busybee comics: Journal

There’s this guy I know, who I’ll call Bob (since that’s his name). Bob is very eager to make good things happen.

Bob: We ned to get more computer graphics going on around here! Are you interested in the idea of starting up a local movie studio?

Note that eagerness does not imply competence.

So when Bob attended my master’s defense, he immediately saw an opportunity.

Bob: Are you still looking for a job? I think you need to show this stuff to the folks out at White Sands.

fluffy: Hm, I’ll consider it.

So he got me an interview at the local army research facility, even though they weren’t hiring and had no money.

But [a few of] the people at the research facility were interested, and made an interesting offer:

WSMR scientist [[Eager person who didn’t understand the talk but saw a funding opportunity anyway]]: Would you be interested in presenting your work at a conference in September if you’re still interested? If you present this work, you might get us some money to hire you with!

[[Bob, happy to have made a difference]]

[[Bored people who didn’t understand the talk or why I just wasted an hour of their time]]

I tentatively accepted.

Several months later, out of the blue, Bob forwarded me some email…

fluffy: Oh no… please tell me he didn’t do that. … Oh no, he did.

It seems that without my knowledge, he decided to “help” by following up regarding the conference. But at this point I was no longer interested in it. (I had already even told him that I wasn’t interested in this anymore and that I had some interesting leads. I think he was trying to force me to give the army group a try anyway, since he’d spent so much time working there himself.)

fluffy [email]: Bob, I’m not interested in the conference. I have some good job leads in things I actually want to do for a living.

But it was too late, they had already arranged for my travel and scheduled a time slot for me to give my presentation on my visibility research, and now I couldn’t back out because they’d somehow “done me a huge favor in arranging this.”

Bob [email]: You mak not think your work is important [??] but it is! These people went out on a line to get you funding so you could go to this [blah blah blah]

So I fly out to the conference early tomorrow morning, which is why I’m struggling to get my cats to Delphine’s house for a few days. (Oh yeah, I got a haircut.)

fluffy: Shooby! Quit playing with the door and get in! Toby! I told you, no driving lessons until you’re older! My insurance won’t cover you yet!

teacher’s handwriting: Great story, but a little hard to swallow. B+ P.S. see me after class