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When I first enlisted in the United States Navy I had to take an oath of loyalty; to protect the constitution and obey the orders of the President of the United States and officers appointed above me. It was a short and simple oath, but one I, and would assume most persons, did not fully understand until some time later. You see, in no point of that oath was a name other than my own given, only the offices held by the President and my superior officers. It is an oath to the country as a whole, not one single person or group of persons.

The underlying meaning of that oath is something, once understood, that I took with me into the corporate world upon my return to civilian life. Within each and every company that I have worked for there has always been a level of office politics; some very subtle and others that could only be termed as an outright coup. Through it all, that underlying principle of loyalty has been my guiding light, my moral compass in a world where office politics has engulfed so many people. It is often a difficult practice to hold onto, and a stance that has from time to time even ruined friendships.

The principle of my professional loyalties is simple, protect and do what is best for the company I am employed by, for as long as I am employed by it. In a sole proprietorship it is easy, the owner is the company, in other structures it becomes much more difficult a practice. One has to look beyond the internal politics and see the overall mission of the company and follow what is best for it as a whole, not just one man or woman's vision, but the long term survival and growth of the company, including all the people who work under its umbrella. To protect those people and the mission statement that really is the company.

While the principle is simple, in reality the practice is difficult. No one person within a company possesses all the information necessary to know which actions or inactions are best for the company. What I have found as a best practice, for myself at least, is to use the policies and procedures laid out by the company as a primary guide and to hold all employees under the same level of accountability, from the lowest cubicle worker to the CEO. Given a choice between actions, I will always try to choose the one that provides the greatest good for the whole or at the very least, in some no win situations, inflicts the least amount of harm to said company. It is, far too often, not a very popular stance.

One of the saving graces (for my sanity) given this choice of loyalty is in viewing business as business and personal as personal. Some people get that, others don't. I have had to personally fire people who have remained friends years after the fact, but have been ostracized by fellow employees who were upset when I remained with a company after they left. Such business decisions can be upsetting at times, when others allow it to flow into the personal, but were those who take that stance ever truly my friend? And would I even want them back having seen their metaphorical true colors?

I take heart in having seen that these kinds of people are those who (wrongly) feel the company (life?) owes them something. People who are guided by greed and never able to see past their own self to how their actions affect others. Perhaps, in some instances, I am wrong in that view, but the principle of loyalty that I will continue to hold myself to is not wrong, not for me. And some people will get it, and others won't, but it is where my professional loyalties lie.

I have a routine that I run through each and every morning from the time I slide out of bed until I jump in the car and head off to work. Mostly it consists of getting coffee and a cigarette into me (yes, I know I shouldn't smoke) followed by checking in on a few websites I frequent. It is a slow methodical wake up ritual that gets my brain firing on all cylinders right about the time I step into the shower, and something I rarely deviate from, or, rather, have the need to deviate from.

This morning I deviated. Before I had finished my first cup of coffee I found myself wide awake and full of energy as a result of the first website I visit on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. That site is The PC Weenies, and today I found a surprise there. As I first looked at the newly posted comic, before I read any of the word balloons or scrolled down to the entry regarding the comic, I recognized one of the characters in the strip as a good friend of mine, Harold Bright.

Harold and I worked together for about a year and a half, and became friends prior to his moving off to Seattle with his wife Hollie. Not only is he an excellent Network Engineer, but is also warped enough to take on throwing ideas around with me for possible inventions, mostly in robotics. One of which we have been working on for close to two years now, and despite the distance that now separates our creative yet disturbed brains, we have managed to stay in touch and continue to make progress.

Having not seen Harold for many moons, it was quite the shock to recognize him immediately in the strip drawn by Krishna. Even further, seeing the same scene play out in the strip that has likely happened with all IT people, but which Harold despises on a whole new level, was priceless. Thank you Krishna for bringing Harold and his pet peeve to life so well in your comic, and thank you to Hollie for submitting your husband in order to bring us all a good morning laugh.

I've been feeling a bit under the weather the past few days, some sort of viral infection or another took hold of my body and decided to restrict me to maintaining a horizontal position. Fatigue, muscle aches, fever; the general "works" for this kind of thing. My story is Ebola and I am sticking with it.

I had a few entries working around in the back of my mind, but have had to put them on hold while I shake this thing. Not one to give in fully, I decided to add a few website links as a sidebar item that point to places I visit frequently or just plain admire. So here is the run down on what is there now, with likely a few other places soon to come.

Society Of Robots - a repository of all things robotics. Step by step tutorials, articles on everything from batteries to programming techniques, forums for people to toss around ideas, and general overall help and guidance for the robot builder. This is a great site whether you are just getting into robotics or are a long standing member of the community.

The PC Weenies - web comic and blog written by the very talented Krishna Sadasivam. The comic is primarily I.T. based in humor and style, but is at just the right tech level as to be a great read for those not in the I.T. field. I even had the privilege of a guest star appearance in one of his strips which can be seen here. The irony in the comic would of course be my hatred of mobile phones.

Wil Wheaton dot NET - the personal weblog of Wil Wheaton, author of Just A Geek and Dancing Barefoot. Yes, he is also the child actor from Stand by Me and Star Trek: The Next Generation. I really should have the link pointing to WWdN: In Exile, as his primary site has been broken for quite some time, but I have hope for its return in the near future. Wil is a fantastic writer with a style that keeps me coming back for more. A must read.