19 December, 2006

Pitch Black

Okay, not really—but with it being overcast and gloomy outside and the lights periodically going out in here, the lumens are a bit scarce. You see, between the Great Purge of '06 and the impending holidays, the cubicle farm in which I sit and craft my tight, elegant code is a ghost town. Even the tumbleweeds seem to have packed up and moved on to greener pastures.

Therein lies the crux of the apostrophe, because the fluorescent light bars are on an electrical circuit controlled by a timer and a motion detector. If nothing within its cold, uncaring gaze moves for 10 minutes or so, "Boom, Boom! Out Go The Lights!" This pleases my taskmasters, because it not only means that I'm head-down, being productive instead of getting up for a cup of coffee or a trip to the men's, but it also saves electricity.

So far today, the lights have gone out half a dozen times or so, and it's making two of the three remaining cubicle farmers a bit goofy around the edges (the third is a dour chap who, frankly, doesn't see the humor in much of anything).

The last time it happened, I heard a snort and a chuckle, then "Lights out... uh-huh... blast, blast, blast."

Peter Wolf, "Lights Out". Nicely played.

I jumped up out of my chair and gesticulated to catch the attention of the motion detector and turn on the lights.

"Tha-row ya hands in tha air, and wave 'em like you just don't care!"

And there was light—but also dead silence. I guess adding that last "WHOOP! WHOOP!" was just a bit too much.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Holla back! There are far too few people like you in the world Foo.

That's a bad thing if you were wondering. ;)

Tink
http://pickledbeef.blogspot.com

Jenn said...

I thought perhaps your title meant something about a new Riddick movie. bummer.

So they turned work into a Pink Floyd light show?

Foo said...

Tink: Still having trouble with the New And Improved BLOGGER, eh? Anyway, I'm not quite sure what I did to deserve such a nice compliment, but thanks for that.

Emma: New Riddick movie? Turtle and I only got around to renting that one a couple years ago, and it had already been out for a few years by then.

Speaking of light shows, one of the geeks who's far enough up the food chain to have an office cooked up the notion that we cube rats should wire our little labyrith with lights and program them to synch with music (see last year's post.

He apparently has a lot more free time on his hands than I have.

Jenn said...

Well, Pitch Black, then Chronicles of Riddick and I haven't seen the third one (animated) but I liked the stories.

Crying Fowl

This morning, at the end of this week's obligatory commute to the office, I turned in to the driveway and was accosted by the biggest ho...