2007-03-21 The Biro Trick
Today I was at the first International Distributor Meeting of the company I am working for. I cannot go into details about what has been said, but it was unexpectedly exciting. It was a strange kind of feeling, like "that's a really cool piece of software that they are presenting, and I'm one of the developers!". And the food was excellent!
I noticed something about the Asian distributors, especially the Chinese. They can flip a Biro over their thumb. It's difficult to explain, but I will try: Hold a Biro in your hand just like you wanted to write something down. Then move your thumb under it and balance the Biro on your upper thumb joint. With your forefinger, push it just enough to rotate it 180 degrees around the vertical axis, so that the tip points away from the paper.
Back at the university, every single Asian was capable of doing this. When I saw it today at the IDM (as we cool insiders called the event), it reminded me of that time and I started wondering: where did they all learn it? I tried it a few times in some boring lectures, and failed miserably. A Korean friend of mine tried to teach me, but I just couldn't do it properly. I want to be able to flip a Biro -- it's totally cool!
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At the IDM, I learned that it's not "trick the lock", but "pick the lock". Shame on me. One of these days I'm going to correct my previous post, but today I don't feel like it. I think I caught the phrase from American Beauty, where Ricky shows Jane his fathers Nazi plate. I must have gotten it wrong.
***
Today I had my first practical diving training. Actually it was only skin diving, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. I'm looking forward to my first scuba experience next week. Also, I wanted to write about my surprise when I saw other scuba divers in trunks, but let's just say they make a good counterpart to my scraggy look :-D
Now I'm hungry and totally worn out, because splashing around with fins is much more exhausting than it looks!
5 comments:
Haha! We're all taught that ballpen trick in school. I can do it backwards too.
Backwards? That's amazing! Is there a way I can learn that? What's the trick? How do you prevent it from falling to the floor? How long did it take you to learn? Did you practice with pencils? Can you do it with your left hand, too?
Of course, I can do it with my left hand. I'm left-handed.
Cool, I'm left-handed, too! They say lefties are smarter, did you know that? Tonight I'm going to blog about sinistrality. See, you inspired me again ;-)
We are smarter. That's just the way it is!
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