Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Composer

Most of the time, my job is pretty quiet.  I sit at my desk and read my emails, and deal with people when they come in, which is infrequently.

However, when there's a conference or event going on inside my building, suddenly I become the center of the universe and have to field random questions that usually make no sense.

Take this for example:

Random Guy:  Excuse me, but do you know how to spell the name of the famous Czech composer from the 18th Century?
Me (in my head): Why would I know that?
Me (out loud): Um... is this related to today's conference?  You can ask one of the conference organizers about that.
Random Guy:  Oh, no.  It's not for the conference.  I just want to send my daughter a text message.
Me (in my head):  You're texting your daughter about composers from the 18th Century??  Do you think she's really reading that?
Me (Out loud): Well, I can Google it for you?

::Proceeds to Google for "Czech Composers":::

Me (in my head): Yeah, it's pretty difficult to Google for something you don't know how to spell...
Me (out loud): Well, here's a Wikipedia article listing composers from the Czech Republic...
Random Guy:  So how do you spell it?
Me (in my head): Again, why would I know that?  Just because I've now found a list doesn't mean I can identify the "famous" name in it.
Me (out loud): Um.......
Random Guy: Let me see the screen.

::Proceeds to walk around my desk, invade my personal space, and look at my screen.:::

Thankfully, he found the name he was looking for and successfully sent his text message.

I think maybe I'm going to put a sign on my desk that says "Random Answers Provided by Donation Only."  I'm thinking, $10 per random question?

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