Explicitly and without apology a marketing vehicle MaryMaryQuiteContrary

Chris Melissinos, Sun's Chief Gaming Officer, came over this morning. He's such a good guy.

Here's how it went... I live in the same neighborhood that I grew up in. And I stay connected to my high school. Last year I went and gave a talk to the kids. I was a judge in the Tech Fair... things like that.

Anyway, a computer science teacher asked me to connect him w/a Sun techno hot shot to come in and talk to the kids. I reached out to Sun employees in the same metro area as me, seeking a techno celeb to go in and talk to the kids. Never, not in my wildest dreams, did a think that the Mother of All Techo Celebs (and we mean that in a gender-neutral way) would step forward.

That's right -- the Chief Gaming Officer Chris Melissinos said he would do it.

Is that awesome or what?

(Did I mention that more the half the kids at this school are on free or reduced lunch? This was going to be an incredible experience for them. The would never otherwise gain access to this kind of professional. I was so charged.)

Anyway. He came over this morning and we had coffee and light breakfast and chatted about a whole bunch of stuff before going over.



It was awesome.

Then we go to the school. (I get to ride in his super fancy new car. Very nice. :-)

And we sit down with the teacher. It turns out we got lines crossed and we weren't going to get to talk to the kids today, which was disappointing... but we still had a nice talk... and we agreed to come back...



While Chris and the teacher were talking, my eye catches a set of portraits on the wall....



Blaine Pascal (first calculating mechanical device), George Boole, John Atanoff (co-producer of first gen computer), John Von Neumann (machine language creator), John Kennedy (BASIC language co-developer) and....



James Gosling!!!!

(Father of the Java programming language, not that we really need to say that out loud.)

Man, did I get a charge out of that!

I swear to you, it is absolutely staggering when you think about it.

First off, when you think about the fact that I get my paycheck from the same company that employs Melissinos, it's kind of mind-boggling to begin with.

But when you think about the fact that both James Gosling and I both use Sun Rays to log onto the same network every day and get our work done... that he has a Sun badge just like me... And that I can look him up and find out what his extension is and pick up the phone an dial five digits to call him... It's just mind blowing...

The most incredible people work for Sun. It is truly amazing.

Best part is, that there's a way for you to get a piece of this action.

:-)

I really don't think my day could get any better than this.

But you just never know... I think something really big is going to happen at around 12:01 p.m. pacific time today.

Just call me clairvoyant.

:-)

mary