I can add two more observations to my list of ways life in different from on high:

From the NY Times comes the best paragraph I’ve read all day:

There are many versions of the clich

I’ve been under the weather lately, which has caused me to start pondering some odd things. For example, what’s with the phrase “sick as a dog”? Are dogs continually sick? They seem healthy to me.

One thing I’ve noticed about moving to the 29th floor – no one goes to starbucks to get coffee anymore. After all, who wants to go down and up 29 floors just for coffee?

Our office moved this past weekend. Overall the move is good – our new building gives us more space, a better facility, and a much nicer view. (29th floor, windows on the south, west, and north sides). However there is one thing that really irks me. For some reason when people think of putting a “lab” into the new office, they don’t think “suitable for human habitation”. Instead they think “let’s put some lights into a closet, haul in a few leftover tables, and we’ll be fine”. The problem is that people hear “lab” and they don’t think “office”, despite the fact that it’s really the same for us. The lab is next to the network closet and is ungodly loud. We also don’t have desks like everyone else in the company – instead we have these little workbenches that are fairly low to the ground and force us to hunch over if we want to work on a computer. We’ve also been told that we won’t have access to corporate network (including having a telephone or the ability to print), but we’re fighting that one. It’s not so much each individual thing which bothers me but the overall attitude towards us “lab monkeys”. People think that because it was the name “lab” it should be treated differently and somehow the people in it won’t need the basic ammenities that everyone else in the “office” gets like desks, light, and a work environment which is less than 80 decibels.

Incidentally, if anyone knows of a good cheap and simple way of blocking sound from coming through the wall I’m open to ideas. At the moment my only idea is to buy a cheap quilt somewhere and hang it on the other side of the wall.

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Originally uploaded by bachrach44

This billboard across the street from my house has been….. modded