Outer Monologue

NPR Management reads this blog...

... just not very carefully.

Avid readers of this blog (with above-average recall) may recall this post where I jokingly mentioned that I could listen in fascination to Robert Siegel reading a phonebook.

Well what did I hear on Morning Edition this AM on the drive in but a story about british phone books where they started reading off old phonebook listings.

Unfortunately they erred by having Steve Inskeep reading it, not Robert Siegel. If that's any indicator of the brainpower at work in today's NPR, it's very sad indeed.

And yes, I know I haven't posted in a few days. Work has been absolutely killer (very long hours).

I'll just end by saying METS CLINCHED THEIR DIVISION BAY-BEE!

Let's Go Mets!

The Jukebox Grill

So today I'm playing at being a Torr and doing an area restaurant review like they do...

This weekend was a busy, as I had to work late on friday night and then again from 11pm saturday night until 6am sunday (plus commute).

But even so, we wanted to get out and have some fun this weekend!

So saturday morning (well, closer to mid-day) we rolled out to get nice breakfast before we headed out for some apple picking (more on that in a later post).

Mary and I are both something of breakfast/brunch fans, especially at diner-like restaurants. My love of it mostly stems from the fact that I rarely eat a real breakfast during the week, so I like to go all-out when I can on the weekends. That and the full-on pancake, eggs, bacon, etc breakfast (and occasionally dinner) was always a big deal in my house when I was a kid.

Mary had done some investigating, and we settled on a place called "The Jukebox Grill", which serves lunch all day long and is right off campus.

We got there and the place was pretty crowded, but there was one table still open, with nice comfy lounge chairs at it, so we scampered over and had a seat. It was also right by the TV, which was helpfully showing the Spartans game (it being college football day), so we watched that while we waited for our food and ate.

And let me tell you, we waited. And waited... and waited. But more on that in a moment.

The Grill was a cute setup with a combination of booths, standard tables, counter seating and a scattering of the aforementioned comfy chairs. It looked and felt like a combination of a hole-in-the-wall diner (in the good way; we like them) and a kitschy theme restaurant, but it had the comfortable worn look that only comes of love, care and a contant influx of college students.

The menu was pretty standard breakfast fare with some interesting variations as well as fairly standard lunch/grill fare (again, with some interesting variations (like a triple-decker grilled cheese sammy; gotta try that sometime).

After some indecision, Mary ordered the Cinnamon Chip French Toast and I ordered scrambled eggs, bacon hash browns and buttered toast (among my favourite breakfasts when eating out) and we settled in to wait for our food to arrive.

Suffice to say that service was slow. Now the place was fairly full when we got there (around 11:30am), so there's some explanation, but we hit the very tail end of the rush, and by the time our food arrived at the table (about an hour later), the place was mostly empty and people who had arrived after us had gotten their food before us. Plus my bacon (the most important part of any breakfast) arrived pretty much raw.

Now I'm not a crispy bacon freak who hates anything but charred bacon (like my sister), so when I say raw, I mean pretty much raw. That and the apple juice that I ordered to arrive with the food didn't. Of course for the latter, I didn't really expect it to arrive without reminder (no matter where you are, that's a bit much to ask).

The waitress took my plate back and immediately returned with new bacon (presumably someone else's) and we dug in.

The food itself was absolutely delicious and was quickly devoured.

I'd make a lousy restaurant reviewer, I guess, because that's pretty much all I have to say about the quality of the food.

Because of the quality of the food, we plan on overlooking the slow service and giving the place another shot (and likely more after that), and we frankly had a good time waiting anyway. It allowed for a nice leisurely morning (which gave me time to finish waking up), so I can't really complain.

From there we went on to the rest of our day, which will be detailed in a later post (probably).

In the meantime, here are some shots from the Jukebox Grill. Click on any of them to see a full-size version.

Just a quick note

Busy day today, so no full post, but I thought I'd note what happened when I got to work this AM (much to my vindicated amusement).

In yesterday's post, I put forth the theory that security at work was actually massively harmed by the slowness of their issuing security badges (for building access) to new hires.

Well, this morning when I got to work and stood around waiting for someone to let me in. The first person to arrive was a gentleman slightly older than myself whom I did not know.

He asked if I had a badge and I explained that I'd "just" started a month ago.

He laughed and said "say no more, I just got my badge last week!" and proceeded to let me in.

I say unto you, HAH!

Insecurity through bureaucracy

So as I've mentioned, I have a job now in Michigan working as a contractor for a very large company who's name I shall decline to name.

It's a pretty good job with definite upsides and is a great addition to my resume.

Having said that, there are issues with the job that stem from the sheer size of the company and its accomanying bureaucracy.

I'm sure these issues are common in vast corporations, but since this is the first time I've worked for such a company, it's the first time I've had to deal with it.

I had vague ideas to write a political post that I was mentally wandering over during the drive this morning, but changed gears due to an incident that occurred as I arrived at work.

To give some background, as mentioned, I work as a contractor for this huge company. The majority of my department are also contractors. We're not quite treated as second-class citizens, but there's subtle differences in how things work for us (anyone who's contracted understands this; this is my first time in such a position).

