4.01.2007

I Was Not Prepared

I've had a bit of a crazy week, but in a good way. Today marked the first day in three days that I've spent any amount of time at home doing more than just sleeping. Wednesday was the Killswitch Engage show, Thursday I worked late, and Friday...

Well Friday is what this post is all about.

It all started around 5pm, when the staff at my company held a company milestone party. Beer, hors d'oeuvres, pizza, more beer, and tequila, all paid for by the company. We made merry until around 8:30pm, when the party relocated to another staff member's house. But I had other plans....

A little while back I purchased what is possibly the coolest and most ridiculous article of clothing I will ever own in my lifetime. Said clothing article is a very special t-shirt. This T-shirt, to be exact, aptly named the T-Qualizer.



I've had the shirt for about a month and been anxiously awaiting the right opportunity to wear it. Last night I finally got a chance to take it for a test-drive at the Buffalo Club, where Flood of Fire were playing a show.

Wearing an item like this out can be referred to as "peacocking", a term anybody who's read Neil Strauss' book "The Game" will recognize. It basically refers to wearing something attention grabbing in a public place with the sole purpose of being noticed.

Trust me. A guy wearing a t-shirt that blinks is pretty damn hard to miss. I knew the shirt would be a ton of fun and that friends would get a kick out of it. But I think I underestimated the amount of attention I would receive. But I guess it's hard to be subtle when your chest is lit up like a Las Vegas billboard.

During the course of the evening I must have been asked about the shirt roughly 50 times. This is no exaggeration. People wanted to stare at it, yell into the mic, find out where the batteries went, ask if it actually responded to sound (the answer is yes), ask find out where I got it, and even touch it. Later in the evening, the house band (after Flood of Fire's set) even asked me up on stage briefly to point out my totally awesome shirt to all the other bar patrons. (Pshhh.. As if they hadn't noticed it already.) Immediately after, two guys on the dance floor insisted on taking a picture with me, and followed that by offering me a discount at Best Buy, which is apparently where they work. (I have no intention of cashing in on that offer, but I found it amusing.)

At one point I actually had a group of girls beckoning to me to join them on the dance floor. It was as if the shirt screamed "I can do the robot like nobody's business!" I can't actually do the robot, but I suppose I have "some moves", if you can call them that. In any case, I passed them up since I was in the middle of a conversation with a friend. Sorry girls, maybe next time.

I'll admit, I'm usually a wall-fly at the bar. (No, not a barfly, since that implies spending all your time at, or next to, the bar itself). And towards the end of the night I was getting tired of answering the same questions over and over. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't like the attention.

Overall, the response to my shirt was excellent. I'll definitely be wearing this thing out again. But next time I think I'll work on my conversation skills a bit. Otherwise it will only be a matter of time before somebody figures out that the shirt is actually way cooler than me.

Fear me, for I am Nerdotron, and you will be T-qualized!

3 comments:

Jess said...

My friend Ashley and I have this theory that the ultimate act of peacocking involves dressing like a peacock.

It it likely that this theory will be put into action at some point.

KrisB said...

Well, that leaves me and my best friend out of your world...
Way to go Andrew, I might look at getting one myself and seeing what kind of responce a 27 yr old that's losing his hair would get... ;) I'm a collector of T's and that would look awesome in my collection....

Sarah said...

Why does everyone think that it's such a horrible book and it will taint you if you read it? Read it!