On General Obliviousness

At work yesterday, two colleagues were talking loudly.

I had my headphones on. I was writing marketing copy and studying pictures of Slave Leia outfits (work related, honest!).

I heard, or I thought I heard, one of my colleagues say, “This is how The Stand began.”

Naturally, I was curious. I dropped my headphones. “The Stand? You mean that someone’s been experimenting on monkeys and super-flu again?”

One looked at me and said, “Swine flu.”

I shugged. “And that is…?”

The other said, “Swine flu.”

“Oookay,” I said. “Pigs get flu?”

“Allyn, have you even been paying attention to the news?”

I bit my lip. “Umm, honestly, umm, no. Unless it had to do with the Cubs, and they were awful this weekend.”

The writer in the cubicle next to mine said, “You really need to pay more attention.”

I nodded. “Right.”

I went back to writing about Slave Leia outfits and, a little later in the morning, The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Y’know, once upon a time I really loved The Nightmare Before Christmas. Then it became a lifestyle brand, and now I don’t like it so much.

Then I had my head shorn. It’s still longer than I’d like.

And I wrote only 577 words on “THOD” yesterday. Good words, it’s a good scene. Quality, not quantity, right?

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

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