I think I've found a new hobby.
Teaching irate Russians randomly named Igor (there's three of them) everything I know about cryptography (it only took an afternoon and a maximum three plastic coffee spoons) and standard encryption protocols OVER ICQ, and furtive phone calls into the Ukraine.
They ask their questions upside down, beginning with their answers and then asking if they've gone about getting them the right way.
I find this an impressively coherent way of communicating everything they've done, learned, and where the holes in their knowledge remain.
When they respond to everyone on the managerial mailing list with "thank you to Gila for her excellent and concise and appropriate answers to our questions for helping us finish the third stage of deployment" I have to remind myself that this isn't sarcasm.
The high of being handed Yet Another Project that is actually Less Brain-Numbing Than Usual, and the high from proper geeklike transferral of ideas and information between all-too-rarely radiant competent brains, are barely enough to mask the tears in my eyes with habitual excited glow.
Eric Ze Red just left.
We spent the day sending furtive e-cards with fart noises, exchanging e-mails, pledging to keep in touch, his lunchtime going-away partay with american potato chips and fruity champagne far too surreal.
He thanked me for my kindness, and had an awkward go at learning how to hug.
Wait until he TASTES the maple syrup... ;)