As some additional background, the internal workings of this company are a bit... cumbersome. It takes a very long time to get things done. For instance, I've had the position for about a month now and I've yet to get a cubicle, phone, phone number, security badges or even a computer to work on.

Some of these issues can be partly worked around, such as I use a spare team tower in the lab to access the internet and console into devices to configure them. But I cannot access vital tools such as corporate email (so I don't know what is happening most of the time in terms of meetings and things that happen on the project) and the internal instant-messaging program for team communication (much of the team is off-site).

The security badges though may be the biggest problem, and they are the focus of this post.

Every building in the complex is locked and can only be opened by a valid security badge. This is a great system from a security standpoint, as limited access (theoretically) means increased site security.

And it's not even all that annoying to employees as every building on the campus (and there are many) is connected to every other by not only a series of enclosed, elevated walkways, but also by a series of underground tunnels. The whole setup is rather neat and unique to my northeastern eyes, and I plan to talk about it more some other day.

But the upshot is that the only way I can get in to work every morning is to wait on the kindness of strangers to let me in. Even much of my team cannot get in without help, as they also lack proper entry badges.

Now, amongst my co-workers I am becoming vaguely legendary in my ability to get into the buildings in the morning, such that they call my cell when they arrive so that I can let them in. It's likely because I look a lot like what I am. A fairly young, sincere and honest, clean-cut white guy from a good background. And just to note. I'm not claiming this is remotely fair. I actually think it's kind of sad that things work like that, but I need to get inside in the mornings, so I'll use any advantage I can.

Now occasionally, some employees will kindly refuse to let me in, which is, frankly, quite smart of them (note - this has happened twice to me). I understand their reasoning entirely and honestly might do the same in their shoes, even having been on the other side of the situation.

That doesn't keep me from being annoyed though. But I'm not annoyed at them, I'm annoyed at the system.

It happened this morning, which is why I'm writing this post.

But on to my main point.

The basic upshot of this situation is that the stringent (and slow) security measures that this huge corporation has put in place have ended-up making the place basically no more secure than if they'd just put cameras at every door and otherwise left them unlocked.

I get in every day without fail (and almost always without the help of anyone who knows me) and so could anyone else with half a brain and a decent shirt and pair of pants.

The reason that random employees are so willing to let other people in is, in part I believe because they themselves went through the 1-6 month period at the start of their employment where they also didn't have badges and thus had to basically sneak in every day. So they're just helping out people they sympathize with.

Such a mindset could be entirely avoided if they'd just issue badges quicker.

To give you an idea of how common an idea this problem is, the absolutely standard response to the complaint "Am I ever going to get a badge?" is some variant of "Probably on the last day of your assignment".

And the problem ISN'T just happening here. We go out to sites owned by huge company X and adminstered by huge company Y and I find much the same thing.

As an example, some equipment we'd been waiting on was erroneously delivered to one such site. When talking on the phone to an employee from company Y, I was told that, amusingly, even though the packages were addressed to us (and thus they couldn't open them), we weren't allowed to take them off of the premises through security.

His suggestion was to either wade through the security bureaucracy at companies X and Y and get permission to take our property off their property, or wait until 6pm when the security guard went off shift at the building entrance and we could just walk out with it.

Now we opted to go the official route (though it took all day and we walked out at about 5pm with our stuff), but I just found the situation so amusing that I couldn't help remarking on it all day.

Anyway, that's all from me today. This is Campbell MacInnes signing off from a borrowed computer in a building he snuck into to do work he is being paid to do.

Musings on a morning commute

So I live in Michigan now, as you already know; East Lansing to be specific (go Spartans!).

But I work for a rather large corporation just outside of Detroit, which is around a 75 mile commute each way. Due to the wonders of Michiganny speed limits (70mph pretty much everywhere outside of mall parking lots [it's 55mph there]), the commute would take less than an hour in a perfect world (everyone drives 80 when they can).

Of course, it isn't a perfect world.

My commute can take anywhere from 1 hour and 5 minutes up to 2 hours, depending on traffic, weather and lights. I shudder to think how long it will be when the snows start next week.

That leaves me alot of time to kill; around three hours of every weekday, for the math deficient.

Now I'm a fairly introspective person, so time alone isn't an out-and-out problem. To put it more bluntly, I can easily get lost in my own head, wandering through random thoughts, writing mental outlines for stories that will never progress to pen touching paper; heck, I came up with the idea for this post this morning on the commute in (I'm writing it while pasting configs into routers).

Having said the above though, I still find myself with more time on these drives than I know what to do with. I never would have thought it, but apparently I can eventually get bored with myself (there goes my theories on how self-involved I am).

"Why not listen to the radio?" you might ask (someone please ask!)

Well, the problem I've found is that the Detroit area has virtually no consistently good radio stations (and my tastes are fairly broad). And this is the case even though it contains one of the most densely-populated dials I've ever experienced (and I've lived near two large NE cities).

