About Me

Wake Forest, NC, United States
My life has had its normal ups and downs. I cooked professionally for years and was a breakfast, lunch, and a dinner cook. I was a saucier, a sous chef and a chef. I was an actor in a made for TV movie entitled "The Secret Life of John Chapman". For years I pit crewed on an A Production Corvette and traveled to races all over the Northwest. I ran computers at Boeing to test 737 and 747 development. I was responsible for and ran computers at Cape Canaveral for the early Apollo flights and on an atoll in the South Pacific (Kwajalein) for early star wars testing. I've developed and maintained computer applications for years and was part of a team of 9 or so tasked with developing and maintaining the processes used across EDS to manage projects and develop software. I developed and maintain a website for people who are caregivers of people with Parkinson's Disease. For fun I exercise regularly, read, and play with new programming languages. My wife blesses me tremendously. She is truly my Beloved. The progeny are source of pride and wonderment.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

The Corporate Costume

I was guilty of caving in and wearing the attire or costume inflicted on people living in corporate America.

After going to business casual, I had a dark blue, collared, pullover shirt that was a favorite. Unfortunately it developed a small, ¼ inch, hole over the heart. I was wearing it one day when my manager noticed the hole and promptly mandated that I ought NOT to wear shirts with holes, no matter how small.

Now, given the fact that I don’t do orders well, every once in a while I’d forget and wear the shirt. I’d never realize it until I was at work. Having a fairly well-developed ability to consider alternatives, the first time I wore it I thought of my options.

The first was to go home and change. I immediately rejected that as not practical. Therefore I needed an alternative.

It took about a minute to realize that if my manager couldn’t see the hole, it wouldn’t morph into an issue. So I set out to find a dark blue marker, one of those with the thick tips. I proceeded to place a ½ inch dot behind the hole, thus masking it from view.

My manager never noticed the hole so I used the background dotting with that shirt from that point on. It worked well.