ktheory.com

I was about to go to bed just now, but decided I’d read a few AIM away messages
first. Good thing I did, because I checked href="http://taoofberg.blogspot.com/">Berg’s away message, which led me to
his weblog. The most
recent post reminisces about our summer jobs at IBM, where we were supposedly
inspecting chips for Nintendo Gamecubes and Playstation 2s.

I have experienced boredom in its purest form, and it was my manufacturing
job at IBM. All other boredom pales in comparison. On a given day, some hundred
thousand chips would come through our work area, and it was our goal to see as
few of them as possible.

Here is a list of behaviors that allowed us to see as few chips as possible:

1. Flipping screwdrivers was a good way to pass the time, although we maxed out
   around 3 flips. Attempting more flips would usually result in us stabbing ourselves
   in the hands and forearms. Unfortunately, even screwdriver flipping gets boring
   after an hour or so.
2. Web surfing is pretty much my de facto boredom mode. At work however, I was
   expressly not allowed to do it. (There was a quid pro quo that you could surf
   the Web only to check the weather or IBM’s stock price.) Thus, I surfed with one
   hand on the Alt and Tab keys, ready to switch back to legitimate work as soon
   as the boss cracked the door. Homestar Runner
   and The Best Page in the Universe were
   popular.
3. "Work poses" were my personal favorite. Work poses are comfortable
   poses in which one does no work, but one could begin work at a moments notice
   (that is, when the boss comes in). Occassionally, there would be a cart full of
   scrap parts that we would need to push to some other part of the factory. Once
   full, I would stand near the cart, not doing anything, until my boss walked in.
   Then, I would start pushing the cart as if that’s what I had just gotten up to
   do. Sometimes I would stand by the cart (actually, leaning against the cart, because
   that’s lazier) for a half an hour until the boss checked in on us.
4. Taking bathroom breaks every half hour, and going to a farthest away bathroom.

Um, there were more but I should go to bed now. Talking with Berg had a lot
to do with that job being sufferable.

Today, Andy asked, "Aaron,
where’s the action?" by which he meant "Why haven’t I been posting much
recently?" I don’t have a good reply, but I hope you will accept the above
as action. For lots of action, see Ben’s Bloggs
are dumb and so are you.

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