I had to work the other night. This last week has been a bear, I’ve worked long hours every day and even got pulled in both Saturday and Sunday… I’ve been the only tech available while HE took a 2-week vacation. When will I ever be able to relax and take time off? Time away from everything and not just one day here and there extending a weekend so we can go somewhere for someone else? Fuck! When lord, when? When’s it gonna be MY time!? Sorry, slipped into a muddled movie quote there… Anyway, I never thought I’d be happy to see the AntiChris come back to work.
So the other night I went outside for a break and found some of the AT-controllers sitting in the break area. They have their own world and draw a clear line between techs and controllers. Techs keep the world flying and controllers’ shit don’t stink. Something like that… Anyway I was surprised when they called me over. They asked if I knew the stars they were pointing at. They knew it was the “Summer Triangle” but couldn’t remember the names. I identified them: “Deneb, Vega and Altair” although I couldn’t remember the third constellation; “Cygnus, Lyra and…um…”
“Aquila” a voice behind me said. Another controller walked up while we were sitting there and he had his GoogleSkyMap out. It’s a very cool toy and everyone wanted to see it. My brother showed it to me before so I’ve seen it. I stepped aside and was promptly forgotten in the clamor to look at the admittedly cool gadget.
I went back inside and got back to work but I started thinking, what’s the use in knowing things anymore? I’m good at Trivial Pursuit and Jeopardy but out here in the real world, what good is knowledge anymore? When everyone is linked up to a hip-holstered internet portal, the only measure of knowledge is how fast you can sling out your iPhone and navigate to Wikipedia.
In a couple of years when the solar max peaks and you guys lose your omniscience because of mass satellite failures, you’ll come running back to me asking, “Hey Morgan, who was that guy with the wicked eyes who played Charlie Manson in that 70′s TV movie?”
I’ll know, without the internet, that it was Steven Railsback. But maybe I won’t feel like answering…
July 21st, 2010 at 4:46 pm
it’s more than just recall, though.
Critical thinking and the ability to searate the real nuggets from the white noise is still important.
Intuitional leaps, and logical process to derive answers from the data is pretty important too.
So I guess you still have to stick around to provide answers after all, keep the battery charged on the phone, bro.