shy

not long after reading that shyness can be deadly, I encountered Networking For Shy People (via rebecca's pocket).

Learning how to enjoy a room means to be able to walk into a roomful of people and acknowledge that they are just that—a roomful of people
Learn How To Enjoy A Roomful of People

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Comments: shy

I'll have my roomful of people talk to your roomful of people.
Posted by at January 7, 2004 04:15 PM

That was me. I was feeling just a bit shy at the time.
Posted by Sedgwick at January 7, 2004 04:18 PM

I like your dog blog. It's nice.
Posted by at January 7, 2004 04:37 PM

thanks anon
Posted by boynton at January 7, 2004 04:43 PM


Surely the very thing that is scary for shy people about walking into a roomful of people is that they are walking into a roomful of people? I would go for a more imaginative solution - like image they are all naked. Although this is sometimes best avoided (so my wife says when she is introducing me to her girlfriends). Or - imagine what they will all look like in 50 years time. Really, ANYTHING to stop them being a roomful, and start them being individuals with similar frailties to your own.
Posted by phlip at January 7, 2004 05:45 PM

Sydney, actually.
Posted by Anon at January 7, 2004 06:00 PM

Yes, Philip, I have never gone down the "imagine-them-naked" track (an "eyeful" of roomful"?) but I have often heard this technique advocated, by the same person actually, who swears by it.
Pre-interview jitters? ...Imagine them naked.
Pre-examination? ... Imagine them naked...
(altho' in certain circumstances this would just even up the score!)
But I agree with you that a more imaginative solution is required. Although there may well be a stage when the revelation "Why you're only a pack of cards" can work, I haven't reached it myself with arachnophobia - "It's Only a Hunstman"
just increases the terror.

thanks anon, Syd.
Posted by boynton at January 7, 2004 06:27 PM

my daughter calls huntsmen "hairy husbands" - perhaps if you visualise this...though that might lead to some other phobia.
Posted by wen at January 7, 2004 08:14 PM

hmmm - a chance would be a fine thing ;)

we grew up calling Huntsman spiders "Daddy Long Legs" - I think my mother thought this might sound more benign. The irony is of course that H are benign and DLL's are apparently quite venomous.

and while I have many phobias, luckily Trichopathophobia, Pogonophobia, and Gamophobia are not among the mix.
Posted by boynton at January 7, 2004 08:54 PM

What strategies do shy nudists (bypass the possible oxymoron for the purposes of this exercise) employ when walking into a roomful of people?

Imagine them dressed?

If really shy, imagine them dressed up to the nines?

We were often visited by a huntsman, its preferred venue for tiffin was our daughter's bedroom. To allay her fears we named the visitor. Out of her presence 'Peter' was shown the door courtesy of the trusty Fowlers Vacola Arachnid Capture Jar. He, or one of his many doppelgangers, always returned.

The ploy/charade worked well and the then child-daughter was not frightened of spiders. However the now adult-daughter can't even look at spiders without risking flesh-eating catatonia. (Cries of "where did we go wrong".)

If there are huntsman spiders are there gathersman ones too?

Posted by Sedgwick at January 7, 2004 09:48 PM


Oh, Boynton, off topic I know, but now I have your attention - I visited Australia Island last week, and am writing a report. Presently being held up by the local council who refuse to talk to me about the implications of their local attraction. They're idiots, there's probably a roomful of them, and it's another instance of preferring to not think of them naked. Shall I send you a copy?
Posted by phlip at January 7, 2004 10:10 PM

I think shy nudists would have to imagine them naked.

Nudists, like actors, probably go round saying that they are actually exceptionally shy.
I'm getting better with the huntsmen, and have often given them names...I'm not likely to do as one of my sisters did jump out of a car (both stationary and moving vehicles I believe)...but you never know. The gathersman ones are bigger I believe.

And Philip - yeah send me a copy. I'm still thinking over the M map game. Once I bite the bullet and learn 'Flash' properly I might do something with it.
(You see, knew there was a way to connect the threads. ;) )
Posted by boynton at January 7, 2004 10:32 PM

The largest huntsman spiders in the world inhabit a friend's place in Haddon. They also have a bit of the gypsy in their souls. Around about Bacchus Marsh the Armstrong-Sidley is stopped for ritual arachnid defenestration.
Posted by Sedgwick at January 7, 2004 11:15 PM

Once as I was riding my motor bike very fast, I had a hunstman leap out onto my left leg from under the speedometer.

It was the biggest exercise in pure concentration I have ever come across.

I don't like spiders.
Posted by David Tiley at January 9, 2004 02:17 PM

Too awful to contemplate.

Filed away under "horrible hunstman tales involving motor vehicles."
Posted by boynton at January 9, 2004 04:42 PM