Doug’s World

7 comments posted:

1. on June 4, 2008 at 1:51 pm Tom wrote:

   Hey, cool. Orlando’s fun. There’s a great little … no, wait, there’s nothing that. I like Orlando and have been there several times as we have a friend who works at Disney, but in all the times I’ve gone there I never found ANYTHING that felt at all real. It was all comfortable and reliable and convenient, but I think the closest thing I found to real food was an Outback Steakhouse (real only in that they serve a cut of beef — hard to make that out of something else).

   Actually, if you can get down to Kissimmee to Orange World, it’s kind of kitchy. Not necessarily a watershed moment, but it IS a huge orange on the highway. A great place if you need non-absorbent beach towels, sea shells, snow globes, or pens that say “Orange World” on them.

   Actually, when we were getting off the highway last time we went, we passed signs for Orange World, Jeans World, Denim World, Disney World, Gator World, and (my personal favorite) Theme World. Lizzie wouldn’t let me take us to Theme World — something about “you’re not dragging me to ‘Theme World’ on our honeymoon, romance, romance, blah blah blah.” I’m still wondering what they have at Theme World. Maybe it’s next door to Premise World.

2. on June 4, 2008 at 2:17 pm Stephen wrote:

   Ha ha; a fun night was had, indeed! I am looking forward to the rematch though - we can’t let the week end with just one winner

   It has been awesome to see you two!

   -Stephen

3. on June 4, 2008 at 2:18 pm Doug wrote:

   Well, working at the Open XML booth the last couple of days I’ve had several conversations with people about “themes” and related concepts like “slide masters” and “latent styles.” Next time I’ll be sure to suggest Theme World — maybe we can do some cross-promotion or something.

   Hey, here’s an outline of an actual conversation (well, monologue, with me as the silent smiling listener) at the booth today:

   - Obama wants to kill NASA (not sure what this had to do with Open XML, but that was his opening move)
   - Obamas will cut NASA’s budget from $19 billion in annual funding to .5 billion, then he’ll “do a mercy killing” later when NASA can’t survive on that little
   - meanwhile some guy in Wisconsin has recently discovered how to do pollution-free cold fusion, which requres lots of helium
   - using this new technique, one ton of helium could provide all of the US’s electrical power for a year
   - we’re running out of helium on earth, but there are millions of tons of it on the moon
   - this is why the Chinese, Russians, Indians, and Japanese are racing to be the first to set up lunar mining operations
   - if Obama is elected, we’ll be paying these other countries $5 billion per ton for helium and it will be just like the oil situation, but we’ll be beholden to different masters

   So we’re not just educating others here TechEd, they’re educating us too. Now I’ll understand what’s going on when we invade China, Russia, India and Japan in 2020. Thanks, tall loud guy with the bushy-haired nostrils!

4. on June 4, 2008 at 2:21 pm Doug wrote:

   Hey Stephen, looks like we were commenting at the same time. Great work on the Jack Daniels account today!

5. on June 5, 2008 at 9:43 am Tom wrote:

   I know helium has other more global uses, but my thoughts immediately turned to paying $22 for a balloon at the zoo. And much like Reubenesque women were all the rage when that form factor was a sign of wealth, perhaps chipmunky voices will become irresistible to the opposite sex as it gets more expensive to make them.

6. on June 5, 2008 at 7:58 pm Tom wrote:

   I’m embarrassed. I searched your blog for “Orlando” tonight (thinking I’d seen some pictures before of the funny upside-down building thing from your more recent post), and found another nearly identical post from last time you were there about our Theme World experience. I have turned into my parents, except I use cutting edge technology to more efficiently re-disseminate my old, hackneyed stories. Used to be I’d have to ride a horse around to all the people you know to repeat my dumb story until they roll their eyes, now it’s a few clicks away (and pants-optional). Sorry — I’ll start cross-checking myself.

7. on June 15, 2008 at 11:17 am Doug’s World wrote:

   […] ever played much poker before.) The chips arrived the day after I left for TechEd, so Megan brought along a few of them when she came to Florida the next day, and when I returned from Orlando this weekend I saw the […]