Taking The Express Bus To And From Work
Top 10 reasons why I love to ride the bus:
10. It takes just 20 minutes to get to work using the carpool lane
9. I get to feel sorry for the poor folks stuck in traffic (at 6 a.m.)
8. I get to sleep while the bus driver merrily drives us to work
7. I get to look out the window and not think of anything important
6. I get to converse with the regulars and meet new people
5. I make new friends with folks from work while we wait together at the bus stop
4. I live just 3 miles away from the Park-And-Ride parking lot
3. Said parking lot is just 1.5 miles from my gym
2. Bus rides are FREE for City of Phoenix employees
1. My car could last two months on a full tank of gas.
Top 10 reasons why I dislike riding the bus:
10. If the bus were just 1 minute ahead of schedule, I'd miss it
9. Wanting to catch my regular bus makes me drive fast
8. I am annoyed by slow drivers in the fast lane (at 6 a.m.)
7. On the ride home, sometimes I take a nap, which makes me not want to work out afterwards
6. I get motion sickness if I get a seat without an outside view
5. After work, people abandon the "After you" gestures and just trip over each other to get off the bus and get home
4. From May to September, walking the one block to the bus stop in 90- to 115-degree heat sux
3. There's a guy with headphones playing very loud music at 6 a.m.
2. Sometimes a co-worker will sit beside me and won't shut up
1. I can tell when someone close by hasn't take a shower
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Sunday, March 27, 2005
The Gorilla Experiment (and a petty feud about a fridge)
Let me share with you an article I once read about a (hypothetical?) experiment conducted on a group of gorillas, and how it applies to organizations everywhere.
Say you have 5 gorillas in a cage. Dangling up high is a bunch of bananas, and underneath the bananas is a ladder. One gorilla proceeds to climb the ladder, and the entire group is suddenly sprayed with cold water from a firehouse. Each time a gorilla attempts to climb the ladder, they get doused with cold water, until the group attacks whoever tries to climb up in order to avoid being sprayed.
Replace a single gorilla with a new one. Hungry, it goes for the bananas but is shocked to be attacked by the rest of the group. Replace a second gorilla, and when it climbs the ladder, the same thing happens. Eventually the remaining three are replaced, and even though the spraying has stopped, the behavior continues. Replace them continually until, generations later, they just do it because "That's the way it's always been."
#
Now let's teleport for a minute to my place of work, a city government, where I experienced this very same phenomenon as a "new gorilla". The only difference is, my fellow new gorillas and I are independent enough to not join in with the beating. But oh, what a petty, petty thing I'm going to tell you about.
There are 11 of us in my project group at work, including the project manager whom I shall call... Vladimir (it's my story, I have my rights). Right next to our area is another bureau, which I shall call Bureau B. In between our offices is a lunch room that is used by Bureau B employees. Ever since I started working here six years ago, Bureau B people have been very nice to us new gorillas, all hired circa 1999-2000 (the oldies don't go in there, reason to come later). They offer us doughnuts and pastries (though we rarely ever take any), let us chip in for coffee, and use the fridge and sink.
Close to the lunch room are two refrigerators that "belong" to my group. One of them we each chipped in $20 for and purchased cheap at a junk yard, and the other one was donated by boss Vladimir. Now whenever you "donate" something, it means you've given it to the City and it is then considered public property. Just like the whole building is, and almost everything in it, including office furniture and computer software.
The trouble started when a few months ago, one of my co-workers offered a single Bureau B person the use of our fridge. Before we knew it, a whole bunch of them joined in, and we were running out of room. I personally felt like they had trespassed a little bit. But Vladimir, oh, he was ranting -- because of a decade-old feud. See, one morning some ten years ago, there was a bunch of bagels in the lunch room which, at the time I suppose, was for Bureau B consumption only. One of my co-workers, whom I shall call Igor, brought his own bagel for breakfast. A Bureau B person saw Igor with his bagel, assumed he took one of theirs, and raised a stink about it. Vladimir was royally ticked, and that started the rift. Take note, this was circa 1995.
Fast forward to the year 2000, with 7 new gorillas. Two of the old gorillas warned us to avoid using the lunch room because of a lingering, hush-hush animosity. But it's now 2005, and Bureau B people have only ever been so nice to us. Unbelievably though, just this month, Vladimir ranted about their using our fridge, even muttering, "If they're gonna raise a stink about a bagel...." LOL! He doesn't realize that there's a whole new generation of people in that bureau who don't have a clue about the ten-year-old squabble. And besides the fridge, he's also territorial about the use of tables and rooms in our area. Which I don't understand because, hey, it's city property. We work in a public building! He's living in the past, an old gorilla angry about being sprayed. Needless to say, us newer folks are perplexed by his behavior. We're supposed to be more mature than that.
