There are still some good people

Usually I'm a cynic and believe there aren't many generous people left in the world. But occasionally, I'm surprised.

At work, I met Soren, a very animated and interesting guy from Denmark. For a couple hours, we talked about software development and the process that they use at our Denmark facility. He was only in the US for a few days, having just attended an Agile conference in Minnesota. One of the topics that came up was wikis, in which he has a great interest.

Later, I remembered that my good friend Kevin was going to Denmark for a Wiki conference. To put it mildly, let's say that Kevin is only extremely interested in wikis. I assumed that Soren would attend that conference, so I put them in touch with each other. It turned out that Soren would not attend the conference but would like to meet up with Kevin if he was traveling through Copenhagen.

Now I've heard that Soren is going to pick up Kevin from the airport in Copenhagen, take him home, then drop him off at the train station later in the day. We're not talking about a friend of a friend here, but a bare acquaintance of a friend! This is so generous, and I'm sure much of a relief to Kevin. I recall how confusing European mass transit is to us non-city dwellers. Maybe it shouldn't be so surprising, since Wikis are essentially about sharing and community, something I believe is sorely lacking in the US lately. Maybe it's karma too, since Kevin is exactly the kind of nice guy who would do something like this for someone else.

- schneid

We have finally moved

We finally moved on Sunday, August 13. It was a long day, in particular because U-Haul decided to give me a round-trip rental instead of a one-way, where I could've dropped the truck off 1 mile from our new house. Thanks to Greg T, Pete, Petey, Bill, and Kevin for their help. We're in the new house and if anyone needs my new address or phone, contact me.

- schneid