I needed it, too. I was relating way too well to this, given events at work lately. As a participant in such group follies, I've decided it's much more fun to identify the official slant on events, and then see where I can adjust it to suit me better, very much as I would in structuring viewpoint in a story. What angle can you take on this group effort that might be more entertaining, or insightful, or just break up the lockstep a bit? It can be very funny when you assume a consciously different slant on the tasks at hand, especially since so many people herd together in panic and assume the whole point is to prove how much alike you are to everybody else. I see very little point in attempting that, since I don't even pass the physical for "conventional", let alone the mental tests, and by this point everybody at work knows it. So why not? I do love giving people some *really* amusing things to play with on that "Tell two things true and one false" game. Being in Sf & F, with any tech background at all, you can really play with their heads. They're busily into the "social butterfly flit flit" phase, which is incredibly narrow. "I own a blue car! Gee, no, it's *green*, heee heee titter!" I like to get out a can opener to expand their view into the wider world, now and then. As a very large woman who resembles Sumo-Woman much more than Charlie's Angels, in the past I have hit them with, to wit, "I own stock in Caterpillar Company, I am a green belt in Kempo Karate, and, every few months I replace my pressurized CO2 gas cylinder at a local welding shop." It's always surprising how many people need to have it explained that Caterpillar makes earth-moving equipment. You'd think they never looked at those bulldozers working downtown all the time. PS--the Caterpillar one is false. And I need to replace the cylinder on my fish tank again, sigh. Matter of fact, I'm an amateur compared to the guys who use them all the time, and it still makes me nervous handling and adjusting the full cylinder, so I hate hauling that thing around.
Not boring, sorry. Funny!
I was relating way too well to this, given events at work lately.
As a participant in such group follies, I've decided it's much more fun to identify the official slant on events, and then see where I can adjust it to suit me better, very much as I would in structuring viewpoint in a story. What angle can you take on this group effort that might be more entertaining, or insightful, or just break up the lockstep a bit?
It can be very funny when you assume a consciously different slant on the tasks at hand, especially since so many people herd together in panic and assume the whole point is to prove how much alike you are to everybody else.
I see very little point in attempting that, since I don't even pass the physical for "conventional", let alone the mental tests, and by this point everybody at work knows it. So why not?
I do love giving people some *really* amusing things to play with on that "Tell two things true and one false" game.
Being in Sf & F, with any tech background at all, you can really play with their heads. They're busily into the "social butterfly flit flit" phase, which is incredibly narrow. "I own a blue car! Gee, no, it's *green*, heee heee titter!"
I like to get out a can opener to expand their view into the wider world, now and then.
As a very large woman who resembles Sumo-Woman much more than Charlie's Angels, in the past I have hit them with, to wit,
"I own stock in Caterpillar Company, I am a green belt in Kempo Karate, and, every few months I replace my pressurized CO2 gas cylinder at a local welding shop."
It's always surprising how many people need to have it explained that Caterpillar makes earth-moving equipment. You'd think they never looked at those bulldozers working downtown all the time.
PS--the Caterpillar one is false.
And I need to replace the cylinder on my fish tank again, sigh. Matter of fact, I'm an amateur compared to the guys who use them all the time, and it still makes me nervous handling and adjusting the full cylinder, so I hate hauling that thing around.