At a lovely Nerd-Herd workshop this week… and although i served as a poor substitute gave a presentation for an absent colleague this afternoon, and tomorrow will be chairing a morning session and serving as a panelist at the evening “senior leadership” session*, i have a hard time concentrating on the presentations – brilliant scientists in our field, from the U.S., Europe and even a representative from Asia this year… talking about their most remarkable results**. So, how to stay awake after a late night of drunken dabauchery networking with colleagues?
At my last meet-a-thon, i resorted to rather primitive survival techniques. Thankfully, this upscale yuppie infested resort meeting room has Wi-Fi. Oh, yeah baby…. was able to score a seat in the back of the room, near the coffee urn and cookies under the guise of needing an outlet for my laptop.
Cookies, coffee and the world wide interweb! I have been able to engage and deflect incoming work missiles lobbed from 2000 miles away. I have had time to catch up on my blog reading. Electronically passing notes with drunken yab friends other attendees at the workshop. Catching the up on local news from my hometown newspaper. Reading book and movie reviews.
Oh, and getting paid to do it. Damn. I’ve got the best job in the world this week….
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* A sign of desperation in Geekdom. They couldn’t get anyone functional else to do this. I’m also known to be easy (no, not like that) and can be persuaded with unlimited alcohol and the sunshine and blue skies of the California desert.
** at least the stuff they’ve already patented… or work that is guaranteed to piss off arch-rivals.
Trailer Park Refugee 
My tax dollars at work, huh? While the rest of us are working our asses off…oh, wait…I had today off…[Ahem]…well…carry on!
that “networking” can really take it out of you eh………
wanderer – there’s work and then there’s work. and i’m doing not much of either. and i shall carry on!
manuel – brutal. absolutely brutal, i tell you… found out that palm springs has some fine dance clubs. doubt there’s much doing on a monday night, but i could lead a posse of colleagues out to test rarely used dancing muscles…
Alright, alright, no more whining about work now…
God, I hate whiners! 😉
Does your company have an exchange programme by any chance?
Well, I’ve got the palm trees and the sunshine, now if I could only find someone to pay me for ‘networking’ …
toby – karma. ouch. my brain must look like a dried out lump of gangrenous bread. i. am. being. punished. feel better now?
kyknoord – i’d offer to swap jobs but you work with a bunch of dorks. i work with dorks, but the travel has benefits. ouch. keyboard is loud this morning…
az – unfortunately, the toll i will pay for these festivities is due upon return to the office. i will have to do double duty for a week to make up for the time away. yeah, i know. no complaints, though… (ow… brain still hurts)
heh-heh-heh!
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