ok people.
so in case we've never met me in person... i like going fast. i talk fast. i walk fast. i move fast. the faster i get my work done the quicker i get to go hang out with the people i love most in the world. (you're a close second)
so i go fast. except when i drive. then i like to get in the left lane and drive the speed limit. it seriously annoys somebody i know.
anyway, we digress.
we're back to going fast...
so (crazy as it sounds) i get to know about "secret" stuff that's happening at Sun Microsystems... and i sat in on a presentation yesterday. i got one word for you people: fast.
and that's all we'll say about that for now.
so other things i need to bring you up-to-speed on:
1. We've got a winner for Friday Free Stuff. It's the newest member of that tightly-knit and exclusive community of techno celebs who are my close personal friends: James. Congratulations James! And thank you for playing (along).
2. And speaking of techno-celebs, had lunch in the cafeteria at Sun's Santa Clara, California campus yesterday. (i'm traveling for work this week. i don't live in California. they're crazy out here... they go to juice bars..some guy who's got everything pierced purees grass, strains it and puts it in a shot glass... and these Californians... they drink it... no kidding... grass... the kind that grows on lawns...totally serious... and then they go around telling people they live in the "best place on earth," and that they're "decades ahead of the rest of the country." whatever. let's just say it would take centuries for the working-class neighborhood that i grew up in and now call home to get a juice bar that serves puree'ed grass. we got too much sense to do stuff like that we're i'm from. we digress again... techno celeb sightings in the cafeteria... 
i know it's super grainy but the fancy digital camera is out of batteries again (i keep forgetting it on when i upload pictures) so i had to use the camera on my Java Powered mobile phone... That's Whitfield (i call him Whit, but never in front of him) Diffie. Whit invented the concept of public key cryptography, an invention a hot-shot at Stanford called "the most important technological breakthrough in the last thousand years." Pop quiz: What do Whit and I have in common? We both get our paychecks from the same company. kind of blows your mind, doesn't it? me and Whit. total buds. not really. he actually has no idea who i am...
unlike Tim Lindholm, Distinguished Engineer and J2ME Architect... 
....who knows exactly who i am though he can never remember my name. and he avoids making eye contact. because he doesn't actually want to talk to me, really. but if i do manage to catch his eye and strike up a conversation he's always very nice and polite. and he is, of course, a founding member of that exclusive and tightly knit community of techno celebs who are my close personal friends.
i'm telling you, people... i got to the cafeteria to grab lunch with my boss and i see techno celebs everywhere.
don't you just wish you were me?
:-)
mary