You are standing by a railroad switching point. Theres’ an oncoming train. Down the track, too far way to warn them in time, is a group of five people. They will almost certainly die if the train isn’t diverted.
You have the ability to divert the train to an alternate track. On the alternate track too far away to warn him in time is a single person. He will almost certainly die if you divert the train.
What do you do?
It’s a test you are designed to fail. There isn’t a right or good answer. There are only varying degrees of bad.
Star Trek is a fictional Universe. None of the actual star ships exist. Within the Star Trek universe, there are also ships that do not exist. The most famous Star Trek ship that doesn’t actually exist in the Star Trek universe is the Kobayashi Maru.
The Kobayashi Maru is also the name of a training exercise at Star Fleet Acadamy. Cadets are told that the Kobayashi Maru is disabled in the neutral zone, a DMZ with the rival Klingon empire. It’s sending out a distress signal.
Should the training crew violate the neutral zone to rescue the crew of the Kobayashi Maru? Or should they let the crew face certain capture by the Klingons?
If the cadet decides to violate the neutral zone and rescue the crew, the Kobayashi Maru goes silent and three very angry, very deadly Klingon ships appear and kill the cadet’s ship.
The point of the exercise is to test cadets in a no win situation. No right or good answer, just varying degrees of bad.
In 1979 Orson Scott Card wrote a short story called Deep-Breathing Exercises. Over the course of his story, the main character, Dale Yorganson realizes he has a unique ability. He can recognize when people are breathing in unison. And he soon discovers that when people are breathing in unison those people are going to soon die.
Yorganson finds himself in a restaurant and realizes everyone is breathing in unison. He rushes out of the restaurant just before it explodes.
At the end of the story, Yorganson realizes that everyone around him is breathing in unison. He tries to escape, but no matter where he goes, he is still breathing in unison. Turning on the TV he realizes that a nuclear bomb is headed for his town. There is no way to escape the blast zone in time.
We don’t like to consider no win scenarios. But, as parents we often have them.
My children range in age from 31 years to my two youngest at 17 years old. Some of my kids made good choices out of high school. Some made bad choices out of high school.
No kid goes straight to a bad decision. It’s almost always a path that has a starting point and an trajectory. And after raising a dozen kids, my lovely wife and I have some small experience in watching kids start on those paths.
One of the most frustrating positions to be in as a parent is to watch one of your children starting on that path and realizing that like the cadets facing the Kobayashi Maru, or Dale Yorganson when he finds himself breathing in synch with everyone else, there is nothing you can do.
We are standing at the train switch. And we pray that we make the right decision.
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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It’s not,
Gentlemen, start your engines.
Today is a special day. You didn’t see any big announcements. There were no parades, or celebrations, or even any news coverage. But, it’s a momentous day.
Here in Utah, the snow on our mountains extends down to our valley floor. We got a light snow this morning, but by the afternoon it cleared up.
In Arizona, it’s sunny and beautiful. No snow. The grass is green. The sky is blue. And grown men walked out into the Arizona sunshine in shortsleeves and baseball caps to play a kid’s game. For it’s baseball that has brought them here.
Two weeks ago the groundhog didn’t see a shadow and predicted an early Spring. But, today is really the start of Spring. Buried in the middle of February, one of the coldest of Winter months, the year is budding. It’s a start.
Year will bud and grow. Full practices start next week. Opening day is a month away. And then the regular 162 game season will wind it’s lazy way through the summer and finally bring us to the magical end of every season. The playoffs will start and finally in late October and possibly early November, we’ll enjoy another Fall Classic.
By November, depending on when the playoff teams are from, we might again have snow. As the season ends, the snows will come again and we’ll enjoy the holidays while we again wait for the cycle to start again next Spring.
Some people describe baseball as a boring game. I understand their objections. But, to me, it’s a perfect game. With 90 feet between the bases. 60’6″ from the pitchers mound to home plate. The deep green of the outfield grass. Row after row of seats and in the outfield, bleachers. The smell of hotdogs and beer. The sounds of a crowd. The crack of a ball off a bat, and the thud of it finding it’s way into a fielders glove.
