“We do more before 9AM than most people do all day”
– US Army slogan
F Lee Ermy died yesterday. You might not recognize his name. I did, but a lot of the news coverage seemed to think his name was relatively unknown. You might remember him as Gunny in Full Metal Jacket. Ermy was a Marine Corps drill instructor who then took up a second career in movies.
Sember Fi, Gunny.
I was never in the service. The closest I got was a semester playing Army in the BYU ROTC program. Dan Fogelberg wrote a song called “Leader of the Band.” One of the lines says,
He tried to be a soldier once, but his music wouldn’t wait.
In my case it was a career in IT that couldn’t wait. I had to decide whether to stay in the ROTC and pursue a military career, or take a job at a little computer company called WordPerfect. I took the computer gig. It’s been a good gig. But, I often think back on what might have been. My daughter is a soldier and I couldn’t be prouder.
I remember the Army recruiting ads when I was a kid. One that struck with me was the one I quoted above, “We do more before 9AM than most people do all day.” I’m not sure exactly how that is an attraction, but I still remember it years later, so obviously it worked.
Today was one of those days that saying came to mind. The first call was at 4:30AM. It was from my client. They had a report of an outage at one of my call centers. My only 24×7 center.
4:37AM I called the center and left a message for someone to call back.
4:43AM I got a call back from the center to say they were not seeing any issues, but they would check on the outage
4:52AM I called the client back to let them know we were not seeing any additional issues
5:08AM The center called me and left a message
5:14AM The center called again to confirm no outage
5:46AM My Incident Management Team called and left a message
5:53AM My Incident Management Team called back to check on whether we had an outage
Ninety minutes and 7 phone calls all before 6:00AM. . .and there wasn’t even an outage. Well, there had been earlier in the night, but it was cleared up by the time I got involved.
As I thought about the Army slogan, I realize I had misremembered it. I thought it was “We do more before six AM than most people do all day.”
Not today, soldier boys.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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Theater 1
It’s the story of a lost girl. She’s not physically lost, of course. But, emotionally she’s swept up in a world she doesn’t understand. And not understanding means she’s ill-equipped to handle it. Her friends watch helplessly as she struggles to solve the mystery of her existance and find her true purpose.
Theater 2
It’s a coming of age story. A young man chafes at the rules as he struggles to start his life. Finally breaking away he discovers the world is not quite what he thought it was. A highly intelligent, if somewhat niave young man, he nevertheless quickly gains his footing, only to find he struggles to embrace the world around him and find joy. Finally, he feels he’s found the secret to unlock his mind and truly set himself free.
Theater 3
A young woman faces the world that she unprepared for. A natural born survivor, she recognizes the importance of a social group. But, like a fire that often burns too hot, she ends up consuming her relationships. The bridges are burning as the fire grows hotter. Desperately she struggles to form new friendships, new bridges before the old ones are gone forever.
Theater 4
A nature film. A young lionness is cut off from her pride. She struggles to care for and protect her cubs while also being able to provide them with enough to eat. She desperately tries to identify who is friend and who is foe.
Theater 5
A cartoon feature. A hapless office worker spends his weekends struggling to keep his mismatched fleet of jalopies running. Like Sisyphus and his neverending task of pushing a boulder up a hill only to see it roll back down, each repair is the starting poitn for the next breakdown. Still, he does it with a smile and doesn’t seem aware of the futile nature of his task.
Theater 6
A story of always travelling and never arriving. The main character finds himself constantly forced to take passage on a train that he knows all too well. He fears it, he despises it. Each time he endures a harrowing ride and finally exits only to find he’s back at his point of origin. He looks at the gold lettering above the baggage car. It says “ETW – The Emotional Train Wreck Express.”
I saw “A Quite Place” today. It was scary. It was good. It was scary-good. You should go see it.
It was certainly better than these other pictures. (If this post didn’t make any sense, I take full responsibility and promise to return to more lucid posts next week.)
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2018 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Technically it happened on March 20th. At 10:15 AM here in the Mountain Time Zone. But here in the Rockies Spring doesn’t always pay attention to the calendar.
But, we are finally into the real heart of Spring. I’ll admit that Spring isn’t my favorite time of year. That would be Fall, when the leaves are turning, we have college football, gardens are giving the last of their bounty, and the mountains are gettting their first dustings of snow.
