The Creative Section at Socotra House experienced a technical melt-down requiring direct assistance from Tech Support. Which was actually Will from the Shore Patrol, who had been an Intelligence Specialist while on active duty and was competent to plug things in. Or vice versa.

There had been a couple days of tech trouble. We are not talking about the two FA-18G Growler jets that collided at an Idaho air show. The aircraft cost a little more than $65 million apiece, so it is an expensive thirty second clip. Aside from the horror of impact, the welcome sight of four good chutes and both crews safe made the table sigh with relief.

That transitioned into the harried process of attempting to wake up enough people to produce a cogent Daily. It is a chaotic but thorough review of all events that show up on the phones and tablets with FOX blaring on the big screen.

The tech wrestling started after Miles pronounced he was OK with the story and mashed the “transmit” button. By the time he got back to his in-basket, there were 15 rejects to the Daily and more mounting by the milli-second. All of them with a brief note saying: “Nope. Tried a bunch of times and then gave the hell up. Ball in your court.”

You can imagine his reaction as he clicked through each failed message looking for clues to identify failures. Dead recipients? Network issues? Has the expected Cyber Catastrophe originating from Iran starting? The change in tone through the Conference Room to the Galley was immediate. A text went to Will in Tech Support.

Forward!

Tech and social issues joined as Will began shutting down the six or seven digital feeds behind the big screen on the north wall. While we waited, the Flat Yank Coffee in the thermos got cold and our two crucial contacts with management staff stopped by for our morning ritual.

That is usually a quick briefing on what is really going on around here and a complementary serving of two shot-glasses each from the freezer of an Italian Lemoncello and EverClear delight.

We have established this relationship in order to gain early warning on what is really going on inside the twelve story labyrinth in which we live. We have found one shot to start the meeting’s vigorous discussion and one to finish it is an appropriate start to the working week for all of us. It keeps us even.

No more than that, of course. We try to be responsible in our business meetings.

Will was cursing at a frozen screen on the wall. “What are you guys doing? These imagery slides all have like eight pictures embedded in each one, so your ‘single image’ posts are actually like ten pictures in density. Then you put several of them in your stupid stories. You are choking the system! You have got to reduce the size and number of insertions or the whole thing will slow down and crash. Creative people can’t think sometimes!”

He stood and left for the elevator to go look for something interesting. Splash suggested another brief meeting with a stop at the freezer but Miles gave him a stern look and a gesture to sit down and be quiet.

Miles rose and suggested we go down to the south patio and have the post-production session outside in the brilliant sunshine. There are reports of bomb cyclones out in the nation’s midsection and the first real warm day of pre-summer here.

The war hasn’t quite erupted in the Gulf, and we may as well enjoy the day before we have to come in and learn how to reformat .png files into .jpeg formats and see if we can make the digits fly more accurately. The temperature is expected to scrape 100-degrees for the signal start to the hot season. Forward, Creative Section.

And smaller!

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