Actually, NASA wasn't the only place I encountered astronauts. I was speaking at a conference in Brazil. I wasn't teaching the CISSP, in this case. It was rather interesting. The first thing that I learned was that Brazilians have a very different idea of time than we do. They don't necessarily sleep particularly late, but they don't exactly rise at dawn either. And they usually go for a walk on the beach early in the morning. Business and office hours generally don't start until at least 10 am, and frequently later. Dinner is not at 5 or 6, but at 9 p.m. at the earliest, and frequently later.
Vendors at conferences and trade shows in North America kind of rule the roost. They may give away pens, but they don't feel obliged to draw the crowds. The attendees at the conference is in trade shows come to the vendors.
The vendors in Brazil know their place. They know that they have to bribe people to attend, both for a meet and greet, and to pay attention to anything they say. Therefore, the vendors at this particular conference put on nightly hospitality suites, where you could pretty much get a full meal, as if you hadn't had enough to eat during the day. (The conference had loaded buffet breakfasts, lunches, dinners, coffee breaks, and just basically food available anytime you wanted it.)
(I discovered guarana down there. I had heard of it. I knew that it was used to produce an extract that gave energy drinks an extra caffeine boost, without having to mention coffee or caffeine. You could put a ton of guarana extract into a putative fruit drink, and nobody turned a hair. At the first opportunity, I tried out Diet Antarctica Guarana. I loved it. If it was available, I didn't drink anything else for the entire conference. I would desperately love to get a couple of cases of it here in Canada. If they ever start selling the stuff in North America, Coke is in for a real struggle.)
The language in Brazil is a form of Portuguese. The countries all around Brazil speak a form of Spanish. And the conference organizers had invited a bunch of speakers from North America. (By which read, the United States.) So, the conference organizers also laid on interpreters. I realized that this was the case, and, during one session where the interpreters were not required, I met with them, and ran through my entire presentation with them, explaining anything they didn't immediately understand. So, the next day, when I gave my presentation, I would get to a joke, and be interested by about half of the audience laughing at the joke. Then, ten seconds later, the rest of the audience would laugh at the translation.
Anyway, the last day, the keynote speaker was Brazil's astronaut. At lunch time that afternoon, as I was wondering through the tables, looking for a place to sit down, the CEO of the company that had organized the conference, and brought me there, popped up out of his seat, and introduced me to Brazil's astronaut. He obviously expected me to be overwhelmed by the honour. I said hello to the astronaut, and asked if he knew Mark Garneau. He had trained with Mark Garneau. I asked if he knew Julie Payette. His desk was right across from Julie Payette's. I asked if he knew Dave Meadows. He was, right at that time, doing a session of training with Dave Meadows.
The CEO was rather nonplussed by all this. He was not particularly impressed by me, and had invited me, only on the recommendation of one of his employees, who had taught with me. He couldn't understand how I knew about all these astronauts that Brazil's astronaut worked with. He didn't realize that Canada is a very small town.
Previous: https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2024/09/mgg-542-hwyd-nasa.html
Introduction and ToC: https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2023/10/mgg-introduction.html
Next: https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2024/10/mgg-533-hwyd-houston-we-have-zero.html
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