(Smells Like) Thanksgiving Spirit

This is the season to count grateful blah blahs.  Here's mine for today: In exchange for living in the Midwest, I get to have not one, not two, but a panel of (read: 4) dedicated mentors who tell me how to do my job.  This aspect of work is tied with occasional free pizza Wednesdays and having a steady paycheck as my favorites; everything else is terrible.  Today, I had a meeting with one mentor; he told me about his upcoming 50th college reunion and what it was like to be on campus during the Vietnam War era.

Moi: Vietnam.  Sometimes I forget that you are older. 

Doc Interruptus: What's that?

Moi: Sometimes I forget how old you are.

Doc Interruptus: I once had a woman come up to me at [a conference], she said, "It's such an honor to meet you.  I've been citing your work for years.  In fact, I thought you were dead."

And this is why I'm thankful: I work in a field in which I'm never the most awkward person or the person with the most poorly worded sentiments.  There is always another nerdlinger to make me look near normal in comparison.  

Almost Like Winning

"I am happy, very happy, to accept this compromise that I feel makes neither of us completely satisfied and so therefore defines an excellent course of action."   -- Mentor Boss

Microsoft tells me that Mentor Boss, Mentor Sass, and I engaged in 18 email messages about the title of a commentary before we hit on one that no one had particularly strong opinions about.  Because we are people who don't know how to hold them, and certainly don't know how to fold them.