Still Not Important

People are funny. They want help with stuff they don't understand, but sometimes (and some people), prefer to talk to one specific person about their ills, no matter the knowledge of whoever else is available. I admit to being guilty of this as well, and it's a comfort level or personality compatibility. As soon as you have to step outside your comfort zone, you want to shut down before you find an answer.

Of course, what some people don't realize is how they come off to the other guy. You know, the one who likely could answer the question as well as the person they were looking for to begin with. Such is the case between myself and Optimus Prime. Prime was out today taking care of a bunch of personal business, and I was left to tend the fort. I have no problem doing this, and it's made for a very busy day to where I am totally losing track of time.

But what keeps happening is people walk over to his cube and look in. When they find he's not here, they huff and ask me if he's out today. I tell them he is, and they stomp off, clearly ticked that he dared to take time off. Nevermind that if they have an issue, I'm perfectly capable of- oh look, they sent me an email.

The second version of this same idea is when they come over and look into his cube. They stare for a good long moment just to make sure that if he is invisible, he might notice them and materialize. Upset that the invisible Optimus refuses to materialize, they turn around and look at me. I watch them as they stand there for a very long moment pondering as to whether I'll bite or not. Note, I'm not doing anything as they do this; my headset is planted on my desk next to my phone, and I'm listening to my iPod in one ear.

"You tell me your Commodore is really neat-o.
What kind of chip you got in there? A Dorito?" <-- I still get a kick out of that song

Finally, they summon up the courage to step forward and ask, "Are you on the phone?" Did I mention my headset sitting next to me? I'm also not talking, and I'm looking at them. No, not on the phone. Then they start with the disclaimer, "I don't know if you can help me with this or know anything about it, but..." then proceed to ask me a very basic question. Well, basic to me and Optimus, anyway. I answer, they're grateful. And in my other ear, I hear, "You're just about as useless as jpegs to Helen Keller."

Optimus tells me this happened to him as well. You see, before us there was an entity we refer to as "The BM." The BM is the guy who helped to program, test, and implement the product we currently support. He's still a go-to for assistance on it, and continues to watch it and tweak it, though he doesn't do near as much as he used to on it. Optimus told me that when he started, it always bugged him that people would want to confirm everything he said with The BM, or worse yet, ask him to check with The BM to be sure.

If I don't know, I will check to be sure. If I do know, you will get no hesitation as to the answer. Doesn't change the fact that occasionally, I'd like to control-alt-delete some people if possible...