The Arcane and the Obvious

The conversation went like this:

Coworker: "Are you a new ... employee?"

Me: "Yes! Hi, my name is Hjalmer!"

Coworker: (speaking slowly) "Hjalmer?"

Me: (politely) "Yes. Hjalmer."

Coworker. "Oh! I had a great uncle with that name!"

Me: (looking pleasantly surprised and nodding)

Coworker: "Is it spelled H-J-A-L-M-E-R?"

Me: "Yes! Exactly!"

Coworker: "Scandinavian?"

Me: "Yes!"

Coworker: "Maybe the two of you are related?"

...

I politely left as quickly as I could.

Yeah... It's been a little while since I've posted much here worth reading.

The main issue for me is that I have had a lot of ideas of things I *could* post here, thematically, but have always had these thoughts that major changes might be required if my writing went this way or that.

Suffice it to say, I plan to post here with much more frequency, no matter the topic.

I will likely make small changes here and there. The site will develop organically, probably, and become dense and random. I hope it will. To more accurately reflect me. I'm more than just geek. I'm more than just ADD Boy.

So I'm headed toward the elevators after lunch today, and an elevator opens before anyone can pick an "up" or "down" button from the lobby.

As the occupant of the elevator exited, a woman (closer to the bottons than I) pressed the down arrow. Down happens to be the direction I'm headed, so I'm pretty happy with serendipity at this point.

What still remains unknown for a moment is whether or not the over-mind governing the travel of the elevators in the building will allow that car to carry us down, or if we will be required to do penance until another car arrives. There is a brief moment of uncertainty as we await the decision.

Mercifully, the "down" indicator-light illuminates over the open elevator door. I enter after my newfound traveling companion does. We exchange glances and I say "Yay!" with a grin on my face.

Nodding to no one I announce "I love it when a plan comes together!"

I'm quite fond of that quote. It was a tag line from the TV series called "The A*Team." Without out boring you with minutia, a character named Hannibal would triumphantly recite those lines before grinning and biting down on his cigar. I use it often, sometimes à propos of nothing.

She looked at me and said "Plan?"

I explained myself by saying "It's a quote from an old TV series."

"Oh!" She said. "Good!"

We were clearly not on the same page.

I did what any geek would do: I perpetuated an awkward silence.

In one of my lives, I work in a large corporate reseller of media. The hook is books. Lots of them. But we have CDs and DVDs, periodical literature, and some sundry merchandise which we gather under the catch-all category of "Gifts and Stationery."

One such "gift" is a replica of a light saber. Lots of people (children especially) are amused by them. Fans of Star Wars know immediately what they are and play with the demo model in the store. Other people seem peripherally aware of them without knowing specifics.

One such customer played with the demo model for a few minutes before joining her companion at the register. She like so many others is shocked that such a thing might cost more than a hundred dollars. Shocked even though it lights in a way that mimics the special effects of the late-70s Science Fiction movie, and sounds like the foley effects--in response to an embedded motion sensor. It's a very cool toy, and a very accurate replica.

Yep. I own one. Specifically, it's the model Anakin Skywalker used while he was a Jedi. The one Obi Wan gave to Luke in the first theatrical release (Episode 4). You know... with the blue blade. There's also Darth Vader's, Luke's own (that he made during his Jedi training), and there is a Darth Maul model. If you buy two of the Darth Maul models, you can lock them together to make a double-ended saber just like the one in Episode 2 (I think it was that movie).

There are groups that have come in to buy out our entire stock in order to use them to stage mock fights.

To be sure, those 'saber replicas have a certain allure for the geekiest among us.

It was that geek in me that was really disheartened to hear that customer tell her friend about the light saber from Star Trek.

I gave a light-hearted whisper to her saying simply "Star Wars..."

To which she responded by correcting herself, then announcing to me that "I'm not much of a Trekkie."

Ooof.

I had nothing more to say to her. I knew explaining the multitude of ways that her response was oh-so-wrong would just fall on deaf ears.

I think I just blinked.

"Trekkie," echoed through my brain. I felt wounded.

This morning I awoke to confusion. Half of my clocks indicated the correct hour. Half were wrong.

The ones I hoped were correct... were not. Among these was the clock that alarmed me from slumber. This is a clock that allegedly sets itself. However, it did not seem to realize the importance of tracking the change from CST to CDT.

I am only angry that I didn't assume it wouldn't work. Shame on me, right?

Can we please end this charade? The shift of time does not change anything in my life. There is no gain.

So I skipped my morning bathing ritual, skipped making coffee or trying to eat, and even skipped trying to find clean clothes. I went straight to work without ado. I still arrived late.

For what?