10:23 p.m. | 2005-03-31 Everybody Has A Different Agenda. Some Are Just More Different Than Others. I have to say that I�ve never seen the following item on a meeting agenda. Proper Business Machine Behaviour I didn�t know quite what to make of this topic but, I have to admit, I was hoping (with my fingers crossed) that the copy machine was about to receive a very, very serious reprimand about its consistently nasty behaviour. Yeah. Not the case. Surprisingly, I discovered that the employees, including myself, are the business machines that were the subject of this topic. Apparently, work is the food that nourishes us and while we�re feeding on such, we have to act right no matter the time of day. Ha. I�ll give the approach ten points for creativity. Each decade, since the industrial age and well before, spins that message differently. Basically, it�s the �you can be replaced by a robot� message. Except this time, I guess the robot has to be properly mannered. At all times. Which a robot would be until it suffers a short. Hence, the huge flaw in that whole �you are a machine� theory. Even the copier knows that. It was offered up in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, but it did get me thinking. I mean, again. It�s a recurring theme after all. This time around? I�ll accept work as my food as soon as they install a shredder in my stomach. Well, and provide a very handsome service agent. In other news, I�ve not been updating. (That�s not really news but whatever.) I�ve been working on an important project which is consuming much of my time. And, special message to Giallothang, you ROCK, and I�ll be getting back to you. Finally, an interesting situation occurred recently. I was amongst many people that I converse with and see on a regular basis and one person made it a point to come talk to me. Not a big deal but it�s not happened before with this particular person. It happened when I was talking to someone else who is quite tall. Here�s some of that. (OnePerson:) Hey CI. (CI:) Hi, OP. (OP:) So� how tall are you? (CI:) (Looking up at OP who�s also quite tall.) 4�11��. (OP:) Ha! Every 4�11�� person who says that is actually 4�9�. Everyone knows that. (CI:) (?) Really? That�s fascinating. My driver�s license says I�m 5�0�, so I guess you don�t buy that either. (OP:) 5�0�? Wow, you�re really reaching with that. (CI:) Oh, of course. Really, I don�t know what that was about. I actually am 4�11�� tall. And, I measured 5�0� when I got my license. I either shrunk or the measuring was off a little. What�s interesting to me is that no one has ever questioned my answer. I�ve never been, uh, challenged about my height. And frankly, I don�t care about my height. But, I am intrigued that someone else (a really tall man) took issue with it. Perhaps, this was his attempt to make small talk. Heh. I�ve never spoken directly with him, so maybe he was trying to break the ice. If that�s the case, more power to him. Interesting approach and it got my attention. Mind you, this was work-related and not the dating game. (Had it happened in the dating arena? Yeah, calling me a �liar� and throwing about bizarre 4�9� stereotypes at the first approach would have garnered a drink in the face response.) Meanwhile, I continued my conversation with the other really tall guy � who�s slightly taller than OP � and he seemed just as confused as I was. Oddly, in my experience in the business world, really tall and really short people don�t normally throw about the perfunctory tall/short jokes because we hear them so much from the outside world and it�s really not pertinent to the work that we do. It�s pertinent to a lot of other things though. Like grocery shopping. Where are all the tall people then? You want to call me 4�9� in the market when you�re over 6�0� tall? More power to you. I wouldn�t even talk about it here. It�d be odd, of course, I mean to insist that I�m 4�9�, but I wouldn�t care because sometimes I just want something from the top shelf. That�s all. But, then again, I�m just a short business machine that feeds on my work and, sadly, doesn�t have a shredder installed in my belly. So what do I know? The copier is the real drama queen. Trust me on that. your thoughts? seed flower