Baseball isn’t for everyone. But, if you ever let it get into your blood, it will hook you worse than any drug. It will consumer your summer months listending to the radio. You’ll drive three hours from Shreveport, LA to Dallas to catch a night game and drive back to Shreveport in time to go to work the next day.
Boring? Maybe like classical music. But, if you become a fan, you start to hear that music in your sleep and long for it during the cold winter months.
Yes, today the four most exciting words in sports are spoken,
Pitchers and catchers report
Spring has finally come to the snowy mountains of Utah and the rest of the country.
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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Tomorrow is a special day. Most people will not notice. There will only be a blip about it on Sports Shows, but it will be a memorable day none the less. Tomorrow, pitchers and catchers report for baseball Spring Training.
Today, I want to finish up my Christmas workworking project posts. I’ve talked about making things for my kids, my grandkids, my son-in-law and my lovely wife. But, I made one more thing in my flurry of activity. I made something for me.
I’m a baseball fan. That’s not true. That’s not accurate. I’m a baseball nut. Seriously, I’m the most fanatical baseball nut you are likely to meet.
I built this.
Well, there’s a lot there. I built the black frame in the middle.
I don’t really think of it as a shrine. It’s a display stand, right? I had fun making it. I actually used an existing softball bat to draw the bat outlines on a piece of plywood. I decided how many bats to hold. How many baseballs. The bottom is actually wide enough for two pennants to hang side by side.
There are no pennants there now because the Mariners (my favorite team) have never won anything more than a divisional title. They’ve never won a conference title and since the conference champions go on to play in the World Series, the Mariners have not only never won a World Series title, they’ve never even been to the Series. When they win a Conference title or a World Series pennant, those will go there.
I also designed my not-a-shrine to hold a couple of mementoes that I’ve recieved over the years. I have several bats and a ball from the Louisville Slugger Museum and factory in Louisville, Kentucky.
I have a pen that my son made in his woodshop class.
I also have a pen that my granddaughter bought for me. Okay, she was only two. I’m sure my daughter had something to do with it.
I mentioned that the space for pennants is empty so what are those other flags behind the hats? Those are the three divisional titles the Mariners have managed to win in the 43 years they’ve been a team.
Oh, and the hats?
Well, I only have a single thing on my bucket list. I have a goal to watch a home game in every Major League Baseball stadium. So far, I’ve been to 12 so far. There’s also a hat up there from the afor mentioned Louisville Slugger Museum and another one that has a Masonic symbol on it. Because, I also like the Masons.
So, tomorrow Spring starts with the arrival of Major League baseball players in Arizon and Florida.In the meantime, I’ll just be content with my. . .display case.
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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Did you know there are some people who don’t have an inside voice? I hadn’t really thought about it. My inner monologue rarely stops. I have entire conversations. But, someone people don’t hear that voice in their head. I don’t know what they hear. Do their thoughts simply tumble on top of one another like lego blocks being poured out of a bag?
It sounds exhausting.
As longtime readers know, I have pretty severe ADHD. (Definitely helps when you try to find five topics per week!) But, ADHD has as many hinderences as it has helps.
Some people who suffer from ADHD have no filter. Thoughts fire in their brains at 1000 miles per hour and that’s what comes out of their mouth. Even before I knew ADHD was a problem for me, I had learned (mostly) to keep that inner voice, well. . .inside.
But, containing it is like a bottle of soda. You have to keep the cap on to prevent it from spraying all over. It’s especially volitile under pressure.
One of the family Holiday traditions we have is watching the Jimmy Stewart movie, It’s a Wonderful Life. A couple years ago, my son who was away at college brought his girlfriend specifically so that she could watch the movie with us.
I didn’t think much of it. But, he wanted her to get to experience the (apparently time honored) tradition of watching that movie with me providing trivia commentary. I didnt’ even realize it was a tradition. My kids have seen the movie with me enough that they know exactly when I’m going to offer bit of trivia.
Old man potter is played by Lionel Barrymore, Drew Barrymore’s grandfather.
The movie was a flop when it came out.
The “crash” when Uncle Billy says off camera “I’m O.K!” was unscripted. A production assistant dropped some trays and the actor went with it.
The snow was actually corn flakes.