Fall is a time of slowing down. Spring is a time for new beginnings. The leaves are just starting to bud out, we have baseball, gardens are waiting for the rototiller and the mountains are clinging to their blankets of snow. (Not as thick blankets as we would like, but at least lathe previous year was a good water year.)
I’ve looked around my yard this Spring and every corner of it seems to scream “My turn, my turn, work on me next!” I finally decided the lawn wasn’t going to get aerated this year. I put down the first fertilizer. This one is supposed to stop crabgrass. Last fall, we were battling it like an organic rash. Hopefully we’ll get out front early this year.
My trees all seemed to survive the winter intact. We planted ten maples on our lot four years ago. Planting trees is the ultimate “pay it forward” activity. When we were putting our trees in, my 14 year old son asked, “Dad, will I be able to climb on these trees?” I replied, “Well, your kids will be able to one day.” He turned back to the hole he was digging, “I hate delayed gratification.”
The nine remaining trees are now between nine and twenty feet tall. But, like my now 18 year old son, they are tall but have yet to fill out. (The tenth tree didn’t die. It turned out to be an Elm, not a Maple. I’m not growing Elms in my yard.)
Last year we built a terraced set of walls on the South side of our property. It’s a fairly steep hillside and we had previously tried to grow vegetables on it. The cantalopes rolled down the hill.
So, we got some donated dirt, and several tons of rock that a nearby construction project dug up and didn’t need, and with some help from the young men from church, we now we have three terraced walls. I dumped grass seed and fertilizer and spread peat moss over it. More commitments to the future.
We still have a garden. It’s above the terraced walls. We do a garden every year. Typically we spend about $100 buying starters, seeds, fertilizer, and tools. We probably get about $25 worth of vegetables. But, it’s about growing stuff, not saving money. And those $5 tomatoes are extra tasty.
My biggest accomplishment is what isn’t growning this year. Every year that we’ve been in our house, springtime has seen an explosion of dandelions. It’s because before we bought our house, the yard was pretty much left to its own growth patterns. My neighborhood has some very well cared for lawns. I always felt a little bad contributing dandelion seeds to the neighborhood flora.
But, I also knew that I was getting a pass. My neighbords remembered what my lot looked like before we moved in. Anything I did was an improvement. We’ve now been here about 6 years. It’s a good thing that we’ve finally conquered the worst of the weeds. I think I was finally coming to the end of my grace period.
But, everywhere you look around our fair city, Spring is breaking out. Living in a desert, it’s easy to forget that desert doesn’t mean sand dunes and cactus.
Majestic Mount Timpanogos will wear her snowy cape well into the summer, but here in the valley, Spring has definitely come to the Rockies.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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If you don’t have the time to do it right the first time when will you have time to do it over?
The next day, of course
I think I’m ready to talk about it. (Yesterday I stated: I Don’t Want To Talk About It)
Yes, I spent most of the yesterday working on my car replacing the water pump. (WordPress is having an issue uploading pictures, or I’d show you the installed pump.) Of course, I could also show you the puddle, like some puppy not yet housebroken, that the car left on my driveway.
Yep, after working on the water pump most of the day, I did it wrong!Coolant poured out of my car like a fountain. There was no way that I was going to be able to drive more than a couple of miles before the engine would be dry and hot.
So, today was another car day. But, today wasn’t like yesterday. In fact, I didn’t even start work on the car until 6:00pm. It gets dark around 7:30. I had plenty of time.
Yesterday was all about learning. Today was about executing. Do you know the steps to replace a water pump in a 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix with a six cylinder engine?
I do.
- Remove the coolant reservoir
- Loosen the bolts on the Water Pump pulley (important to do before you remove the serpentine belt, or you’ll never get the leverage to loosen them.
- Remove the serpentine belt. (Press the tensioner pulley <i>toward</i> the car to release tension
- Unbolt the power steering pump to expose the “hidden” water pump bolt
- Remove the water pump pulley
- Remove the 8 bolts that secure the water pump. Four of them are 13mm, the other four are 3/8″ (why they are the only standard sized bolts on the car, I never did learn)
- Pull off the water pump
Assembly is just the same in reverse
- Put plenty of gasket sealer on the gasket. (That’s not enough, probably should add some more. . .)
- Put the water pump back on the engine
- Secure the water pump using four 13mm bolts and four 3/8″ bolts (why they are the only standard. . .SNAP
That was not part of the process. I broke a bolt. It was a little one. And it was the last one I was putting on. I think yesterday’s problem was that I didn’t tighten the bolts enough. And I really didn’t want that to happen again. Well, little danger of that.
