Transformations

All work and no play makes Robin something something. Spent most of my holiday weekend doing work for a class or one job or another. The amusing part is that I've begun to consider my work for the agency sort of a reward for the rest of it. I think I've gotten all that I'm going to get out of school, which is fine since this is my last semester, and Big Corporate Internship isn't bad. I do get free books and there are those departmental lectures I go to. It's just that the day to day work is so humdrum. Lots of mailing and data entry and things like that. And being that it's a big company, interns usually don't even know WHY we're doing what we're doing. They say comb this, double check adresses and make a mailing list for publicity and I do. That said, some fun things happening at said agency include

1) Author Laban Carrick Hill has a book that's a contender for the 2011 Caldecotts. For those who don't know, Caldecotts are one of the big awards for children's books, specifically illustrated ones. I never buy books because of awards, but schools and libraries do. Just being a contender is a pretty big deal. So congrats to Mr. Hill.

2) I read a rather unique novel written by one of the house authors on Friday and Saturday. I actually had to really rush with my feedback, which is a shame. Suffice to say that normally, anything remotely resembling poetry that isn't an epic sends me running for cover. However, this novel in verse was really quite enjoyable. It ain't perfect but it's damn good, and, despite being nine million pages, actually a really quick read. Being that the author reads and frequently posts to this blog, I demand bragging rights when it gets sold. As if I had anything to do with it being so neat.

On a side note, said novel in verse was a sort of romance/coming of age/emotional transformations drama. And it got me thinking about personas. I think I mostly have three. One is the persona I reserve for myself and mostly involves quiet contemplation. Believe it or not, I'm a meditative kind of guy. Errr, provided I'm doing two or three things whilst I meditate. So really, introspective and reflective more than meditative. But whatevs. Then there's my public persona where I become a clown. A british clown in particular, given my tendency to use terms like "bugger" and "telly", my ocassional lapses into cockney and most obviously, the addition of "bloody" onto every third word. Finally there's robo persona. For a guy everyone seems to think is crazy, I'm frequently hyper rational, and the more people you surround me with, the more I become the voice of reason. Here's how this works.

Big crowds at the house. Many relatives to visit. No plan for how to do so, and a lot of work that needs doing. I pull my brother aside.

"We need to consider the most logical method of discharging as many familial obligations simultaneously as possible." I proceed to outline a plan to hold off on one visit until the next day when we can visit two at once and so on. My brother just looks at me.

"What the hell is your problem?" he asks before wandering back to the kitchen.

Now alone, I reflect on the situation. A mental image comes to my mind in which "familial obligations" are a gooey white substance, and I discharge them by popping pustules. This makes me laugh out loud.

"What is he cackling about in there?" someone asks from the other room.

"Who knows? He's freakin' crazy," my brother says.

"I can bloody well hear you, ya bloody bastards," I announce before retreating to our cold, subteranean basement to read a novel in verse without interruption.