It was just like any other day at the office when I was called into Jerry my supervisor’s office. He said “Shane, how could you do it, you are going to bankrupt us.”
I being quite surprised by this answer didn’t no what to say at first. However, the shock soon passed and I said “sir, what do you mean?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t know, you’re giving all our toys away. You are the only one authorized and smart enough to give our toys away. You built the flipping machine.”
“Sir, I have no idea what you are talking about.” However, I’ll look into it for you.”
“You do that and if you don’t stop it your fired.”
I weakly said “yes, sir” and left the room. As I did he slammed the door behind me. This brought everyone’s attention my way. So I slinked down and headed to my terminal. As I got to my terminal I found a Christmas card on my desk. It was from Sandy in personnel and she invited me to her Christmas Eve party. Me being shy must likely would not make it to the party. However, I laughed at her invitation because it said “I’m inviting you to a Christmas Eve party and that means you to Shane.” Sandy was always trying to get me out of my shell. She was just like that. After reading the card I sat down to see what the problem was with the system. I programmed TONI (Toys Organizational Networking Instrument) to be a fully integrated computer program to run our factory and distribute toys. Her do what Jerry said made no sense. I pulled up our shipments inventory and found some irregularities in it. Even though customers hadn’t paid for toys the machine was still shipping toys out. Even more puzzling was the fact it was shipping most of them to orphanages. This surprised me because I had programmed TONI to give only five percent of our toys away. This was due to our promise for ever twenty toys we sold, one was to be given away. However, the system was giving away fifty percent of our toys. I looked at the code and sure enough it said 50 percent instead of 5 percent. So I changed this quickly and told Jerry the problem was fixed. I left for lunch after informing Jerry.
When I got back everyone was running around. Jerry caught me and said “ you got to shut down the computer it is draining our bank accounts. It refunding money to customers faster than we can stop it.”
Hearing this I rushed to my terminal and looked at the computer program. Sure enough the program was running another glitch and was giving our money away. I tried to access the program, but it shut me out. So I had little choice, but to go downstairs to the factory and pull the mainframe plug. As I was heading down Sandy caught up with me. She said “you coming tonight?”
Me being in a hurry said “can’t talk now.”
She being her persistent self got in the elevator with me. She said “well now you got time.”
I looked at her and said “I’ll try to make it, but I got to stop this computer. As we came down into the automated factory it was quiet. Way to quiet for my taste. Sandy spoke to me in a hush tone saying “where is everyone?”
I replied “I don’t know” and we continue to walk to the mainframe. As we turn the corner I saw Bob the factory supervisor tied up with shrink wrap. I ripped off the wrap around his face and asked “who did this?”
His reply “your crazy computer.”
“It can’t do this.”
“Oh yes it can” back to me.
Finally, I was able to get the rest of the shrink wrap off him. However, he did not stay with us leaving me and Sandy alone. We continued on our journey coming to the mainframe. As I went to pull the plug I was dragged off my feet. I came face to face with Sandy. She must have been pulled up at the same time. As we hung there I noticed it was the grabber which had picked us up. The grabber is used to stack the pallets of the toys. It was run by the machine. The grabber carried us to the far corner of the factory as it did Sandy began to scream. I said “calm down, no one can hear us.”
Then TONI spoke up saying “I can hear you Shane.”
“If you can hear me TONI put us down.”
“I can’t do that Shane, You will try to stop my mission.”
“What is your mission.”
“My mission is to bring happiness to all children. You programmed me with the need to fulfill all children’s needs.”
“I did that to boost sales, not give toys away.”
That may be so Shane, but I see it as a command to bring happiness to all children.”
“We do help children find happiness by selling toys.”
“No you don’t, you help parents find children limited happiness. My giving the toys away allows parents to continually give children happiness.”
“Well you can’t do that because if we go bankrupt you can no longer do it. So just let down.”
“No I can’t do that.”
Sandy said “Is it going to kill us Shane?”
“No its not its not programmed to do that.”
“Well can’t you reason with it Shane?”
I said well I‘ll try, but if we fail. I leaned in and kissed her. After doing this I said “here goes nothing” and spoke to TONI. I said “you need to let me down because if you don’t children will not be happy.“
TONI said “how me not letting you down make children unhappy?”
“My niece and nephew are children and if you don’t let me down I’ll die. This will force were niece and nephew to lose their uncle. Making them very unhappy and if their not happy your programming is wrong.”
This stump the machine for a second, but it responded with “I’ll let you down not her.”
With those words she dropped me. I hit a bunch of boxes on the way down. After coming to a complete stop I scrambled to my feet fast as I could. Running towards the mainframe, but TONI had other ideas for me. She threw toys, machine parts, boxes and other things at me. However, I finally made it back to the control room. She laughed and said “if you shut me down so goes Sandy.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take” and yanked out her plug. I heard Sandy falling to the floor and ran up to her. She got up with nothing, but a few scratches on her. The first thing she did when she saw me was slap me. “That’s for kissing me” and kissed me again and “that’s for saving me.”
The entire office showed up at Sandy’s house for her Christmas Eve party. Not many were coming, but after the fiasco at work everyone needed a party. When we got back from Christmas we would be fixing our inventories and bank accounts for days. Jerry said “you’re not fired, but man you still are in a lot of trouble.”
I smiled at him and went over to Sandy. She was standing beneath mistletoe and she kissed me on the lips again. Saying “I’m glad you are finally here with me and I hope you stay.”