Before I get to the implications of breaking a freaking bolt! I want to talk about the idea of doing it twice because you didn’t do it right the first time. Don’t get me wrong, I really wish it had worked yesterday. I have stuff to do. But, I look at it like an athlete. The more baskets you attempt, the more you are going to miss. The more you miss the more you are going to learn about how not to miss a basket. Even once it goes in, you don’t stop. You keep practicing. . .the right way.
Today was practice. I’ve been putting off this water pump repair for over a month. I didn’t really know how to do it. And then yesterday I learned. Today, I wasn’t even phased by it. A couple of hours and I’m done.
Now, let’s talk about the broken bolt.
There’s a chance it won’t be an issue. I put A LOT of gasket sealer on that pump. And unlike yesterday, I’m letting it set overnight to cure a little before I test it. There’s a pretty good chance it will be just fine. Still, it has eight bolts because the designers thought it needed more than 7. If it leaks tomorrow, It will be pretty simple to fix. I pull the water pump and the broken portion of the bolt will be sticking out about 1/4″ from the engine block. A set of vice grips and a few turns and we will be right back to the “ready to install” step.
And having been through the installation process twice in two days, I’m not at all intimidated by the prospect of doing it again.
In fact, I was so confident today that I didn’t need my neighbor or my cousin who couldn’t come anyway because today’s his anniversary.
Happy anniversary Rory and Nick.
Tomorrow will be the test. Did I finally get it right, or will the third time (hopefully) be the charm?
Either way, if I didn’t do it right, I’ve learned enough to have the time to do it over.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2018 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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This week I’m talking about friends. . and cars. (An Unpleasant Visit From An Old Friend.) Today, I had experiences with both friends and cars. The first was awesome. The second I don’t want to talk about.
My cousin came to help me with my car. And my neighbor came over to help me with my car. And it.was.awesome. Especially after yesterday’s thoughts on fake friends and car repairs it was wonderful to have two men that really owed me nothing take part of their day to come help me rip my engine apart.
Okay, it’s a water pump and the water pump on the 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix is pretty accessible. You pull off the radiator overflow resevoir and it’s right there.
Easy peasy.
Just one little problem. That last bolt on the water pump. Well, there was the moment when I realized that all the bolts in my car are metric. Except the small bolts on the water pump felt really loose with a 10mm socket. That’s a fairly small socket and with any bolt that goes into the engine block, you want to be very careful. Breaking a bolt, or stripping the head means you are in for a lot of extra work in a really awkward space trying to get them out.
What was crazy? A 3/8″ socket fit perfectly. Almost all modern cars are totally metric. In fact, it was for this car that I got my first “half-size” metric socket. Doing some work last summer I needed a 5.5mm socket. But, this one was standard. Actually there were four of these bolts and they all took a 3/8″ socket.
But, that last bolt was a pain. I tried reaching it with an open end 13mm wrench. I slipped and rounded one of the corners. Nope that’s not going to work. It was stuck behind the pulley wheel for the power steering pump.
I got a pulley puller. But, the pulley puller is about 4″ long and there’s only about 2″ between the pully and the frame. (That’s the reinforced steel frame that holds the car rigid. You are NOT getting that to move.) No luck on the pulley puller. I finally fell back on my IT training. I went and looked it up on Google. I found a wonderful 45 min video on how to replace the water pump on a 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix.
I watched this professional mechanic go through my exact actions and thoughts.
This shouldn’t be too bad.
Weird, these bolts are 3/8″ instead of 10mm.
Oh, not as easy as I thought. . .That power steering pulley is going to be a problem.
Turns out you have to remove the bolts holding the power steering pump in place. Oh, and the bolts are accessed through holes in the pulley. And, no, there is physically no way to see them. You have to do everything by feel.
My cousin was here for the whole repair. That was good because we had to go to the parts store because the water pump had a nick in it. And we needed engine mounts. And a replacement lightbulb, and my car was. . .currently unavailable.
We got it disassembled, cleaned and started putting it back together. In addition we replaced the thermostat, repaired a flakey turn signal, topped off the power steering fluid, changed the oil and replaced a headlight.
I was particularly nervous about physically putting the water pump on the engine. It requires a gasket and gasket sealer and if you do it wrong, you won’t know until you’ve got it all the way back together, take a test drive and check for leaks.
