November 30, 2004

sell out

I know yesterday happened. I just can’t remember much of it.

I’d taken the red eye from Salt Lake City and arrived in time to grab a shower and dash off to… an engineering conference. The inhumanity! I may as well have laced a pot of chamomile tea with Nytol and drank it in a warm bath while being serenaded by John Tesh, those guys are so boring. I yawned shamelessly through the entire event. And by “yawned shamelessly” I mean, “fell asleep and did that head-nod thing.”

When I finally managed to escape Perdition and got back to the office, I learned that The Guardian had reprinted my NY Times column. Yay! I’ve yet to see it, but I’m anxious to grab a peek to see if there was any sort of accompanying illustration. If there was, I have every hope that it was a bit less…Unabomber than the Times version. They are paying and all, so I can’t really complain. I mean, they could make Ben the spitting image of Grandpa Munster and I’d simply grimace and endorse the check.

Posted by This Fish at November 30, 2004 01:31 PM
Comments

You think it's boring attending Conferences? Try Marketing them! It's horrible!

Posted by: Rafael at November 30, 2004 02:13 PM

Reprint? That's great!

Posted by: Lady Crumpet at November 30, 2004 02:32 PM

Muy impressivo, Fish. If they put it up online, please link. I couldn't find it with a quick search.

Posted by: Bond Girl at November 30, 2004 03:26 PM

Thanks a lot.

Posted by: Benjamin at November 30, 2004 04:00 PM

Read your column in the guardian today; very entertaining and well written read ...

Phil

Posted by: Phil at November 30, 2004 06:30 PM

yay for you!

Now, can you get me a column???

Pretty please?

Posted by: Daniella at November 30, 2004 09:04 PM

Congrats on your reprint... And as for those engr. conferences - i survive about 4 a semester, thanks to my palm pilot and a flask :-P

Posted by: tygriss at December 1, 2004 12:58 AM

Engineers do not seem to enjoy the science of the schmooze.
You should go to law conferences and see lawyers hopping over their toes, skipping the cheese, smiling at the walls to identify the next move-(like snipers is disguise), flashing out business cards.
I suspect people go to law school just so they can hang out at conferences.

Posted by: Shareen at December 1, 2004 02:53 AM

Fish,
You are wonderful, your writting style is so eloquent. Even though I haven't done so in about two weeks I love visiting your site (I'm all caught up now.) I wish I could put my thoughts down as well as you do. I can verbalize just fine but cann't write worth a s***!
I was first attracted to your site by the Irina Dunn quote (theme). Is it at all possible to send you a picture I did in college (BFA) that uses the same theme? It was meant to ruffle the feathers of a teacher that had it in for me. (She had no sense of humor.) Not that I needed to try to tick her off , I just did so by being myself. Which of course prompted me to try...

Any way it is a litte humorous piece I think you might like. It would be my token of appreciation since I haven't the wealth to shower people I don't know with gifts. Come toi think of it I don't have the wealth to shower those I know.
Randall

Posted by: Randall at December 1, 2004 05:55 AM

i'm new to your site (discovered it through the times article) but congrats on the reprint

Posted by: amit at December 1, 2004 08:04 AM

Excellent! The Guardian ever was the newspaper most aware of blogging and bloggers, so I would have been more surprised if they hadn't asked nicely to reprint it.

Nicely done, Fish, nicely done!

Posted by: Stuart at December 1, 2004 09:12 AM

Yes, congrats. Now, if you could somehow get them (the Guardian) to juxtapose your column with Chris Hitchens'.

Also...re: John Tesh comment--throw in Yanni and Manheim Feckin' Steamroller, and it's perfect.

Posted by: Robotnik at December 1, 2004 09:30 AM

I'm afraid I must go to bat (wood not aluminium, I'm a bit of a tradtionalist) for at least a segment of the engineering population.

My S.O. is an engineer and she's not at all like most of them, ie: boring old farts. Indeed, her department is 90% female and the mean age is closer to 30 than usual engineering one of 50.

When the "Girly Gang" gets together, watch out. Or better yet, run. You're liable to wake the next morn' hanging head down off a bridge in a cleverly designed harness of cocktail napkins and drink parasols.

Sorry you had to endure a bunch of engineers conforming to the stereotype, but congrats on the reprint.

Posted by: Coelecanth at December 1, 2004 12:53 PM

OHHHH, Engineers are the worst. VERY BORING. I dated one for about nine months. Yawn.

Posted by: impossiblejane at December 2, 2004 05:41 PM

Engineers aren't the worst; that would be actuaries (of which profession I'm a proud and stereotypical member.) These are when you sit next to them at aconference for four hours, and say "hello, I'm Sam" at the end, 2 times out of 3 they look at you like you are mad. Great quote: "if you think posting on a BB on Friday night counts as a social life, you'r eone of us."

Posted by: Sam the Geek at December 3, 2004 11:33 PM