Yo-yoing to Fame and Fortune
Posted by erin at October 17, 2003 05:39 PMSo at my internship a certain WM has never really spoken to me, except on Tuesday, when he tripped over my chair, and said "Sorry." I am fairly certain he does not know my name, which much of the rest of the crew has memorized, despite my lowly intern status.
Ah! But today, today I decided to show David the PA some of my yo-yo tricks, and WM was in the color lab, and naturally a conversation started about yo-yos, in which WM seemed fascinated and amused. I think I came out of it not sounding too insane and making a good impression, but I was pretty nervous about the whole thing, since WM is kind of intimidating.
At the same time, I ought to be talking to WM a lot more, since he's the most accomplished person around. He has a couple of children's books published, as well as some comic(s) projects, and he used to write for Seaseme Street, and so on and so forth. That's who I had ought to be learning something from, but he's just not the most approachable person ever.
In general, I really, really need to improve my small talk skills. I can talk about yo-yos and anime and film well enough, but my coworkers like to talk about sports and politics, which I don't like to talk about at all.
Kerry's useful conversation hint is, "When people start talking about sports, I always ask them if eye-gouging is allowed. That tends to shut them up."
Comments Individual Archive Index
October 20, 2003 12:35 AM, Maggie said:
In baseball, eye-gouging is not ok, but it's semi-ok to throw 96 mph fast balls at the opponent's rib cage.
But you can use Kerry's hint for conversations about politics.
October 20, 2003 01:18 PM, John said:
Does WM stand for White Male?
October 20, 2003 04:28 PM, Erin said:
Nope. It's poorly encrypted initials.
October 20, 2003 05:52 PM, John said:
Poorly encrypted initials.... How do you encrypt initials exactly? I'm confused.
Speaking of encryption... Neal Stephenson! A source of much debate between Erin and I.
I know that there are some who are fans of Mr. Stephenson and some who are not, such as Erin (sort of).
What is the word on his new book? It seems to be you either love it or hate it. It's like a billionity pages so I'm hesitating.
Oh and, Erin, did you ever read CRYPTONOMICON?
October 20, 2003 07:50 PM, Hlaifax said:
1. Between Erin & me
2. Oh, how I love the Cryptomicon
3. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0394725093/qid=1066693973/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-6919379-9983015?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
October 21, 2003 02:22 AM, Maggie said:
1. Halifax
2. So what's the deal with Stephenson's new book? Is it supposed to be the first installment in a trilogy? A sequel to Cryptonomicon? Or what? It's on my reading list, but I'd like to be prepared.
October 21, 2003 10:17 AM, Erin said:
Turning the tables on Vegas?
October 21, 2003 11:11 AM, Halifax said:
Well, it worked for me. And no eyegouging.
PS: See previous comments post for unrelated response.
October 21, 2003 02:19 PM, Erin said:
I will probably not read Cryptonomicon this year. A lot of things are beating it out on the list, including but not limited to Hal's new novel, the first three Dragonlance books, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and Name of the Rose.
It's October now... so I will probably only finish 3 or 4 more books this year.
October 22, 2003 12:43 AM, Halifax said:
Want to borrow To Say Nothing of the Dog? I'm sure we have a Name of the Rose around here somewhere, too.
October 22, 2003 02:37 PM, Erin said:
No thanks, as I own both books.
October 23, 2003 01:38 AM, Halifax said:
Make sure to get the postscript to Name of the Rose. It's like a director's commentary.
October 23, 2003 05:10 PM, Maggie said:
I read the first 3 Dragonlance books when I had a concussion when I was 12. Hooray!
October 25, 2003 10:40 PM, Erin said:
It's like a director's commentary.
Hal, I'm going to have to kill you for that one.
Post a comment