Me vs. the MLA style handbook*****

After being at BS(TM) for about a month I have loosened up enough to check my gmail and yahoo mail.

I have not crossed the blogger line at work. I am trying to hold my ground there. But sometimes I do take a peek at my myspace.*

That being said, if an article seems even tangentially remotely rationalize-ably relevant to the biz, I read it.**

Found this life altering*** article about the plight of the nerd and why high school sucks**** so hard. I don't know if I buy the whole spiel but it certainly offers food for thought.


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*
makes me feel naughty.

**
c'mon, man, research!

***
I am coming to realize that the working world reminds me of high school in its expectations of conformity and the weird social dynamics and hidden aspects that I know are there but can't figure out. I oscillate between blundering about like an oaf and trying to make myself invisible. I used to consider myself somewhat normal but now realize that the context was a scientific environment which is pretty much in line with that saying about the one-eyed man in a city of the blind. In the working world it would appear that depth perception gives one a powerful advantage.


****
Regrettably, the verb suck is my new favorite:

"that sucks."
"this sucks ass."
"if they don't like it, they can suck it."
"ISI sucks my ass!" (said within earshot of co-workers on the elevator)

I am hoping that it is a phase that I will grow out of.

*****
I never learned how to footnote. I am improperly experimenting with it today because yesterday I met M and J who are professional book people. I'll bet they know their grammar and usages, after all, they get paid to judge the writing of others. Five asteriks into this post I realize first off - that it might help for me to actually pick up a copy of the MLA style handbook (which looks awfully heavy) if I want to write properly and second off - that living in NYC is feeding the freaky self-conscious neurotic in me. It's only been a month.

In NYC and on the east coast, there seem to be unspoken rules or scripts to all kinds of transactions and modes of being. Every block is its own microclimate with its own social ecology. Each with it's own rules and scripts known best by the locals. Some you can reason out for yourself through common sense or careful observation. Some will get explained to you in nice or not so nice tones of voice by the locals. Travelling from block to block, neighborhood to neighborhood - there are so many different codes, and customs, and expectations of conformity in so many different modes that it can be tricky keeping track of how things are done.

Maybe that's why people become regulars. In part to go back to the places they like but perhaps also to be in places where they know the drill and understand the local modes and codes.

Maybe that's part of why I love my corner of Brooklyn. It is beautiful and green and friendly and peaceful. I love it for so many reasons. And while I hate to admit it, certainly part of why I love it here is that it is a bit slower and well ... bougie and gentrified ... some might say, uh, it's a little bland. Merely in comparison with other parts of the 5 burroughs. But for me as a fish out of water that's good. There's less shit to track. It still has so much to offer but does so in a much gentler and manageable way. When I get home I am not struggling with navigating the local means and mores just to get a goddamned sandwich. I can just get a goddamned sandwich.

AND I just broke my no blogging at werk rule to edit this post. *kiss*