As I’ve mentioned before, this whole “not swearing at work” thing is very easy for me. There’s just a censor-switch somewhere in the back of my head. For other things, though, the censoring happens much more consciously. For instance, my geeky tendencies. The sheer number of sci-fi and gaming jokes my mind suggests and I swallow is HUGE. Also, the kind of jokes that are risky around those you don’t know too well (esp. their religious tendencies) I have to suppress. The geeky thing - well, it’s not that I think there’s anything wrong with my geekiness. But the things I geek over - sci-fi, RPGs, et cetera—are important to me, and I don’t particularly want to expose things that are important to me to those that will certainly misunderstand them, or insult them. (Case in point: At my old job, we were discussing Halloween costumes. I mentioned that the next year I was planning on dressing as a villain from Buffy. The woman said, “God, will anyone even remember that show next year?” in a very insulting tone of voice. I seem to remember screaming, “MY friends will, and so will the millions of people who made it a gigantic TV hit, you out-of-touch snob!” Oh wait, that was my desire. I think I gulped and said, “We’ll see.”)

Today I was at the Administration Building, and our very nice Grants Guru came up and announced she was walking back to our building with us. “Because you, Felicity, are the Chosen One.”

Felicity Quip Generator, loading…

• You’re gonna need to buy some tweed if you’re my Watcher, Betty. REJECTED Highly specific Buffy reference detected.
• Do I get a magic sword? REJECTED Geek-specific and violent overtones detected.
• I have to avert the Apocalypse? But I’ve got a play to go to. REJECTED Slightly creepy, and Buffy-specific. NEXT.
• I ain’t getting nailed to a tree for nobody! REJECTED Inappropriate Christian humor, Betty encountered at church on Christmas Eve…system overload. Defaulting to lame quip sequence.

“Uh-oh, Betty. That’s usually a bad thing.”

Sigh. At least at home I can be a total raging geek. And here. And for those wondering, I am chosen to be the first to use the new electronic grant submission system, ‘cuz they think I’m the best with computers.