Sagremore

Well, at least it was sunny, making it easier to see the smaller building amongst the towering wastes of space. Still, the new, to me, office was dull and gray., like all others.

A month had passed since we talked, between the paper shuffling; and, formalities that were longer then the status quo, two and half weeks, requested by the older place to ensure they cover up their mistakes and shortcomings; and then, for fiscal purposes, had to wait for the start of the next month, which brought with it the new year, because it was easier they said.

Hated driving my 5 year old jeep, mostly because of pollution and gas prices rising all the time. I cringed every time the key was twisted in the ignition. But because I had to make sure of arrival time and location, I took every precaution available, including talking maps, printed directions and even written down confirmations.

The shoe box looking contraction, for except the sufficient windows, reminded me of the dreaded past experiences and questions like: Is it going to be a cubicle, common room or a shared office? Surrounded by jerks, dummies? What are their nuances? And as usual, What is the pecking order? Some answers I should already know but with the switch, the offer and the ambiguity of XXXAI explanation, I was not completely sure, It just sounded like the thing to do after all.

As I came around to find the entrance to the parking lot, already filling up with cars cooling down and waiting, noticed that at the top there were some parabolic dishes, breaking the straight lines. Once off the car I proceeded to walk to the only entrance I saw. A double wide glass door. Some how barely visible behind it, a small area. The closer I got, I could see a few chairs and a reception area, maned by a individual in a uniform. One though crossed my mind, getting visitor, rarely happens, and food delivered is going to be a nightmare. Once inside the doors, at least, the security seems more serious, no sneaking around, no other doors to the outside, at least with out an eye on it, like me walking up to the badged person.

“How may I help you?” says the guard, the fear that I had, like the one I get at the super-market, the one were I feel I stole something by just walking in, is gone.
“Oh, Hi! It’s my first day” I reply.
“Yes!!! We were expecting you Mr. Silver, Hold On!”

He looks down and types a few short things, nods and looks up again “All Done, just wait here and the boss will come out.”  “Thanks” I say as I get ready to turn and go sit down in front of a plasma TV, which is showing what seems to be documentary on some technology, mostly interviews of Lugh. I’m surprised I don’t know about the stuff they are asking him about.

After a few minutes, probably a power move, Lugh comes out of the only door next to the front/security desk, and approaches me. “there you are, early. I was expecting you in another 30 minutes, I do have a schedule to keep.”
“Well, I wanted to make sure I had enough time to find the place and parking. Sorry, ended up  with a bit of extra time” I explained. “It is okay, just surprised to see that.” Lugh smile and motions me to follow.

Past the door, behind the guards, I saw 2 hallways, one to the right, going all the way to the other side of the building. The other path, straight ahead, next to the outside wall, all the windows letting a good amount of light in, the opposite wall is a mix of doors, picture frames and windows.

Walking down the long corridor, I saw that the frames where a mix of posters, painting, bulleting boards and framed pictures of Lugh with people, devices and different locations.  Some windows had their shades closed, others open, and revealing the offices inside, either empty one or with people, who were staring at papers, monitors, or other people explaining and pointing at the white boards. Looking past them, there were more windows, again some closed, others open. Focusing through the open ones, it appears there is a courtyard, with trees, ponds and benches.

“Wow!! I didn’t expect that.” surprising Lugh, “No one does, I had it done because I figured that it is nice to have for: 1. Moral and 2. Testing purposes.” as if explaining that everything has a more useful purpose other then just been, and then starts again, explaining that the outside is plain and boring, so not to call attention. How at the opposite end of the courtyard, there is basketball court, which comes in handy since it is a bit more confined, just the way he liked to have everything.

“Well, I should have said this first… Welcome!!! I am glad you are here, at last we get to work together” he says “I feel its been a long time coming. But sadly first, we have to get you setup in the system, you know, I.D., password, etc. So we go to HR. Wasting precious time we could use to get started on our projects” As we arrived at the end of the passage where it opens up to  a wide area, with a glass wall toward the courtyard, the basketball court is visible from here and you can see past it to the greener looking part.  There are sofas and another television here, what seems to be a kitchen opposite of the living area, between  offices, framed by an elevator shaft and stairs on opposing sides.

