Compliments 3

I have a quirky personality, so I hear all sort of random commentary about me. I've written about this a couple of times before (exhibit A and B), but it's been a while, so the comments have added up. As always, these are actual conversations that I have had with people.

• "You'd be an awesome team lead, if you don't get fired"
  Apparently this is how some people react when I suggest we should be allowed to give out dunce hats at work. I figure that in most cases, the actual social shaming would be a worse punishment than a stern talk from a supervisor. Say someone goes out of his way to be lazy. He would be awarded the dunce hat, and the social stigma would encourage him to avoid this behavior. Win-win.
  
  The person with whom I was talking agreed with the idea, but suggested that I was slightly crazy for suggesting it in the first place. Great, thanks.
  
• "You're good at writing. That surprised her because you're an engineer"
  I don't think I'm writing a book any time soon or anything, but I can string a sentence or two together. It's the result of all those years of writing papers and essays, frankly. Apparently, though, all the other engineers got some memo that they could safely ignore those classes. Why am I always the last to know?
  
• "We need someone to document, and you can do that"
  You know why most software developers and technically-minded people hate writing documentation? It's boring. It's super boring. If there was a way to punish someone with work, writing documentation would probably make the list. An old supervisor once asked me to write documentation as an assignment, and he immediately apologized after asking me to do it.
  
  Apparently, though, I am still retarded.
  
• "But ... you're the communal garbage disposal. Um, in the most respectful way possible."
  I was commenting that I have been eating a little bit less lately, and this was the response. It is definitely true that I have been asked to help finish other people's meals on more than one occasion. And all of my friends know this. It is not a stretch to say that there are times when they figure that in the worst case, I can help them finish their meal. Of course, "communal garbage disposal" is probably the funniest, most questionable way to describe this. I had a good hearty laugh after this.
  
• "That girl is super intense. I think you'd be good together ... also in the most respectful way possible."
  Same conversation and same person as the one above. The girl in question is actually a very intense person, and the guy was saying that I am level-headed enough to handle someone like that. It really was meant as a compliment. Of course, he also lumped me in the same category as this girl, which means that he sort of called me crazy. Better than being flat out crazy, I suppose.
  
• "You'd do well in prison"
  I don't even remember what led up to this, but someone decided that being relatively level-headed was a favorable trait for prison. I generally fall into the level-headed category. By the transitive property, this person figured that I would be received favorably in prison. I think this is a good thing. I'm still trying to decide, though.

As I've said before, I prefer compliments, even odd ones, to insults. So, all in all, I think I'm coming out ahead through all of this. Besides, where else are you going to find an intense, dunce-hat dispensing prisoner that can document his adventures?