Let's Push Brent Off a Dock

Brent Cross joined Manlab in 1995. His high school teacher, C.T. Leung has asked my brother Fred if Brent can hang out at Manlab and perhaps learn how to assemble and fix computers. Brent had shown a passion for computers at school and Fred agreed to mentor him. He'd come in on Saturdays taking the hour long bus ride from the other side of town to our office at the Inkster industrial park, and spend the day with Fred. Well it didn't take long for Brent to catch on. Soon he was as adept as any of our full time service techs. Occasionally I would overhear "Leave that one for Brent. He'll fix it when he comes in."

Our friendship started slowly. Brent was very shy. I don't recall that in any of our conversations back then he had strung more than 2 or 3 words together. I'd be playing around in the multimedia room and Brent would be on the other side of the glass: headphone on, plugging away diligently at the stack of computers laid before him, nary saying a word. Brent spent a couple years with us then went off to college. Upon graduating it was Fred who offered him a programming job. I really didn't think I could use him. In our first project together, he had estimated the task at hand would take a couple of hours. It took him three days. What impressed me was the "uniqueness" of the solution. Thus the "Brent Factor" was born. We've been working wonderfully together since then.

Over the years Brent has taken a lot of "good natured" abuse from the folk's in our studio. For what ever reason, he's usually on the wrong end of the stick. I Pwned him one Saturday afternoon as both of us upgraded our respective laptops with new hard drives. It was not a good day for Brent and his MacBook Pro. He admits that he can be a "jackass" at times and probably deserves some of the teasing. He takes it all in stride and often comes back with some great zingers of his own. His charm, wit, and heart of gold always saves the day for him. One shiny moment was his appearance as our Happy Christmas Elf [INSERT HAPPY ELF VIDEO] delivering our magnetic bulletin boards featuring Manlab paper cut-out dolls.

So when I decided that Manlab should try its hand at entering the Red Bull Flugtag contest this year there was only one pilot considered for the job. The trouble is going to decide which four will have the pleasure of launching Brent off the dock. The line forms on the right folks. No pushing please.