Chapter 3

As I looked at the syllabus, I saw there was a project to flowchart a program. It wasn’t due for a couple weeks but I knew that it would have to be done so I thought that now would be a good time to start.

It was only 1pm and I had my classes done for the day and my lunch had been eaten. Sitting down at my desk, I started first on my paper for my writing class.

It wasn’t hard for me to pick a story. I wrote the story about taking the nude photos of Nikki and how it caused a huge witch-hunt for both the photographer and the model. I did change her name just in case but other than that, it was all true. The word processor helped me to quickly type the paper and I was reading through it when there was a knock on my door. I still had the four pages in my hand when I opened the door.

There was Hakim. “Hey Nick, I’m doing what we talked about and trying to get my work done. Is there any chance I could use your word processor? I have to write a paper for my writing class.”

“Come on in. I just finished mine and have one or two edits to make.” He followed as I walked to the desk. “I have written it and used the machine to find most of the errors. I’m just reading it now to see if there are any other things I want to change.”

Sitting down, I showed him how to view things on the screen and then fix or change something and when I had finished editing my paper, I printed it out and put it in a folder. I saved it in case I needed to fix it later. Then opened a new document for Hakim to start typing.

I sat on the couch and did my calculus problems that were assigned for homework. Hakim was a slow typist but was making progress as I opened another notebook and looked at a blank page. What program did I want to design? I thought about the problems in high school that Adam and I tackled and made money from. What else could we do?

The way that I saw it was that not too many people were used to using computers so didn’t look to them to solve their problems. They looked at computers to guide rockets to the moon or some other problem far beyond their day-to-day lives. I thought about my small circle of friends and Andy came to mind. He had a family that was in the liquor business. Distribution and Pubs. I started to think about inventory management, and ringing up food and drinks. I started to jot down ideas and those sparked other ideas. I was on a roll when Hakim asked, “I’m done writing. Can you help me fix and print it?”

It didn’t take long at all as we found and fixed typos and grammar issues. Then I showed him how to print it so that he could proofread it. There were just a couple things he wanted to change and then we printed out the final paper. He said, “This is going to save me a ton of time. I think we need some for the administrative staff back home.”

“Do they type in English or some other language?”

“Both. English is very common in international dealings but internally we use Arabic.”

“I will see if my friend has any in Arabic. I had one in Russia when I went to school there. I know they have a few other languages for spell checking but I don’t know all that they have. How many do you think they might want?”

“How much are they? We have a large country.”

“I’m not sure. I’ve never paid for one. I think I remember hearing a thousand dollars each.”

“Let me make a call and I will let you know so you can call your friend.”

Hakim left but soon Andy was typing a paper and William was waiting his turn when Andy finally finished. Hakim came back over and said, “Tell your friend that we will take a thousand each of both English and Arabic.”

At a thousand dollars each, that would be a two million dollar sale. It would be for IBM and we would only get a hundred dollars from each sale but I felt I was doing my part at least. It was nice that Adam was five hours behind so as long as it was after lunch, I wouldn’t worry about waking him too early. I called and he answered, “Adam.”

“You sound so professional.”

“Did you get the machines?”

“Not yet. But I did get an order for some. Do you have any in Arabic? My friend is from Saudi Arabia and wants a thousand in English and a thousand in Arabic.”

“Nick, it’s a program. You can pick which language you want to use. We can have both languages on the same machine.”

“You’re losing money for us here.”

“We have enough. I think the Arabic is almost done. I can have them out in about a month. Give me the information of the contact there and I will have the sales person from IBM give him a call.”

“I will. Have you heard anything about what I need?”

“I was on a call this morning at 8am. I think some of the solution came from your ideas. It will take a couple weeks but the basic technology that you are asking for already exists but just needs to be installed in a word processor. How do you have yours set up in your room?”

“I have it on my desk in front of the window so that the glare is kept to a minimum when editing. It faces my bed and the rest of the room.”

“That’s great. Get him to do the same thing for the same reason. We are sending two. There is a guy, William that isn’t checking out when they run their checks so he is getting one also. How far is his room from yours?”

“He’s across the hall and one door down. Maybe 20 or 30 yards but there are a couple walls in between just like Hakim.”

“Got it. That shouldn’t be a problem. How was your first day of school?”

“School is school and no problems so far. I have a computer programming class. I think I’m going to work on a program for inventory management and selling retail or in restaurants.”

“Sounds promising.”

“I’ve started on the basic flow charts and notes. I will send it over to you so you and your smart guys can make it better. I am better at the ideas and basic design than all the tricks that you and your team know.”

