Friday night observations

I was going to write this post about all the interesting people that I met this Friday night. And then I made the mistake of heading out when I really should have gone home.

It's one of those nights were I *really* should have gone home. I was in such a good mood when I walked away from the Society for International Science & Technology Policy meeting that I attended thanks to an invitation by Jon. Now I'm sitting here, in the middle of a crowded pub, writing a blog-entry on my mobile phone instead of 'going crazy' (or whatever the cool kids call it these days). Frankly speaking there's just too many people here who bore the hell the out of me.

Which brings me right back to what I really wanted to talk about: all the interesting people that I've met around here. Literally everyone I've talked to here in DC has an interesting story to tell. Obviously one doesn't get to meet that many new people when you're at home. However I still feel that most people around here have seen and done a whole lot more than the average person I've pumped into in Vienna. I'm not sure whether people are actually getting more done or if they're just more vocal about the things they've done. Talking to a stranger here is easy because you just ask them what they're up to and almost always you're going to get an interesting reply. While I'm generally certainly a very talkative person who doesn't mind letting all the world know about my thoughts (hence this blog) around here I tend to be much more of a listener. Simply because I love absorbing all the stories and things that people around here have been involved in.

Now what you're really seeing in this entry is two (well actually three) different parts. The first two paragraphs were written on my mobile phone, while sitting in that pub when I really didn't have a good time. The third paragraph was written on the Metro ride home when I was starting to feel more upbeat again. The rest of this entry and some re-work of the previous comments is written here while I sit in my room and slowly review this day.

What certainly helped to uplift my mood now was the fact that I pumped into Igor, one of my neighbours around here, on my way home. He was just chillin' in front of his house and we quickly moved towards a discussion about Google App Engine (a post for another day), database design and web-application development. That's exactly the kind of situation I'm talking about. After probably having spent less than a overall total of 30min talking to Igor in the past 2 weeks since I got here, I can still have an interesting and challenging discussion. That's the way it's supposed to be, right?

[Full Disclaimer: I was actually going for a more polished posting here but seeing that I wrote most of the entry on my mobile phone and in the moment, I figured that a raw copy of my thoughts might also make sense. Plus I've got too many unpolished comments sitting on both my laptop and my mobile phone and if I really wanted to polish all of them then I'm probably never going to be able to post all of them. So do expect some rather raw footage over the coming days and weeks.]