The Doodler

President Kennedy was a prolific doodler. His secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, kept many of his doodles on notepads, letters and other documents when they ended up on her desk. A few of them were selectively copied, printed in very limited quantities and used as “Thank You” gifts for staff. During my tenure as a White House intern, I was given these two framed doodles at different times when we had completed special projects. I saw the president many times and spoke to him on rare occasions. He liked the sailboat doodle and said that he seemed to make that mark when he wished he was on the ocean and away from all the drama of his work.

I treasure these doodles. I can get lost in them, as I know he did. On this anniversary of his untimely death, it would be good if we boomers, who were in school when he died, could move on. But I can’t and neither can most of my peers. Our world is so different now. When I snapped the polaroid photo of his grave not long after the funeral, I was still sorting out my thoughts. I continued to go back to that site as it changed. I don’t now return to DC without going to the grave. It’s not about what might have been. It’s about what he made us feel we could be.  There’s a standard that was set back then that we’re still working toward. I hope we can achieve it…for him and for us. RIP, JFK.

Do you want to know a secret?

The hardest part of getting a top secret clearance from the government is when you don’t know they’re investigating and they’re talking to all your high school and college friends about what you drank and smoked and joined.  When I started getting calls from people I hadn’t heard from for years, it was a little disconcerting.

Soon, I found out it was about all my first assignment in the army.  I was going to be working on a top secret project called Potlid, that would lead me deep into Agent Orange in the course of my service. It took me to all kinds of strange places in Central America and Southeast Asia.  I was on a team that included at least two operatives for the CIA. One of them went out one day for a ride in the jungle and never came back. If that doesn’t creep you out, I don’t know what does.

What I do know is th
at serving my country was never a question in my mind. We dealt with wind changes that blew nerve gas in the wrong direction, political changes that placed us in the wrong place at a bad time and social changes that affected our views of the mission we were presented with. Being a soldier is not an easy job. And the difference between the jungles of Vietnam and deserts of the Middle East are much more than topographical.

We’ve been at war over there now for more than 10 years. Since the US went to war in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, about 2.5 million members of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard and related Reserve and National Guard units have been deployed in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, according to Department of Defense data. Of those, more than a third were deployed more than once. In fact, as of last year nearly 37,000 Americans had been deployed more than five times, among them 10,000 members of guard and Reserve units. Records also show that 400,000 service members have done three or more deployments.

We have never fought a war like this in the history of our country. It’s about ideology and diplomacy doesn’t seem to get us closer to resolution. There is no doubt, however, that those who are serving now are holding our country’s flag high in a world that is increasingly looking at us with a jaundiced eye.  I feel a small sigh of relief each time a unit returns. We can agree that we want our troops to come home but the reality is we’re in a place where getting out of this conflict is a very difficult prospect.  And who knows if anyone can “win”?

It was a long time before my father, the career Army officer, and I sat down to talk about my service. As a World War II vet, his allegiance was unquestioned and clearly accepted.  When he finally told me not long before he passed away that he was proud of the fact that I had chosen to serve in such a difficult time, it was a moment that I can carry in my heart forever.

Somehow, it’s even tougher now, though. My respect for today’s troops is unparalleled. I want them back. I want a world full of peace.  I want to break down the barriers between our ideologies. More understanding.  More compassion. None of this can happen too soon.  And the secret is finding the answer to this situation. I’m proud to be a veteran. Every one of us who has served has helped to make our world a better place.  Celebrate a veteran on Veteran’s Day. He or she deserves it.

Do you still think I'm pretty?

To borrow a line from a recent Windows ad attacking the iPad, I would have to say “yes”. The iPad and other Apple products continue to have the edge. Mostly, the reason I’m saying this is that I’ve just spent three weeks in “Computer Hell” because the new Microsoft Office 365 completely crashed my machine.

Most of us are fond of saying that our smartphones are our lives. Well, I can tell you that without my iPhone, I would literally have been unable to do business on daily basis (meetings excepted).  I opened up my computer one morning and got a window that said “Outlook cannot open.” That led me to a series of windows ending with “You have a corrupt file. Click here to try to repair the file.” Some three hours later, the message was “The broken file could not be found.” And I had to start the process all over again.

Finally, I called Microsoft.  Ruchir was a nice guy and even lived in Redmond. He

took over my computer remotely and gave me a bunch of instructions, which I did. Of course, I had the back-ups...two external hard drives for my music and photos, as well the prescribed system called Genie Timeline which just happened to be set up incorrectly and did me virtually no good. Every time I had to do a check, it took hours and since I had places to go and people to see, when I returned, Ruchir was gone for the day. He’d left me a message that he would return the next day in the afternoon.

After four days of this, we were no farther along. He had loaded a new version of Office 365 which by then was working but it had none of my basic information.  No emails. All my contacts were gone…over 2000 of them. My calendar was blank going forward and back. The “Drafts” folder was empty where I keep all the writing I do for my clients until I make a final edit.  There were 97 drafts before the crash and then none.

Believe me when I say that my iPhone has never been so tenderly cared for.  It was receiving emails and had my calendar and contacts. It was my lifeline and, boy, were my thumbs tired.

Then Ruchir decided that the problem might be Windows and so he suggested that I load a new version of Windows onto my computer.  Fine, I said, whatever it takes.  Well, it took 5 days, including the weekend, for me to receive new discs in the mail and then I had to get back on his schedule to load it and test it on my machine.

When that was done, I crossed my fingers and held my breath. He set all the right codes and prompts and pressed enter.  Nothing happened. He was afraid to try to open the folder containing all my information with the corrupted files.  So, he said that I had a version of Outlook that was working and I would just have to start over and rebuild everything I’d lost.

I felt like Dr. Frankenstein having to build a body out of used parts.  Where would I ever  find all that information? I started to fill in the blanks on the calendar and to pull the necessary names and addresses off my phone…but 2000-plus, give me a break.

This was my problem and I tried to solve it. I had one last chance . Since my days at DDB Worldwide, I’ve been a friend of our former head of IT, who now works for the University of Washington.  I decided to tell him my sad tale, for sympathy, if nothing else.

All I can say is that this guy is a Geek God. First of all, he found a program that would transfer my contacts and calendar from my iPhone to my computer. It cost $50 bucks but the deed was done in 15 minutes. After a couple of very short sessions, he said he had another program that might be the answer to the problem.  He took the folder with all my info and the corrupt files, cleaned it up and handed it right back to me. In a matter of hours, he cleared up all the difficulties that I spent weeks on, even with all that Microsoft advice and those programs. Big thanks, Mark.

There was one thing missing that, even with the fixes, I seem to have lost forever.  You can make groups out of your contacts in Outlook and one of those groups has your name in it.  It’s the group that I send this blog directly to because the members have indicated some interest in what I have to say in these missives.  My groups are gone.  They don’t transfer to the iPhone. So I have rebuilt this important one from scratch. There’s a chance I may hear from some folks that I’ve inadvertently left off but, for sure, if you were not on the list before and are surprised that you’re on there now, the “delete” key can fix that problem in an instant.

Apple’s hard goods are still pretty to me.  I hope you never have to go through what I just did with Windows.  The only other time I’ve experienced a letdown like this was when I walked in one day to see the deadly “Blue Screen” that comes after your hard drive has crashed. But, in case you do face this difficulty, take my advice and go to your Geek God first. We have certainly become dependent on this means of communication and I’m very happy to be back in business.  I’ll talk to you again soon.