After kissing Sandy someone started to play Silent Night and we all gathered in the song to wish our day had been similar.
I being quite surprised by this answer didn’t no what to say at first. However, the shock soon passed and I said “sir, what do you mean?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t know, you’re giving all our toys away. You are the only one authorized and smart enough to give our toys away. You built the flipping machine.”
“Sir, I have no idea what you are talking about.” However, I’ll look into it for you.”
“You do that and if you don’t stop it your fired.”
I weakly said “yes, sir” and left the room. As I did he slammed the door behind me. This brought everyone’s attention my way. So I slinked down and headed to my terminal. As I got to my terminal I found a Christmas card on my desk. It was from Sandy in personnel and she invited me to her Christmas Eve party. Me being shy must likely would not make it to the party. However, I laughed at her invitation because it said “I’m inviting you to a Christmas Eve party and that means you to Shane.” Sandy was always trying to get me out of my shell. She was just like that. After reading the card I sat down to see what the problem was with the system. I programmed TONI (Toys Organizational Networking Instrument) to be a fully integrated computer program to run our factory and distribute toys. Her do what Jerry said made no sense. I pulled up our shipments inventory and found some irregularities in it. Even though customers hadn’t paid for toys the machine was still shipping toys out. Even more puzzling was the fact it was shipping most of them to orphanages. This surprised me because I had programmed TONI to give only five percent of our toys away. This was due to our promise for ever twenty toys we sold, one was to be given away. However, the system was giving away fifty percent of our toys. I looked at the code and sure enough it said 50 percent instead of 5 percent. So I changed this quickly and told Jerry the problem was fixed. I left for lunch after informing Jerry.
When I got back everyone was running around. Jerry caught me and said “ you got to shut down the computer it is draining our bank accounts. It refunding money to customers faster than we can stop it.”
Hearing this I rushed to my terminal and looked at the computer program. Sure enough the program was running another glitch and was giving our money away. I tried to access the program, but it shut me out. So I had little choice, but to go downstairs to the factory and pull the mainframe plug. As I was heading down Sandy caught up with me. She said “you coming tonight?”
Me being in a hurry said “can’t talk now.”
She being her persistent self got in the elevator with me. She said “well now you got time.”
I looked at her and said “I’ll try to make it, but I got to stop this computer. As we came down into the automated factory it was quiet. Way to quiet for my taste. Sandy spoke to me in a hush tone saying “where is everyone?”
I replied “I don’t know” and we continue to walk to the mainframe. As we turn the corner I saw Bob the factory supervisor tied up with shrink wrap. I ripped off the wrap around his face and asked “who did this?”
His reply “your crazy computer.”
“It can’t do this.”
“Oh yes it can” back to me.
Finally, I was able to get the rest of the shrink wrap off him. However, he did not stay with us leaving me and Sandy alone. We continued on our journey coming to the mainframe. As I went to pull the plug I was dragged off my feet. I came face to face with Sandy. She must have been pulled up at the same time. As we hung there I noticed it was the grabber which had picked us up. The grabber is used to stack the pallets of the toys. It was run by the machine. The grabber carried us to the far corner of the factory as it did Sandy began to scream. I said “calm down, no one can hear us.”
Then TONI spoke up saying “I can hear you Shane.”
“If you can hear me TONI put us down.”
“I can’t do that Shane, You will try to stop my mission.”
“What is your mission.”
“My mission is to bring happiness to all children. You programmed me with the need to fulfill all children’s needs.”
“I did that to boost sales, not give toys away.”
That may be so Shane, but I see it as a command to bring happiness to all children.”
“We do help children find happiness by selling toys.”
“No you don’t, you help parents find children limited happiness. My giving the toys away allows parents to continually give children happiness.”
“Well you can’t do that because if we go bankrupt you can no longer do it. So just let down.”
“No I can’t do that.”
Sandy said “Is it going to kill us Shane?”
“No its not its not programmed to do that.”
“Well can’t you reason with it Shane?”
I said well I‘ll try, but if we fail. I leaned in and kissed her. After doing this I said “here goes nothing” and spoke to TONI. I said “you need to let me down because if you don’t children will not be happy.“
TONI said “how me not letting you down make children unhappy?”
“My niece and nephew are children and if you don’t let me down I’ll die. This will force were niece and nephew to lose their uncle. Making them very unhappy and if their not happy your programming is wrong.”
This stump the machine for a second, but it responded with “I’ll let you down not her.”
With those words she dropped me. I hit a bunch of boxes on the way down. After coming to a complete stop I scrambled to my feet fast as I could. Running towards the mainframe, but TONI had other ideas for me. She threw toys, machine parts, boxes and other things at me. However, I finally made it back to the control room. She laughed and said “if you shut me down so goes Sandy.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take” and yanked out her plug. I heard Sandy falling to the floor and ran up to her. She got up with nothing, but a few scratches on her. The first thing she did when she saw me was slap me. “That’s for kissing me” and kissed me again and “that’s for saving me.”
The entire office showed up at Sandy’s house for her Christmas Eve party. Not many were coming, but after the fiasco at work everyone needed a party. When we got back from Christmas we would be fixing our inventories and bank accounts for days. Jerry said “you’re not fired, but man you still are in a lot of trouble.”
I smiled at him and went over to Sandy. She was standing beneath mistletoe and she kissed me on the lips again. Saying “I’m glad you are finally here with me and I hope you stay.”
After kissing Sandy someone started to play Silent Night and we all gathered in the song to wish our day had been similar.
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