TechEd Day 3: Rickrolled at Universal

Ok, today is Thursday, which is the day of the night of the big Universal Studios party so, needless to say, I am stoked. I got up earlier than planned, had some breakfast, and went for a swim. The weather in Florida is ridiculously hot, it’s like hell’s having a party and decided to bring along the Southeast with. I’m rather vulnerable to heat so the water is a welcome relief. After a swim, I took a short shower, suited up (conference speaker gear), and headed back to the conference to meet some customers. After arriving at the convention center, I was tasked by Sarah to find an “Expert” to give a special prize to ala the “we found an expert!!!” skit. I wandered around the convention floor but had as much trouble finding an “expert” as a fisherman has finding fish in the dead sea. There were no “experts” on the floor, so I went back to the booth. Once back at the booth, I discovered that the people who were running our “ask the expert” sessions were leaving the conference early and so I learned the general details for running the booth and took over the role of booth coordinator. I ran a few sessions, handed out shirts, talked to some conference attendees, and then wrapped up the booth. While running usability studies, I received some direct feedback from a customer on Windows Vista. “Those blue screens have gotta go,” the customer griped. The big problem with the Windows blue screen is that it scares the bejesus out of our poor users. Granted, the BSOD almost never shows up in Vista... but still, what we should have as an alternate is a friendlier message that indicates “Hey, Windows just crashed, I’m not sure what happened. Let’s power down.” Rather than the hex codes and gobbligook that appears on the screen currently. This is an excellent piece of feedback and I hope that it is addressed in future Windows versions. It is certainly feedback that Microsoft has been receiving for years about its flagship OS. I set up a few people to present, handed out SWAG (what does this stand for besides stupid wild a#% guess??) and then shut down the booth for the night. After I closed the booth with my teammates, I headed back to the hotel for more swimming and then headed out for the Universal Studios party. The party was outrageous! There were venders giving away all sorts of things from turkey legs to cotton candy and venders were handing out delicious beers as well. I grabbed a beer and a turkey leg and was well underway by the time I found my manager and my group manager. We hooked up and then rode the M.I.B. ride which was essentially a mocked up shoot’em up ride. Steve, our group manager, owned it and more than doubled my score. After that ride, we headed out towards the Simpson’s ride and ran into Dr. Neil who is a sort of geek celebrity in his own right. He stuck with us as we rode the Simpson’s ride and then watched the Terminator 3-D feature. When we exited the theater, there was an announcement in the main area where the Universal Studios guys were showing music videos for entertainment. “All the sexy ladies out on the floor,” the announcer exclaimed. Then the Justin Timberlake video started and…. Wait for it … was interrupted by Rick Astley “Never gonna give you up”… Universal Studios staff Rickrolled TechEd 2008 IRL! I laughed. After, we all went our separate ways, with me heading to the strip at Universal. I watched the closing of the close Boston/Los Angeles basketball game, and then headed to the Red Papaya club, where I quickly exited after being treated rather rudely by a bartender, Theresa. On my way out, I ran into Erik from the Windows mobile team and then met up with other members of that group. We all ended up heading back to the Radisson and closed out the night. Once outside, I saw a Taxi cab that had a rather large woman driver but seemed expensive. I held back with my new friends from Windows mobile and thought I would wait for another. She convinced me to take that particular cab and I headed out back to my hotel. Once I got into the cab, she ejected, “It’s your lucky night, I happen to be a celebrity, Matilda the hun.” Then, she whips out the most gigantic piece of metal strapped to leather that I have ever seen, “World Wrestling Entertainment Champion” is emblazoned on the cover. My cabbie was a WWE champion from the late 80s/early 90s! She chatted me up and told me about how she got into wrestling, with her history in Laughlin, NV. She wrestled for 25 years, Hulk Hogan was in her band, and she was his daughter’s godmother. I asked her what’s the difference between BBQ and cook-out, and she gave me her family recipe! It was a strange and remarkable experience and after I got out of the cab, I had a bellhop from my hotel get my picture with her. It was classic! Really a one of a kind experience. Both bizarre and heartwarming.

This is the photo: