Thursday, 04 August 2011
This evening, Jennifer and I watched the Seinfeld episode “The Bubble Boy.” I was excited to watch it; I thought it was one of those classic episodes – In fact, tv.com users have placed it fifth overall. But, with the exception of The Contest, I’m never quite certain if it is the episode itself that is a classic, or if it’s just a line from the episode that people find memorable.
I think, what people remember from this episode are two things:
1) The cast says “bubble boy” like a dozen times. For some reasons, the Seinfeld writers think it’s funny to just repeat a short phrase over and over again. I don’t think that’s very funny. The only time it was funny in this episode was when Jerry said, “he lives in a bubble,” and then George says, “boy!” (as if he’s saying “wow”).
2) The Trivial Pursuit card has a misprint. Instead of saying ‘The Moors,’ it says ‘The Moops.’
So, all in all, I was disappointed with this episode. It’s hard to find too much humor in a kid who has to live inside a plastic bubble…and the rest of the show just wasn’t that funny. I gotta stop excepting too much out of these ‘classic’ Seinfeld episodes or I’m just gonna be disappointed throughout all nine seasons.
Friday, 05 August 2011
Seven years and four months ago, I showed up for my first day of work at my current job. The receptionist pages my new boss, and he came down to the lobby to meet me. He directed me up to my new cube, and during the walk he explained I would be sharing a cube “for a few months, until we move to the new lab area.” A few seconds later, I met Brett who, having arrived exactly at 8:00, was on time and had beaten me by five minutes.
Despite my manager’s promise, Brett and I shared a cube for four years and one month. In fact, we shared three cubes together, moving first to the new lab area, then moving again when the lab was expanded and our cube was mowed down to make room.
One day, I spun around in my cube to ask a favor of Brett. I don’t recall what it was – maybe I wanted him to review some of my lab work, or maybe I had a question on a computer program we used. Regardless, Brett asked what I would be willing to pay. I offered to review something of his in return, but he said that wasn’t goo enough. So I offered him my soul.
I wrote down “my soul” on a sheet of post-it paper:
Brett accepted the payment, and placed my soul in his desk drawer. That was about four years ago. Since then, Brett moved to a different cube (and then he moved again, and again).
Today was Brett’s final day of work here. After taking him out to lunch today, he came over to my cube with a few papers to give back to me. Attached to the top of the stack was the post-it identifying possession of my soul.
Good-bye, Brett. I shall miss working with you. And to everyone else: if you’d like my soul, just name your price.