I arrived at work today eager to discuss football. I got in before the usual suspects this morning, one of whom because she was at the game and probably didn't get home until 1:30. I just had to tell a non-football-watching co-worker about the game to get it out of my system.

Who am I, and what have I done with me?

I was reluctant to go to the theater to see Breach on Saturday. It was prime time on a Saturday night, which I took to mean the theater would be packed with incessantly jabbering morons. Nothing could've been further from the truth. I think I was the noisiest guy in the place, and that was mostly from scoffing at poorly-written dialogue about computers.

There's a new Japanese restaurant in Webster, and ddmerillat and I dutifully tried it tonight. He tried the sushi, I went for the nabeyaki udon. Udon are really thick noodles . . . their cross-sectional area is probably similar to the hollow area of Italian penne. These udon seemed unusually long, too, and I was tackling them with chopsticks and an Asian spoon. Seeking some practical advice, I remarked to the waitress that I hoped to some day learn the proper technique for eating them. She told me I'd done well. "My shirt says otherwise." She assured me she'd seen much worse. Instead, she told me I'd done better than she would have, and that she doesn't use chopsticks for nabeyaki udon. Eep! I know fork twirling can't be the traditional method. Maybe the secret is to embrace the splatter and don a bib? Pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster before digging in?

I spent some time this afternoon working in another building. When I left my building, I got a bit turned around by a conversation in the hallway just before the main door. I pulled on the door handle, but it wouldn't budge. Huh? I looked up at the motion sensors for some clue, but got confused about the meaning of the lights. Is it red equals stop, green equals go? Or is it red equals unlocked/unsafe, green equals locked? I backed away from the door and approached again, this time remembering to push instead of pull. Oh, good. That's much better. To further indicate how confused I was, I then swiped my badge on the way out, accomplishing nothing. When I realized what I'd done, I had to laugh. Fortunately, nobody else was in the lobby or they would've been deafened by the force of it.

Mary suggested that I cut back on the digitally-mediated contact with people. Just when I thought I'd been slacking on my digitally-mediated contact with people!

I think Starcraft may be eating into my communication skills. Several people have been seriously misunderstanding my stories of late. Rob commented that one of my friends had a lot of energy. I tried to reinforce that by explaining how said friend had taken the time to teach people a non-trivial card game on the bus to Montreal. Rob took it to mean that barbershoppers on a bus to Montreal wouldn't be interested in card games that lacked complexity. Sigh.

Tonight, friend Rob and I had dinner at our favorite restaurant. It's not uncommon for us to eat there twice in a week, and I think we once ate there three times in three days. We know the staff by name, and we're intimately familiar with big swaths of the menu.

This being an Indian restaurant, an uninformed diner will be somewhat at a loss for what to order. A couple came in shortly after us, and were easily within earshot. They were definitely having difficulty figuring out what was what, and a rather long discussion with the waiter ensued. She was afraid of spiciness and curry, he was recently ill and didn't want anything with heavy sauces. I really, really wanted to go over and tell them what to order. I knew precisely the dishes to suggest. For him, especially, there's a chicken dish that I'd been introduced to when I asked for something lighter than my usual selections. I wanted to walk over and say "I did not grow up with this food either, but here are some safe starters." I even would've laid out a plan of future dishes they might try after sounding out their preferences.

What do I think I am, a personal cuisine coach?

I had to fight the urge to not go over and help them. I, of course, thought I would be helping. I wanted them to appreciate the wonders of this restaurant so that they could be enlightened. They probably would've taken it as an unforgivable intrusion.

The good news is that she ordered something very safe. He ordered something a little iffier, but I think he was okay once he tasted it. He looked a little peeved when he saw it.

This wouldn't've been the first time in that restaurant that I joined an adjacent table's conversation. I remember one particlar time I jumped in to correct misunderstandings about the differences between Rochester's broadband service companies.

Is this trait common to all geeks, or is it just me?