Wednesday, September 12, 2007

  • My Farewell Address (Sans "Beware the Military-Industrial Complex")

    I always count my blessings that the Earth is—beyond a reasonable doubt—round and without end.  Our ancestors put up with misconceptions about a flat planet for years, but could modern man even handle the notion of a “terminal edge”?  We have evolved into a species that always fears the finish, and our habits verify this fact (when was the last time that television-watchers were satisfied with a series finale?). Of course, this idea is no better put to work than by our farewell customs: people these days would prefer a novelty e-card to the warmth of a genuine goodbye hug, and I’m no exception.  This is one reason why it will be difficult to wrap up my internship at DailyMe come the end of the week. 

     

                Yes: by this time on Friday, I will be putting my seat in the full upright position in preparation to land at an airport close to college.  But before I recede from the blogosphere completely, I’d like to reflect on some of the DailyMe team members who made my summer fun and informative (FUNformative!).  The first word that comes to mind is “roast”, but those are usually done with permission. 

     

    The CEO/Founder a.k.a. The Founder/CEO: The dual-title alone explains why this guy got the corner office, but don’t think for a second that our fearless leader lacks humility.  This is a man who shares a refrigerator with his employees, which says a lot more than “Please! Call me by my first name, and shorten that to a nickname if you’re promoted to management”…we have that policy, too.  The Chief was never a stickler on time, but time was often cruel to him.  Like the time he bought three atomic clocks for the office, only to find that they were out of synch.  We did “eeny-meeny-miny-moe” to decide which one read correctly. 

     

     

    Mrs. Boss a.k.a. 20-Words-Or-Less: I’d like to keep this reflection short and sweet, because that was my direct supervisor’s style.  She has plenty of fun things to talk about, but wait until lunch to hear about them.  Always the champion of focus--Mrs. Boss can bring a meeting back to center from just about any digression (just about any digression), and sometimes manages to fit an eight-hour workday into six.  She taught me a lot about Sales and Marketing (her two areas of expertise), and skillfully wore both hats throughout my internship (three hats, if you count the DailyMe manual-fit cap we produced for a convention).  But seriously, goodbye to my partner in crime, and biggest fan (second to my grandmother).

     

    The V.P.s a.k.a. The Veeps a.k.a. The Two Programmers a.k.a. Thing 1 and Thing 2:  These guys only have one thing in common—their job--but it happened to be the only thing I was using as a basis for nicknames; this is why they have been aggregated for the sake of description.  Not that they really mind, having spent months aggregating your relevant news with their well-tweaked DailyMe algorithms.  You could almost say it brings things full circle.  Either way, these are some very particular characters: they like their work hard, their lunches cheap, and their cubicles by the window.

     

                At the end of the day, I’m happy to have worked with such a lively crew.  These co-workers taught me both the written and unwritten lessons of working for a company, and the only ones I neglected to learn were in messy cursive.  I will sign-off now, but not for the last time.  I plan to make guest web appearances throughout the school-year, and cannot wait to keep you posted on all irrelevant things DailyMe.  (And of course the actual launch of DailyMe, scheduled in the upcoming weeks!)

     

    Goodbye all!

     

    As always – Peace, Love, and Personalized Media.

     

    -John the Intern

     

    www.dailyme.com

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