Penguins galore!

When I was working at the Council on Competitiveness two years ago, we produced a little 8-minute film explaining how high performance computing affects everyday life. [Most of you know this, because I have forced you to watch it at least once!] DreamWorks Animation was on our Advisory Committee, and they very kindly offered to help us put the video together -- and we got to use the "Psychotic Penguins" from Madagascar in the film.

March of the Penguins came out around the same time, and then Happy Feet. So these little tuxedo-clad waddlers are everywhere! My mother decided that as long as I was going to be associated with this HPC video, I should start a collection of penguins. I'll admit, I didn't fight her very hard on this, because a) penguins are cute, b) I work in an industry where the penguin symbol is well-known, and c) she's not really serious. Right?

I momentarily forgot that I come from a family of collectors, and no matter how hard I fight the pack-rat gene, I myself have, in addition to my flasher button collection, a small collection of Muppets items and a growing collection of Wonder Woman items. (Just ask my aunt what happened when my father decided she needed to add to her collection of ceramic and stuffed pigs!) I'm very picky about which Wonder Woman things I will buy, however; I much prefer the Lynda Carter and "vintage" WW stuff to the new cartoon version. I did have to get myself the little Lego WW figure - she sits on my monitor at work and watches over me.


But back to the penguins. Over the course of the past 18 months, I have been given (or purchased) a few penguin things, from the two beautiful jewelry pins (that I really should wear more often) to the stuffed penguins, the plastic ones, even the little hopping one. Most of these are on display in a corner of my office. But today, my father surprised me with a Valentine's gift (and a birthday gift that I am dutifully going to save for two weeks) that dwarfs them all. Literally. I opened the box to find a giant DreamWorks penguin! He's the one called "Private" -- he's about 2 feet high! (On the left in this image.) I don't think he'll be staying with his brethren at my office, however; that's not the professional image I'm trying to convey.
But thanks, Dad! and the rest of you -- please don't get any ideas!

Comments

Anonymous said…
It must be a shout out to the English major nerd in me that my first thought was of Penguin Books, rather than anything computer geeky.
11:37 AM
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