Running Late

My work had a morale event recently and we went on a small 3-hour tour around the local lake. It was a fun trip with good food, nice drinks (I had two Italian sodas), a lot of casual discussions, and jovial behavior.

After the event, one of my teammates stopped me and one other team member to have a quick, impromptu meeting to discuss what needed to be done tomorrow. We then resumed walking up the hill, rounded the corner and I noticed the yellow school bus starting to drive away.

I turned to my first team mate and asked, "Are you heading back?" and he replied "I'm going back to my hotel."

I looked at the second and he said "I'm going home. I live around here...Is that your bus?"

"Yes"

"You better run!"

Moving Manners

At work we are preparing to move to a new location. We do this from time to time for various reasons. But in preparation for the move I noticed that there were two tables positioned in the hallway, one upside down on top of the other.

I had walked past these tables several times and noticed that there appeared to be some sort of scratch marks on the underside of the table. Curious person that I am, I decided to investigate to figure out what may have caused that discoloration. Was it the sunlight? The natural coloring of the wood? Some sort of bored painting?

Faux Pas

I recently took a trip to Paris France for a conference. I was worried about being able to get around on my own there, but I found that I could manage pretty well. The people were friendly and courteous and helpful.

Learning the subway system was a bit of a challenge. I was trying to get from the Arch de Triumph to Charles de Gaulle airport via the subway, so I talked with the attendant in the information booth. He told me what to purchase and pointed me at the ATMs next to the booth. So I went over to try and figure the software out.

As I was waiting for an ATM, an English-speaking couple were at the neighboring ATM trying to figure it out and a 14-year-old in street clothes came up to assist them.

He made me nervous. He was too friendly and not dressed like the people in the information booth, and he did not look like he was trying to get to a particular destination himself.

Losing It

Some people left their hearts in San Francisco. I left my shoes in Paris, France.

Dialing Dyslexia

I'm preparing to give a presentation at a large computer science conference. As part of these preparations, I needed to call a support line to confirm my membership with this particular professional organization.

So I picked up my phone and dialed their support number.

Adding Insult to Injury

I was having a bad day. I didn't get enough sleep the night before, so I was slow at everything I did. There were too many meetings in the day and not enough useful decisions made. I also did not have enough time to really get anything accomplished.

By the time I got home I was sweaty and exhausted and I couldn't think through my headache to figure out what to make for dinner.

So I did what I usually do when I get home, which is to go upstairs and change out of my work clothes into a t-shirt and shorts. But as I tossed my clothes into the hamper, I saw this:

Ender's Game 2

Driving around town a few months back I noticed a bumper sticker which said

The Enemy's Gate is Down

I turned to my wife and said "That's odd. I wonder what that means. Is the enemy not paying attention to their defenses? Or are they having a tailgate party?"

"That's a quote from 'Ender's Game'," she replied.

"What? I don't remember that at all."

Nuts for Not Hair

By brother-in-law, David, recently participated in a church youth party-planning meeting with some teenagers and a few adult leaders. Someone suggested he invite his good friend, Joe, to the event.

David responded "I'll bring him even if I have to drag him by..." Oh wait--I can't say "hair" because he's bald. "...his not hair!" That's a cute high-school-ly way of putting it.

Two weeks later, someone from that meeting approached David and asked him to clarify his statement about Joe. Apparently this attendee--and several others--heard...

Metaphorically Speaking

The other day my wife and I were driving back from shopping when I suddenly realized "The name 'Ender' from 'Ender's Game' is symbolic of the fact that he always wins; he always ends the game."

My wife responded "You just realized that? How long ago did you read that book?"

I'd read the book 3 times and love it each time. The first time was in 6th grade, the second in 10th grade, and the third time while working on my undergraduate degree. I am now a year past finishing my doctorate.

You'll have to excuse me...I'm a little slow.

Friendly Meetings

I'm preparing a presentation for a large conference in my field of study. This conference has ~2500 attendees who each attend various presentations across roughly 16 tracks which means about 150 people per presentation at the conference.

Nerve-racking to think about all the people who could see my presentation.

As I prepare occasionally my mind thinks back several years and I am racked with guilt, embarrassment, and horror each time this thought comes to mind.

Lingua Franca

My wife and I were sitting behind a car with a license plate frame that said ”alumni” across the top and ”kamehameha” across the bottom. I laughed and said, ”That's a magical incantation from a Japanese cartoon show” thinking that it was some sort of cryptic reference.

My wife looked askance and said, ”He's the first king of Hawaii, and that's probably a reference to a school named after him.”

So I looked up ”kamehameha” on my phone and sure enough, it is the name of the first king of Hawaii and there is a school named after him.

Is it weird that my knowledge is largely informed by pop culture?

Glympse into the Minds of Programmers

I love Glympse. It is a great tool for long trips; I just pick some family members, a destination, click "send" and then those family members can follow my progress to that destination. It's also great for letting people know where you are around town in case you want to meet up.

The app has gone through some updates recently which drastically changed the interface but made it much easier to send Glympses. In addition, some feature came to my attention (either they were added or they were new). One of the features I noticed while setting up a new Glympse is the feature to add a message. So I tapped on it.

Up popped a list of 50 or so canned messages as well as a text box to enter a custom message.

Scanning through the list, some of the messages appear useful. For example, "Almost there!" "I'll be right there!" and "I think I'm lost."