Actually that last one isn’t true. In fact, It’s A Wonderful Life was one of the first films not to use cornflakes, because they were too noisy.
But, anyway, my kids will even wait for me to say the trivia at the right point in the movie. If I miss it, they are disappointed.
I never attributed my love of movie trivia, and bits of dialogue with an inner voice. Even now, I can quote entire sections of dialogue not just from It’s A Wonderful Life, but other movies as well. It’s because I have a voicetrack constantly running in my head. Sometimes it’s on record. Most often it’s on play.
Even writing these few scribbles, I write them, but the dialogue is playing in my head.
Don’t misunderstand. I don’t “hear voices.” I hear “a” voice. And it’s my own. It’s just inside instead of outside.
I love to sing and I love to speak in public. My family is like that. We are all pretty comfortable behind a microphone. And yet, I dislike the sound of my recorded voice. Again, I never gave it much thought. As we were discussing the the idea of inner voice, a friend suggested that it was perhaps because the sound of my recorded voice didn’t match my inner voice.
I’ve listened to my inner voice for my entire life. In fact, until the recent discussion about some peopl enot having one, I didn’t even think of it as an inner voice. It was just how I organized my thoughts.
Now that I’ve recognized it, I can’t stop thinking about it. One thing I’m sure of, I’m grateful that long ago I learned when to use my inside voice. And when to keep it silent.
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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Last year it was FOCUS. The year before that was RESOLVE. I don’t make a lot of resolutions. I make goals, but a resolution is more about changing your actions. Instead I choose a word. The word should represent something I want to focus on during the coming year.
In the past, I’ve used verbs, action words. Last year I wanted to become better at eliminating distractions. I wanted to focus more on not only the task at hand, but stay focused on my overal objectives.
Like most resolutions, I have mixed success with my “word of the year” choices. Why did I choose FOCUS as my word for 2019? Because in 2018 I struggled to focus. And yet, I didn’t become a perfect example of focus in 12 months.
The goal is not to become perfect, but to become better. This year’s word came to me courtesy of a therapist. My therapist. As I worked with her on the challenges that were besetting my family over the past year, she suggested I focus on being thankful.
I heard a story once about two sister who were sent to a Nazi concentration camp. The sisters’ family was all killed. The sisters were moved from camp to camp. As the were ushered into one more dingy, dirty barracks, the optimistic sister suggested they pray.
Dear Lord, we are thankful for everything. Thankful we can be together. Thankful we were able to keep a smuggled Bible. Thankful thou has brought us to a place we can share your word. And we are thankful for the fleas.
The fleas?
Yes.
I’m not going to be thankful for the fleas.
Later, the sisters made an amazing discovery. Two women prisoners were arguing. And yet the guards refused to go into the barracks, where the sisters had hidden their bible and held clandestine bible study. And why were the guards unwilling to venture past the door?
The fleas. The guards wanted to avoid the fleas. The sisters were right to be grateful.
It’s possible to be grateful in any situation. If nothing else, you can be grateful it’s not worse.
It could be worse. It could be raining
But, even without going to the “at least we aren’t dead” level, there are many things to be grateful for. For myself, I have a wonderful family. My children are all healthy. Many of them are now in college. Several are married to wonderful young men who are welcome additions to our family.
I have a job I enjoy. It’s one I’m quite good at. I like the team I work with.
Despite my weekly visits with my therapist, I’m in good health. I got checked out for vision, hearing, colon, and teeth in the past month. All got pretty good reports. Although, I still need glasses.
Throughout the year, my challenge will be to look at the circumstances that will invariably come up and look for the thing to be grateful for. And in focusing on the grateful, I will be able to look for the positive.
What’s your word for the year?
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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Another homemade Christmas story. Earlier this week I talked about making footlockers for my kids, and toy letters and blocks for my grandkids. My pre-Christmas workshop wasn’t just buzzing with kids’ gifts. I also found time to make presents for my son-in-law.
In our family we draw names for Christmas. I drew the name of my son-in-law. He’s a pilot. But, he’s also a hunter and rancher. I decided I would make him a shelf.
I know what you’re thinking.
