With so many people tweeting about having corned beef & cabbage for dinner today, a fried in Ireland asked if that was anything like bacon. She wasn't kidding. I always thought corned beef was authentic Irish. (It's certainly authentic NY Jewish.)
Brad, if you are under contract to a studio, why don't they use you? Seems silly to let a good contract go to waste.
When slacking with other people, another good trick is to be very willing, but… When I was switching careers, 20+ years ago, I temped. At one place they asked me if I would make the coffee. I said "Sure!" If they'd show me how their coffee maker worked. And I had to warn them that I didn't drink coffee and when my friends came to my house they insisted on making their coffee themselves. (This was true -- I didn't drink coffee until about 10 years ago.) For some reason, they decided to make it themselves.