The Lurker behind the blog
Greetings to all you fans of “A Curious Statistical Anomaly”. In addition to the many other bits of fluff that have caught Gayle’s eye, I was lucky enough to attract her attention twenty years ago and convince her that marrying me would be a good idea. I generally lurk behind the scenes, but Gayle has been pointedly hinting that perhaps I should write a few entries myself. As a guy, I can be pretty oblivious to such subtlety, but I guess there are limits that even I have to respect. It’s not that I don’t like posting, it’s just that once I do, it’s the first step towards a tradition. And as a confirmed procrastinator, I live by the motto: “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can put off until next week”. The Canadian Lynx to the left is my avatar. I’ll be using him so that there will be no confusion as to when I write a post and when she does. Although, our styles are sufficiently different that I wouldn’t think telling us apart wouldn’t be that difficult.
So, what do I bring the this blog? What interests me? These are both excellent questions. I’m glad you asked. Like Gayle, I’m interested in a variety of things, but mine are more science and technology related. Gayle likes to tell you what’s on her mind. I tend to rant about things I don’t like. There were a couple of possibilities that I’ve come across: There’s the JPL employees that are being required to sign away their right to privacy. And there’s the new legislation that would make open WIFI providers responsible for the content that flowed over their networks. Both are rant worthy, and I might come back to one soon. But today, I’d just like to tell you a couple of things about my job. I’m a computer programmer by trade, working for a small company that subcontracts to a bigger company that subcontracts to the government. That makes me a pretty small fish in the corporate hierarchy, but it puts me in the position to see some of the insanity that Scott Adams uses to make Dilbert such as success.
We have a cooperative agreement between our agency and another, somewhat related, one and right now we’re having a bit of a hardware issue that’s brought everything we do to a screeching halt. Fortunately for us, the problem is with the other guys, so we’re just twiddling our thumbs waiting for them to fix whatever it is that broke. I got a call today from my counterpart over in the other agency telling us that they were keeping their heads down for a while. It seems someone in my agency called my counterpart’s boss’ boss’ boss to ask what the ETA was for getting the issue resolve. Problem is that apparently nobody had bothered to tell the B’B’Boss about the issue and he was more than a little perturbed to have to hear about it from an outsider. Now everybody in both agencies are trying to maintain low profiles while the bosses have meetings to discuss the matter.
The other day my company boss (to distinguish him from by project boss or my division boss) told us that the company had changed a couple of its corporate policies and that we were to go on-line and read the updates, then sign a form and hand it in to him before he left. I offered to sign it right then because I was going to be busy for a while and didn’t know when I’d get to actually read the updates. He looked at me blankly and tried to explain that I was suppose to sign it after I read the updates. I asked him if we could opt out of the policy changes. He, of course, said “no”. So I asked, if that was the case, what did it actually matter if we ever read them or not. They applied to us just the same. I think it’s situations like that that make him not want to talk to me if he can help it. He (and the rest of management) really think they’re employee friendly. And I have to say that the company’s policies and benefits are still head and shoulders above any of the other companies that have contracts here. But the fact is, the company makes whatever changes it wants, whenever it wants. We, the employees, have the choice of accepting them, or finding a new job. That’s the way it is, and I understand that. I’d just prefer they drop the pretext. It’s like the security at the airport asking if it’s okay to do whatever they want to do. Everyone knows that you’re not allowed to say no. If you want to fly, you have to let them. So why pretend that you have the choice. Why not just say, “Excuse me, but I have to …” I hate being put in situations where I have only the illusion of choice. I prefer honesty any day. Anyway, that’s my first rant.