Nathan deserves a raise

My nameplate at work shows my given name as: Johnathan, so I put a piece of tape over the 'h' so it shows as Jo nathan rather than request a new one. No-one really comes around who doesn't know me, let alone rely on the nameplate to establish my name, or so I thought. A fairly intense person came around to the pod, asking the guy behind me a question. He handballed off to me 'Jon, this is such and such, can you help with...' He walked away saying: 'Thanks for that Nathan'. I initially had no idea where he got that from, and when the penny finally dropped, it was too late.

I noticed that a napkin partially obscured my nameplate over the Jo part showing: nathan. I proceeded to clear out the whole area in case he came around again.

About 15 minutes later, I was fairly immersed in my work and he stealthed me from behind. 'Nathan, just wondering if you could check this out.'
Mistake (1) I shouldn't have turned around when he said Nathan.
Mistake (2) At this stage I should've corrected him.
Mistake (3) I'd forgotten his name.

The end result was that I had to e-mail him something, so was compelled to acknowledge that I didn't know his name, however I thought I'd been called Nathan too many times to correct him. A bad decision by me...

My colleagues started to formulate plans how to reiterate my name without making him look like a fool should he come around again. Eg Politely interrupt the conversation and clearly say my name, talk about myself in the third person or the wonders of nameplates citing mine as an example. None of which I was going to try. I had to email him, so I thought he'd notice the 'From:' portion of the email that it was from a Jonathan and not a Nathan. Unless he though Nathan had an assistant named Jonathan?

Anyway about 30 minutes later he was back again and said: 'So is it Jonathan or Nathan?' problem solved...

Whenever someone has food stuck on their face I let them know, I just got stuck in an situation where I didn't think fast enough... At least it's not as bad when someone sent me an email addressing it to Joan. I got called Joanie for at least the next couple of months by anyone who knew...

Going slightly nuts

On the 29th of December I decided to purchase seasons 1-5 of The West Wing. It was one of those spur of the moment purchases that I might've regretted. I've watched the show, but didn't make it a permanent fixture each week and thought for $32 and $25 for the 1st, a calculated gamble. With a long weekend coming and a staunch opposition to New Year's Eve parties, I was all set. Additionally with a quiet patch at work, days were pretty short.

The following is quite tragic:
17 days have passed (408 hours) since the purchase
9 of these were work days (Assume 5 hours free time per day) (45 hours)
8 of these holidays or weekends (Assume 10 hours free time) (80 hours)
Total free time 125 hours

I've motored through 86 episodes. At approximately 40 minutes per episode that adds up to 3440 minutes or 57 hours. When I say that out loud that's pretty bad... and what's worse is its more TV I'd watch in a couple of months... From my calculations I've spent around 46% of my free time watching The West Wing.

I'm now not only addicted to the show, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do once I've finished the 5th box set. Also, as there's a gap between 5 finishing and what they're showing on the ABC now, I'm lost with some of the plot lines. The writing is amazing and while the dialog is at times too fast for this brain to digest, has kept me interested from start to finish. The characters are likable on many levels and makes one think about how much stuff happens on the other side of the fence. Speech writers and press secretaries now have a new found appreciation from me...

So for the few that read this blog if you were wondering where I've been, well, I haven't been doing anything constructive or social. My personal hygiene is ok, I'm having trouble constructing sentences and frequently been imagining a job at the oval office. Well, maybe not with the current administration...

Also in those 125 hours, I've been subtly noticing the ABC2 guide. The New Year's Day programming included:
The Doves: Live At Eden 2002, Bloc Party: Live In France 2005, Franz Ferdinand: Live In France 2004, Placebo: Live In France 2004, Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Live In France 2004, PJ Harvey, The Bravery: Live in France 2005, Radiohead: Live in France 2003, The Pixies: Live In France 2004, Blur: Live, The Vines,
The Audreys: Live At The Gov

I almost cried knowing that I'd missed all these shows, so I decided to get a SD set top box. While the above probably occurs once a year, there seems to be a regular batch of music each week and interesting documentaries. The only set I caught from the list was The Audreys which was repeated at a later date. It included some short conversations with 2 members with insights into the development of the band. An interesting note was that they tried to play a different cover at each gig on this recent tour (30 dates). On this occasion it was 'In Between Days' by The Cure. When we saw them it was Neil Young's Hurricane and a Dolly Parton song.

I promise to get out into the daylight, do things involving other human beings...Maybe just one more episode...