December 6th, 2004
About 7-1/2 years ago I started working at a software company in Richmond. At first I was on my best behaviour, but slowly I became my usual "do-it-differently-if-you-can" rebellious self, to the detriment of my career ... oh well, I got two years out of that company, and they got two years of good work out of me (the last month I was a bit grumpy, but I have always delivered what is asked of me and on time).
Not long after I started working there, a co-op student arrived to work also. Certainly not unusual, though she ended up working there somewhat more permanently later on. But on her first day, someone walked her around the place introducing her. On her blouse was a embroidered patch depicting the Winnie-the-Pooh character Tigger.
I said to her, "Aha! I see you are wearing Tigger! I'm an Eeyore kind of man myself!"
And it's true. The other day I was taking a trip down memory lane about my obsessive-compulsive childhood tendencies, and so here's another memory: I had a stuffed Eeyore as a young child from which I was nearly inseparable (I mean, the days that Eeyore had to get washed were particularly traumatic for me ... and, besides, how could he breathe in the washing machine???) And even long after Eeyore (the toy) found his well-deserved rest in the North Vancouver landfill, I still used to pride myself on being an Eeyore type. Then a strange phenomenon occurred at my workplace, encouraged by a man who was a slightly older and more sophisticated loner-type shit-disturber than I, though not particularly different from me in many respects.
(I wonder if he reads these rants ... I average about 35 or 40 people a day coming to these rant pages--more a day or so after I update--but the stats package from my webhosting company isn't sophisticated enough to tell me who they are or where they come from ... besides, my own personal opinions on privacy prevent me from even being particularly interested.)
Where was I? Oh yes, the Winnie-the-Pooh characters phenomenon. Suddenly, there was a group of people that formed what I called (and named) the PPC, or "Prologic Pooh Corner" ("Prologic" being the name of the company). And people signed on for the different characters. I was Eeyore, naturally, a co-worker didn't want to be Rabbit--which is too bad since she reminded me of him--so she got Piglet. The above-mentioned co-op student became Tigger, and there were others. I forget all of them, but I drew up an Org-Chart, someone else ("Winnie", actually) made up the PPC logo and "official" letterhead ... and then the whole thing rather quickly faded away, since such silliness can only be sustained by adults for so long before we start to feel too self-conscious to continue.
But what hasn't faded is my identification with Eeyore. I'm not saying that I am particularly Eeyore-like, but I can certainly identify with the character. A cloud follows him around, and he seems to offer social commentary on a grander, bigger-picture scale (albeit a lot less wordily than I do):
Some people write long-winded rants, and some people don't ... I can't explain it, but there it is.
It doesn't surprise me at all that there is at least one "What Winnie-the-Pooh Character are You?" website quiz out there. I would have linked to it from here, except that it contains a bazillion popups, cookies, and other crap that I would rather warn you about first. If you are cool with it, try Googling "What Winnie-the-Pooh Character are You?" and at or near the top of the results page should be links to such a quiz. I took the quiz, and I really did come out as Eeyore ... though the questions were pretty obvious about the characters associated with them.
Eeyore has always seemed to me to be ... well, more sensible, really. He is the character that has a large personal problem (his tail keeps falling off) but still takes the time to rise above the daily hardships to think about the Grand Scheme of Things. The fact that he's negative and cynical is exactly right. Cynics generally have higher IQs, and tend to excel in Dangerous Times.
The one thing that bright bubbly mindless optimists enjoy repeating endlessly is that cynics die younger, and usually of stress-related health issues. But the stress doesn't come from being cynical, it comes from being surrounded by happy brain-dead optimists all the time. Being an Eeyore and having to live surrounded by Winnie-the-Poohs and Tiggers too is really stressful.
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By the way, I can't help but be more than a little offended that the spell-checker suggests "Eyesore" in place of "Eeyore."