Oct 13, 2006

This one's for you Chris!

Today is Chris' birthday. Chris is not only a friend, he is also the head of my workplace's IT department. Chris is a great get-together, fun, open-minded, accomodative fellow; he's my PC guru, master of all 0s and 1s, my Gandalf in the realm of computer programming for 17 years.

I was but a a humble typist back when we first met. He had come to upgrade our DOS based Volkswriter word processor to Windows 3.1. and Microsoft Word 2.0. I ooohed and aaaahed at how easy it was to to add headers and footers and by Jove! it could add footnotes! I was the first typist (we were three) to fully appreciate this new innovation by some guy named Gates. (And... it EVEN had minesweeper, awesome.!)

Chris probably realized early on that he would have his hands full with me when I first fiddled with the control panel making the work page AND the lettering white and then freaking out that I couldn't see WTF I was typing. He was called in that day for emergency PC mouth-to-mouth. He looked at the screen, looked at shamefaced me, raised an interrogative eyebrow and mouthed the momentous query that was to follow us throughout our friendship and collaboration. What. did. you. do. to. it?

Many a time he has come to my rescue. Lost files, misguided mouse clicks, unsuccessful OS formats, you name it I've pulled my hair out over it however, my friend waved his wand and made it all better. Chris first introduced me to the phrase "there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers". Encouraged by this motto, I've bombarded him with any silly computer thing that came to mind. He always answers.

So, in light of your birthday Chris (Friday the 13th is a bummer, I assume) I dedicate this post to you. I thank you for all the times you could have strangled me - but didn't, all the the times you could have just told me to "look it up" - but didn't, all the times we've sat over some machine and crossed our fingers it would come back to life - most did.

Happy Birthday!

Work-related posts:
All in a day's work, You any good with computers Part I, Part II, Ummm, my computer won't start, What does your mommy do, little girl?

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