Yeah, I have no idea what is up with that picture either. It is a statue in one of the subway stations in New York.
Working from home is on my mind again. Still in the honeymoon phase, so to say, and I still find different than working in an office. I have not settled on if it is better or worse. I have become more hermit like. At an office you have a mixing and amalgamating of people and habits. And, I was thinking about some of the strange things that happen to people over time at a place like Microsoft.
Such as, there is a quick way to tell how long someone has been at Microsoft: their choice of soda. Most anyone who has been at Microsoft for any length of time sees a change in their soda choice. One of the benefits of working at the big ‘M’ is free soda (and juice and coffee and tea.) Many start off at the normal or diet sodas, but too much of a good thing can suck. So, having your favorite soda every day, multiple times a day, changes your choice in soda. That, and the extra 10 lb. you gain if your choice of soda is not diet. After a few years of sucking down the same soda all day (and many nights and weekends) you just get sick of it. Most people move over time to the Talking Rain.
Talking Rain is a Seattle (actually Preston, WA. But Preston is less of a town and more of a glorified speed trap) area water bottler, they do both still and carbonated water and water/juice combos. At Microsoft there are 7 different types in the coolers, 3 carbonated waters and 4 carbonated water with flavor and artificial sweeteners.
I started off a Mt. Dew drinker, and later had dalliances with Coke and Dr. Pepper, but like many people I ended up on the Talking Rains. The carbonated waters were flavored with zest or essences of flavors, so there was just enough flavor you could taste it, but not enough to have any calories. I did the green (lemon-lime) for a bit, but eventually became a habitual orange (peach-nectarine) drinker.
Strangely, they were not referred to by flavor, but by color. Each type had the band on the can of a different color. Green, and orange, and blue (which was unflavored) were the carbonated ones, and for fun they reused some of the same colors for the artificially sweetened ones. Nothing was quite like expecting a can of water with a hint of flavor and getting a mouthful of artificial sweeteners.
I was thinking about this, mainly because the replacement for free Talking rain from MSFT is out SodaStream Machine
Between the SodaStream and our coffee maker
A fragment of a story or the beginning of an idea or maybe of something I saw on the T (written on the iPhone and unedited, punctuation is a flow-killer on the iPhone):
Old man not shabby at second look but counting two stacks of cash. Each about so high. Dollars in his hand twenties on the seat. Dollars go into his pocket. Twenties into the jacket pocket. All of a sudden after the doors have open and everyone gets in up he jumps off to where he needs a roll of ones in his shirt pocket a stack of twenties in his jacket.
Luke W. McCullough | lm3m @ msn.com | 05/21/2011 | from the living room of the new House of Chaos, Arlington, MA