“It’s funny that you say that. We have been contacted by one of the major book companies to write college textbooks. We will be writing levels one through four and after explaining that we keep coming up with new ways to speed up and condense the processing they said to write new ones each year. The fees and royalties are crazy. At least when you buy your book next year, you will know that you are getting a part of that crazy fee.”

“Adam, I don’t know how you keep up with everything.”

“I don’t either but now have two secretaries that keep me on track. Only about five people have my direct number. You, Tiffany, Mom, Dad and Bill from Microsoft. Long days every day. It has to slow down at some point. Your work has helped us a lot. I know you aren’t here every day but I was telling someone the other day that I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you and all that you did to get us up and running as a company. Do well in school and don’t worry about the business.”

“Thanks, my friend. I’ll get the contact information from Hakim and get it over to you.”

Looking at the clock, it was time to get to the boathouse for practice. The place looked much busier than it had on the weekend. I guess with school just now starting more people were on campus and back to their routines. Ethan saw me walking up and waved me over. He introduced me to a few of the guys.

“Nick, we normally work on weights, erg and running on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We get out on the water on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That may change with the weather but we sometimes have to race in the rain so we sometimes practice in the rain. Right now we have about twenty guys on the team to cover all the events. There are about twenty women as well. We share the same boathouse, weight room and meeting spaces. We do have separate locker rooms and showers.”

“We should get a large Jacuzzi tub to share.”

“That’s an idea but I doubt it will go very far. The weather is good today so we are going to start with a 5k run and then jump on the erg and then lift weights. I’m going to assign you to Percy. Just do as he does and says and you should be fine. I don’t think you will have any trouble keeping up after last weekend’s row.”

Percy was a junior and didn’t seem upset with having to babysit a freshman. As we were running, I asked, “I know that I wasn’t expected to be on the team this year. Will there be any problems with some of the older guys?”

“Most of the guys were top dog at their high schools or clubs. They show up here and find out that they are average if that. They either quit or work hard to get better. There is no promise of ever being in a race. Everyone knows that the best rowers will be in the boats. There are some races where you may be in a solo, two or four-man boat either because you weren’t good enough for the eight-man boat or because the coach is giving someone a look. We all just do what the coach tells us. If you can out pull me then you earned your place in the boat. Mom and Dad aren’t going to call the coach and complain.”

“I’m happy to help the team and be in the boat but didn’t plan on rowing this year. I just came down to stay in shape.”

“It looks like you were already in shape. Ethan said you had him reaching for everything he had just to keep up and you were hung over from the night before. We are all looking forward to seeing what you can do.”

“I’ve only raced a couple seasons a couple years ago. I do pull on the erg six days a week and have since I was eight years old. I guess the right muscles have been developed over time. I use it to stay in shape and take out any frustrations or tensions in my life. I must have been frustrated a lot last year if I’ve gotten that much better.”

“No sex?”

“Only once or twice a week.”

Laughing he said, “We have a Casanova on the team. I hope you stay frustrated if it means us winning more races.”

“Just don’t be getting in my way. I may take out frustrations in a different manner.” We both laughed and sped up a bit to be with the rest of the pack.

It seemed that Ethan had sung my praises as we got back to the boathouse and many wanted to see the new guy pull on the erg. There was an erg for each person and Ethan said, “We are going to pull for five thousand meters. Call out your splits.”

That meant that every time my erg said that I’d gone 500 meters I was supposed to call out. Coach said, “3, 2, 1, go.” We all started to pull and I was soon in my rhythm and on my pace. A typical race is only 2,000 meters so some started out slower to pace themselves across the entire distance. I was the first to call out my split and a few heads turned to look my way. I wasn’t that far ahead of some of the others like Ethan and Percy but the coach came and stood behind me. He had his stopwatch and started to write down split times.

At the second split I was still in the lead and the gaps started to widen between the first and last rowers. When we were at the 9th split with only 500 meters to go, the call outs were continuous with some being almost a whole split behind. I made the change in my mind and picked up the pace for a faster but still in pace finish. I was wiped out but the coach said, “Good Job, Nick.” He wrote some things down and went to watch others finish.

Percy was beside me and said, “I knew that you started too fast and would burn out at the end. There was a slight hesitation at the ninth split and I thought you were done but were just changing into a higher gear. I’m happy to have you on the team. I’m glad that Harvard and Yale didn’t hook you in so we can use you against them.”

“Do you race against them often?”

“We go over there once or twice a year and they come here. Sometime we run into each other in other countries. The two largest events of the year are in Boston and London so we always see them at least twice.”

“My best friend lives in Boston. Last time I raced there, I got beat up and ended up in the hospital. But we won the race and I can’t help it if the college team was upset about being beaten by some high schoolers.”

“Try not to get in another fight but if that’s what it takes to win then kick some ass.”

