lyrical musings

Lists are a personal favorite of mine - I use them all the time, to keep track of things I want to do, need to do, or simply want to keep track of. You’ll see them featured here from time to time - some facetious, others of a more noble nature. Tonight I feature a new one:

The Top 10 Things I’ve Learned About Smithfield, Virginia

10. Dirt roads are abundant. To get to work, it requires traveling several, whilest only being a few miles from a major city. How odd.

9. Speed limits are optional - unless you’re somewhere near a certain company’s plants. Most roads don’t even have one posted.

8. The smell. There is no way to describe ‘the smell’. Just…go with it.

7. It would be faster to travel to Smithfield by boat than car for most.

6. You can easily pick out the locals from the employees of a certain company.

5. There is a pig on the water tower. Or so I’m told - I haven’t seen it myself yet (due to the direction I travel).

4. Don’t speed around a certain company’s plants. This deserves a second mention due to the fact that the Smithfield Police spend their lunch hour betting on the number of employees of a certain company they can catch between the hours of 1 and 5 PM.

3. There are an inexplicable number of attractive women employed by a certain company. Most are in the form of interns, some foreign exchange students. Why they choose to work there, I have no idea, but, all the better.

2. There are some really nice fishing piers there. Check them out if you’re in to that sort of thing.

1. Man, this list had a point when I started….damned being tired all the time.

Ah well. When I originally thought up this post, it was supposed to be funny….so much for that idea. Time to go study for a useless Physics 152 exam.

Oh, one more thing - as the title of this blog is lyrical musings, I thought it important to explain why that is so. I frequently set lyrics to events in my life, and so it seems appropriate. Occasionally, I’ll close a post with lyrics that have some sort of meaning. So, here we go:

“I don’t want your advice, because you never win. Peer pressure - I don’t give in.”

I figured since I had some post-work time this evening I’d get around to writing that introductory post I’ve been promising myself I’d write for some time.

Over the years, I’ve had a whole slew of blogs/online meanderings I’ve either worked on, co-authored, or originated. I was never very good at keeping up with them, and in some cases (LiveJournal), took an incredibly opposing viewpoint on them. (My rant about LiveJournal will come up at some point, I’m sure, but to summarize: change LiveJournal to BitchJournal, and you’ll have it’s day-to-day usage).

With that in mind, I’m going to use this space a bit differently. I have no intention of forcing regular updates - they’ll come when I feel like it and will be sporadically timed. They won’t all necessarily be in the post format as this one is, you’ll see below a posting of some BS homework I was working on.

If you’re wondering, this blog will be primarily tag driven, save the MX6 category. I own another domain (prosixmotorsport.com) which I use for keeping people updated on the progress of my Mazda MX6 that I’m rebuilding. That domain points to the MX6 category page.

I’ve got notes in my mind as to what this blog is, and what it isn’t, which I’ll share at some point. I promise I’ll also get around to fixing the tags and writing an about page - just as soon as I get to it.

In the mean time, feel free to comment on anything you see here, or use the contact form to get my attention should I ignore you for some extended period of time.

1. Would you be comfortable working in a hyper-flexible organization like Google, or do you prefer a more structured environment?

I would be quite comfortable working in a hyper-flexible organization like Google. I frequently find that I can be most efficient when I am allowed to adjust my schedule/timing/task as new information comes in, ‘roll with the punches’ if you will. Having this fleibility would allow me to complete more work in less time, making me more effective personally and for the organization.

2. Do you think Google will be able to retain its organization informality at 10,000 employees? 20,000? Microsoft has 61,000 employees.

Google being the incredible growing organization that it is will always maintain some resemblance of informality. That being said, I would be surprised if they are able to maintain their current level indefinitely. Their management structure has been designed to allow them the ability to make people feel as if they are free to go about their business, and for the most part they are, yet still gives upper management someone to hold responsibility should a deadline be missed or a product not up to standard.

3. Draw a corporate structure diagram for Google.

Not pictured.

Ugh….I hate BS busy work assignments.

At long last, the MX6 is finally out of the ‘rents garage and down here with me in the ‘News. Time to get cracking on her and get ready for the summer AutoX season. Stay tuned here for more updates on my progress…