Dan Antion

The Over-Exposed Power of Turnips

OK, a little bit of information management. From Javits Center – years ago.

The title might not mean much to you, but it saved you from a recap of the conference I attended last week. I was going to try to wrap a story around Intelligent Information, or perhaps intelligent information managers – a group in which I hope to be counted. Still, this isn’t a technical blog – been there, done that – so I should spare you the talk about the AIIM Conference and information management.

I was going to go that route because the snow storm which forced me home ahead of schedule also forced me to change the schedule of my blog posts. I had a post written and scheduled for today. It was to be published as I was traveling home from Iowa. I was going to complete the illustrations while I was in Iowa. Which I wasn’t, so I didn’t, so…the AIIM Conference. I figured you guys could handle one work-ish-related post. But, you were saved by Ellen, Teagan and Janet.

How’s that? You ask.

The title, remember the title?

Maybe this would make more sense if I told you that the title was going to be “Unintentional Inspiration.” Unintentional, because if you read those three blog posts, I don’t think the lovely ladies were trying to inspire. I might be wrong. Ellen may be trying to urge us to activism, you never can tell with her.

I’m sure you understand the way blog posts that we read often inspire us to write a similar/opposing/supporting blog post of our own. When I see a post like that, one of three things happens:

1) I respond right away with a, SoCS post, like I did when Ellen wrote about trains.

2) I add the link to a note in Evernote so I can come back to the subject in the future.

3) Options one and two seem like oh so much work, and I just reblog the original post.

I read Ellen’s post on Friday. I didn’t want to rattle off another in-response-to-Ellen post on Saturday, lest you think that that’s all I know how to do these days. Read Ellen, respond to Ellen. Teagan’s story arrived on Saturday and I added it to the list. I normally wait until I have three items to write about, so that list could stew for a while. Then, on Sunday, Janet posted, and the list was complete.

Ellen told a humorous story about being arrested in New York, and in our comment discussion, we talked about an issue that has always held my attention – the way that people with small amounts of power abuse that power when dealing with others. Since I had just returned from a trip, I had a fresh example.

Airports are steaming with power. Uniforms, weapons, body-scanners and people who give instructions. Do you notice how some people give instructions to politely inform and some give them to convey the notion that: “this is my domain and this is how you will act”?

A gate attendant at one airport fell into the latter group. Why? Flying is already a miserable adventure, why make it worse, just because you can? More important, why not make it a little better, just because you can? The attendant at the gate next to mine made an announcement every time someone asked a question:

“Flight ### to New York is NOT open yet. We will open the flight an hour before departure and we will answer your questions at that time.”

Each time more terse. Each time, an embarrassed person returned to their seat and the attendant returned to pecking away at her phone.

Teagan’s inspiration was much more personal and clearly unintended because, well, because I don’t know how she could have known what I think about turnips. ‘Turnips’ was one of the three things in Teagan’s story.

Note: If you’re not familiar with Teagan’s serial stories, you really should take a look.

Anyway, Teagan wrote about turnips and it reminded me of my dad. My dad loved to eat raw turnips, and I followed the way a child often follows a parent. We used to have a game. We would each get a turnip and start peeling it with a pocket/paring knife. The objective of the game was to peel the turnip in one long strip – like that really cool M.C. Escher drawing. I thought of that while reading Teagan’s story, and it made me smile. I like to remember the things that make me smile.

Janet completed the trifecta – three unintentional inspirations in three days – by posting an over-exposed photo of a china pot for Cee’s Oddball Photo Challenge. It made me think of the photo below:

A little over-exposed. But, I like it.

That’s the Javits Center in New York. I had been trying to learn how to use the manual settings on my camera, but I had forgotten to put it back on ‘Auto’ before snapping that shot. As Janet says in her post, “I like it.” The gallery includes some of my other photos of the Javits Center – I’m fascinated with the building.

Thanks for the inspiration ladies!

Cranes outside the Javits
Almost a crane and lines, I like lines
Looking up into the main lobby
I would love to climb up there.
Peeling Head
The Javits
Crane, reflection, lines – sweet
I attend a lot of conferences in the Javits Center in New York and I never leave without snapping a few photos of the glass and grid.

58 comments

  2. Javits Center is an incredible center and you are a great blogging buddy to those you follow. I will have to read Ellen’s story later and the entirety of Teagan’s post, but I zoned in on the turnip soup recipe. It sounds delicious. Who can resist turnips, leeks and BACON?

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  3. Speaking of the under-rated turnip… as a kid my mother would save some raw turnip pieces before she cooked the rest for Dad – I liked raw, he liked mashed and mom hated both – go figure.
    Being as I can be probably be the worst photographer ever, I admire your enthusiasm to learn the manual settings – good work on the Javits Center, a very unusual building indeed.

