About the picture

I know somebody's going to ask about this, so I'll just say it up front.

Everybody who saw the picture failed to notice my dashing figure. They just ask, "Who is the man on the picture on the wall? Actually, why is there a picture of a man on your wall?"

Fear not, I haven't been hiding in the closet or anything. Unfortunately, the actual answer is somewhat convoluted and, at the same time, boring. I know some people won't believe it, but it's the harsh truth.

When I started off at Logient, there was a lack of space, so I ended up in the corner cubicle¹. A rather lousy place for somebody whose main job was technical lead. One guy left, leaving me the adjacent cubicle. That was already better. However, when I moved, somebody pointed out that Guy, the guy who's picture was on my cubicle wall when we took the orange hat picture (still following all that?) had held a similar position to mine, and had his picture on my former cubicle's wall. So, lacking a picture of my own, some prankster pinned it to my wall.

OK. Fast forward a few months. Some events free up space in the office. So I get to move closer to the windows, and I jump at the chance, as my eyes get bad quickly when I can't look outside. This is the cubicle I have on the orange hat picture.

Nothing much is planned where I work when it comes to office set-up and such, so I just take all my stuff and put it on the new wall. This included a rather large database schema I needed at the time. This also included the picture, as someone reminded me to bring it while I was moving stuff. So, without further thought on the matter, I just pinned it there to shut people up and moved on to more important things, such as my wonderful Fujitsu 4726 keyboard.

Fast forward a few months again. The window seat is great, but there are no real blinds, only some sort of semi-transparent thingys. When the sun is setting, I get it smack in my face². So I put on my sunglasses, which help a bit. That made people laugh, so I put on the hat, and the earphones³ on top. The picture is so strange (I look like some weird American jet fighter pilot or something) that co-workers rush to get the digital camera.

So, to summarize:

• The guy in the picture is Guy, a former Logient employee. I met him once, and that's it.
• His picture is on my wall because it was on my cubicle wall before and somebody complained he'd feel "left alone", so I humoured that somebody.
• I really look silly with an orange hat.

I'm not in the habit of discussing anything about work, but, well, this had to be explained.

I hope this clears up any misunderstanding. Thank you.

---

¹ We don't really have cubbies at Logient, it's a big open area, somewhat loft-like. But there are a few partitions. They don't cut out the noise, so everyone hears me swear all the time, but that's why we have earphones. The partitions are to hang things on, because many walls are naked red brick, which don't appreciate thumbtacks too much.

² I guess I shouldn't complain--it's one of the nicer spots. Or so I've been reminded many times by co-workers when I complain about the sun in my face.

³ The big earphones are supposed to get people to understand that I'm coding, dammit, and that I don't want to be annoyed. It worked for about two hours. Maybe I should start wearing torn jeans and spike bracelets.