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A Day in the Life of MorganMaintained by Space Monkey |
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A special note from 'The Screen Savers' own Morgan Webb to the TSS newsletter beta testers. Welcome to The Screen Savers Beta load bearing newsletter. As a special break from the regular newsletter mumbo jumbo, and as a reward to our faithful beta testers, I bring you my self-indulgent behind the scenes "Screen Savers" Spectacular. To those who could care less about the flippant work-a-day meandering of the world famous Windows Tipper, all I can offer you as a reward is the knowledge that future generations of newsletter recipients will forever be in your debt. To the rest of the voyeurs out there, lets start at the beginning. I arrived at work at 8:15 a.m. this morning, a touch later than usual, but still early enough to get a street parking space within a mile of the office. After arriving at my desk, I turned on the television (to watch the Screen Savers morning repeat, 11:30 a.m. Eastern) and settled into my bagel and egg sandwich from McDonalds. I would love to have stopped and gotten a real bagel or something for breakfast, but in the interests of time and a good parking space, I opted for the artery- clogging-time-saving option. I live in San Francisco, and I take my parking very seriously. I'm sure my doctor would understand. It seems like a typical day in the office so far, the lights are still off (sometimes we like to work by the lights of our computer monitors) and the sound of our station on a hundred TVs lays a lonely mumbling buzz through the dim cubicle farm. A fluorescent green pogo stick rests abandoned against a file cabinet. We've all learned our lesson about that particular item -- we have low ceilings. I'll leave the rest to your imagination. I sit on the aisle exposed to the critical eyes of every passerby. Fortunately, the next passerby is friendly. It's Cat, come by to send the good morning word. We chatter for a minute or so about the people we are trying to interview, the segments we are planning, gossip about the up and coming in portable storage devices. She leaves to get some work done and I start working too. Tux stops by next (see what I mean about sitting on the aisle? Everyone comes to visit). He is a little late for work, and carries a morning latte in his flippers. He seems a little grouchy today. I take a sip of his latte and get a faint whiff of fish. Tux wiggles his birdie butt into my extra chair and grumbles. "I want to quit," he says. Until now I had been paying only half attention to Tux, the other half still lingered on my windows tips. His statement made me turn around quickly. "What??!?! Why?" I ask. "First," he says, "I'm broke. People aren't paying for Linux anymore. How am I supposed to get better if no one wants to pay." I feel bad for my unpaid home Linux install and gave him $5. I resist telling him that his daily $3.50 latte might have something to do with his poverty. It irks me to think that only $1.50 of my $5 will go to development, while the rest will go to a trendy mixture of acidic coffee and reconstituted non-dairy creamer. Oh well, I should have paid him a long time ago, and I did have a sip. "People will come around," I tell him. "You know, people will abandon Windows and come running into your feathery arms soon enough." I try to sound chipper, optimistic, hoping he will forget my daily tips about his nemesis, the Windows operating system. I am part of the problem I know, not the solution, but sometimes a kind word is what's necessary, a little optimism in a sea of pro-windows thoughtlessness. "But you do Windows Tips every day," he retorts. Oh well, so much for kind words. I know he is just having a bad day, so I keep my cool and keep trying to cheer him up. He feels a little slighted right now, like he should have made more progress into people's homes. I tell him that success doesn't come overnight and to have patience. I tell him that he has already earned so much respect in the business and IT sector. I suggest that the caffeine has made him anxious, and maybe he should cut down (and I secretly hope he doesn't spend my money on a double half- caff whip cream frapp tomorrow). I offer him a conciliatory package of Smarties. He accepts and seems to feel better, then waddles off to his cube. Later, Tux sends me an email apologizing to me for the Windows Tips comment. He was feeling bad, and "doesn't begrudge me any involvement with Windows. We are here to teach people about technology. All technology." Thanks Tux, couldn't have said it better myself. Just another morning in the life of the Windows Tipper, I save computers, save Tux, save the world. It's great to be a Screen Saver. -- Morgan Morgan Webb is a segment producer for "The Screen Savers." She is also the show's Windows Tip master. Got a great Windows Tip? Send an email to Morgan at moragan@techtv.com.
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