We finally got it all back together. Including a frustrating 10 minutes trying to “feel” where the power steering bolts attached to the engine block. I even put the serpentine belt back on correctly the first time. (That’s not happened before. I normally have to go to the drawings.)
And then it was time for my cousin to head home to work on a famiy issue. I was struck by the generosity of my cousin and my neighbor. The generosity of my friends. I appreciated that, especially today.
I did the test drive on my own. With the new engine mounts and the power steering squeal eliminated and the oil replaced, the engine sounded so quite I wasn’t even sure it was running at times. I drove back to the auto parts store and recycled a couple of gallons of used oil and the old filter.
When I got home I pulled into the driveway and checked to see if there were leaks under the car.
Let’s just say, I don’t want to talk about it. I know what I’m doing tomorrow.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2018 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I worked on my car today. It’s a 2006 Grand Prix. The water pump has been leaking like a sieve for about a month. I’ve just kept filling it up everyday. A trip to work (45 minutes of freeway driving) was enough to cause it to start getting too hot.
I knew it was the water pump. I really wanted it to be something else, but no amount of wishful thinking would change reality. Actually a water pump isn’t that tough to replace. And I’ve already purchased it. I bought it about a month ago when my car started leaking like a sieve.
A water pump doesn’t pump water, of course. You can add water to your coolant, but if you do, only add distilled water. Tap water has materials in it that aren’t good for your engine.
Anyway, I’ve been putting off doing the repair. At first I was blaming the weather. But, Spring has sprung in Utah. That excuse is mostly gone. Finally, I had to admit that I just didn’t want to tackle it on my own.
I have two “car guys” that I enjoy working with. One is my cousin. The other is my neighbor. I kind of half heartedly reached out to them over the past week. I want their help, but I don’t want to impose.
Today, I decided I was starting whether anyone helped or not. You know what happened? My cousin apologized that he coudln’t help. He had a family crisis that needed his attention. My neighbor? He was way too busy. And then he came over, offered advice, asked questions and told me to call him if I got stuck.
That’s what friends do. If they were too busy, they say so.
I heard from Luther again today. (The Wrong Way To End A Friendship.) If you didn’t read my earlier post, Luther ghosted on me after a friendship that had lasted for five years. It was. . .weird. I was disappointed. I searched my previous actions to try to find a reason and ultimately, I decided it wasn’t me, it was him. I grieved a little and then I moved on.
But, remember when I needed Luther’s help with my daughter? He’s a community activist for the homeless. My daughter is homeless. Today was a hard day for her. She’s in a shelter. She’s feeling pretty discouraged about being able to make progress on achieving her goals. She and I and Luther have actively worked on her issues in the past.
Today she texted me, my lovely wife and Luther expressing her frustration and discouragement. I did what dad’s do. I offered her encouragement. I explained that it’s a journey. That’s it’s important to keep trying. She texted back her gratitude for the continued support.
And then Luther texted the group:
Do not contact me again for any reason
And I was emotionally right back to where I was a week ago when I figured out that Luther and I were no longer friends. But, this time I had a hurting young adult.
I removed Luther from the text conversation and explained to my confused daughter that it wasn’t her, it was him. But, I realized how thoroughly I had misunderstood Luther. If he thought I’d stepped over a line and ruined our friendship, I figured okay. But, my daughter is exactly the kind of person that he and the organization he founded are supposed to be helping.
And then I thought about my car and my friends. Your friends are the people who are willing to make sacrifices for you. And in turn expect that you are willing to make sacrifices for them.
And when friends are too busy, in other words, if you are asking too much, friends speak up. They look for alternatives, or they just say, “I can’t help this time but good luck.”
I’ll take those friends any day over someone, no matter how well connected, who le’s you mistake aquaintance for friendship.
I left off the previous post with an open invitation to Luther and his wife Lacey to reconnect if they ever want to rekindle our friendship. Today, I realized that not only is that never going to happen (because in his view there was no frienship to attach a “re-” to) but even if there was, I’m no longer interested.
I can forgive thoughtless toward me, but when you go out of your way to insult a young woman looking to you for the help you’ve offered in the past?
As Nemo’s dad Marlin said in “Finding Nemo,”
Good feeling’s gone
Friends are precious. Treasure yours, but make sure they value you as much as you do them.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2018 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I’m going to quit using facebook. The lack of privacy is too much. I’m going to switch to Google.
