Recesses of Delight

People move in office like cranks and valves, driven by processes and years of algorithmic goal-setting. Between common courtesies, however, are velleities of diversion, little recesses of delight in the cubicles. Take these, for instance:

'The base file already has parent/child MTM relationships identified. There are 3 child MTMs (orphans) that do not have relationships identified. If all potential children can be standalone units then parent child relationships will be established'

That was a quote from some abuse my hardware-configurating software gave me. It puts hundreds of components together into neat block diagrams and assemblies. These parts, some of which are orphans and some potential children, have names like '2423 Linux partition specified', '5682 Dual Port RIO-2 I/O Hub' and '9988 processor activation decoupled' (names have been changed to protect identity etc.).

I had sent a mail to a customer. Typo in address. And therefore a message: "the recipient does not like you"

Google's betting everything on search-based ads I believe. I use gmail; I like the prodigious storage and I ignore the ads. After a mail conversation with a friend, where she mentioned another friend's marriage and also that Bangalore is cold, I have received three ads beside my inbox, one for winter motherware, one for maternity bras and one for paternal leave consulting.

All this in one hour, between robotic transactions and people fobbing work onto one another in the ennui of Jan 1st week, and the uneasy silence before your manager sits with you to take stock and plan ahead.