I had a great time at the VRM and IIW conferences in the last week. The sessions are not only informative but intense. I met a lot of new people especially–no kidding–some europeans.
There were a few very funny moments that I thought I would share. On the first night I was there, Doc took me to the hotel where the folks from the UK were staying. I noticed one of the guys had a moleskin notebook. I showed him my moleskin sketch book and hinted we could be moleskin mates forever.
In typical british fashion, he pointed out that his moleskin was smaller and “had lines.” Hey to me, a moleskin is a moleskin. Typical Yank. I assured him that I had a smaller one with lines back in the hotel.
The next day, I showed him my lined moleskin and–once again like a typical yank–I tossed it to him from across the table.
Now I know better. I just didn’t think. People from the UK do not “toss” things across the room to each other. But my new friend William has a great sense of humor. But very British for sure.
Here was his response as he caught the notebook:
Ohhh, and its aerodynamic as well.
It was a true Monty Pythonic moment. He could have said:
OMG, a Yank tossed me a moleskin.
But no, just a quick slap up side the head with the aerodynamic remark. It was so subtle it didn’t even hit me till two days later.
I also met a brilliant young programmer from Austria, Markus. I couldn’t help it, on ocassion I would tease Markus and talk to him in my best Arnold imitation voice. He didn’t laugh or respond to my teasing all that well. So I cooled the Arnold remarks. But the best is yet to come. I was just headed to the airport and leaving the conference room when he looked at me without even cracking a smile and said:
I’ll be back.
Now that was funny.