He sighed when the beeping started. He shouldn't have really been surprised. He couldn't see how he'd triggered it. Was it a delayed reaction to him walking through the gate, or was there a motion detector of some kind on the path?
He retraced his steps to the gate. Opened, walked through, closed. He pulled out his phone, paused his workout and waited, the stupid beeping continue. Who would believe he was just out for his lunchtime walk and wanted to say "hello" to the chickens? Or that he had done this just last week with his boss? Only things were slightly different, now that he thought about it. There hadn't been a gate. There had been a couple of chickens, but some of the holding pens were still under construction - fencing incomplete, newly poured concrete foundations. 'What have you stepped in this time, bud?' he asked himself.
There was a breeze on the ridge and he wondered just how long he'd have to wait. Finally, he could see some dust and eventually he could see a small cluster of people coming towards him - guys with sunglasses on motorcycles and several women, each with an obscene number of mall store bags on Segways rolled across the dusty dried grass to where he stood, waiting.
She motioned for him to have a seat at her desk and she walked past to stare at the large whiteboard. She sighed and pulled it from the side. It hinged down, covering the worksurface below. He'd only caught a glimpse of the beakers and burners and other things he'd not seen before, having never taken a chemistry class. The outer walls were higher, so the whiteboard formed a lid, hiding it all from view.
She sat down at the desk and turned her attention to him briefly before looking at the stack of papers on her desk and slowly sifting through them. "Now, to talk about who you are and why you're here," she said, leveling a gaze at him. "There are three things I want to know... I don't understand why you're here, what you were looking for. And you're not a runner. I find that puzzling." She seemed distracted. He waited, but there was no more.
He took in a deep breath. "It sounds like you're asking who I am and why I was there. But I'm sorry, what was the third thing?" He figured it was best to just play it straight, but seriously, what was she getting at? He often was a runner, just today he felt like taking a walk instead.
She dropped the papers and stared at him. "Let's start with why you're here, since you so artfully tried to dodge that," she said testily.
And there it was, or so he thought. Had the line been crossed?
"That is a good question," he responded. "Why am I here? I don't even know where here is. You're obviously not part of the security detail, you've not threatened me with trespass. You didn't even check my backpack. To be honest, I find this all extremely sloppy."
She stared at him in disbelief.
"I don't know what you mean by 'not a runner' - I often run at lunch but today I felt like taking a walk. And as stupid as this sounds, I thought I would stop and say 'hi' to the chickens as I walked past. But I'm guessing you must actually be talking about how I didn't run away when the alarm sounded. Why I waited patiently for you guys to show up."
She said nothing, but color began to rise in her neck.
"So I waited, you guys showed up, obviously back from a lunch break at the mall, march me back down the hill to this building with no name on it, bring me in through the side door on one of the guy's keycards, deposit me in this office. I can see your whiteboard with your equations, your table with all that chemistry stuff on it. Frankly, I was expecting to get sweated in some windowless office underground by someone from security. You're obviously not from security. You haven't threatened me with the actual police. This is all a stupid misunderstanding, but I went along because I figured it was the easiest way to get this over and done with. But now, I'm starting to get curious."
She began to stammer as he rose to his feet.
"No, no, it's cool. For all you know, I've got a bomb or some kind of recording device in this backpack. But you didn't bother to check. I'm going to save you the trouble." He hefted the back onto the table and began unloading its contents. An iPad, the latest issue of Fast Company (in print, of course), pens, pencils, a notepad, some post-its, a charger for a Dell laptop (but no laptop), an extension cord, a long ethernet cable, a small wireless router, some gum. By now, the myriad pockets were all unzipped and he forcefully upended the back, showing how light it now was, shook it over the table and nothing but a few packets of Splenda and some crumbs fell out.
He slowly began placing everything back in the back. She sat there silently watching him.
"Futhermore," he said, "here's my ID badge. I work for the small start-up down the street. We write computer software to help people organize their lives. All day long I try to keep the bad guys from gaining access to our systems. Whatever you're doing here," he waved his hand broadly at her office and behind him at the open cubicles a level below them and the natural light from the ceiling made of windows three floors above that central core, "whatever all of this is -- I have no idea. I have no interest. I was just out exercising on my lunch break and I went somewhere I shouldn't have. And now I really, really need to get back to work."
