Interview Triggers Recall

Many years ago I was interviewed by the local Ma Bell Company. They gave me an assignment. I developed an elegant sampling model to assess strategic changes for telephone booth elimination. They were impressed but said -- I was not a good cultural fit. The company had deep pockets and would assign resources to monitor usage 24 x 7 for a sample of weeks to get the data needed. I could not agree more, that I was not a good fit. It turns out that neither research approach took into consideration “mobile phone development” which began that year. Adoption predictors and modeling could have been part of that research.

When I was a part-time bank teller in 1978, I was asked for ideas about how to improve customer service. My 1st experience as a business client. All the long time employees answered –add more part time tellers during peak periods – such as lunch time or Social Security Check Day. I said maybe we can manage the lines – I had read about Queuing Theory in my Research Methods class. A few months later the Bank (CBT) introduced the queued bank lines. At the time I did not know that process improvement would be in my future and how many ways I would participate in creating 'non-object' solutions.

These two stories can to mind after an interview today. I had not thought of either in some time.
~~
I like to connect what appears to be random dots and create value and have fun doing & documenting it. I have been participating in Distance Learning on 2 fronts these past few weeks and my head is swimming with input that I have yet to fully digest, may never due to the sheer volume. One has 25,000 enrolled the other 40,000. It is the patterns I am seeing in the interaction that has my attention -- but my exposure has been random and I need to test my assumptions. What I do know is that both increased my interest in working with a small team with a shared vision to feed my 'being human' need for being part of something larger than self.

I have an artifact to create (class final assignment) so I will turn to that now...

Memories Are Fallible

When do you remember?  Is what is remembered what actually happenned?  Lately I have been pummeled by remembrances; depiction of incidents that others are using to characterize ... and it makes me wonder what presets & triggers are involved in memory...and how these presets align with the original occurances and can impact the eventual outcomes. 

I tend to be soft spoken ... but I can be engaged; and erupt.  99 % of the time soft spoken is obliterated by the 1% eruptions.  The nature of volcanoes - when the release happens all that is nearby changes. And they occur near "hot spots" and they do not occur randomly.  They are vents.  Vents have an essential purpose to release and freshen.  Sometimes freshening happens after many life cycles. 
 
If the 'hot spots' do not get addressed occurrences hardened in the memories that prevail - and unearthing will yield data that informs about the presets & triggers. An interesting finding about volcanoes is that people can be content with the ideas they have about what creates them - and remain uninformed.

It is the 1% characterization with a counterpoint of withdrawal , like a turtle, that encourages me to consider other landscapes for the creation of memories. If the presets aligned with the 99% of my experience; then maybe the vents will freshen.

Anonymous - a stalker in the clouds

There are bots that hyperlink words to commercial endeavors and maybe even clarifying definitions  and then there are humans that choose to post as anonymous. What is feared is the day they come out of the cloud because their motives resemble the unknown motives of Adam Lanza.

My remaining thoughts will remain unblogged, for now.

My Desktops Frighten Me ... old poems distract

I save so much for a quick return that chaos ensues. My Desktop resembles my life.  So, I distract myself . I find some words set down nearly a decade ago when I imagined a poet within. Imagine I must.

p.s. it was not you after all!

The song refrained
I want
to TAKE YOU
FOR GRANTED.
And I
Realized that that is a quality I seek
In a life partner
And you seem to want the same
things, the security of cuddle, a generosity
in deciding upon another's needs
The reliable, voice embrace
For sweeter sleep.

I am
attracted in my marrow to a gentleness
In you

So unexpected that I
do not want to disappoint you
or me. 

You proceed with every caution
yet remain attentive like
an eager once starved lover:
To taste, to savor, to imagine
a picnic or festival or dinner
for two

I want a smart man, a man's
Man. I fail to question these qualities
Of you 'cause I need
a father for my son. I desire
To be

The sum of my parts, my
past resides in me and him.
Would that I could
speak of beauty, fear and for
-nication.  And, yes
I would rather sip the wine
With you

Because when I drink
I want to Take You
For Granted
if it is you
That I am to Cease
refraining from.
We wait

stomachs talking
later to drift to sleep
on pillows that remain
our own.

 

 ~~

So where to from here? I will try tasks again. I did promise to find the poem Deerkill, an even older vintage of recycled words and pass it along to a hunter. We discussed guns because that is happening, talk of guns, in light of the Newtown shooting -- claiming innocence and rattling our sense of humanity.

Deerkill

traffic inching, mind rushing
anxious tempos that traffic does not halt
then doe in a heap -- as carcass comes into view.
already, traffic news warns
deerkill is slowing traffic to a standstill on a daily commute paved through wild life, far to the south,
same route
others are slowed by 12 hundred pound alligator
sunbathing

slowed by innocent
crashing
over white line
into white tail
waking stomach, mind, recall --
the men in Vermont had a deer camp
and bright orange vests that kept them
from shooting each other.  This I remember
as the topic turned
to guns
words
declared over beer
Using guns
against deer is shamefully unfair.  A deer
will feed my family for a winter, maybe more
It is a sport.  It is an industry.  It is food.  It is
an excuse to own a gun.
Opinions emerge.  Positions unify.  Energy clarifies.  Stark disconnects
speak through a congested atmosphere.  The private
school down the road has a rifle range - good
marksmen get credit toward graduation.  A boy
I knew got credit, he said he would never
kill deer

It does not take expertise to kill.
Passion, fear, retaliation are killers.
When paths cross, bullets, roads, knives,arrows
cut to the quick .  The archer
had killed deer many times
with a bow and arrow.  Said this was more fair for the doe
then guns...he trained his aim for hours, days, weeks, seasons
of deerkilling,
this hunter without a gun.  He could not buy a
gun, he knew accidents happen.
He knew.

I saw a deer by the highway shoulder
out of range of guns, arrows, and for the moment
cars
I looked back as traffic slowed over concrete, the super trail filled with rushing hearts
stopped
by one dead doe.  Accidents
happen. Can't buy a gun. Can't practice for credit.
Fear stops me. Like the alligator, my blood runs to warm
in the sun.