Muzik Masti at Agile2009

The Agile2009 conference (at which I co-presented an Abbott/AgileTek experience report, Moving to Agile in an FDA Regulated Environment) has an annual tradition called Muzik Masti, which gives the musically-inclined conference-goers a chance to jam.

It was a little awkward at first, since the various musicians there came from different backgrounds and we had trouble finding a song that we all knew. So we mostly did instrumental improv.

Then someone had the genius idea to use the various agile conference literature as lyrical poetry. That was fun. And funny, in a way that's hard to describe but that I hope comes across well in this low quality video:

They called this year's event Muzik Masti Unplugged, since they didn't have permission to have electified instruments. So I brought some of my jug band instruments (gutbucket, washboard, banjo) to show people how they did it loud in the pre-electical days.

Thumb ambush

"One, two, three, four. I declare a thumb war," I said at last night's company trip to a White Sox game, not realizing that my teenaged opponent was a double-jointed mutant. Perhaps if I'd known she could do this...

...I would have tried diplomacy. But, no. I had to rush to war.

And so it began, with her thumb hidden from view...

...until, ZAP!

A crushing defeat for my poor thumb.

"There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever."
  - Thomas Edison

They kidnapped my banjo on April Fools' Day

I arrived at my office on this fine, April 1st morning and discovered a ransom note, hanging from my office door by a banjo strap.

We have your banjo.

If you ever want to see your precious banjo again prepare 300 unmarked AgileBucks and dial 847-699-XXXX for the drop point.

No cops.

I rushed to my banjo case; the one I keep my spare banjo in so I can do some early morning practice at the office. Opening the case, I discovered that my banjo was gone and that it had been replaced by a rock. A mocking rock that laughed at me and glowed with the message "BEWARE!"

It was clear that the kidnappers worked for AgileTek. They wanted to be paid in AgileBucks; the currency that we use for our rewards at AgileTek. (Click on these pictures...

...for a little background on AgileBucks.)

What to do? What to do?

(To be continued.)

Update:

I prepared three bundles...

...and made contact with the kidnappers. I got my banjo. They got their bundles of AgileBucks. As instructed.

Almost exactly as instructed. I mean, the note did say "unmarked," right? So I made sure that all of the AgileBucks in the middle of each bundle were totally, completely and without a doubt...unmarked.

Happy April Fools' Day, you rotten, banjo-thievin' scoundrels!

The Jenks Shack is a little old place where we can get together

Want to see what my employees did while I was away, honing my banjo skills at Shorty's Strickly Bluegrass Festival? Sure you do.

Yes, it's a hillbilly shack, built out of office materials. (Specifically, the shipping box from a new whiteboard and the board from an old whiteboard. AgileTek has a whiteboard-in-every-office policy and we're in the process of upgrading all of our employees to higher quality boards.)

It totally enclosed my desk:

WroteASongAboutIt. LikeToHearItHereItComes:

(Sung to the tune of Mountain Dew)

AgileTek’s CTO
Coming home from the show
To work for an hour or two
Was surprised to come back
To a hillbilly shack.
Had he drunk too much mountain dew?

Add that to your list of Mountain Dew verses. Some detail shots:

I assume that's the redhead in the right window. (It had better be!)