9: Caution, tech at work
Posted By Alexander Hollins on August 3, 2009
Sucking at his nearly empty drink, Tom sat at his new desk. Abandoned by Rocky and Deborah, both with work to do, he sat wondering what to do next.
“No set schedule,” he mused to himself. “Nothing seems to be waiting for me to fix. Might as well get homey”
An hour later, computer settings where he liked them, a few favorites charts and graphs printed off and spread around the desk, Tom was adjusting the angle on his chair seat. Leaned on the edge of the foam cushion, one hand on the tension handle, the other on his desk, he slid the seat back and forth on the chair, looking for a comfortable spot, when he was startled by a tap on his shoulder .
He jumped, then spun in his chair, and looked up at the gentleman getting his attention.
“Hey, you’re the new tech, right?”
Tom stood and put his hand out, and shook hands. “That’s right. Tom. What can I do for you?”
“I’m Anferny. About time they got someone to do this. I’ve gotten tired of having to get other people to help me. My computer is jamming up again. ”
Tom stood, following Anferny to his workstation. “What do you mean by, jamming up, exactly?”
“You know, running slow. It does this every so often. Usually I just get Janice or someone to deal with it. Here, this is my desk. I’ve got to run to a meeting.”
Half an hour later, Tom finally got up from Anferney’s desk. Shaking his head, he looked at the next desk over. “Ma’am, when Anferny comes back, tell him I said to stop downloading and installing every piece of crud he finds?”
“Honey, I’ve been telling him that for years. When it comes to pipe diameters and flows, he’s top notch. Everything else in life, he’s got a notch in his top. ”
Tom giggled, then stifled himself. “Gotcha. Thanks, I’ll have to have a talk with him myself then. Nothing was a big security risk this time, but… Seriously, you would think people would learn basic self security. ”
“You’re telling me? Glad to have you around though. If Janice was out it was always me he was running to. Its your ball now!”
Deciding to be somewhat productive with his afternoon, Tom wandered around the main hall, introducing himself to people he had yet to meet, learning what everyone did, and reminding people to come to him with computer issues. After a bit of this, he sat back down at his desk, at a loss for what to do next.
Taking a break, he decided to check the news. Scrolling through headlines, one in particular jumped out at him.
Terrorism In Washington, Historic Space Needle Vandalized.
Flames engulfed over 3/4 of the Historic Space Needle after an explosion rocked downtown Seattle this morning. No group has yet to take responsibility, but inside sources point to the bombing being an act of the Phoenician Alliance, a militant anti-government group…
Breathing a sigh of relief, Tom scrolled on. Random terrorist bombings were growing commonplace. Only the location had made him read the story, until realizing that the bombing was in Washington state, not D.C.
“Almost thought I found the reason Felicity was stuck in D.C.”, he mused to himself.
The day quickly faded away, and Tom found himself walking back through the twists and turns of the maze beneath the capitol, riding the cable car back. The crowd leaving seemed even more packed than the crowd coming in, and Tom found himself unable to get to a window, to see if the view was as spectacular on the way out. It was still a good 2 hours to sunset, this time of year, though, so not much lost, Tom thought.
Hmm, Tom lived in Wash. state, shouldn’t he know that the Space Needle is there and not D.C
Seeing the mention of the Space Needle is how he realized they were talking about state, not D.C. sorry if that wasn’t clear, I’ll have to revisit.