Tag: work

I’m a Soviet Engineer

~ Clarissa ~ 4 Comments

There is this old joke about a Soviet engineer. “I tell my wife I’m with my mistress,” he says. “And I tell my mistress that I’m with my wife. In the meanwhile, I just hide in a corner and work on my engineering designs.”

I’m that Soviet engineer, people. I’m sitting right in the middle of Montreal’s beautiful Old Port, the weather is lovely, there are many cool places to visit, great stores and restaurants to patronize, friends to meet, and relatives to greet.

I, however, am stuck at home with my computer doing my committee work.

What’s the most enjoyable hour of your typical weekday?

~ Clarissa ~ 2 Comments

This is another one of those blogging suggestions from WordPress.

During the semester, my favorite time is when I arrive at my office two hours before class, check my blog, go over the class plan, have a coffee. The campus is usually still very quiet and empty. This is the time when I can sit back, relax and contemplate the great fortune of loving my work the way I do.

During the holidays, the best moment of the day is early in the morning when I breathe in the fresh morning air and open the document I’m working on.

So in both cases, I guess the most enjoyable moment is right before I begin working. The hour right after (the classes or the writing sessions) is the one when I feel most satisfied and kind of self-righteous.

What about you?

Servant Mentality

~ Clarissa ~ 53 Comments

Crowds of people in my blogroll are peeing themselves with delight over the following list of instructions an unnamed important person sent to his or her future collaborator:

This isn’t all. The list continues, and you can see it in its entirety here.

I have known poverty and the hopelessness it brings. However, I can absolutely promise you that I would never ever consider working with an individual who’d disrespect me to the point of handing me such a list. There is no amount of money – not a million, not a billion, not a trillion dollars – that I would accept for spending even a day in the same room with this neurotic.

People who are gushing over how much they admire the “no-bullshit author” of the list should get out a dictionary and find the definition of the words “dignity” and “self-respect.”