Looking up you can see more offices towards the corners and directly above the kitchen, conference rooms, except for the last floor, which seemed to be an office. “My office on the last floor, is bigger because we have meetings in there” Lugh suddenly said as if he knew what I was wondering about. “The administrative offices are basically here, 1st and 2nd floor so I can keep an eye on them, the rest of the building is all for the ‘creative’ staff” making quotation marks in the air.

“Here is the HR office, all we have to do is to make sure your account is created, get you an I.D. Badge, and any changes that might have happens since you filled out the paper work.” Looking at me disappointed “All this technology and they keep messing stuff up, and I do try to make stuff to help them out. Oh well that is part of why you and I are here.”  Leads me to the corner office and introduces me to the 4 people in there. They show me papers with my information, ask for id and social security card, while I wonder if they do the same in other countries and signing or correcting stuff. He was right they still messed it up, not so bad as other places thou.

It didn’t take to long and we were walking out of the room, me with a binder full of stuff, like employee handbook, insurance cards (rare to start work with those) and fliers for programs and the general stuff that I can or can not do. Walk across the building to the office on the opposite corner. “Please to add Mr. Silver access level 2, here is his badge.” Lugh points at my lanyard hanging  off my neck. One of the guys reads the number on the back and sits back at his desk.

“Now you should be ready to work, so lets go to your office, and then I can get back to my work too.” Lughs says leaving the office. I follow and ask “No orientation?”  “No, the company is small enough, still, that you can get around quite fast, even thou, I will have you meet some people later on and show you some more of building, now I just need you to arrange your office.” We walked back to the hallway we follow to one of the offices that was empty, close to the middle. He points to my badge and then the reader, I place the card near the  black box on the door and a green led goes on, Lugh opens the door and walks to the phone on the desk, dials a number and says “Please send the guys over, thanks.” Hangs up and looks at me “In a few minutes a couple of guys will come knocking on your door, they will help you move the furniture, when you are done, dial my extension, you have it in the binder.” And he leaves.

I start wondering how things should go, since I still don’t know what else I can/should do. There are two doors, the one we came in and the other aligned with the first, towards the courtyard. The widows are also aligned. Looking towards the courtyard, there is a bench right next to the door. Actually this been one of 4 or  5 offices with doors towards the middle. There are 2 desks, I knew it shared, a book case, cabinet and 2 chairs.

I see 2 big guys, who look like thugs, walk by the window, and then hear the knocking on the door, let them in and then say “Shouldn’t we wait for the other person who will be here??” They both smile and the shorter one politely says “Just you in here, sir.” “Don’t call me sir, and really? Just me?” “Yup, just you, sir” So we go about trying to figure out how to fix up the place to make it feel more spacious, both of them been quite helpful “ You do this a lot, don’t you?” I asked as we are finishing, “Not really, but it is part of our functions.”  Pretty much setup my main desk sideways to the back window, so I can see from the corner of my eyes both but if I want to, relax and turn right and look out to the courtyard. The other desk flush against the other window. The book case behind me and cabinet next to it. Last chair tugged under the second desk.

I look for Lugh extension on the binder, first on the top with a note only call when needed to, remembering that he did ask I ring him up. He comes down with another person and starts with “ He will setup your systems while we do the rest of the tour, any preferences on your machines?” “As long as it is based on a Unix/Linux of sorts I’m good, but it also depends on what you want me to do” I admit. “It doesn’t matter what you are running, we have the tools needed, we design them anyway, at least I did most of them” as he grins leading me out of my office, my office?

“I believe that you will be challenge by the project we have for you” Lugh confessed. “You will help develop an A.I. for a prototype system we are building” My jaw dropped, I didn’t know what to say, after years and years of working on small confiding and irrelevant stuff, at last, I was going to get to do what  I always dreamed of.  “When you come back you will find a test prototype of the robot and text on the functions, libraries and ins and outs of it. By the way , I wrote some custom code that the rest of our products are based on.” He finished before showing me around and introducing me to other people, who worked on other things related to the project.