Unfortunately, this kind of mindset is not unique to Vladmir but is common among the old gorillas at work, and as it is with the fridge, so it goes with bureau projects and personnel alike. It all just spills over. Personal politics and counter-productive territorial behavior run rampant. Us younger ones, who've come from private companies and know what "performance-based", "productivity", and "customer service" mean in the outside world, are often frustrated with the continual ego-fest.
Vladimir might be retiring in a year or two, so let's see what happens when a new manager steps in. If another old gorilla gets promoted though, we can expect more of the Same Old Ways. IMO, that would be tragic (and yet another reason for me to leave).
Lastly, who when asked a reasonable question would feel comfortable saying, like a clueless moron, that "That's the way it's always been"? There's a reason behind every process, and if you don't know what it is, you're driving blind. Unfortunately, that happens too often in a lot of places. It would be so much better to hear a trite yet sincere, "I'll get back to you on that."
Say you have 5 gorillas in a cage. Dangling up high is a bunch of bananas, and underneath the bananas is a ladder. One gorilla proceeds to climb the ladder, and the entire group is suddenly sprayed with cold water from a firehouse. Each time a gorilla attempts to climb the ladder, they get doused with cold water, until the group attacks whoever tries to climb up in order to avoid being sprayed.
Replace a single gorilla with a new one. Hungry, it goes for the bananas but is shocked to be attacked by the rest of the group. Replace a second gorilla, and when it climbs the ladder, the same thing happens. Eventually the remaining three are replaced, and even though the spraying has stopped, the behavior continues. Replace them continually until, generations later, they just do it because "That's the way it's always been."
#
Now let's teleport for a minute to my place of work, a city government, where I experienced this very same phenomenon as a "new gorilla". The only difference is, my fellow new gorillas and I are independent enough to not join in with the beating. But oh, what a petty, petty thing I'm going to tell you about.
There are 11 of us in my project group at work, including the project manager whom I shall call... Vladimir (it's my story, I have my rights). Right next to our area is another bureau, which I shall call Bureau B. In between our offices is a lunch room that is used by Bureau B employees. Ever since I started working here six years ago, Bureau B people have been very nice to us new gorillas, all hired circa 1999-2000 (the oldies don't go in there, reason to come later). They offer us doughnuts and pastries (though we rarely ever take any), let us chip in for coffee, and use the fridge and sink.
Close to the lunch room are two refrigerators that "belong" to my group. One of them we each chipped in $20 for and purchased cheap at a junk yard, and the other one was donated by boss Vladimir. Now whenever you "donate" something, it means you've given it to the City and it is then considered public property. Just like the whole building is, and almost everything in it, including office furniture and computer software.
The trouble started when a few months ago, one of my co-workers offered a single Bureau B person the use of our fridge. Before we knew it, a whole bunch of them joined in, and we were running out of room. I personally felt like they had trespassed a little bit. But Vladimir, oh, he was ranting -- because of a decade-old feud. See, one morning some ten years ago, there was a bunch of bagels in the lunch room which, at the time I suppose, was for Bureau B consumption only. One of my co-workers, whom I shall call Igor, brought his own bagel for breakfast. A Bureau B person saw Igor with his bagel, assumed he took one of theirs, and raised a stink about it. Vladimir was royally ticked, and that started the rift. Take note, this was circa 1995.
Fast forward to the year 2000, with 7 new gorillas. Two of the old gorillas warned us to avoid using the lunch room because of a lingering, hush-hush animosity. But it's now 2005, and Bureau B people have only ever been so nice to us. Unbelievably though, just this month, Vladimir ranted about their using our fridge, even muttering, "If they're gonna raise a stink about a bagel...." LOL! He doesn't realize that there's a whole new generation of people in that bureau who don't have a clue about the ten-year-old squabble. And besides the fridge, he's also territorial about the use of tables and rooms in our area. Which I don't understand because, hey, it's city property. We work in a public building! He's living in the past, an old gorilla angry about being sprayed. Needless to say, us newer folks are perplexed by his behavior. We're supposed to be more mature than that.
Unfortunately, this kind of mindset is not unique to Vladmir but is common among the old gorillas at work, and as it is with the fridge, so it goes with bureau projects and personnel alike. It all just spills over. Personal politics and counter-productive territorial behavior run rampant. Us younger ones, who've come from private companies and know what "performance-based", "productivity", and "customer service" mean in the outside world, are often frustrated with the continual ego-fest.
Vladimir might be retiring in a year or two, so let's see what happens when a new manager steps in. If another old gorilla gets promoted though, we can expect more of the Same Old Ways. IMO, that would be tragic (and yet another reason for me to leave).