That wasn’t said by me. That was one of my facebook friend’s reaction to the recent revelations about Facebook’s “data breaches.” Except they weren’t data breaches. Not really. They are pretty much what’s allowed in their User License Agreement.
About once per year we get treated to a Facebook fad where people post personal “disclaimers” denying Facebook the ability to use any of their pictures or posts. It’s a waste of time, of course. People don’t understand that the decision on that has already been made. It wasn’t made by Facebook, it was made by us. You, me, my friend wanting to bail.
Facebook is not the public square. It’s also not your house. It’s Mark Zuckerberg’s house. And just as if you went to a party at his place, you wouldn’t be able to say,
Mark, you are not allowed to tell anyone I was here. All of the conversations I have here are considered privileged. And any pictures I take in here are also strictly mine.
Zuckerberg would probably tell you, “Hey, enjoy the party. Free drinks. Free food. Stay as long as you like. Invite as many friends as you want.”
Because, that’s what he did. But, it’s still his house. Like the Miranda rights, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say, can and will. . be used by Facebook for marketing purposes.”
But, don’t think too poorly of Zuckerberg. He’s hosting this really awesome online party and you’re invited. All your friends are there. It’s free. As in free. But, who pays for that? Well, the advertisers. The servers that Facebook uses aren’t free. The programmers at Facebook get paid. Where’s the money come from?
If a company doesn’t sell a product, the product is YOU
There’s a line in the wonderful baseball movie “A League Of Their Own” where the league attorney explains that the owners are thinking of shutting down the league. The players are horrified, of course and insist, “They can’t shut US down!”
Of course they could. They players are the product. The product doesn’t tell the manufacturer what to do. When you signed up for Facebook, you agreed to let them use your data. You can go and check on what data Facebook actually has about you. It’s pretty impressive, or horrifying.
Personally, I haven’t done it. I’ve been involved with online communities for a long time. I was at Microsoft when the interent took off. I’ve was part of CompuServe. I used to log into bulliten board systems. I’ve always assumed that whatever I type online is visible to everyone and will exist forever.
It’s partly why you won’t find my birthday on my Facebook page. Oh sure, Facebook itself knows what it is, you have to enter that to set up an account. But, I’m not sharing it any wider than I need to.
The internet used to be anonymous. Not anymore. Social media, like the Pleasure Island that Pinocchio travels to where the boys get turned into donkeys, has seduced us into trading our anonymity for access to the online goodies in Zuckerberg’s house.
But, for my friend who has decided he’s had enough and he’s going to Google instead? Yeah, he might want to read that User License Agreement before he clicks OK.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2018 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I’m conflicted. It’s probably no surprise to any of my readers that I’m a middle aged, conservative white guy. (You can see everything but the “conservative” part in the picture with my byline.)
I’m not the target audience for the Black Lives Matter organization. I’m not black, of course. But, the organization is also typically considered liberal. So, how did I find myself not only attending a BLM meeting last month, but actually requesting to associate with their organization? I’ll tell you, it’s like going to church. But, not to your own church. It’s like attending someone else’s church.
First let me dispel a few misconceptions. These are misconceptions I had before I attended a meeting. You might have them too. I attended the Ogden,UT chapter for BLM. First surprise was that the group isn’t exclusively black. Let’s face it, black people are not particularly numerous in Utah. In fact, just 1.1% of our population is African American according to a survey conducted by the Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah. Ogden has one of the highest percentages in the state at 1.7%. By comparison, Ogden is 65% white. Hispanic is the second largest demographic at 29%.
Here in my town of Pleasant Grove we have an 88% white population. Eight percent are Hispanic. Just 0.5% of Pleasant Grove residents are black.
I didn’t know what to expect when I attended. The meeting was held in the basement of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ogden. I found it telling that an advocacy group for minorities in Utah was meeting in a church that was in a way, also a minority. It’s obviously not part of the dominate LDS religion.
The meeting was very educational for me. There were no political speeches. There was really no politics at all. The meeting I attended focused on establishing annual planning committees, discussion of a protest in support of a black teenager who’d been unfairly targeted at his school and creating a couple hundred comfort bags to distribute to the homeless. It was a meeting that made me feel good about my fellow Utahans. It made me proud that I had the opportunity to go and help do some good work for those less fortunate.
In fact, it made me feel so good, I decided to become more associated with the Black Lives Matter organization by requesting membership on their private facebook page.
