The Old Clock Radio

Okay.. 

First of all for all you politically correct individuals who will want to question both the usage of HNIC and nerds I can just say to you get over it.  Now that was easy.

I am the Head Nerd in Charge.  I manage IT for a small community college and that moniker is my own.  Self deprecation keeps me somewhat humble but not very much.  I am a nerd.  I have always been more interested in how things and processes work than I have people and their "issues".  And I have realized now as have crossed that magical middle age boundary that I had a nasty habit of applying those same problem solving skills on people.  Empathy was not my strong suit.  But coming up with solutions on how to solve the problem as "I" saw it was.    

But those skills which have made me a decent troubleshooter for routers, switches, servers and other instruments of mass communication over the years have not necessarily made me the best person to talk to a soul.  And now that I have turned all that analysis inward I hope to make the new year a time to reflect more upon others as they are and not upon how they work.  I want to enjoy people.  Many people in my position have sometimes developed an "attitude" toward the "end users" but these are the people who make us relevant and validate our existence so to that end I would like to have a vehicle to keep myself in check.   

In my Little Red Book With My Poems In It (yes I'm a Floyd fan) I finally put down a thought on this thing I seem to do at times:

You can't pull me apart

like an old clock radio

How I tick is none

of your business

If you pull out my

heart you'll never

put it back in its proper place

and it will be 

bruised and scratched

unable to keep sound time

You don't need to know how I work

Just watch me dance

Because my sway is erratic

Doesn't mean I am broken

Don't pull me apart

like an old clock radio

We all have so many quirks and ticks and habits but in a country that prefers every exit of the interstate to look just like the next with an Applebys, BP, Cracker Barrel and a Super Walmart the temptation to conform is strong.  So we tend to hide those special gifts which make us unique until  somewhere along the way we lose track of who we really were.

Hopefully these musings will allow me to explore me.  And if anyone else finds them of benefit that would be okay too but to be honest it really is for me.  If I could cite a song which might be relevant it could perhaps be from Eulogy by Tool.  

"He had a lot to say.  He had a lot of nothing to say."