What did I do at work today?

I started out worried that I didn't have enough to do. Bad muppetathena! Asking for trouble!

Then the crazy CEO of my company came over to me and asked me to follow him to lunch so he could describe a project he wants me to work on.

(The project is pretty cool: we're developing a patented attraction that takes a series of pictures in a 360 degree radius to create a bullet-time effect, and prints those pictures to a flipbook for guests.)

But the national event producing company that has agreed to license this technology needs it for a big conference in 3 weeks.

I have been asked to do the UI for this device. Unfortunately, I have been asked to do the UI for the device in Linux, where I never did UI work. But it's the president of the company so I can't very well say "oops, no, don't feel like it..."

And I'm leaving for California in 2 weeks. Oh, and I have a presentation for our virtual puppetry museum installation project with the Children's Museum next week.

Well, I have enough to do now.

And since when did I become queen of interactive exhibits, anyway?

Anywhoo, this all came up on the walk to the deli, where we joined a larger contingent of people from our design firm. Once we had all been served, we walked back to the office...

...until we saw the automatic self-cleaning public pay toilet stall that had just been installed.

I was perfectly content to look from the outside, but I was with a bunch of boys/men/whatever who lack maturity, even if they do own the company or whatever.

So they dug up a quarter, and the 8 of us all crammed into the automated bathroom. Me and the engineers and the president of my company.

Yeah.

The restroom itself was interesting - and it had a counter - you can only spend 20 minutes in there. (20 minutes?? Is this supposed to be a 25 cent hotel room for quick shags?)

Anyway, the rest of the walk home was punctuated by a zillion puns and jokes and geekiness, and our little group of eight filled the streets with its toilet-driven glee.

When we got back to the office, some people who had split off from our group remarked: "Yeah, we saw you at the corner across from the office. You were totally the opposite of a 'smart mob.'"

Lunch was also filled with much giggling - seeing these guys from 25-40 years old tittering like schoolgirls was truly an experience. They dubbed our group of eight the Toilet Club.

But don't tell anyone. First rule of Toilet Club: You don't talk about the toilet club.

****

Last night, my homepage was visited by someone from a company we'll call the "SimCompany". I have not gotten any email from them yet, though. I hope they didn't think my credentials were shit.

But I got this message from an Imagineer who was helping me revise my coverletter and resume:

by the way, I poked around on you today, you get very high recommendations from the florida team you worked with last year, Bob and tim are no longer with the company, so you might want to push david as a reference if people ask.*

*names changed to protect my contacts

So maybe my shot at Imagineering isn't as remote as I thought.

In the meantime, I will continue to worry incessantly about my internship prospects.

Time for kickboxing...