Filed under: Can this planet get any smaller?

---

After I left Motive, I didn't prune my Yahoo chat list of all my former coworkers, nor did I go 'invisible' to them, or anything like that. I'm still around, as are they, and occasionally I check out their status messages, and vice-versa. Something to do while waiting on a printer or a compile or an install. One of my favorites is a project manager that hangs out DFWM when a customer is giving him problems: "Don't Fuck With Me".

Tim M., an American that worked with me in Germany (he produces excellent code-fu), who lives in Barcelona, and is assigned to a project in Bangkok through October, had such a status message this morning. Some made up acronym of some sort, which he explained in chat pretty readily; something about a customer pretending to know something he didn't. After the explaination, a little small talk was in order, and I mentioned I was in NYC.

Tim: You're kidding. New York City.
Me: Yeah, lower Manahattan.
Tim: No way.. seriously?
Me: On Broadway.
Tim: Dude, I'm in Brooklyn.
Me: WTF?!?
Tim: Yeah, I don't have to be in Bangkok till Sunday, so I'm here seeing this girl.

I should have known.

It took a bit of convincing to get him to venture out of Brooklyn, onto the subway and into town, but as shown above, he made it in short order. We had a great lunch, catching up on some of the drama of the EMEA team: divorces, escapades, and a little business. Paths cross in strange patterns, and sometimes when and where you least expect it to happen.