Ethan stopped by to tell me that I’d done well but it was time to lift weights. I tried not to get too bulky but had the long muscles of a distance swimmer. That meant lower weights and more reps. I did have some bulk in my shoulders and legs but wouldn’t be winning any bodybuilding competitions. The trainer did talk to me and told me that what I was doing was the right thing for the sport and made a couple suggestions and offered some new exercises for me to try. I tried them and felt it the next morning.

It seemed that the women’s team started with the Ergs and then did the weights and saved the run for last. I saw Sara but not Julie. She came up to me afterwards and she was with the blonde girl from my computer class. “Hey Nick, how was your first day?”

“A lot of work but nothing crazy.” Turning to the blonde I said, “Hi, I’m Nick. We have the same computer class.”

“I saw you in class today. It is going to be like learning a foreign language and learning a new concept at the same time. I’m Shelly. I’m from Chattanooga. You don’t sound English. Are you from the states?”

“I’m from all over but went to school in New Hampshire for a while. If you need any help with your computer class let me know.” Turning to Sara, I asked, “Where’s Julie?”

“She isn’t on the team. She will come down and row some mornings. She just does it for fun.”

My clothes were drenched in sweat. As I started to walk to my dorm, Shelly was right with me. As we talked I found out that she was in the same building but a floor above me. I was on the third floor and she was on the fourth. Her father was a state Senator but her great grandfather had something to do with Coca Cola back in the day and made a lot of money.

As she continued up one more flight of stairs, I was tempted to stop and watch her cute butt as she went on but I went to my room like a good boy and took a hot shower instead. We had a late dinner and the guys were all happy to be caught up and ahead in classes. Andy suggested that we go shoot some pool since we were all done. I said, “I would normally read ahead but we all worked hard today so let’s go and play.”

There were more than a few people in the lounge area and all four tables were being used but we put our names in and got in line. It wasn’t a long wait and Hakim and I held our own against Andy who was the best player and William who was the worst. If Andy got on a roll, we lost. If he didn’t then Hakim and I could normally win by a slim margin. We all had fun.

Back in my room later, I did read ahead to get ready for class the next day and ahead in the Monday Wednesday classes. I had all my classes on Mondays through Thursdays with a Chemistry Lab on Friday morning. By 10:30 am on Friday, I was done for the weekend.

Tuesday was more of a memorization day with Humanities and my Cold War history class. Chemistry was building on what I’d learned in high school. Hakim was in my Cold War class. Andy was in my Humanities class and Sandra the girl I met in the cafeteria on Sunday morning was introduced as the person that would be running the Chemistry Lab on Fridays for my class.

As I got back to my dorm, I saw a note in the door that I had a package at the mailroom. It was of course five packages, and all were word processors. I had the guys come with me so they could each carry one and then I went back on my way to practice to get the last one. I looked funny carrying a big box into practice but I didn’t know where Julie lived but Sara did and I would see her at practice.

A few people asked about the box and I tried to explain it. All of them wanted one but I couldn’t supply everyone in the school so I just went on with my workout as we took the boats out: Two eight-man boats and a four-man boat. Two coxswains showed up and the coach told me to sit in the stroke position. I knew what that meant this time. No one said anything or challenged me. He said to the boat, “I watched Nick’s splits yesterday to see what kind of drop off he had. Each split was identical except for the last one where he got faster with a steady pull to the finish. It will be up to the cox to keep the pace but it helps to have someone pulling in cadence while the cox is watching other boats, the river and strategizing the race.”

Again there were no ruffled feathers, just a few head nods as we entered the boat. The cox was a girl. They are smaller and tend to weigh less and less weight means faster boats. Her name was Nicole and it made me shiver since Nikki was our cox back at Emerson. They didn’t look alike so I let it go and didn’t dwell on it.

Some of the guys in our boat were new and some had rowed the previous year. Coach had the boats staffed to be as equal as possible. We were going to go upriver 10,000 meters and work on commands and getting used to working as a team. Then we were going to turn and race back to the boathouse. It took a long time to row over six miles up and six miles back. It was a good workout and a fun race against the other team. We lost in the end but I think we had more of the new guys since Ethan was in the boat with me in the number one seat to keep an eye on them.

Nicole was a sophomore that had been with the team the previous year and did a good job navigating and encouraging the guys. She had some experience and you could tell that she knew what she was doing. As we were taking the boat out, she said, “You did well out there Nick. Did you row in the stroke position before?”

“I did as a freshman and sophomore on my high school teams. Then we moved and I haven’t rowed on the water until coming here.”

“I may want to work with you some to make the transitions smoother but you hold a good rhythm and pace so it frees me up to do other things. We will make a good team this year. I also live next to Sara and Julie and have heard some interesting stories.”