Traffic, pt. 2

"Where quality building still exist"

Man Magnet

Over the summer, I had the misfortune of having to replace my car battery. I don't do anything related to cars... I can barely change my own oil. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't the original battery, which had rusted in place. And what should have been original screws already seemed stripped and worn down. So getting the damn thing out proved difficult.

As I struggled with removing the battery, a neighbor happened to come home. He approached and inquired about what I was doing. Seeing the situation, he hung around and eventually offered to find a better wrench for me in his toolbox. Pretty soon, a second neighbor showed up and offered his mechanical expertise. In the end, the bigger wrench did help me get the thing loose. But it was interesting how the mere act of popping my hood attracted men from across the apartment complex. Women and gay men, take note.

I've noticed a similar effect whenever I set up audio equipment or video gear at a concert or other sort of show/event. Men of all ages will wander over and tell me about their time behind an audio console, or that one time they blah blah. Cracking open a guitar case has the same effect. I guess it annoys me because everyone thinks they're an expert, or expect me to be one. Sorry, I don't know what kind of lens is in this camera, or how many ohms of impedence are in the house PA. And that's great that you can play the solo from "Even Flow." But anyway, thanks for the wrench.

Semantics

So, my lifepartner and I have had ongoing battle for 8+ years over seasoning my food.  I like to season my food pretty well - especially with pepper.  I like heavy pepper on most side dishes and entrees, and I always oversalt the potatoes.  Apparently her brother does this, too, and it drives her crazy.  Her point being that I shouldn't season until after I taste the food first.  (1) How do I know it needs more seasoning? and (2) it's insulting to the cook.

I finally won the argument last night.  She made mashed potatoes from scratch (a specialty).  I added pepper.  She asked, "What, they're not good enough?  You really have to add that pepper to fix them?"

My reply: "They're so good, they deserve pepper."

Help Desk

Me: "Hi, I can't log onto either wireless network in building B.  Is it working?"

Help Desk Dude: “Well, it cuts in and out, sir”

Me: “Is it being worked on?”

Dude: “It works a lot of the time, sir”

Me: *sigh* "It hasn't worked for me in building A for two weeks, so I came to building B to work on a project."

Dude: “Sorry, I can’t hear you, sir.  It’s really noisy here at the help desk.”

Me: "Okay, bye."

Gone Native

I mentioned in earlier post that there are two new staffers here in my division's little corner.  The refreshing, but embarrassing, thing about having new people around is that they aren't yet acclimated to some of the idiosyncrasies, lazy shortcuts, and just plain stupid practices that every work place has.  When the new guy/gal asks you "why do you do things that way?" and you don't have a good answer, or you find yourself struggling to explain why you "gave up" on a certain initiative, you remember that you came in the same way, with a more clearheaded and idealistic view of how things should be done.  But even after a short time at an organization, it seems that you have to compromise if you want to actually get things done.  I've become assimilated!  Hopefully I still push a little for progress and remain a thorn in the side of those who do things "the way it's always been done."  But the fact remains that I've given in to the norm in a lot of areas, some petty but others probably more important that I now realize.  So after a less than two years, have I gone native?  Is resistance futile?  Am I regressing?  Hell, look at Obama!  Even he, the great savior of post-Bush politics, is rapidly compromising and being assimilated into the Washington status quo.  It's useless!  Compromise is certain.

Thankfully we have an infusion of fresh perspective here on this floor at work... let's see how long it takes before they go native, too.

Development

When asked what I do at my place of employment, I often just say "development."  My mission is take a small time, rag tag, shoe string department and make it a valued contributor, rather than an embarassment, to a small time, rag tag, shoe string organization.  Every day is frustrating, and people's attitudes and motivations (see prior posts) in this part of the country are generally piss-poor.

But every so often, I get a fuzzy little feeling in my optimistic heart, as we take a baby step forward and make some tangible, hopefully permanent, progress.  Today was one of those days.  A related department that I work for part time recently filled a vacancy that had been empty for 18 months.  The guy is really cool, a hard worker, and serious about what he does.  We were all worried about fitting a new person into our workplace dynamic after so long, but he's a great fit and exactly what we needed (in terms of disposition and skill set).  Additionally, today, we had the arrival of a visiting researcher.  So our little corner of our building is buzzing with the coffee-soaked smell of hard work.

I'm also starting to see signs of improved ethic with the students who work and learn in our departments.  The computer lab seems more busy, and we can't keep some items in stock due to demand.  Don't get me wrong - I still had to send written warnings to a dozen volunteers for not showing up last week, so-and-so's grandmother died for the 5th time this year, and so-called "leaders" and "good students" are still floundering over senioritis, file formats, and group projects.  But the tone is improving, and I think it has a network effect.  Activity begets activity, and someday this place will hum like the fine-tuned machine it can be.

Plus, it feels good that I'm finally catching up on some projects that have been plaguing me for months.  I've still got a 3 page to do list, but I was able to delete some items off of it that have been on there way too long.

I'm enjoying the upward swing.  Let's see it through to vacation next month...  That would be development!

"Mein President! I Can Walk!"

(Inspired by the Daily Show 01.20.09)

Chicken

Motorists and pedestrians in this part of the rural South discovered something very useful to them (and maddening for me) some time ago: If you pull out in front of or step out in front of a speeding car, it has pretty much no choice but to slow down or stop for you.  

It's a great way of cutting in front of someone or saving time getting from point A to point B, even if it makes you look like a complete idiot or total jackass.  The trick is to not cut in front of someone who's so close they won't have time to stop; but cutting in front of those oncomers who do have the time to slow down (again, the maddening thing here is that the right-of-way vehicle is forced to slow down)  is a pretty safe bet.  Of course I wonder how many accidents this has caused when the oncoming driver wasn't paying attention.  

In any event, when I drive here in this town, I constantly have emboldened drivers and jaywalkers crossing, cutting, and turning in front of me, forcing me to slow down when I have the right of way.  What am I going to do?  Run them down?