Must suck for Rodney to pick your name at Christmas.
But, this wasn’t an ordinary shelf. I wanted to make him a special shelf, one with a hidden compartment. I searched online for plans. I found some references to plans, but without paying out more money than I wanted to, I was stuck with just pictures.
So, I did the next best thing. I created my own design. I design nearly everything I build. It’s the only way I know how to build. And it means I still have the designs years later for shelves, book cases, even simple designs.
This shelf uses crown molding to give it a unique profile. It took a fair amount of work to calculate the angles and get the corners just right. It turned out pretty well. In fact, it was impressive especially to my lovely wife.
That’s great. That’s just like the ones I want for the living room!
Spoiler alert. When your lovely wife says that something is “just like what she wants” you need to get that in writing.
Well, I want it narrower, and I want a lip on the front that will keep the pictures from sliding off. And white rather than stained.
She even sent me a picture of one she saw in a store. Actually it was a picture of two shelves. Make very sure you identify the right one.
So, I took my new design and modified it. I used 3/4″ particleboard for the base. That’s a pretty heavy wood. But, I like to over-engineer my projects. I call it the “Helicoptor school of building.” Basically, I build everything so that a helicoptor could land on it. Having a heavy base, I needed quite a few support pieces integrated into the design. I worked to make the shelf strong while still appearing light.
The shelf is called a “floating shelf.” It’s designed to look like it “floats” on the wall. Let me tell you, there’s a lot of wood, heavy wood that fits into that lightweight looking design.
So, I built the prototype of the shelf for my lovely wife. As I was putting the finishing touches on it, I showed it to my wife. She literally did a “happy dance” next to my table saw.
It was still a couple weeks before Christmas. And I knew that I was going to have a gift that was exactly what my lovely wife wanted. Only occasionally have I managed to hit a Christmas homerun. But, this year I think I really nailed it. The next two shelves flew together. I didn’t even mind painting it. Generally I can’t stand painting.
And if she knew what she was getting before Christmas morning, that knowledge was tempered by the fact that it was exactly what she wanted.
You see where this is going, right?
Everything was going according to plan until I started to put them up on the wall.
Can you make them removeable?
What?
You know like a picture. So we can take them down off the wall.
Ah. . .they were really designed to attach to the wall.
But, you CAN make them removeable, right?
I suppose. . .
Here’s the thing about designing a shelf, especially a “floating” shelf. You have to think about weight and angles. That floating shelf is going to put a lot of pressure on the screws or nails holding it to the wall. I had a nice 1×2 along the back of that shelf. That’s plenty strong to hold the shelf to the wall.
But, a hanging design is very different. Instead of securing it to wall stud, you now have to consider the downward pressure on both your nail and the hanger on the back of your “picture.”
But, a shelf is different than hanging a picture. With a picture, all the weight, or most of it, is below the point you are hanging from. You get very little pull away from the wall and all the pressure is downward.
But, when you try to hang a shelf, all the weight is above or in front of the hanging point. And that exerts a force. A lot of pressure. And that pressure is trying to pull the shelf away from the wall.
I got some heavy duty picture hangers and attached them to the back of my shelf. I then very gingerly hung it on the wall.
It held. . .sort of.
It fell down the first time I even bumped it. The nails pulled out of the particleboard with ease. So, I reattached the hangers using screws and I attached it to a stronger piece of the shelf.
Again, it held. Sort of.
The issue now was that the back of the shelf was designed to fit flush against the wall. But, instead it had these picture hangers stuck on the back of it. Each shelf tilted down at a dangerous angle. I tried putting some rubber cabinet door stoppers on the bottom corners. The correction was slight at best.
So, my Christmas present that I had designed exactly like my lovely wife wanted, and that she had even signed off on the prototype, was broken. The real solution? I needed to rework the design. I needed to cut 5/16″ pieces of trim that I could attach to the bottom corners of the shelf. In addition my lovely wife asked me to add a bottom panel to the shelves. All the carefully planned supports that I’d attempted to make strong and stylish were now going to be covered up. Fortunately, I could use that new bottom panel to also extend it back past the picture hooks, helping to push the shelf up.