Oddly, she was now smiling. "Please," she motioned, "have a seat." She pressed a button on the phone on her desk as he nervously sank back into his seat. "You're right," she said calmly, "you don't need to know what we do here. But your observations are correct. In terms of security, we lack," she paused for effect, "a certain level of discipline. We have the patrols, the perimeter alarms - we knew about you 10 minutes before you knew we knew - but it's all come together organically, ad hoc, as needed."
And the next thing he knew, those jerks at Park Pharmaceuticals had stolen another one of the employees from the small start-up down the road as he agreed to fill the newly created role of Vice President of Security and Access Controls.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
#trust30: Deep in Your Soul
Deep in Your Soul by Michael McFadden
“I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
What message is yearning inside you? What is something you know deep in your soul? Don’t look for someone else to describe it. You do it. Write it down. Write it as a poem, a sentence or even just a string of words. Just make sure you get it to paper.
(Author: Michael McFadden)
It's been a long day. I wouldn't say a difficult day, though there were bits and pieces that definitely were. But to think right now, the thought that comes to mind is pacing. Is this pace sustainable? For me? For my co-workers? For my family? It seems like things only get busier and busier. Everyone scurrying, scurrying. It's 5:20 and yet I will fill most of the next seven hours before going to sleep. And I'll wonder later about the quality of some of it. This is not a post of unhappiness, not a post of complaint. Just an interesting observation.Some other ones who've posted today:
Fast Company -- July/August 2011
This double issue had a couple of large articles on global philanthropy that naturally appealed to me. But a few other smaller pieces of interest as well. You can find the entire issue online here.Can Matt Damon Bring Clean Water To Africa? - a look at the work and approach Damon and partner Gary White are taking to try to increase world-wide access to clean water
How To Train Your Celebrity: Five Hollywood Charity Myths - bottom line, it's an investment, it's work and it can be beneficial to all parties involved if it's taken seriously.
Ticketmaster: Rocking The Most Hated Brand In America - maybe there's hope afterall
BankSimple: A Bank That Doesn't Suck - I've been following their RSS feed. I guess the fact that this is a radical change in direction from a typical bank explains all the beards. Thankfully, plaid in limited supply.
Trulia's Movity Offers More Than Just Maps - now if Trulia would make it easier to find all those cool things on their website
Redesigning: Cubicles - interesting concepts
TypeCon - interesting infographic
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
#trust30: Legacy
Legacy by Tim Belber
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
One definition of legacy is what someone feels, thinks and says when they hear your name. What are you doing today to build the legacy you want?
(Author: Tim Belber)
The word legacy to me brings to mind the word family. Jim and Shirley Denison led a Homebuilders weekend back when we were at Lake focusing on the topic of legacy. Legacy remains after you're no longer around. Sure, that can exist in an office, staff remembering who you were after you left, but that's incredibly fleeting, subject to revision and often negative -- even if untrue, the last guy out the door often gets the blame for a lot of stuff because once you're an adult "not me" can't get the blame anymore. So family legacy, that's something that endures. Friends of ours are part of a multi-generational close-knit family. Each successive generation has had larger-than-average families and so it just builds exponentially. (Part of our now canceled desire to have three natural children ourselves.) But family is the legacy that lasts. Pridefully, we can try to leave our name on something by buying a new wing for a hospital or donating a park, but eventually, those two, succumb to the bulldozer. No, it's only your name that has the potential to live on in others who receive it themselves at birth and as they come to be adults, decide what that means to them. So in that, my desire is to raise children who surpass me in terms of how they navigate the waters of life - their love of Jesus, their love of their own families, the example they set yet again for generations after them. It is, in a few words, intentional brand-building. One measure of success will be how close the generations stay together. This family I mentioned all lives pretty close to one another, able to gather together regularly, to share in child-rearing (they are their own village, essentially) and be an example and guiding force in each other's life. My wife's family is spread out across the country and while my family is closer together, it's not that close and I was far away for a time. I hope my children help to keep that gap even closer together. Only time will tell.
Review -- Other People's Rejection Letters
This was an interesting book, to say the least. It was also a quick book. I read the entire thing nearly cover to cover in about 90 minutes. I have to admit that in a couple places I skimmed. It's also a sad book, but you might expect that from a book of rejection.
It was interesting to see how gracefully some companies let people down, how others used humor and how some would have just been downright disappointing to receive.
It was also interesting to see common themes - women who entered relationships too soon after a break-up and then realized they needed to slow things down - men who had problems with their mom or dad - people who had been done wrong and were in the process of divorcing.
I mention that it's sad - even though these are rejections, I kind of expected to be slightly more amused. I don't know if that was a bad expectation on my part, or speaks to a sadistic streak on my part. But, no, these were human beings being turned down and there wasn't a lot of humor to that.
