Blake Schwendiman's Blog and Blook

Prologue

Monday, 05 June 1995 – 8:48 a.m. MST

Quinn arched back away from his desk to stretch out. His fingers played quickly across the keyboard. He smiled. His first real job. He had graduated from Arizona State University in the spring of 1995. It had taken much longer than he had planned to get through his bachelor’s degree. He glanced up at the graduation card from his good friend, Bob. Congratulations! It read. You did it in just three terms – Reagan, Bush and Clinton!

He smiled again. He had interviewed at dozens of companies and had been offered four different jobs. It really was the job market he had hoped for. He finally settled on a small startup in Phoenix called AccuTel switches, a company specializing in high-speed networking equipment poised to take on the giants in the industry. Quinn knew that within a few short years his stock options would be worth millions, maybe more, and he was ready for it.

“Quinn, you’re needed in the conference room in ten minutes,” sounded the voice of the secretary over his desk phone. He lurched up instinctively, a little startled to be pulled out of his reverie.

“Thanks,” he called back, not completely sure if he could be heard. He pulled up his calendar and confirmed. He was expected to present his ideas for a better algorithm for packet loss identification and retransmission. He marveled at how fortunate he was to be able to make such a critical presentation to the whole company being so young. It was that which interested him the most about working for such a small company.

He glanced at his email inbox. It was cluttered and disorganized. Already a hundred new messages awaited response or categorization. “Spam”, he thought. His email reflected his generally disheveled manner in life. His small office was completely unorganized. Boxes of personal items still awaited unpacking. A small collection for the recycle bin formed behind his desk phone. The only time he had apparently spent in his office was to hang his authentic Revenge of the Jedi movie poster – one of the few – and to arrange a small Darth Vader diorama on his bookshelf.

No time like the present¸ he mused as he began opening his new email. Spam, spam, company, he thought to himself as he categorized items. Spam, spam, spam, Definitely Spam, he continued. Spam. He paused. He stared at the message for a moment.

To: qsorensen@sorensenaz.com

From: kbutler@worldcto.net

Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 23:38:23 -0000

Subject: Re: Interview

Mr. Sorensen,

Thank you for your quick response. I would be happy to meet with you after the holidays. My schedule is relatively free in the first week of 2005. I suggest meeting on Tuesday, the 4^th of January. Please confirm this time with my secretary as usual.

Sincerely,

Kevin Butler

Managing Editor

World CTO Magazine

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Quinn looked at the message for a moment longer. He began to drag the message into the trash bin. He paused then copied it into his personal folder. His calendar beeped, indicating that his presentation was about to begin.