Lastly, who when asked a reasonable question would feel comfortable saying, like a clueless moron, that "That's the way it's always been"? There's a reason behind every process, and if you don't know what it is, you're driving blind. Unfortunately, that happens too often in a lot of places. It would be so much better to hear a trite yet sincere, "I'll get back to you on that."
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Time Alone (With Dr. M. Scott Peck)
This past week, I've been taking lunchtime walks downtown to find a quiet spot to read a book. This has to do with the fact that I've been super depressed again the last week and a half, after being pretty much okay since January. A particular facet of my work environment (having to do with neighbors and phone calls) is the culprit behind the aggravation, and it's led me to step outside into the sunshine and walk my depression away.
Today was particularly hard, though for a different reason, and I found that once I stepped out into the wide, open space of the city streets, I actually breathed a sigh of relief. And I don't know if it was the open spaces, or the sunshine and the cloudless sky, or just the transition from enclosed halls with shuffling bodies and artificial light. I realized in mid-sigh just how stressed I must've been to actually have to sigh, plus mutter, "Hay, salamat..."
So the book I've been reading in that quiet spot downtown is The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck.
It just blows my mind.
I don't remember when I first heard about it, but I do remember when I got a hint that it must be special. I had a teacher back in university named Jenny Dy, who was our instructor in Electrical Engineering 9. She was young, extremely intelligent, and also very nice. Twice a week during class she'd walk into the classroom, one arm cradling her lesson plan, notes, and EE books. On top of the stack: this neat-looking paperback called The Road Less Traveled. It sounded familiar. It stuck.
A few months ago as I was going through a very difficult time, I sought refuge in literature. Not fiction (my default), but self-help books, which I've been reading more and more of in the last few years. One night I emerged from a nearby bookstore with six, among them The Road Less Traveled. This was back in October, yet I just started reading it this week.
"Traveled" is so packed with the author's ideas, it's just so dense that what I read for a mere 15 minutes is more than enough to have to absorb in the next 24 hours. For example, today I read a section called "Escape from Freedom", where he describes people who whine and complain about their lives yet do not recognize that their lives are in their hands. They are escaping from freedom, because they are escaping from their responsibilities, their freedom to make choices and to act on their situation. They blame other people, or their past, or the situation they're in, but they don't see that the problem is with them.
He also ties this in with how these attitudes are ingrained in us as children. Parents have much power over their children's perceptions of the world. Kids who do not acquire love and security while growing up, who do not see discipline in their parents, themselves become adults who do not value themselves, cannot delay gratification, do not develop discipline, and refuse to take responsibility.
What an awesome book. Thanks, Ms. Jenny of EE9. The second best thing I took away from your class was digital circuits.
Today was particularly hard, though for a different reason, and I found that once I stepped out into the wide, open space of the city streets, I actually breathed a sigh of relief. And I don't know if it was the open spaces, or the sunshine and the cloudless sky, or just the transition from enclosed halls with shuffling bodies and artificial light. I realized in mid-sigh just how stressed I must've been to actually have to sigh, plus mutter, "Hay, salamat..."
So the book I've been reading in that quiet spot downtown is The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck.
It just blows my mind.
I don't remember when I first heard about it, but I do remember when I got a hint that it must be special. I had a teacher back in university named Jenny Dy, who was our instructor in Electrical Engineering 9. She was young, extremely intelligent, and also very nice. Twice a week during class she'd walk into the classroom, one arm cradling her lesson plan, notes, and EE books. On top of the stack: this neat-looking paperback called The Road Less Traveled. It sounded familiar. It stuck.
A few months ago as I was going through a very difficult time, I sought refuge in literature. Not fiction (my default), but self-help books, which I've been reading more and more of in the last few years. One night I emerged from a nearby bookstore with six, among them The Road Less Traveled. This was back in October, yet I just started reading it this week.
"Traveled" is so packed with the author's ideas, it's just so dense that what I read for a mere 15 minutes is more than enough to have to absorb in the next 24 hours. For example, today I read a section called "Escape from Freedom", where he describes people who whine and complain about their lives yet do not recognize that their lives are in their hands. They are escaping from freedom, because they are escaping from their responsibilities, their freedom to make choices and to act on their situation. They blame other people, or their past, or the situation they're in, but they don't see that the problem is with them.
He also ties this in with how these attitudes are ingrained in us as children. Parents have much power over their children's perceptions of the world. Kids who do not acquire love and security while growing up, who do not see discipline in their parents, themselves become adults who do not value themselves, cannot delay gratification, do not develop discipline, and refuse to take responsibility.
What an awesome book. Thanks, Ms. Jenny of EE9. The second best thing I took away from your class was digital circuits.
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