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John Monte's BLOG
November 14, 2007 I first met Mannie Garcia in one of his regular haunts: the White House Press room. His long resume of world travel and being in the middle of “it”, impressed me. Years later, I took “Combat” training with Mannie, and saw his sixth sense in action. Once in the Philippines, while embedded with Special Forces, Mannie got the spook on, and asked not to board a Helicopter. The chopper blew-up shortly after take off. Mannie’s a war guy, but he is also a computer wizard (dare I say Mac nerd?). But Mannie has generously helped keep the beaten fleet of Fullmonte computers chugging, and for that I am more than grateful. In contrast often in White House briefing room is Giacco, who is not a computer nerd, and is - perhaps, the coolest cat in the business. Part of Giacco’s aura is purely aesthetic with dreadlocks (of a length we dare not guess) wrapped into a Muppet sock upon his head. Giacco is just cool – he can’t help it: once on a secret trip to Afghanistan, Afghan president Harmid Karzai went out to greet President Bush, instead he walked up to and shook Giacco’s hand first. Even Karzi knows cool when he sees it. But one day, Giacco was loosing his cool, as he could not copy his Mac music files. And, worse Mannie, who Giacco calls the apple tree, was not there to help. It was a day, with down time waiting for the next event at the White House. Giacco had his undergarments in a wad, and with out Mannie to iron them out, Giacco turned to me. I love Macs, but hate the protocol that locks Mac media: the Mac permissions system. While I vented my hatred of Mac permissions, I relented and dove in to help Giacco. After actually figure most of it out, and then tried to explain in plain English to Giacco (who Mannie generously calls an Apple seedling) I hit a wall. Explaining the technical protocol got real frustrating, and Giacco told me to chill. Eventually Giacco told me – as he seemed unable to assimilate anything technical and my eroded to a hyper frustration – that I was getting all “Mannie” as in Mannie Garcia. I asked, “Do you mean frustrated, and a tad self- righteous, because you don’t understand.” Giacco said, ”yeah, dude, your getting all Mannie.” You see, Mannie – sound wise – is a half step from manic – but a nerdy, technical, righteous manic. Mannie is the frustrated demeanor when explaining things esoteric – like Mac permissions protocol. Or like Mannie Garcia gets when sharing his exoteric knowledge: you know – the bemused look the information systems guy gives that look that means, “how couldn’t you understand". Through the years, and even combat training for journalists, Mannie insists he’s my older (imply wiser) brother. Though older, what Mannie, I think Mannie is really saying is I am the cooler younger brother, for I rarely get all “Mannie.” For I am not Mannie, I am Monte. While I’m not scared of being a nerdy, it’s a mater of degree, of nerdiness. Here I take my vengeance, in sharing the invented word, “Mannie.” Try it out next time a computer nerd condescends to you. Finally, I’d like to think - though I do not have dreadlocks - that I am at least a little more Giacco than Mannie.
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