Daily Archives: May 18, 2005

Farewell Littleton

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Shortly after my employer opened an office in Littleton, I switched over to that office.  Driving to Burlington from Fitchburg took an hour plus every day, and the drive to the Littleton office was only 25 minutes.  The Littleton space was, how shall I put this, a dump. It was however intended to be a temporary space–an in-between while we sought nicer digs in the area.  We were only supposed to be there for 3 to 6 months.  Then the recession hit.  We were there for 2 years…

My company's headquarters used to be in Bedford, which was also somewhat dumpy, but nicer than Littleton.  Then we moved to a much fancier office in Burlington which had all sorts of pleasant features.  There were potted plants everywhere, and a curious color scheme on the walls (some walls were white, some purple, and some ochre).  At the time we had a healthy Unreal Tournament clan, and as clan map maker, I built a map modeled from the floorplan of our corporate headquarters (you can find it on FilePlanet), and used a digital camera to sample the office walls, floor, and ceiling textures for the map environment.  It was a blast to play in.

But getting to the office was hellaciously difficult.  Route 3 had not been widened yet, seemed to be permanently under construction, and was basically a big parking lot.  So when the Littleton office opened, many jumped at the chance to go there.  At the time I wrote a parody of the song “Tainted Love” about the Littleton Office, here's how it went:

Sometimes we feel we've got to
Run away we've got to
Get away
From the painful drive down old route three.
The traffic there (whoa-oh-oh)
Seems to go nowhere
But we'll win this fight–
We will go even though the new space is tight!

(chorus)
Once Bedford would do (Bedford)
Now HQ's small too
In Burlington we're livin'
That's why down old route three we've driven
For brand new chairs and purple colored walls
Oh… Burlington (whoa-oh-oh)
Burlington

Now we know we've got to
Run away we've got to
Get away
We would share a cube to avoid route three
We'll take the drive
Down old I four ninety five
You may think that's a long way
But it beats sitting on Route 3 all day.

(chorus)
Once Bedford would do (Bedford)
Now HQ's small too
To Littleton we're goin'
Even if the rafters and studs are showing
Fourteen guys in a squalid mildewed stall
Oh… Littleton (whoa-oh-oh)
Littleton

Don't stop us please
We do not care if it's got FLEAS!
No lights, heat, or network, no
We're still gonna pack our things and go
Littleton (whoa-oh-oh), Littleton (whoa-oh-oh),
Littleton (whoa-oh-oh), Littleton (whoa-oh-oh),
Gonna go to Littleton
Gotta get to Littleton
Littleton (whoa-oh-oh)
Littleton (whoa-oh-oh)
Littleton

But after two years, the “allure” of the Littleton office was wearing thin.  So we were all grateful for the news that the Westford move was happening this month.  Stacks of orange moving crates showed up, and people began packing up their stuff.  I was so busy I didn't have time to pack, and ended up doing it at the very last minute.  I was at the office packing late on a Friday night, with the movers scheduled to come Saturday morning.

Then the move happened, but I was working out of Burlington for a project, and too busy to come and unpack.  Finally the network guy informed me that the shippers were coming the next day to pick up their crates, and I simply had to unpack that night.

“Okay, I'll head over there tonite.  Is my access code programmed into the alarm panel?”

“Yes.”

“You're sure.”

“Yes! Yes!”  (Like most network guys, ours is short on patience, especially during a week where he moves an entire satellite office.)

So that night I showed up at the very cool looking Westford office, punched in my access code, and set off the alarm.  Apparently I was NOT entered into the system.  Fortunately the cleaning staff were around to shut it off while I called the alarm company.  A half hour later a coworker of mine showed up and discovered that his code hadn't been entered either.

“Fuck!  Chuck!  Quick, give me your code!”

“Mine doesn't work either.”

“Dammit!”

“WOOP-WOOP-WOOP-WOOP…”

Not a fun evening.  But I did manage to get my incredibly cool cube unpacked and familiarize myself with the floorplan.  On the following day I took a walk around the grounds and I was impressed.  There is a small pond on the property, and a marsh all along the south side of the parking lot, full of birds.

There's an abundance of wildlife around the place, probably due to the marsh and pond, and each day I walk there I see something new.  Nice place!

Check out my Westford Move Photo Album for more pictures taken at the new place.

Culture of Fear

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When he released Bowling for Columbine, many assumed Michael Moore would lay the blame for the Columbine shootings at the feet of the NRA, gun industry, and gun enthusiasts.  Instead he largely pointed the finger at the culture of fear which we live in, particularly in America.  He made this case by pointing out that there are other countries where the citizenry are similarly armed, and yet they don't have anything like our rate of shootings, even when adjusted for population.  He pointed out that another thing which distinguished the USA from other countries is how our news media regularly scares the piss out of people to try and secure viewers and thereby ratings.  A gun is a bad thing to have in the hands of a scared person.  Why am I on about this?  Well…

Recently someone posted a question on the Geocaching Forums over on Groundspeak:  “Do you carry a firearm when geocaching?“

As you probably know, I'm not against responsible gun ownership… I've stated my position on guns before.

I posted that I would not carry a firearm while geocaching and was asked why, so I stated my case.  Then, as if by hidden signal the gun nuts crawled out of the woodwork and began launching vitriol at me.  This of course, was not unexpected, and not really the point of this article.  I kept hearing of the need to protect oneself from violent crime, from wild animals, etc.

Because you know, the woods are just crawling with criminals.  One European cacher pointed out that most Americans feel safer when they come to Europe.  What a surprise.  They're not being bombarded by terrifying American news there.

A solid diet of American news will make one afraid to step outside one's door in the morning.  Another thread on the same message board was a warning to geocachers to be on the lookout for meth-amphetamine labs while hiking in the woods.  And the fear culture is alive and well.

The moderators at Groundspeak have issued warnings to people to stay on topic, so no real discussion of whether one *needs* to carry a concealed weapon while geocaching can take place there.  Too bad.  It's an interesting topic.  Check it out if you have time.