A few weeks after the state agency fiasco was over I got a temporary job with an insurance company as a Data Entry Specialist. I sure know how to pick jobs with lame titles, right? This one paid $5 an hour but was only a two minute drive down the street from my apartment. I was brought in with several other people on a Monday to learn the system. You had to pick it up by Friday or else you were let go. I figured I didn't stand a chance because of my "slowness" but I actually had some good luck for a change. Each new person was paired with an experienced worker and the girl I got was apparently really good. She explained things so that even I could understand them and by the end of the week I knew it pretty well. I was a bit slower getting each work item completed, however, my work never had any errors and so I was allowed to stay on.

The work itself was not difficult, but the computer system we used made it very tedious and error prone. Each worker sat in front of an old-style text mode terminal (remember, this is 1987). It had only one screen, and to look at anything else you had to back out of where you were by typing in several commands. Any decent programmer worth his degree could have written something better than this in his/her sleep so I do not know why it was so crappy. I asked about this one day and my boss, Bob, said it was because of some state required certifications due to us being in the insurance business. I guess that's an answer, but it sure wasn't a very good one.

All of the people on this assignment, about thirty of us, were located in one big room. All of them smoked cigarettes, except for me and one other guy. Eventually we sat together on the back row, as far from the losers (I mean smokers) as possible. One day he brought in some incense (no really, incense) and it helped enormously. Somehow the cigarette smoke would get mixed in with the incense and so it didn't smell anywhere near as bad. Unfortunately, Bob came by one day and said we had to put it out and not burn it anymore. We asked why but never got a decent answer. I think he actually thought it might be pot or something. I had thought he might actually be a smart person (this time) but I was starting to have my doubts.

One day the item I was about to work on had a familiar name on it. A very good friend of mine who I had known since junior high had gotten in a minor car accident. The work item was his accident report record. We had not been instructed on how to handle a situation like this so I immediately jumped up to tell Bob. I figured he would just assign it to someone else so there would not be any conflict of interest or whatever it's called. He was extremely annoyed that anyone would ask a stupid question like that and rudely told me to just go back and do the work. I now knew for sure that he was an asshole, like so many of my other bosses. When I got back to my desk I completed the work item and gave my friend a very favorable review so that he (or probably his dad) would not have their rates raised. Most of this was a judgment call anyway so I didn't break the rules too much by doing this.

The "permanent" employees at this location really liked to have parties and so never missed an opportunity for one. I think this might have been an effort to minimize the boredom of the work and they were actually a lot of fun. We would do these at around 4 pm on Fridays. No alcohol was served but the cakes, pies, and punch were excellent and could have won some awards. At one of these parties Bob had brought in his Texas Instruments 99/4A computer to show everyone. This was called a "Home Computer" in those days and competed with the Apple, Commodore, and maybe a few others. I also had a TI 99/4A and had written several BASIC and assembly language programs and games on it. In 1982 I had written a spreadsheet type of application for a company and had even made a little money. So I knew the TI quite well.

Bob had written, in BASIC, a rather simple program to perform one of the more trivial tasks that our department performed. He fired it up and was showing it to a few of us when it got a programming syntax error. On most home computers of the day when running BASIC an error like this was always followed by a rather obnoxious beep sound. These became known in the industry as "boops". One of the younger manager type guys was somewhat amused by this (as was I) and asked Bob why it did that. The young guy knew perfectly well why but I guess he wanted to tease him a little. Bob replied, to my utter amazement and disgust, that it did that because the TI "is not a very good computer". I couldn't believe this bullshit and the young guy actually laughed out loud and walked away. I tried to say something but Bob cut me off as fast as he could and changed the subject.

About a month later another party was announced for Friday. I asked Bob if I could bring my TI 99/4A in to show some of the games I had written to everyone. I was surprised when he said yes. He even said he was looking forward to seeing my game. I thought this was really cool. Who knows? Maybe if he saw my programming ability I could get a real job there and fix that idiotic program we were being forced to use. The next day I came in early with my TI computer and set it up in the party room. Around 4 that day, as the party began, people came in and started playing my game. I had written several games in BASIC and so tried to pick the one I thought most people would like. It was a Star Trek type of game with colors, graphics, sound effects, music, you name it. A person could learn the controls quickly and start having fun playing it right away. Eventually about 7 or 8 people were all crowded around having a blast and I was delighted. This was the most fun I had had in years (okay, so I am a big nerd). Eventually Bob came in with that young manager guy and they played it a bit as well. At one point the young guy, with a really big grin on his face, asked in a rather loud voice, "Hey, Bob, how come Jim's computer never boops?". This was hilarious and everyone laughed, even Bob. I was a bit surprised by his reaction as I expected him to be pissed or whatever. I began to think that maybe he wasn't such a jerk after all.

In the past, these parties had always ended right at the 5 pm quitting time. However, on this day everyone was having so much fun it didn't wind down until just before 6. This was fine with me as I lived so close anyway. Bob and the young guy had already left but everyone else thanked me and asked when we could do it again. I immediately began thinking about what game to create next. The next morning just before lunch Bob came over to my desk and asked if I could come to his office. I was thrilled, I was certainly about to get a better assignment. Or even hired for real. Whooo hoooooo!

We entered his office and after he slammed the door I realized he was really pissed! He demanded that I sit down and immediately wanted to know what me and the younger manager had meant by doing that. I was shocked as I had no idea what he was referring to. Apparently he was not amused that the young guy had pointed out the programming errors (boops) in his program and we actually argued about it a little. I do not like encounters such as these as I was taught to respect my managers and elders. Eventually I think he realized that I had nothing to do with "setting him up" or whatever he had called it but he wasn't man enough to admit it. He said that I was done working there and to get my stuff and leave. However, he also said to tell the agency to pay me for the entire day so at least that was nice of him.

At first, I was pretty bummed when I got home. However, after a "few" drinks (hey, it was a Friday) I lightened up. I realized it was better to find out now that Bob was a total asshole than later. Also, there is no way they were going to be able to pay me a decent salary. And, best of all, I didn't have to be in the room with all that chickenshit cigarette smoke anymore.