After several weeks, a lot of reworking and more paint,(I hate painting) my reworked shelves were once again on the wall. The extended trim and baseplate now made my shelves properly float perpendicularly to the wall.
I even added a clear topcoat to give it an extra shine.
My lovely wife really does like the shelves. In fact, she wanted three more for another wall in the living room.
The new shelves? They are narrower, they are using 1/2″ plywood instead of 3/4″ particleboard.
They also are designed from the beginning to hang on the wall, so the trim and baseplate extend back beyond the picture hooks.
I learned an important lesson. One that I already knew. Always get your client to sign off on your design before you finalize it.
And I have the perfect Valentines Day gift lined up for this year. I think I really nailed it this time.
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) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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More Christmas posts.
Yesterday I talked about creating chests for my four of my teenage kids.
I also made gifts for my grandkids. They are too young for the chests. And too small, they could fit inside them sooner than pick them up.
For the younger kids I went a different direction. Many of my grandkids are just learning to read.
I created letters. Lots of letters.
Oh, and blocks.
I didn’t buy my scroll saw until after I completed this project. So, I ended up cutting all of these out using my bandsaw and then a jigsaw. The letters look pretty clear, but actually they are very jagged around the the edges. A bandsaw and jig saw will do that.
Next I did some painting. Lots of painting.
Each letter and block got painted multiple times with spray paint. Then, I coated each of them with a varnish. No paint is safe to ingest, but varnish is not as bad as some. It was the best I could find for children’s toys.
My lovely wife made individual bags for each name and group of blocks. We then got to watch as the grandkids opened them and it gradually dawned on them what they had.
When it comes to watching grandkids open homemade presents, it is definitely better to give than receive.
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) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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It’s not what you receive but what you give that’s important.
Christmas was really fun this year. And it really was all about what I gave. Or rather, what I made and then gave.
Back in November this pile of boards appeared in my workshop. Sure, it was me who put them there. Those letters on the end are part numbers. Several years ago I built a project for my son. I always design my projects on paper before I start cutting. Later, I built two more. This year I decided to make four more. Three for kids still at home and one for my daughter who recently went to college.
Working from an existing design, much of the actual assembly of the chest is simply a step by step process. You cut a “C” to a specific length and then make dado cuts. You then assemble these 2×2 pieces with plywood panels. Add some hardware, some glue and nails.
Eventually you get some pretty strong boxes.
I painted them uniquely for each kid.
Obviously I was making these in my garage. The garage that my kids have access to everyday. You would think they’d spot their presents right away, right?
Not exactly. The kids that were getting these chests didn’t actually know they were for them. I have a lot of kids, as you no doubt read in my signature block. Nothing about the chests helped the kids recognize they were for them.
That is until Christmas Eve. On the night before Christmas I personalized them. Then, Christmas morning, I wrapped the tops.
As they kids opened their presents they recognized why each was their own.
My son who wears number 15 on his high school football team is a big Broncos fan.
My son who is a Seahawks fan graduates soon. In a clueless father moment, I decided I to put his graduation year on his chest. I did have a son graduate a year early. I don’t think this one will. He’s a 2021 graduate. He decided that number 20 on the Seahawks, Rahsaan Penny, was an admirable player and he’d keep the number.
My daughter started attending BYU this year.
Another daughter is planning to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
CTR stands for Choose The Right.
It took about 3 months to build all four chests. Fortunately, I enjoy woodworking, and working from a plan of my own design I was able spend time thinking about each kid and how much they would enjoy them.
I’ve designed and built these chests to last a long time. All the kids liked them. Hopefully they will enjoy them for many years.
At the very least I’m just glad I had a chance to give more than I received.
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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My sister, Jennifer Bliss wrote a book. That’s actually not that surprising. My older brother wrote a book and is working on his next one. I wrote a couple of books and am working on my next one. I’m sure at some point my younger brother may write a book.
We write what we know. I wrote a book about the first version of Microsoft Exchange, called Microsoft Exchange Connectivity Guide. My older brother is a brilliant marketer. His book, Stealing The Show, is about building a unique corporate brand. My sister isn’t a marketer or a computer person. But, still, she wrote what she knows. Her book is about mental health. It’s largely autobiographical.