I can hear some of you now. You are seriously questioning my judgement. You saw a news report of someone with a Black Lives Matter shirt on who was saying something that you didn’t agree with. Or, you cannot understand why I would disrespect police officers (Blue Lives Matter) or even other white people (All Lives Matter.) I’m not going to change your mind. But, I will tell you how I, a conservative white guy, can associate with an organization that is not conservative and is not aimed at white guys.
It’s like going to someone else’s church. Imagine you are a Mormon, living in Utah. (Well, or any other religion, living literally anywhere else. But, Mormon works for me, soI”m going with it.) I want you to imagine you go on vacation to Louisville, Kentucky. Now, there are LDS chapels in Louisville. I have attended a couple of them during business travel. They are not that different than chapels, wards and people here in a Utah community. But, suppose while in Louisville, you meet up with a friend from college. His choir is performing at his Southern Baptist church on Sunday and he invites you to attend.
Of course, you accept. He’s your friend and you want to be supportive.
I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a Baptist church, but it should be no surprise that they have a different theology than the Mormons. My birth father is a pastor in the Baptist church. Trust me, they are very different in several fundamental beliefs.
What are you going to do? Are you going to sit in a Baptist Sunday school class and explain the Mormon theology? Are you going to correct the pastor when he preaches doctrine that is contrary to your beliefs?
I hope not. It would be terribly rude. I’m guessing you will go and you will enjoy supporting your friend. You will politely listen to the sermon and the Sunday School lesson and if you speak at all, it will be to comment on a point with which you agree. But, mostly, you’ll probably sit quietly and try to be a gracious guest.
That is how a white person can be associated with a black activist organization. In the facebook BLM forum, I do a lot of listening. My comments are very few. But, what about when someone says something really controversial? Suppose someone were to say the reason the new Wrinkle In Time movie didn’t do well is because of racism? (That’s an actual statement the director has made.)
It’s not true. The movie didn’t do well because the director made a movie that never had a central theme. In addition it deviated so dramatically from the source material that fans of the book are giving the movie a solid “F” rating.
What’s the harm of suggesting that? It’s true, right?
It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. You are not a member of the Baptist church. You are a guest. As a guest, you honestly don’t get to have an opinion on the workings of the church. Might someone ask you your opinion about some racial issue? They might, but ask yourself if a member of the Baptist church showed up at your church on Sunday, would you ask them to go into detail on the Baptists’ understanding of the role Grace plays in salvation?
No, you wouldn’t. It’s not rude to suggest that during Mormon Sunday School class you are not really interested in hearing how the Baptists think the Mormons are wrong.
Right. The same is true in a minority activist group. I have opinions, sure. (I’m a columnist, it’s kind of a prerequisite.) But, in a BLM forum, my voice literally doesn’t count. I have to remind myself of that fact often as I scroll through impassioned discussions on race relations in our country. It’s not rude to accept that the members do not want to hear my opinion.
I have black children and black grandchildren. I care deeply about race issues. My kids and grandkids are the reason I went to the meeting in the first place. And they are the reason I literally cannot have a voice in the Black Lives Matter organization. Because, it literally is not about me.
However, from attending their meetings and associating with their members I know that they are good people who want positive things for black people in Utah and the country. That’s the same thing I want.
So, I’ll go to church. Sit in the pews. Support my friends, children and grandchildren and remember that it’s not about me.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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I heard that IBM, back when they were
I – B – M
had the policy. Microsoft kind of had it, we were told becuase people would try to take pictures at night through the windows. I know my company has it formally in writing for our agents.
I’m talking about a clean desk policy.
Basically, it means you don’t have anything on your desk. Well, except a keyboard, of course. . .and a monitor, can’t do much without a monitor. . .and you have to have the mouse. . .And sometimes a phone, but my agents use a softphone in their computer. But, that’s it. No paper. No pens. Literally nothing to write with or on.
The idea is that my agents regularly have access to personal indentity and finanancial information. We provide all the tools they need online. They don’t need to write anything down.
I’m not an agent, and I don’t have access to any of that PII or financial information about our users. The clean desk policy for me is the idea that at the end of the day, my desk is “clean.” No paper. No printouts. Nothing. . .well, except for that computer and phone thing.
This was also what I heard IBM’s policy was. They were required to have their desk empty at the end of the day. I’m not sure they were worried about compromising information. I think they just figured, “We’re IBM and this is how we do things.”