It's just a radio wasteland of blathering talk and commercials with no redeeming content. Whenever I get desperate enough to hit the "scan" button on my radio, I invariably break into Bruce Springsteen's 57 Channels (And Nothin' On) in my head; and I'm not even a huge Springsteen fan! (Please don't tell my Jersey girl wife that or she and her Jersey girl friend Christine will lynch my ass).

So I've become even more of an NPR junkie than I was before.

This works fine during the evening commute, as "All Things Considered", "Marketplace" and "The World" are fine programs that don't tend to repeat too much.

Heck, I could listen to Robert Siegel reading a phone book for the whole commute and spend the next day at the water cooler discussing the prevalence of people named "Jones" in the Detroit area with my colleagues in tones of deep fascination.

Well, I could if we had a water cooler, anyway.

I also take the time to catch up on phone calls to friends, relatives, tech support lines and the occasional random number.

The problem comes in the morning, as I find "Morning Edition" to be fairly repetitive and just not as interesting. Of course, in Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne's defense, the cognitive centers of my brain don't generally come fully online for several hours after I wake up, so it could just be me.

So to fill the mornings, I was often listening to podcasts of another great NPR show, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me". I just love that show.

Sadly, it's only on once a week, so I quickly caught up with all the episodes I'd missed.

So this morning I once again found myself sans activity on the drive in (and more tired than normal, so desperately in need of external stimuli).

Add to that that I was in the wife's car, as she was thoughtfully taking mine in for an oil change (thanks sweetie!) and thus I didn't even have my iPod... well, I was at a loss.

I noticed she had a book on tape in the car, so I popped it in figuring, "what the hell"

Gotta say, that Bill Bryson is a pretty funny guy. "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" should keep me occupied for a few more days at least.

And then I'm without morning activity again.

I've had suggestions from friends on things to do ranging from getting Satellite Radio (too expensive for me, methinks) to further books on tape (if I can find the local library AND get to it when it's open, I might just do that one).

Anyone else have any other bright ideas? I'm getting bored...

What Keith said

I couldn't have said it better.

Heck, I wish I could have said it even half as well.

Just go read it...

Keith Olbermann loves George Bush

Deep thoughts on this day

I'd intended for my second entry in MI to be about stuff that's gone on here (including work stuff), but a few days passed and the 5 year 9/11 anniversary crept up on me and, well, ya know...

If you'd prefer to avoid a somewhat maudlin, fairly self-involved digression on the day (I'm sure the internet is full of them today), then don't click through to the full entry below.

I was working the second shift in a tech support job on 9/11/2001, and so was in bed in uncaring sleep when the first plane hit.

My boss (and friend) called me right after the second plane hit and told me to turn on my TV; he wouldn't explain anymore than that.

As I stumbled over to the TV in a groggy sleep haze and turned it on, my mind just refused to comprehend. The picture came on to footage of the second plane impacting. I didn't get it. Was this a movie?

When it finally sank in, I was just stunned. I don't think I fully grasped the events of that day for several days. My brain just couldn't comprehend it.

The first thing I did after that was spent a harrowing 20 minutes calling everyone I knew in the NYC area (I was born and raised there). None of them had any good reason to be in downtown NYC that day, but you never know. In the end, it turned out that an old friend of mine WAS in the area, but made it out ok (I didn't find out any of that until much later).

The events of that day shaped his life dramatically. I suggest you read about it in his own words. He came out with a reinforced belief in a philosophy of service I agree with wholeheartedly and wish I had the guts to follow.

I rushed into work and spent most of the day (like everyone else) in our NOC watching the news on the big screens in there or listening to CNN.com or NPR.org streaming radio.

I listened to both of those constantly for several days, convinced there was another shoe that was going to drop.

I listened with pride as our country came together, and our president spoke and yelled strong words. Words we needed to hear. Words of unity, words of vengeance. I thought that maybe we had the right leader at the right time.

Sadly, time has shown that leader to be a hollow, manipulative paper tiger. But this post isn't about my intense dislike of our reigning regime. I'll say only, "It could have been so much better..."

And now, five years later, I find myself still affected. That day in September impacted other people's lives far more than my own, but that doesn't mean it didn't impact mine.

It gave me a slightly wider view of life that I think has stood me in good stead and helped me through some tough times at work that were to come. It gave me a steadiness that only occasionally cracks. It changed my outlook on life and what I wanted from it that, with some delays, lead to meeting the love of my life and marrying her.

But it also had other effects. To this day, I cannot hear or see images about the events of that day without feeling a deep anger and even deeper sadness. I cannot even hear about incidents of self-sacrifice (especially regarding soldiers and public servants of all stripes) without feeling it.

I'm man enough to admit that more than a few seconds of exposure to it can bring tears to my eyes. I barely made it through the movie Farenheit 9/11 (especially the audio-only part at the beginning). It was just so much.

I think this is a pain, a sadness, a rage that many of us feel. And we express it each in our own way. It makes some of us sad, others more aggressive. It makes many constantly uncertain and scared on a deep level that they don't even realize.

It is, as they say, a national tragedy. One that we will continue to work our painful way through.

The sadness I know will fade with time. The anger I hope will.

But on this day, I still remember and feel it all like it was yesterday.

And I don't know that that's necessarily a bad thing.