The art of avoidance

I always enjoy going to a good conference or seminar to help sharpen my knowledge, meet new people from different companies and discover that I'm actually not doing as bad as I think, pessimist that I am.

If the conference is fancy, there may even be some kind of expo hall where you can meet companies selling their wares... but most importantly see how much free crap you can pick up.

A month after SES, I am still getting phone hounded and spammed by companies that I must have talked to at the expo. The only reminder I have being the branded power ball, remote controlled car, foam dog or other useless freebie currently collecting dust on my desk.

It seemed like a good idea at the time... When will I ever learn?

Amer-tish

I feel lucky to have experienced living in both England and America. But after a while you start to notice little quirks and differences people have (or lack). So I was thinking how great it would be to take the best from both cultures and clash them together to make a new super culture called Amer-tish. A bit like the Big Bang experiment.

From the American side, Amer-tish people would:
- Be service snobs
- Live in a place where the shops don't close at 5pm
- Have nice teeth
- Sit in public places, using as much free wifi and electricity as they wanted, with only a glass of water in hand
- Say hello to a complete stranger without feeling like horns are growing out of their heads

And then from the British side, they would:
- Have the ability to say please and thank you (and sorry)
- Hold doors open for people
- Give up their seat on public transport for someone who needed it
- Use a knife with their fork
- Spell words without missing letters out
- Tell you they didn't know the answer if they didn't know the answer
- Tip a maximum of 10% and not feel bad about it