beer?

[concertinette]

Somehow, all my travels were about beer.  Also light.  But beer.

I went to RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic) in Troy NY to the Lighting Research Center, and took a class about LEDs.  I learned some useful stuff, and some useless stuff, and did a bit of playing around.  I determined that hanging out with other people in the lighting industry is less fun,

Comments

[beamjockey]

I met lots of people and I had no idea what to say to them. Felt awkward.

Next time, try:

"Did you know that I play the concertina?"

or

"My husband draws comic books."

or

"Sometimes my brother makes bees. Out of iron."

or

"Last time I attended a gathering of lighting professionals, I went to Brown's Brewing Company, a mere 3 blocks from the hotel, and had an excellent time. First night I had the sampler flight of 9 mini beers, to taste the whole spectrum. The oatmeal stout and the porter were very good, the pilsner and belgian blonde not to my taste, and the others okay. The Barrel Aged Whiskey Porter and the Maple Nut Brown were my favorites but 9 x 4oz = not able to get a full pint after I'd established my priorities. Went back the next night to discover that the brown had gone off rotation, so that 4 oz was the only taste I got. Delicious. Maple was not as sweet as it sounds, just enough to taste rich and woodsy. I had to make do with the oatmeal and whiskey stouts in alternation."

One of these gambits is bound to work.

[beamjockey]

(By the way, Whatsisname turned up at dinner last night, and it was great to see him. He had a lot to say. There were too many diners to have a proper conversation with everybody, but I did manage to grab a pretty good chunk of his time near the end there. Always energizing.)

[concertinette]

Ah, good old Whatsisname. He never has any issues chatting about whatever, true. Though I fear to imagine what would happen if he was told that talking about his comic would ruin his chances of holding the IP rights on it.

Part of the awkwardness was not really knowing what the company allowed us to talk about and what was proprietary.
So what do you do? Research. What are you working on? Oh, stuff - how about you?