“Work is worship” was the motto of my alma mater. Our founder, Pandit Malaviya, said,

The University will seek not merely to turn out men as engineers, scientists, doctors, merchants, theologians but also as men of high character, probity and honour, whose conduct through life will show they bear the hall-mark of a great University. A teaching university would but half perform its function if it does not seek to develop the heart-power of its scholars with the same solicitude with which it develops their brain-power. Hence it is that the proposed university has placed formation of character in youth as one of its principal objects.

Malaviya ji was a partner in the life of noted theosophist Annie Besant. I am reminded of this because every time I am just gaining some headway untangling the spaghetti that is this blog’s code, Mr. Paynter will wander in and ask me some awkward question about Jiddu Krishnamurti or Paramahansa Yogananda or Theosophy, etc. I do my best to respectfully respond to these extraneous and irrelevant queries and then I find it takes me precious minutes to regain my concentration and focus on matters involving microformats and HTML5. At the end of a day at work, I am used to feeling tired but fulfilled. Since I came to this place the enjoyment of work has gone out of me, replaced by some nameless dread.

Just this afternoon Mr. Paynter asked me my opinion on the twitter exchange between Paul Ford and Anil Dash vis-à-vis scripts and APIs. I didn’t know how to answer him. Clearly he is ignorant of any browser vendor commitments relating to W3C standards. I was in the middle of crafting a style sheet that would add some font beauty and goodness to this execrable hell-hole Mr. Paynter calls his blog, and he interrupts me regarding some social media teapot tempest that has no meaning for him or for me. Then, rather than excuse himself gracefully, he had the temerity to ask if he could bring me some dinner from Swami’s Cafe. I don’t know whether he was joking, pulling my chain as it were, or simply offering to do me a favor. I’m on contract here, my services provided through a contracting firm. I don’t know how to share my disquiet with my agent. I am concerned that any complaint I might make would be bad for my reputation. Perhaps I will discuss it directly with Mr. Paynter when he returns from Encinitas.