| AUCKLAND: When
Barry Soper, 24, was assigned to the PricewaterhouseCoopers
IT department by his temping agency last week, he did
not know it would transform his life.
“It's
a nice spot up there overlooking the Viaduct,” Soper
told Spinner exclusively during lunch on day one of his
assignment. “I can see why all these geeks get into
IT. There's the spacious office, the relative silence,
free coffee. And then there's the power thing. People
actually believe I know things about IT. And they actually
believe I'm logging their calls, marking them high priority,
and getting support to them immediately. No wonder these
guys invented their own millennium bug to fool the world.
The sense of power is amazing.” Soper's girlfriend, however, became increasingly alarmed at her partner's behaviour over the ensuing 24 hours. “It's really creepy, actually,” Jacinta Couling, 23, divulged. “He arrived home last night and made a couple of really lame and geeky jokes. When I didn't laugh he claimed his ‘buddies’ would have. Then he locked himself in his study and set about playing SimCity, which he purchased on his way home, until 4am. When he finally came to bed, he announced that his name was now Almighty Xarquon, Defender of Barryopolis.” On day two of Soper's temping position he wore to work leather slip-on shoes, baggy Hallensteins trousers, an unironed short-sleeved business shirt in sky blue and a Simpsons novelty tie. He stopped at Borders and purchased a copy of OnlineDude, which came with a free demo disk of SimLOTR. |
| Man transforms into IT nerd overnight |
Sunday, 01 February 2004 12:00
