancient mountains of rubber tires on fire deep underground this midnight purple desert highway soul gosh that's techno romantic at least then we'd have something to do that didn't consist of continually downloading old crap straight to vhs b movies off interwebs staring indifferently at caustic slices of digital rat spit flickering across the inside of a hollow idiot skull we'd like to convince ourselves we're alert and aware enough to actively think about what truly matters like um /sigh daily half life in lab doesn't work out like that filled with the stale swamp air found inside a fossilized reptile's backdoor snot bubble so flat and featureless passing alien big scientists need a jungle laser to detect any interesting bumps or features on it's existential blandscape one of getting up around 4pm sbt standard base time having a large greasy deff dump shuffling into the communal kitchen for a tasteless cow pus cheese based snack slouching back to one's student room cube to sit at a rough wooden desk of dead time staring empty eyed at wild grasses growing on unkempt fringes of a large hyperballardian smart concrete carpark felt annoyed today and in a sudden small dull painful fit of terminal boredom mistakenly contacted up jimbo akimbo online in the last two vmails they seemed friendly actively engaging with us on all manner of interesting faux intellectual topics current state of post modem alternative campus underground literature and needlessly esoteric tastes in mainstream indie music but then on the third call they spin 360 degrees on a dime talking to us as a completely different person some rude arts punk who feels the other researcher is overstaying their welcome around their polite pink middling class home of shamelessly elf compromised vision in the mail we briefly mentioned that we should come over for one day to visit or hey maybe a long weekend so we could catch up fully have a few beers discuss the scientific state of play as soon as we began mentioning coming over in person however jimbo spins out with / on a whole raft of the most succulent bs ever heard on campus transcription of last night's conversation hey henry the idea of you coming over would be great for old times sake but on reflection we're horribly busy our primary interest right now is coping with all this um ris really important stuff we have to do not only are we ridiculously busy we also have to er look after our giant carp clarence which means there's barely any chill time left since we came up here we've hardly seen our own family never mind old friends we're fine for a quick meeting but not good for a whole weekend as we have such different priorities swanson writes back: we hear what your saying all too well mate jimbo: so if you do come up here do let us know well in advance we'll arrange to go out for a single short decaff coffee or something but honestly it's about all we can manage ps good luck with your alternative publishing sub project thing cheers wow thanks jimbo talk about a distinct and all too telling lack of effort apparently we're not worth taking more than five minutes out to meet and greet so much for old close pals no such luck there eh friendo just only another temporary myfakeface pal thanks for next to nothing jimster how could one not have known your deep superficiality and fair weather friendliness once again it's like the mighty rollins states you can't go back some things no most are truly cosmically comically over with pointless to regret ultra shallow pseudo friendships of temporary convenience which can't of meant much of anything at the time at least obviously temporary for one of the parties concerned it's all in passing and in transition from nowhere to nowhere else dirty swamp water under a crumbling bridge between two equally crap nowhere northern towns in the constant cold whizzing down rain and now only two years down the line friendship only obviously means jack to jimbo move on push on little researcher don't stop for a single time fragment don't look back but scream forward at brilliant lightyears a burning electric blue neon blur all professionally miserable two dimensional researchers of your impossibly distant past seem existentially deader than massively calcified zombie dust in hollow desert eye sockets do not uselessly lament the already crumbly and existentially desiccated rather salute what is still remotely alive vital and untamed within things which don't belong to you but which one must attend to unceasingly least the fire go out a far truer tragedy than no longer having any plastic pseudo pals to call upon from back in the dead arts day // [[republic of bob contents | imaginary pastime republic of bob]]