Working Distractions

Its amazing the variety of subjects you can get into so you can talk to people and put off doing work. A good list of people at various work locations and what we tend to talk about:
Bob (CT) - Anime and Japanese culture
Mike M (CT) - Physics and British Comedy
Joe (CT) - Sports
Lance (CT) - Sports and social commentary
Beth (CT) - Sushi and localized pop culture
Andres (OH) - Religion
Brian (OH) - Sports, Religion, local culture
Tracy (OH) - Culinary and domestic issues
Paul (OH) - Military strategy, historical issues
Vince (OH) - Shakespeare and British historical literature

With all this, you wonder how I get any kind of work done. But the key is to not allow yourself to get lulled into conversation when you're in the middle of a good working vibe. Of course if you feel bored and don't want to work, its very easy to find someone to talk to.

Example: Vince loaned me his copy of Titus, a mid-90's dramatization of Shakespeare's play Titus Andronicus. Very brutal, very nasty play. One of Shakespeare's first and its fairly obvious that its not his best work. But we were discussing that and just got to discussing our opinions of other treatments. He tends to like the more modern takes of the plays ( early 90's Richard III is a good example). I like some of these but I appreciate the way the story is told no matter what context its in. I like Hamlet while Vince does not, but I prefer the Mel Gibson version to Kenneth Brannagh's. Not because of the setting so much as because of the interaction. Gibson and his supporting cast seem to grasp the more real aspect of the play rather that getting swept up with the idea that they are doing HAMLET as Brannagh did. But this is an aside. I'm not posting this time as a critique on either Shakespeare or its various adaptations. I'll save that for another post.

But the tourney starts today so I don't doubt I'll have plenty of opportunity for avoiding work if I so choose.