Finding the 5th Way Out

It's been a long time and many things have happened worth writing about, but I have found it almost easier to write short snippits for Facebook. That aside, it's about time I addressed this year's Adapt Or Die at work piece. We moved to a new building, built just for us, something cool, that young people would love, and old folks would get used to. Bottom line, the company saved a ton of money and we all get to work like we are in a boiler room for a time-share business. The first day, I didn't think I was going to make it, I mean I could BE there, but I could not seem to work. I was truly struck numb by the volume of noise and movement of people. At the time, my best comparison to friends was I felt as if I had parked my computer at an end-cap at Costco. I quickly invested in expensive noise-cancelling headphones, but found they did not address the constant visual distractions. We had almost 400 people packed into this place and it seemed like all of them went by my desk at least several times a day. There were good things, really good, free coffee, and soft drinks, even Red Bull. The building boasted the best WiFi I have ever used and it is entirely possible the WiFi saved my life and sanity. When I was a kid, I read this Science Fiction short story by Robert Heinlein and I can still remember the dramatic first sentence: As part of an experiment, a monkey was put in a box with only 4 ways out...the monkey found a 5th way out. As I sit here, at a picnic table, outdoors in 60 degree weather, enjoying the sunshine, the sound of the wind through the trees, sipping good coffee, working on my laptop, I realize that I too, found a way out that was not imagined by the builders. Who knew that happiness was less than 1000 feet from misery...

Hunger Games: the missing scene

I saw the movie Hunger Games last evening and was a little confused until I later found out that a scene had been removed to protect the rating of the film. The missing scene would have helped a lot:

- Catness (our heroine) and Rue (her younger and smaller friend) are walking through the woods when they suddenly encounter one of the competitors. He is poised and ready to throw his spear in an effort to take out Catness, the main competitor. Catness moves quickly and grabs Rue and uses her as a human shield. Rue takes the spear in the chest and appears mortally wounded. Catness sees this and in one move, snaps Rue's neck and tosses the lifeless body aside. Still moving, she draws her bow and brings down Spear boy with a single arrow. He is lying on the ground moaning as she pulls his head back and starts sawing on his neck with her bowie knife. There is an terrible scream that is suddenly silenced, until it is picked up by the mocking birds. The camera switches to a silhouette shot of Catness holding his severed head up to the sky. Jumpshot to each of the remaining competitors, trembling as they hear the awful echoing sound from the birds and the sudden realization that it wasn't the evening gown they feared, it was her Heart Of Darkness...