Microsoft really did have the clean desk policy. Not only the desk, but whiteboards that were visible from a window were required to be wiped clean at the end of the day.
The stated reason was to prevent “industrial espionage.” The folks in Redmond were seriously worried about someone sneaking around campus taking pictures through the windows at night. It’s hard to believe now, but at the time I was there, in the mid 1990’s, Microsoft was the Google or Facebook of it’s day. We were the best and the brightest. Everyone else wanted to be us. I don’t know if anyone ever tried to steal secrets this way, but it was still a good policy.
I still practice the clean desk policy at work. At the end of the day, I dispose of everything on my desk. It’s not as much as it used to be, of course. Most of my documents never see the light of a printer. They exist online. But, anytime I’m not there, you can walk into my office at work and there’s nothing to see.
I also have an office at home. And lately it sees more use than my work office. Often an outage will start at the beginning of our hours of operation, or HOOPS. That’s 5:30AM Utah time. I’m typically not at work yet. I’m typically not ready for work yet. I’m typically still asleep.
But, I’ll stumble down the stairs to my cubbyhole of an office (really, it’s 4 feet by 7 feet. “Cozy” doesn’t begin to describe it) and log in to take the call.
That home office sits behind a locked door and has no windows. And it gets messy. Well, it can’t get too messy at just 28 sq feet, but papers, and reports will pile up.
And that’s what leads to a problem at times. If I’m struggling to get soemthing done, I will sometimes look for a distraction. That’s when the clean desk policy becomes a problem. I’ll end up clearing the surfaces of my rolltop desk of everything that “doesn’t go there.” It doesn’t mean everything goes. I have lots of pictures, minature Ford Mustangs, there’s a tank, and various other pieces that do go there. But, I’ll clear out a lot. Today I even vacuumed the floor. I think there’s about 15 sq feet of it.
I didn’t get everything else done I had on my list, but at least my desk is clean.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2018 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Not sure why I do it. Why do I put myself through this? I didn’t even like school.
My lovely wife was a great student. We grew up 20 miles and 4 years apart in Western Washington. Her high school and mine were in the same school district. She graduated top of her class with a perfect 4.0. I graduated. It was only good ACT scores that got me into college. She went on a scholarship. She’s good at studying and school. I’m not.
So, why am I struggling through a Javascript class? I don’t need the class for my job. And now that I’m into it, I’m not even that interested in writing cool Javascript enabled web pages. I just want to finish the course.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve gone back and taken classes to get my CompTIA Network+, A+, and Security+ certifications. I tell myself they are to help my resume. And yet, I have a pretty impressive resume and the positions I would apply for, if I decided to leave my current job, which I love, don’t really need engineering skills.
I think some of it is fear. I’m one of those employees that is closer to the end, let’s call it closer to the middle, than I am to the beginning of my career. I work on a team with a bunch of business guys. They are all spreadsheets and percentages.
I’m the IT guy. When something breaks, I’m the guy that gets the call. Not because I can fix it, but because I can direct the people who do. That team, the team I kind of, sort of, direct is made up of young hungry IT guys. (There was a woman who is brilliant, but she’s on maternity leave. It really is all guys.)
No one really questions my credentials. I’ve been in the industry for 30 years. I worked for Microsoft for nearly 1/3 of that time. More importantly in this valley (Central Utah) I worked for WordPerfect Corporation for 5 years. I still regularly drive past the old WordPerfect buildings where I got my start.
My team typically shows me a lot of respect. In return, I don’t try to be what I’m not. I’m not explaining to any of the engineers how IP addressing works. Or how our DC’s manage to “serve up” the right Start Menu when agents authenticate against them. I’m fine letting the engineers be “the smartest guys in the room.” My role is to provide leadership and to interface with the client.
And yet. . .I used to be that guy. I used to be the world expert on a handful of technologies. I even wrote a book on Microsoft Exchange. But, IT is a ruthless business. Everything you know from a technical standpoint will be obsolete in about 18 months. And I think that’s why I do it. It doesn’t matter if I can code in Javascript. What matters is that I’m constantly learning. And my team, both up and down, can see that.
So, I’ll continue to pour over my electronic textbooks. I’ll take sample tests as I prepare for a certification exam for a technology I know I’ll never use.
But, that’s not the point. The point is to keep moving forward. Just trying to keep up with my team.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2018 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved