Look, bunnies!

I've always had a short attention span, difficulty focusing on the task at hand. I was easily distracted and spent most of my elementary school years flirting with the girls and laughing with the guys, no matter how many times the teacher relocated me. Back then they used to say that I was starved for attention, and teachers told my parents I didn't care if that attention was negative, so long as it was there. Had I grown up a decade or two later, they probably would have said I had ADD. In fourth grade seated in isolation at the back of the classroom, with empty chairs around to make sure I didn't disrupt other students, I climbed out a second story window “just to see” and was nabbed on my way back in after hanging out unnoticed on the ledge for a minute or two.

A friend of mine wanted me to inquire about the availability of an open cubicle near him today. I've been in the same spot for about five years. It's not as big, and I have to contend with a loud neighbor who's perpetually sick. Yet every time another cubicle has become available I've stupefied my friends by staying put. Every time; they should know me by now. I actually was considering it today after my friend yelled at me, even as my neighbor barked in the background. Sure, it would be a hassle to move all my stuff. I've amassed a lot in five years' time. And recently I redecorated my pole. Long before I was there this beam had been wrapped in brown paper, and green folders were cut to make leaves, making it a mock palm tree. Over time it has wilted, but there's a lot of history. People have written messages, couples have put their initials in hearts, and it struck me as a shame to tear it down. When people around me threatened to do so I taped it up, and added a cool circuitry pattern over the existing “bark”, so that it would still be under there for future generations. This was of course inspired by the classic The Key to Vector Sigma Part 2 episode of The Transformers in which the Decepticons set about using the title artifact to convert Earth into a machine world, like their home planet of Cybertron. Yes ladies, in addition to suffering from ADD I am a huge, huge geek. Feel free to leave screennames in the comments section.

Where was I? Moving or staying to guard Yggdrasil. The section I was considering is popular. There's a printer there and people are constantly walking by. My friend, one of the more popular people in the company, is always entertaining a multitude of visitors. While he has the ability to work and talk at the same time, I'm seriously lacking in that area. During the course of a day there's about 1-3 people who might drop by for a social visit, and every time I stop working to listen and talk. I know I would be drawn into conversations if I sat there. As it is, between e-mail and AIM, I'm constantly allowing myself to be distracted. Often, as a result, my most productive work is done after 5PM. Although today I had the added distraction of my boss dropping by to ask me to do a different cover for my catalog, which meant the stuff I was working on tonight has been bumped to tomorrow morning. The stuff I was working on tonight should have been done this afternoon, and the stuff I was working on this afternoon should have been done before lunch. Not only did I stop in the middle of collating four 24-page catalogs to fire off a detailed reply to a buddy about lunch, but later in the day someone pointed out I'd written something in the neighborhood of fifty personal e-mails. That's not good. It's been brought to my attention before and I've tried to quit cold turkey, only to come back worse than ever a few days later. Some of my friends are to the point where they're deleting my e-mails the second I send them.

I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same. On the surface I seem quiet, focused and efficient. But sitting there writing e-mails is probably the digital equivalent of talking about Voltron to my friends while the teacher is trying to speak. Maybe my parents did me a favor by sending me to a different high school than my friends. Yet, though I didn't talk to many people there, the margins of my notebooks were riddled with doodles. In some subjects I'd have three lines of actual notes and the rest were drawings. I guess it's fortunate that I ended up becoming an artist since if anyone's life depended on my knowledge of a soil profile, they'd be in trouble. Somewhere I do still have a jar with dirt, clay and rocks in it that I submitted as a barely passable science project my freshman year.

I have to learn to focus. Had I remembered a meeting two months ago, I would have remembered the image my supervisor wanted to use for the current issue and why(hint: it rhymes with Garth Nader). Had I paid attention this morning when packing my gym bag, I wouldn't have gone to change in to my old “USA” t-shirt only to unfold it and reveal my “Tony and Johnny's” Italian band uniform shirt. Good thing I packed a white sweatshirt for the cold after my workout. Bad thing it had what (I hope) was a sauce stain on one of the sleeves. Though “browning out” and not paying attention while driving has helped me overcome my driving anxiety, I need to wake up the rest of the time.

I think the real insight to be gleaned from all of this introspection and self-analysis is that 30 second bunny reenactments are cool. I first came across their version of The Exorcist a while back, and caught the follow-ups of The Shining and Titanic. Now, thanks to a post on SF Signal, I see that those bunnies have been hard at work reenacting a lot of other films. Maybe someday they'll get to TV shows...I would love to see a shrill Jack Bauer bunny holding a gun and shouting at a terrorist bunny. See the last two sentences of my second paragraph....