Liz invited me out for a drink with some canadian friends last night. I can't remember their names, but they were 3 and they pronounced their vowels funny. Seriously, though, it was good to speak English for a while, and good to get out besides. We had a few drinks at Le Chat Qui Peche, and then a bite to eat at Chez Dede.
Context is an amazing thing.
I was talking film with one of them and, in discussing how good films these days are often way too long, Kill Bill came up, along with the fact that this guy hadn't seen it (already a faux pas in my cultural book, but I can let it slide). I tried to explain how it was good, with the whole Tarantino style/cool over substance thing, but I don't think it vibed. He mentioned that Pulp Fiction was more of an art house film, and I kind of gagged up. Its an interesting proposition but, on reflection, its bollocks. I reckon the PF soundtrack must be among the 10 highest-selling film soundtracks of all time, and I suspect a poll of people aged 25-35 from a western country would reveal a high percentage who had seen it, and a not insignificant percentage who could quote from it. Later, it turned out this guy was a handy badminton player, and he talked about how it isn't much fun playing with people who aren't near his level. Talking about Tarantino bore striking similarities.
In the course of the evening, I had two shots at "so what are you doing your PhD on". The first one I dodged, but he felt he knew IT, so I ran off a lot of buzzwords like "design automation" and stuff, to give a general sense. I scared the girl sitting next to me, but that happens. The second time, I went for a much broader analogy. Building software at the moment is a bit like building a sandcastle from individual grains of sand. You can build anything, and you can build it really well, but it takes a long, long time. What we're trying to do is make buckets that you can use, to build using higher abstractions. It seemed to go across OK, although she'd just had oral corrective surgery, so maybe she isn't able to grimace yet.
In other developments, just when I thought I'd reached a ceasefire, warning shots come across the bow.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
It's good to see that time has not dulled your tendency towards wankerdom.... :) Though I did in my own wanky way enjoy your "playing badminton against weaker players" comment :)
Post a Comment