Nope, Black Raven for me. Classic black. I love Rift Metallic, and many of the other colors as well (I'm partial to the blues), but Black Raven was literally the only color I even considered. Of all the things I debated endlessly about (carbon ceramics or not, data recorder or not, etc.), color was never in doubt.
Why Black Raven? I think black is a classic color for a Cadillac. I'm going for more of a sleeper look, nothing flashy, no carbon fiber packages, etc.
But there is another reason....
<crazy>
I know this sounds ridiculous. I have a thing for crows & ravens. When I found out there was a car called "Blackwing" I was intrigued. When I found out it was available in "Black Raven," well, it was a sign.
Why crows & ravens? Long story.
I'm an engineer. I sit in meetings with people who, while smart in their fields, say some crazy things when commenting outside their area of expertise. They are otherwise extremely smart and successful people, so they think their brilliance translates to other fields. It's hard to tell them they're wrong.
Once upon a time I proposed a solid (my opinion, but I can back it up) design and I was told, "No, Tom, we can't do that. What about 'black swan' events, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.?" I responded accordingly.
Note: A "black swan" event is an extremely rare and very severe event, such as a "black swan" event in the financial markets.
A black swan is an event that is rare, very important, and is both difficult to have predicted but is considered obvious in hindsight.
www.investopedia.com
I blurted out, completely off the top of my head, "Black swan events? BLACK SWANS? First of all, it would take a very selective and extremely rare event, even by 'black swan' standards, to fail my design and leave your status quo design intact. A true 'black swan' would take the whole data center down regardless of which design we picked. More importantly, black swan events, by definition, almost never happen. While we should plan for as many edge cases as possible, you're ignoring the BLACK CROW events that actually take us down regularly, the stuff we really should be designing for! A 'black crow' event is a problem that occurs while part of our system is down for maintenance or plain old human error--the biggest cause of failures. The common, annoying problems that are always there, always lurking, just like a black crow, annoying you with their constant cawing. My design addresses the problems we actually have, the 'black crows,' the things completely within our control."
I happened to say "black crow" purely to pick another black bird--a common, always there, annoying, taken for granted bird--to provide a contrast with the rare, elegant black swan. Again, completely at random, off the top of my head.
Well, my office mate and I loved the comparison and started to use it regularly. If we had a problem at one of our sites we'd ask the Ops guys, "What happened, was it a 'swan' or a 'crow'?" Translation: "Be honest, was this something that was *truly* outside of our control or could we have addressed this with a better design or better procedures?"
As a gentle (!) reminder of how I felt, I started buying crow & raven artwork to hang in my office, placed so that it would be visible over my shoulder when I was on a VC. Attached is a picture of me a local art fair, after picking up some of the art I had already arranged to buy. This is the artist:
Shop I paint colorful creatures with stories to tell. by AmyDurantArt located in Marietta, Georgia. Top shop for gifts. Buyers bought gifts from this shop and gave them 5-star reviews!
www.etsy.com
In the picture, just for fun, I happened to be wearing my Tower of London t-shirt. If you're not familiar, legend has it that ravens are the symbolic guardians of the Tower of London.
Meet the famous ravens at the Tower of London and discover why they are known as the guardians of the Tower.
www.hrp.org.uk
We had crow stickers made, for our phones and laptops. With an electrical theme, of course. Picture attached.
I started using a "caw" sound for my phone notification tone. Yes, completely out of control.
As a bonus, also completely by chance, I later found out that crows and ravens are crazy smart birds. Which only made me love them more. Look it up, you might be amazed.
Interesting Facts about the Crow Family "Magpies, Crows and Ravens". Read all about the intelligent and curious crow family.
www.beautyofbirds.com
Here's an example.
</crazy>
Laugh at me if you want. Believe me, I understand, it's fully justified.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not buying the car because of the name. Getting a great sedan with a monster V8 and a manual is why I'm buying it. I want to get this while I still can, before the whole world goes automatic and/or electric.
But getting a "Blackwing" in "Black Raven" makes me smile just a little more, so that's what I did.
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