Yes, you read that correctly, my sister’s book is about her own mental health struggles. It’s a story of tragedy and triumph. You see, my sister Jennifer has had a long and largely successful career. She was a school teacher. She was a school administrator. She worked in state government and is currently a manager in Washington State’s office of mental health services.
Oh, and she’s also spent a lot of time in hospitals for those with mental health issues. More than once I worried that she would be successful in her suicide attempts.
Make Bright The Arrows, is also a poem by Edna St Vincent Millay published in 1940. Jennifer quotes many poems, songs and even jokes about mental health in her book. Her book will not explain how to overcome mental illness. It will not explain the details, history and future of mental health.
Her book is a journey. Her journey. She won’t tell you how to live with your mental health issues. She will tell you how she lives with hers.
I’ve grown up with my sister. Her issues are not a surprise to me. I’m not sure what I expected to discover in her book. Some of the stories I knew. Some I did not. I didn’t expect to learn how many times she’d attempted to kill herself. I didn’t realize how many times a conversation with me might have been instrumental in helping her get through the day.
What I Liked
My sister has a wonderful literary voice. Even when discussing some of the more esoteric aspects of mental health, she keeps the narrative moving briskly. She is also extremely self aware. She is able to discuss her own issues and weaknesses. She’s extremely open about her life and how it has been affected by struggles with mental health. She finishes the book with several personal stories. I found these both reassuring and horrifying. I recognized the details of many of them, but only after reading the full story did I understand the true import of what was happening.
What I Didn’t
Frankly, I didn’t like a lot of it. Not because it wasn’t well written. But, simply because it was. My dislike is personal and in no way would impact another’s enjoyment of her excellent book.
What It Means For You
Diagnoses of anxiety and depression have become so prevelant that virtually everyone is either affected by it, or knows someone who is. While Make Bright The Arrows will not tell you how to deal with your own challenges, or even exactly how to deal with a loved one. But, most importantly, it provides hope. Hope that a diagnosis of mental illness is not a sentence to a disadvantaged life. Because what Jennifer Bliss most portrays in her stories and discussions is the idea you can live a successful and satisfying life. Her way may not be your way. But, just knowning there is a way is comforting.
My Rating
Ha. Have you ever been asked if you sister is beautiful? If you gave any answer other than “Of course!” I hope you’ve had time to repent.
I could no sooner rate her book than I could fly.
I do however, recommend it without reservation.
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) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I went to lunch with two old friends today. In fact, these friends are doubly old. First, we have known each other for a long time. I’ve known David for over twenty years. Maybe even thirty. I’ve known Scott for fifteen years. I have no idea how long Scott and David have known each other, but probably about the same time; twenty years or more.
David, Scott and I are all in the same area. We are all IT guys from way back. WordPerfect Corporation, Borland, Novell, dead companies that we helped build and watched die. (Mostly at the hands of Microsoft, but they don’t hold my time in Redmond against me.)
And we are old. At 55, I’m the youngest. David is 57 and Scott is an ancient 66. Sitting around the lunch table at Los Hermanos, we had nearly 100 years of combined IT experience.
We try to get together every couple of months. David is local and when Scott is in from California, we have lunch. David and Scott are in sales. I’m in Program Management and Training.
So, what do three old IT specialists, who’ve been friends for years, talk about when they get together?
Some of it is pretty understandable. We talked about current technology. We talked about the influence of Social Media.
We also talked about jobs. Age discrimination is illegal. Just like race, or gender discrimination is. You know what the three of us old farts think?
Age discrimination is very real and nearly undectable. And the three of us are headed in that direction. We don’t make “long term” employment plans. We only have plans.
We also talked about current events. We mostly stayed away from politics. We’re all of the same political persuasian and don’t really find the conversation all that interesting.
Of course, we also asked about each others’ families. Scott and David knew my kids when they were little. My kids are no longer little.
But, the subject that most united us? The subject that all three of us had active experience with? It was the reason that Scott’s in town. And David and his wife in December and me last week.
One additional thing that those, especially men, over 50 have in common?
We all told stories about our colonoscopies.
Maybe it was the Mexican food that brought it to mind.
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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