March 3, 2022

So. It's been a while. I've changed, and so have you.

I confess: I never stopped thinking about you. I always wanted to come back, but it was a bad relationship.

Yet to my great annoyance, in all the years since I left, I didn't find anything I liked better, or even just as much. Apparently I can't shut up about it either, to the annoyance of my local meatspace.

I want to come back. I hope I'm not the only one. Great changes have happened; more will come, as surely as the weather changes with the seasons. It will never be the same, but that's okay. It was never going to be the same.

I have some ideas about what to do now. Concrete, actionable, practical. I needed time to write for myself, and now I find I am sick of writing for an audience of one.

Let's see what happens.

The main break room has a Looney Tunes clock. It gave every indication that on the hour every hour the appointed character would call out. After a few years wondering why it didn't I finally grabbed a chair to take it off the wall. The sounds were optional and switched off.

So began the plan.

I turned it on and set it to the lowest possible volume. I let it sit. And every so often I went and turned up the volume just a touch. After nine months it finally reached full volume and after more than 4 years no one remembers any different. Today I revealed my secret to the second highest ranking manager on site. He loved it. May this grease the wheels for my work inspired parody songs entering official training materials or Quality Assurance announcements.