Fear, loathing, nerves and nail polish
Feb. 20th, 2006 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylHaving decided to go the Wednesday thing with various members of the Great and the Good, I've suddenly started to have attacks of nervous paranoia.
I'm kinda worried that maybe I've been invited by mistake. Maybe it'll be like the Princeton conference I went to a few years back where, because I was the youngest participant by about twenty years and stood out like a sore thumb, people kept on asking to see my conference badge and giving me looks that said, "Yeah, we know you're really just a grad student on the mooch, whatever your badge may say, but we're turning a blind eye just this once."
Or maybe it's not a mistake. Maybe it's yet another sign that the Masters after God is indeed playing a long game for, while I've been lulling after the embarrassing events of May, he's been biding his time and working behind the scenes to do horrible things to my career slope. Maybe he's worked out my secret weakness: corporate hospitality leads to fear, fear leads to anger, anger lead hatred, hatred leads to anger, anger leads to hospitality and hospitality leads to the Dark Side.
I'm also kinda worried that if I fail to wear a shirt and tie, I'll end up contravening some subtle rule of corporate dress etiquette. Trouble is, if I attempt to look smart I'll inevitably fail and, in the process, burn any hacker kudos I've managed to acquire over the years. I think that on balance I'll probably stick with my usual dress code — that way any departures from accepted behaviour on my part can be shrugged off with the old line about geeks and their legendary lack of people skills — although out of deference to the seniority of my colleagues, I think that this time I'll ixnay on the scruffy black nail polish, just in case.
I'm kinda worried that maybe I've been invited by mistake. Maybe it'll be like the Princeton conference I went to a few years back where, because I was the youngest participant by about twenty years and stood out like a sore thumb, people kept on asking to see my conference badge and giving me looks that said, "Yeah, we know you're really just a grad student on the mooch, whatever your badge may say, but we're turning a blind eye just this once."
Or maybe it's not a mistake. Maybe it's yet another sign that the Masters after God is indeed playing a long game for, while I've been lulling after the embarrassing events of May, he's been biding his time and working behind the scenes to do horrible things to my career slope. Maybe he's worked out my secret weakness: corporate hospitality leads to fear, fear leads to anger, anger lead hatred, hatred leads to anger, anger leads to hospitality and hospitality leads to the Dark Side.
I'm also kinda worried that if I fail to wear a shirt and tie, I'll end up contravening some subtle rule of corporate dress etiquette. Trouble is, if I attempt to look smart I'll inevitably fail and, in the process, burn any hacker kudos I've managed to acquire over the years. I think that on balance I'll probably stick with my usual dress code — that way any departures from accepted behaviour on my part can be shrugged off with the old line about geeks and their legendary lack of people skills — although out of deference to the seniority of my colleagues, I think that this time I'll ixnay on the scruffy black nail polish, just in case.
