Neanderpundit

I worked for a graphic design firm.

A design firm is sort of like an advertising agency but they don’t make any money off the placement of advertising space. They have to live or die off the quality of their design work, and this small mom&pop shop (Literally) had been doing so for years when I came along- ostensibly as sales but I ended up automating most of the business end of the business for them, which helped them immeasurably, I like to think.

At the time, there was a guy who worked in a local bar playing piano and organ. He was very good, but he had almost no other skill as he was blind from birth. His hobby was making audiotapes of thunderstorms, and he had an amazing collection. I used to go listen to them with him, I can still sit and listen to a thunderstorm for hours, I love them so much.

The design firm had to do some work for a very demanding customer, and in order to make sure there were NO mistakes, we did full color proofs. This process was very expensive and very unusual- the fiunished product would look exactly like the proof, except that the proof was sort of “layered”, for lack of a better word. You could easily feel the texture of the different overlapping and intersecting colors because of the way the proof system functioned.

My friend was aware of the flash of lightning, but no more; he had never seen it, and once mentioned to me he would like to have his sight even if only to understand what it was like when lightning raced across the sky.

I knew what I had to do.

I had a friend who had access to a Mitchell GC 35mm camera, and we set out to do a little photography. We set the camera up in a good solid storm, and waited. We managed to catch four lightning strikes on a 100 foot roll of Ektachrome. The processing was not cheap, but we did it. We picked the best sequence, a good arc that spread across the sky and branched into a good half dozen “fingers”

We took those prints to the proof house.

The proof house, once they understood what we wanted, did the prints for cost. There were six prints all in all, and they were a series that showed the lightning strike from the initial “feeler” to the bright arc. The best part was, you could feel the ridges of the arc as it slashed across the paper.

We took the series of six prints to our friend, and he opened them up, wondering what silliness would drive me to giving him six photographs. And then he touched them.

He kept going from the first to the second to the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and tracing the lines of lightning as they arced across the picture. We played the recording of the specific strike so he could imagine it moving as he touched it.

he cried and cried.

Sometimes you don’t have any idea how a tiny, seemingly insignificant thing can affect someones life until you understand how much it means to them. Do you ever look around and see whose lives you might be able to affect?

Today I was asked by the chief of the apps department if I wanted to do apps work.

This kind of blindsides me. Our apps department is the ne plus ultra in the industry. Our guys are the best, and they are so heavily sought after, that they are booked through the next year, if not more. There are only six of them, and they are all incredible individuals.

Our whole company is pretty tight, and we do any number of things better than anyone else. Quite often I hear our customers saying “We never have any trouble with (my company). other servicemen come in and spend most of their time on the phone. (our company) comes in, does the job, and gets out”

We do. Even our worst serviceman makes most other serviceguys look like pikers, and our apps guys make other apps guys look like gophers.

This job is a little bit about programming (Which I understand, I’ve done wood and nonferrous programming for years; I’ll have to learn a few things but not many)and a lot about understanding materials, tools, machine capability, etc. which is an education in itself.

The work that I do, is mostly outside the norm- I’m not “service” and I’m not “Apps” but i do a little of each type of work. I do a lot of things that fall through the cracks in both areas, and I rely heavily on fifteen years of robotics engineering as well. I will never completely stop doing the things I do now, but… wow.

It’s a little like being asked to join the Seals. At this point in my career it’s unusual for someone to get a gig like this, and while it may be about them trying to change my workload, it ‘s also at least partially because they don’t like the idea of hiring the kind of people who are available at the moment. So they’re willing to train an old fat man. I don’t think there’s any of it I can’t handle. I don’t think there’s any of it I won’t get good at. I feel honored to have been given this chance. Watch this space.