Sprinkled throughout are rejection letters to a single artist who then added his own drawings to the rejection letters. I didn't quite understand that was the theme there. And then near the end there's a request for clemency from someone who killed two people followed immediately by a letter of confirmation that the person had been executed. It was interesting from the perspective of being really old, but it was really sad from the perspective of someone asking for their life to be spared after they killed two other people and then seeing not exactly a rejection letter but a confirmation that their request had been rejected. Maybe even moreso because children got left behind with no parents and that's always sad for me.
The final pages of the book give follow-up to some of the previous rejection letters and here, things pick up a little bit, take a happier turn if you will. There's the story of someone who followed-up on a rejection letter and ended up being accepted afterall, the story of someone who was rejected multiple times and went on to prove themselves in the field anyhow, stuff like that.
This is a good book to get from the library because you will read it quickly. Or, if you are the type of person who likes to buy books, this would be a good one to read and then pass on, or to leave at the "take a book, leave a book" section of an independent coffee shop when you're done with it.
Monday, July 11, 2011
#trust30: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
Mirror, Mirror by Esther Poyer
“Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mirror, mirror on the wall… find the nearest mirror. Look. Keep looking for 3 minutes. Write about what you see.
(Author: Esther Poyer)
Looking at myself in the mirror for any length of time was a little bit strange to me. Usually I look through a foggy mirror as I throw some gel in my hair in the mornings or as I wash my hands after a bathroom break, or after I splash water on my face and hair before adding more gel after a midday run. But to look for such a long time confirmed something I suspected but don't like to admit. I'm no longer 22. Heck, I'm not even the youthful guy in the photo with my young children. Thankfully my short haircut and spiky gel look belie the fact, as does blond hair that could hide any potential gray, but I'm feeling old. I think the running and the aches and pains that come with it only serve to reinforce that. But yep, looking in the mirror, I can see the lines in my forehead that seem to be a nearly permanent feature, plus I need to shave. On this particular night, I also wore a baseball cap, pushing the spiky hair backwards into a jumbled mess of a wall. But I'm also struck by how I don't see bags under my eyes and my eyes are still seeming to sparkle. I resisted the urge to make faces at myself and kept my mouth firmly closed. I am not sure if I was supposed to generate any great revelation from this, except to say that I'm not a bright-faced young naive idealist anymore. Hopefully I can still be young-at-heart, or at least remain an idealist. Because reality isn't good enough - there's more potential out there'd yet untapped and undiscovered. Both in myself and in the people around me. Especially at work. I feel guilty that work is always so much on my mind. But it is.
The Sift 176-180
The Sift 176: Dropbox- The Cheapskate's Guide to Getting Free Dropbox Space
- BoxyTunes Turns Dropbox into a Cloud Music Player for iPhone and iPad
- How To Add a Second Layer of Encryption to Dropbox
- mPPP Is a Web-Based MP3 Search Engine That Slurps Music Straight to Dropbox
- Don't have dropbox yet? Get it here.
The Sift 177: Energy, Environment and Science
- Cellphones Could Be Killing Bees
- MU Develop Solar “Nantennas” that Can Capture 95 Percent of Solar Energy
- Washington State To Be Coal-Free By 2025
- Purdue University Students Turn Ordinary Saltwater into Hydrogen Power and Drinking Water
- Detroit DIYer cooks up stronger, lighter steel, shames scientists
The Sift 178: Food, Health, Exercise and Medicine
- The Eating Habits of Conservatives Versus Liberals [INFOGRAPHIC]
- Student Developing New Electric Paper That Could Tell You When Your Milk is Rotten
- It’s Not OK to Eat that: Mold Goes Deeper than the Surface
- Announcing RunKeeper Meetup Running Groups
- The mystery of chronic pain
The Sift 179: Microsoft
- What Microsoft Should Do
- Kinect enabled head-tracking previewed in Forza 4 spotlight video, turns heads
- Researchers hack Kinect for glasses-free 3D teleconferencing
- First Look at Windows 8’s New Interface for Tablets and PCs
- Microsoft releases Android developer poaching package for Windows Phone 7
The Sift 180: Social Media
- Google +1 Button for Websites
- 6 Reasons Why You Should Never Outsource Social Media
- Search + Photos
- Why You Can’t Say “Twitter” Or “Facebook” On French TV
- Wondering where to go this afternoon? Why not plan a foursquare badge crawl
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)