-Stimuli-

I managed to piss off a friend and be thoroughly unprofessional at work at the same time.

We'd been reviewing my resume, and had just taken off on a tangent, talking specifically about Big Fish, then more generally about Tim Burton's work, then specifically about Edward Scissorhands. Remember the bully? It's Anthony Michael Hall.

After confirming this with the internet movie database, we mused about the turn he'd taken from playing nerds to playing abusive boyfriends. And since his filmography lay before us on the workstation, and we were already in resume-scrutiny mode, I began to "question" her as if she were Anthony Michael Hall and I a prospective employer.

The clincher came when I asked about the gaps in his work history. Dropping the interviewer persona, I stated that it was a top priority to uncover what Anthony Michael Hall was doing in those years for which IMDB cannot account.

"That's what you're going to do today, at work?"
Her tone should have been a warning sign.
"What better way to use the company resources?"
The oblivious guy replied, and because he was fatigued, began to laugh.

This is the kind of hysterical laugh that, once set off, needs very little in the way of external stimuli to maintain itself. After the first stimulus fades away, the look on her face is stimulus #2. The screen with Anthony Michael Hall's filmography is stimulus #3. The laughter itself is stimulus #4.

By now I've given up trying to curtail the laughter, trying instead to stifle it enough to avoid embarrassing myself at work.

Trying to stifle it enough to avoid embarrassing myself at work is stimulus #5.

It finally fades, and I'm left feeling spent. So much so that the research put into Anthony Michael Hall's missing years is lackluster, at best. Unless the grant money is approved all I can be sure of is that he did not spend 2003 in rehab.
Trust me.