The Desk Jockey

He is known simply as "El Mariachi," this merchant of whirly bird airtime. Little is known of the mariachi, except for his ill temperment and otherwise quiet disposition. But if you study El Mariachi from a distance, you will see him for the maestro that he truly is...

Every morning, in the Antarctic pre-dawn, El Mariachi begins the careful inspection of his stable and familiar steed. He checks for the usual stress fractures, keyboard placement, mouse laser accuracy and monitor angle. The morning's frost hangs heavy in the office coating his desk which gleams back at him with the flirtatious glance of a fair woman. Confident, he glides into place in front of the workstation. The mariachi's steady hands depress the ignition button fastened to the front plastic faceplate. The chassis crackles as the CPU fans stutter and rattle to life, gaining a steady hum. He leans back in his seat and patiently waits as his black and silver Hewlet Packard d510 Convertible Mini Tower nervously shakes itself awake. With a single beep, it acknowledges a successful POST negotiation and begins to load the Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack "el numero dos" operating system. When the logon prompt finally appears, the mariachi raises his palms with the care and grace of an orchestral conductor - his digits outstretched - he deftly applies the three finger salute against the well worn keyboard's surface. CTRL, ALT, DEL. Windows reloads his trusted and familiar instrument panel. The mariachi begins to taxi onto the information superhighway as he double right clicks the Outlook desktop shortcut, then double right clicking the Internet Explorer icon which he will guide to his Gmail account. With his workstation at full stride, he glances outside his cockpit window studying all the factors comprising his surrounding conditions like the wind speed, visual range and air temp. El mariachi is finally ready for the adventure that lie ahead of him and his mounted steed. The telephone rings and the mariachi answers, he hears the sound of eager grantees anticipating his very breath...

The rest of his days are filled with the cacaphony of mouse clicks, both right and left, and the clatter of keys on his keyboard. El Mariachi is an aritst and mindful desk jockey clearing numerous paths for scientists bound for far off places.