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Blogathon Workspace, 2:30 AM

A company I was working at in the East Coast US a few years ago had a fire-drill. The fire-alarm which while piercing and loud to the normal ear, wasn’t audible to me because my digital hearing aids which were programmed to my hearing needs and to filter background noise didn’t detect the fire-alarm.

As a result, most of my colleagues had stepped out of the building while I was hunched in my cubicle typing in my computer, oblivious to what was going on! Fortunately, it was nothing more than a fire-drill.

Most fire-alarms are usually audible through the hearing aid these days. However, it doesn’t hurt to be careful and be more cognizant of the surroundings.

Blogathon Workspace, 2:00 AM

Since I hadn’t heard about Carpathia before, this Carpathia rescue story gave me an idea.

Why is that we tend to remember disasters more than heroic efforts? Villains more than heroes?

Why is it that we recognize and reward people more for solving a problem than for preventing the problem from happening in the first place?

Blogathon Workspace, 1:30 AM

I’m going to use the rescue card Dave Olson gave me. Earlier this evening Dave Olson stopped by each of us blogger’s workstations and handed us a bunch of cards, asking us to pick one.

Mine had an old black and white picture of a ship named Carpathia. Dave with his charming smile and storytelling skills told me that Carpathia was the ship that rescued the survivors of Titanic. Unfortunately, a few years later, in World War I, Carpathia was torpedoes by a German U-boat.

Dave gave me this picture postcard of Carpathia and said that when I ran out of ideas to write at 2 AM or so in the morning, I could use this for a blog post. And so, here it is. Thank you Dave!

Blogathon Workspace, 1:00 AM

Looking at some recent corporate layoffs reminds me of a few layoff announcements I saw a few years ago.

“They will transition to roles outside the organization”.

“They will be allowed to pursue opportunities outside the organization”.

“They will be counseled on other opportunities available.”

Does candy-coating make it sound any better?

Blogathon Workspace, 12:30 AM

Just another random rambling. Something I’ve been thinking about.

I love scientific thrillers. I enjoyed Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. I hadn’t heard about his earlier novels, but I got caught up in the Da Vinci Code hype back in 2003. Come to think of it, it wasn’t that much of an action or a suspense novel, but there was something about it that made it a phenomenal best-seller. Soon, I too found myself applauding it. I then went on to look for his earlier novels and found that I liked Angels and Demons better. I then read his Digital Fortress and Deception Point, but they weren’t as good as Angels and Demons.

And then I saw Geoff Pullum’s scathing criticism of almost all of Dan Brown’s novels, and re-read them. I couldn’t disagree with Pullum. How did I miss such things? Was it the media hype? Would I have enjoyed Da Vinci code just as well if it wasn’t a best-seller, but just another book by an unknown author on clearance sale for $2.00?

What makes a best-seller?