Monday, October 03, 2005

Staring In Real Time

The team I work with is spread out over three different cities. Today we had a luncheon with the group vice president via video conferencing. I was in the same room as the VP, and we had the two other locations on the video screen. Unfortunately we had some technical difficulties at first. We could see group one, and they could see us, but there was no sound. Group two had neither sound nor visual, but we could see them.

And so for the first fifteen minutes we all ate our lunch; either staring at the first group, who stared soundlessly back at us, or watching the second group eat soundlessly, seemingly unaware that we were watching.

We finally got the sound ironed out with group one, and we finally got two-way visual with group two, but had to get them on the speakerphone to hear them. We'd would say something to group one and they'd stare right back and reply. We'd ask something from group two and they'd suddenly stare at the center of their table and reply.

The whole thing was rather surreal. Including the sandwich. I got a turkey wrap. The label indicated that the sandwich was made with premium boars-head meat. If I didn't happen to know that the deli that made the sandwich is called "The Boar's Head," I'd be just a little alarmed.

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