Good job.

Sometimes I'm really proud of my work. Not like helping orphans proud or saving the world proud...that's such a weird kind of pride anyway. I'm talking about, "Damn, that's cool and I did it" pride.

For instance, I was talking to a co-worker today about a letter she's working on that presents a myriad of complex issues spanning 10 years. It involves us owning up to a mistake we made, explaining why the ramifications of that mistake are not our fault, pinpointing the person that is actually at fault, and laying out regulations to a Congressman. Doesn't sound so bad but it's harder than you think. Especially the part where we explain why us making a mistake doesn't equal us being responsible. So the co-worker was having problems writing around this issue and I referred her to a letter I wrote a few weeks ago. In it I did a very similar thing with a slick bit of leger de main. I was all, "Hey! I'm acknowledging this issue. But what's this? Look over here! Something else totally unrelated that takes your mind off that issue." It was genius. Have you ever read Richard Nixon's Checkers speech? Well, it was sort of like that but way less involved.