Essay For This Week

{Ring-Ring-Ring} "Hello, Winton." said Winton.  "Hi, this is John, do you have the raw data for those maps that you promised me" "Yeah, um, I'm very sor..." "I need that data, if you don't have it now then get it to me by Wednesday" said John "I decided to bring two guests along on the mission, and you see, because of them I forgot entirely about the imagery" "Well, get it to me" "Will do" "Wait, you can't redo your flight, so.." "I'll use the video that the camera took, though the images won't be that clear, it ought to be usable to you still" said Winton "It will, thanks, see you on Wed., bye" said John "Bye to you as well". said Winton

Winton was sitting in his study at the time looking at the very images that were the still frames from the video that his computer had just finished processing. It was true that Brad especially had interrupted Winton each time that he tried to take real imagery for John. On the other hand, Escome stayed out of the way so much that both Winton and Brad were worried about him for most of the flight. Now both of them had gone home to rest and recuperate. As it was nearly 9 pm he then went to bed.

The next morning (it was Tuesday) Winton spent most of his time manually attaching tags to each image that would have been automatically attached if they were real photos. Throughout his day he was contemplating ways to make Brad repay him for the time he spent as Brad was the real reason that he needed to spend time adding these tags to the photos. Since it had been about a week after their flight had ended he was also trying to wonder why he hadn't already done this tagging.

Then, in a spout of rage and anger he picked up the phone and called Brad. He got the answering machine, but didn't hang up, instead he said: "Brad, if you were here right now you'd be hanging up because DUE TO YOU I've had to waste a whole Tuesday of my life tagging video still images that YOU made me use. Please call me back if you have the courage to be lectured deeper on what I've been saying. Your friend (hopefully), Winton". Immediately after he hung up he felt bad and sad for sounding so horrible on the phone, yet meaning so sensible in his ways.

He then spent some time making the Data-DVD of the images and their extensive metadata. During this he came to the conclusion that Escome might be a good mediator for his near inevitable talk with Brad in the near future. So, he quickly called Escome and made sure that he was up to being such an important part of this conversation. He was, so Winton said that he'd call Escome and tell him to get over here before calling Brad to get over to his house to try and settle this immense argument-to-be.

The next morning Winton drove over to John's office to drop off the disc of imagery for the maps. John asked Winton to come in and see for himself what his imagery was destined to become. Inside there was a huge projector attached to a small computer that had just one slot-loading disc drive. John inserted that Data-DVD that Winton had made and picked up a small remote. After a minute or two of the disc spinning it's contents was displayed on the screen and a white outline was around the one that was selected. With the remote John could choose which images were good enough to be used for the mapping that he was going to do. The images that were good enough were copied to the map server and included in the master index of files for the map. Immediately after that job was done Winton was escorted out and then he drove over to Escome's house to ask him if being a mediator was something he knew how to do. Escome did know how, so he told Escome "I'm planning on inviting Brad over to my place at around 10:00 am Thursday, is that a good time for you?", Escome replied "Just tell me what room you two will be in and I'll be there by 10:05 am". Winton said "The second sitting room on the left side of the fourth floor". "Okay, see you then" said Escome.

That night when Winton returned to his mansion to find that there was a message waiting for him on his phone, it was from Brad, and said "Winton, it's one thing to kick me off 2,000,000,000 foot high cliff, but quite another to drag your little brother and I on a mapping mission without either of us knowing that's what you were up to. And on top of that you accuse me of getting in the way of that mission when I had no way of knowing I was since you hadn't informed me of that goal of yours was one you needed to accomplish. I'll come over to your house at around 10:00 tomorrow to receive this lecture of yours regardless if you want to say it still or not and regardless if that's a good time for you or not. Till that horrible hour, Brad". Hearing this Winton could only be thankful that Brad dealt with getting himself over to Winton's place without Winton needing to anger Brad by telling him to.

It was 9:57 am the next morning when Winton was setting up for his talk to Brad with Escome as a witness and mediator. At exactly 10:00.30 am Brad rang the doorbel alerting Winton that he was now breaking the door down to barge into the mansion to hear the so-called lecture. He was greeted by Winton in the sitting room and was handed a glass of water meant only for drinking, not for splashing the only other human that resided in the room at that time. Then, at 10:05.00 Escome sat down in the chair exactly halfway between Winton and Brad to help mediate their conversation. Brad began with "Get on with it already Winton, I have another thing scheduled for 11:00 am, so I'm currently on a tight schedule". Winton replied with "Fine, then just listen and don't say a word. When you took the keys to my plane out of my hands I was afraid that you may have stopped me from doing my mission. Then, I'm sure you know what official mapping image technology looks like from the user side, so why you kept interrupting me when I was trying to take those pictures I don't know but I only hope that you had your reasons and that you weren't doing it just to be silly. I only want a direct and concise apology from you for your actions a week ago, not anything in-depth, just say Sorry. On top of that, back in the woods when we were hiking you handed me a defective knife, but be glad it still worked because otherwise we'd still be stuck out there and I would've lost my official license as a pilot since the mapping mission was key to them still letting a millionaire like myself be a pilot. Therefore I need an apology for that as well. Go on, say sorry for both". Brad said, "Sorry for handing you a defective knife and Sorry for taking those keys to your plane away and Sorry for interrupting you half a dozen times per hour when you were trying to take quality images for those maps that someone hired you to help them with". Winton said "Thanks a lot Brad, you can leave now, I hope you get to your conference or meeting or whatever it is your going to next on time". To Escome he said, "As long as you recored all that you too can go".

When Winton was all alone again he made himself a nice and yummy sandwich and watched a movie on his computer while listening to the recording of Brad apologizing over and over again. He was looking for some dishonesty in Brad's voice that he knew ought to be there given how long he'd been friend with Brad.