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  6. Whenever inspiration strikes, it is precious and should be acted upon. Unless that inspiration suggests you should buzz all your hair off. Trust me on that one ;)

    Today’s summary – cranes, turnips, petty little power people and life over-exposed. Dan, it is a treat to follow your train of thought :)

    btw – I love turnips both raw and cooked, and the long unbroken peel reminds me of my mother and oranges. Funny how this passing of impressions moves from one to another :)

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  8. My memories of Javits are primarily of aching feet and, as assistant editor the one year, serving as greeter for the AIIM Show and Conference (back when the “show” part was huge) one year (because THAT was an excellent use of my time rather than attending sessions or gathering information for the magazine, but I digress). There was a fashion show at the same time as the AIIM show. After the first 30 minutes, it became REALLY obvious who was going to which event — predominately black/fashionable ensemble and it was “go left and walk down the end of the hall about a mile” (or at least that’s how it always felt at Javits) and then the, let’s just say, less sartorially-inclined, “Welcome to AIIM. Straight ahead to registration to retrieve your badge.”

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    • So I missed my chance to meet you 10 years earlier? Damn. Yeah, the Javits, end-to-end is a hike. I would think it would be pretty easy to distinguish between fashion show and AIIM show, especially when it was coupled with On-Demand.

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  10. Oh, Dan, look what you did here. Not only do I have to enjoy your post, but I have two others that I know I’ll like that I have to add to my reading list! :-) I’m glad you found inspiration in my lid photo (actually the lid for a cooking pot, rather than a china pot) and I liked your accidental shot, too, as well as that last photo. Now back to getting ready for tomorrow’s trip and don’t worry about Yosemite photos. When was the last time I went somewhere and didn’t bring back photos to share? :-)

    janet

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    • Thanks Janet. I know I can count on you for photos, but I thought a little extra incentive couldn’t hurt. It’s so weird that you had that photo yesterday. I took that Javits photo years ago, but it’s always been a favorite of mine. I thought it was probably just me and my quirky taste. This really worked out well.

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  12. Dan, wish I was as organized as you about writing posts. As you know, I post about people, and very little SOC personal things! Probably why I enjoy reading what opposites like you (and Teagan) write. Even find your building structures, angles of metal, fascinating! 🎶 Christine

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  14. Okay, airports and power: A friend’s husband was going through security and was told to take his belt off and send it through the scanner.

    “I can’t,” he said. “It’s attached to my trousers.”

    He’s British, so those are trousers, not pants.

    Whoever told him to take the belt off told him again. He repeated the reason he couldn’t. They went back and forth a few times and he said, “Okay,” and started to take off his trousers. Which activated several official-type people, who all immediately tried to stop him taking his trousers off.

    They let him through with the belt.

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    • As I understand English, it’s a good thing they didn’t get so far that he took his pants off. Some of these people in power have either forgotten how to think, or never knew how in the first place. In any case. if you write something inspiring next week, people are going to talk :)

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      • I’m feeling massively uninspired myself right now, so no promises. But, oddly enough, a fair number of the posts that I think kind of miss the target do get a good response. Which goes to show you what I know (not much).

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        • I am always amazed when that happens. It shows that we don’t know how things will resonate with others. Of course, I’ve also labored long on posts that go almost unnoticed, so…

          I don’t know why, I attribute it to the all-knowing-Internet-oracles, but on Pinterest, I’ve been getting a number of historic travel posters of train travel to and through Cornwall. I do like trains, but I’ve never saved anything about Cornwall – until these started showing up.

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          • Ah. there’s a beautiful line along the south coast, built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (how’s that for a name?), who was warned not to build it there but did anyway. And as sea levels rise and storms get fiercer, it’s been washed out once already. If you found pictures of trains almost engulfed by waves, that’s where they were taken. There’s talk of moving the line inland, but of course no action. If you want to see it, hurry before it gets swept out to sea.

            Maybe the lesson of the posts we thought were good that provoke no reaction is to publish the ones we don’t like. I may have to do that anyway, since nothing more interesting is popping into my head.

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  15. I DO despise the abuse of authority, and I hate the inconsistency of people vs. policy. I DO love when we get inspired by others :) I think this took a great route today!

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    • Thanks. The petty powerful people bother me, but you can never confront them, at least not the ones in an airport. What I really like is when people share stuff and it just happens to inspire. That’s fun.

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  17. I think you could say over-exposed trifecta, and not in a bad way. This is why I love blogging, we all tend to touch each other with our posts and often in unintended ways. Now I will click your links because I am sure they’re not “mean” and will work. Sorry for the long comment.

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  18. I have had the opportunity to visit the Javits Center on a couple of occasions. Very impressive no matter how pictures of it develop. Those folks who try to enhance their authority for their own purposes…see them everywhere these days. I guess it comes from frustration they can’t control other areas of their life so if someone assigns them the ability to control others they jump – and abuse – the assignment. I have had the occasional turnip so in my life they are not over-exposed nor do they wield much power over me. At times they can however be very a-peel-ing.

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  19. I always enjoy taking a blog journey with you….the journey starts out with my mind asking…where exactly are we headed with this one….as the trip unwinds..it becomes evident where we are headed, but it becomes more evident it doesn’t really matter where we are headed…just enjoy the journey…which I always do!!

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  20. This is very cool, Dan. Connecting the dots in blogging and featuring those that led you to an interesting and multiple dimensional post are always appreciated. Fine writing and creating something meaningful is an “art” in and of itself. :)

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  21. That Peeling Head image is so good. I loved it. Anyone who has been following this blog, or who knows you knows that you always click images of this building. The last image is really good. If that man in the picture was running it would look like a shot from a John Grisham novel. What say?

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