Post a Comment On: A Nod to Nothing

Today I went to the new James Bond movie, Casino Royale. It went something like this...

Big chase scene, other big chase scene, casino (women with lots of cleavage mixed in)...pager call from the group I haven't been with for over a year (don't worry, no ringing, I had it on vibrate), application issues, "can you call?", no name or number. As far as I'm concerned, you never let a pager call go unresolved, even if it's not your project, so I left the theater while Bond was playing poker and called Pooteewheet and had her look up phone numbers on dexonline for a few people on the old project. When she finally found one I was sure was correct (say what you will about me, but the fact I know that their project lead lives in St. Paul and I had an idea of what street, tells you I pay attention when people are talking about themselves) I had her dial and act as a verbal gobetween while I related second hand to the tech lead what I knew, which was damn little. He was going to talk to operations and I figured it was all resolved. So I walked back in the theater to see the female lead crying in the shower and Bond comforting her. I'd obviously missed something important.

Gambling...more gambling...TallBrad would obviously enjoy this movie. Some exciting stuff. Some more gambling...some more exciting stuff...Bond is in trouble and he's just been put in his enemy's hands. Thirty minutes have passed. Pager (my phone) vibrates again. Alert again, this time with numbers. So back out of the theater. I call one of the numbers and catch P* from "the other building" (i.e. hardware and installed software - IIS, SQL, that sort of thing) who says he hasn't heard from anyone yet. I give him information that I'm no longer with the project, but that I called the tech lead earlier and put him on to the fact and he can find the tech lead by looking up this name+street combination in dexonline. He's happy to know someone is at least aware of the issue. To follow up, I find a theater employee with a pen. I call Pooteewheet who gives me the tech lead's number, and I write it and the two numbers on the pager down on a napkin from the concession counter. I call the tech lead, who's not home and leave the pager numbers. I call P* back and give him tech lead's number and my firm belief that tech lead is probably not at home now because he's on his way into the building (work, not movie theater) to help resolve the problem.

I walk back into the theater. Bond has escaped (seriously, that's not a spoiler) and something completely different is going on and I have no ideas how he got there. It's much closer to the end of the movie and though I suspect there's a good twist left, I have a feeling it hinges upon the bit I missed. I pack it in, head home, and call the tech lead at the office just to make sure he's there and knows who I talked to and the numbers.

On the bright side, he had to go to work and I didn't, but he also didn't have to waste a bunch of money missing the important parts of a movie.