Wednesday September 10th, 2014

The exercise:

Write about: the hobby.

Had a relatively relaxed day, as the bakery didn't need any tomatoes this week and there were hardly any berries leftover after the box pick. So after a quick harvest I did some work in our yard (for the first time in ages) and finally got around to doing a couple things around the house.

Went out after dinner to do some more weeding in the tomatoes but didn't get particularly far since it gets dark so early at this time of year. I'll get back to that tomorrow morning.

Mine:

Paul pushed his glasses up onto his forehead and let the resume fall from his hands to land on his cluttered desk. It had to be a typo. Not that the properly edited version would have made the candidate appealing, it just would have been less...

"Worthy of a call to the police?" It was never a good sign when Paul started talking to himself. Sooner or later his secretary would overhear him, realize he wasn't on the phone, and spread warning words to the other occupants of the 12th floor.

Surely it was simply a case of poor editing. How many times had he done something as silly as forgetting to place the ers at the end of a word? The work of a moment's distraction or simply thinking a few words ahead as he typed. Countless, really.

"Of course," Paul muttered as he left his plush leather chair and began pacing around his office, "I caught the mistake myself. It didn't take a coworker or potential new employer to uncover my gaffe."

He paused to stare at the resume once more. Maybe he was the mistaken one. Perhaps his eyes had deceived him. He picked up the application and scanned to the section titled Hobbies. No, there it was, plain as day. Right between Gardening and Tennis.

Serial killer.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Even though it was late and she had to wake up at the crack of dawn to get ready for school, she just couldn’t get herself to stop. The letters flowing from her fingertips were finally coming together. Her ideas were at last making sense.
As she typed away on her old Asus with a pirated version of word, she felt as though she was actually painting instead of writing. Everything was coming to life, and it gave her such a feeling of euphoria, something that not even whip-its could rival.
It also made her feel alive in the process.

Greg said...

@Marc: that sounds like a nice day indeed! I'm glad you got a day of relaxing in the middle of the week, it makes the whole thing seem a little easier to get through overall :)
Heh, I didn't see serial killer coming, though I was trying to guess what the hobby might have been. It's definitely a worthy one though: it gets you out of the house and meeting people (albeit briefly) and you learn all kinds of interesting things about cleaning and stains and police procedures....
Curiously I was looking at CV today for an interview next week, and the hobbies section mentioned couchsurfing. Now given that the applicants first language isn't English I forgive her this, but she wrote that she was a keen couchsurfer and had hosted and been hosted by many people. Which unfortunately makes her sound like an exotic prostitute.

The hobby
Miss Snippet picked up another essay. She'd been asked to substitute as an English teacher for Form 4B and was already bored and wishing she could send them out with her regular class to lay tarmac. The previous teacher had instructed them to write about their hobbies.
My hobby, she read, is using the wrong long word for something around people so as to convince them that it means something other than what it does. My mummy is convinced that being concerned about things is being constipated about them, and my daddy now says that he's combusted when he's comfortable.
Miss Snippet allowed herself a smile, and then noted down a list of additonal words that the student should start using around adults.

Marc said...

Ivybennet - ah, that is a good place to be. Sleep is also good, but sometimes the sacrifice is worth it, isn't it?

Greg - I'm not sure I would list couchsurfing as a hobby on a resume... but your conclusion is pretty amazing. I hope the interview is, at worst, equally entertaining for you :)

That... is a fantastic hobby. I think I shall have to encourage Max to take it up when he gets just a little bit older!

Unknown said...

The hobby.
Her hobby is reading. She sits for endless hours on the porch on her swings reading. As she reads she feels the wind blowing as she looks up from her book to watch the leaves dancing. She smiles and looks back to her book and starts reading. She's at ease as she's sitting there. Nothing is more peaceful to her than doing what she loves and watching nature do as it's suppose to. Nature brings her the peaceful melody she needs to read for those endless hours.

Unknown said...

My hobby is autographing collecting. I live for the thrill of the chase. It is an activity that I have been participating in ever since my father introduced me to it as a kid. Sadly he is no longer here with me to participate in this hobby. But every time I go on the chase I have good memories of me and my dad. The three aspects of autograph collecting I participate in the most are asking for autographs in person, sending requests in the mail, and opening packs of cards. The most thrilling of these to me is asking for autographs in person. This is because there are numerous factors that could determine your success rate for the day. Some of these include being in the right place at the right time and the players attitudes. The other two methods are also rewarding. There is nothing quite like opening the one pack out of thirty-six that has an autograph in it or opening the mailbox and seeing that a player has returned a card signed to you. My favorite autograph in my collection is from Mike Vick because he signed it and returned it to me while in jail. He even wrote a note about how appreciative he was for me taking the time.

Marc said...

Anita Diaz - hello and welcome to the blog!

That's a lovely, serene scene you've painted for us. I'd quite like to join it, actually.

Tyler - and welcome to you as well! Thanks for stopping by :)

Ah, I remember going to ball games when I was younger, carrying a stash of cards with me of any player on either team that I happened to have.

Never managed to get one signed, but then I never had much of a plan as to how I was going to get them. I feel like maybe mailing them off would have been a better bet :)